Vista Business - extremely SLOW printing on network printer

Printing from my Vista Business laptop to Canon LBP5000 network printer in
any application takes 130 seconds to start when the Windows firewall is ON.
When I disable the firewall the same job prints instantly.

I have the newest Canon driver and all the Windows updates are current.

When I print the same job to the same network printer on my other laptop
running Win XPSP2, also with the Windows firewall enabled, the job prints
instantly.

This seems like a Vista firewall issue. Does anyone have a solution? Please
advise!

From another post, I think Canon is performing some work through the
firewall. I forwarded the information to one of the Canon driver testers
but they were unaware of this issue.

I rolled back the windows update KB935807 (& restarted) but the printer still
needs 130 seconds to start printing. I then turned the Vista firewall off
and it starts printing instantly (no endless spooling and waiting for printer
to respond!)...

This is what the Canon tech support suggests:

"If you didnt already try, you could try uninstalling and reinstalling the
driver so that you have the antivirus software and firewall off while
installing."

I guess the implication is that the printer should be installed while all
antivirus and firewall software is disabled... so much for making things easy
for the consumer...

Tried what Canon tech support suggest - uninstalled the printer,
disabled anti-virus software and Vista firawall and installed printer
again. SAME problem persists. Printing to the network printer through
the Vista firewall is still EXCRUCIATINGLY slow, but almost
instantaneous with the firewall disabled!! HELP....

That's not uncommon and not just for printers -- Microsoft recommend it
often for updates and installations.

I've had installations fail due to an AV program treating a file as suspect
during installation.

I've no experience of Canon printers, network connections for printers
nor of the VISTA Firewall which I turned off since I have my system
behind a Router and I am using Norton 360 at the moment (NIS2008 soon,
when the N360 year runs out).

I can only suggest turning off the VISTA firewall and looking for an
alternative software firewall if you really want one.

The only other thing I can think of, and as I say I have never used a
networked printer, except when the printer is connected to another PC
that is networked to my VISTA one and then you have to install printer
driver on the VISTA one as a local printer which may seem illogical.

And also whether you have to give the VISTA PC to which the printer is
networked an IP address, if that is the right term, for the printer.

BTW -- what country are you located in? I can't trace the LBP5000 on
the Canon USA site and the Australian site throws up an error when
going to the downloads page for the LBP5000 there. What I was looking
for was to see if they had the same superb document you could download
with detailed illustrated of exactly how to set it up, step by step. I
found this recently for another Canon printer and it's superb.

The LBP5000 is sold in Europe. I did get the great installation documentation
and Canon tech support has gone through the motions. However ,neither
Microsoft nor Canon are solving the problem. Microsoft says that it's a
poorly written driver Canon says it's Vista's firewall and neither really
seems to care.

There are plenty of other people out there with the same or related
problems. Makes you kind of wonder...

I would like to know if there are any updates on this issue. I run Vista
Home Premium and use a Canon LBP5000 via Ethernet through a D-Link router
(TCP/IP). I experience the same issues, slow responsivness of the Canon
printer driver and printer status if the Windows Firewall is set to on.

The Firewall set exception are:
Canon CAPT Port 3756 UDP
Canon CAPT Port 49169 UDP
Canon LBP5000 RPC Server Process (file C:\Windows\System32\CNAC4RPK.EXE)

HOWEVER IF the Windows Firewall is set to OFF the printer works like a breeze.

I believe the issue is caused by the interaction of the Canon SW and Windows
Vista Firewall, but I have no other clues at present.

I checked and I have KB935807 installed, too. Shall I try to take it out? Or
is there any other feedback you can provide?

Sorry for the resurrection
Found a fix for the firewall thing blocking LBP5000's print server by
checking netstat.

You've to open an outgoing TCP (not UDP) port 3756 to your print
server.
I guess Canon's printing software behaved sort of like a trojan by
using undeclared ports :p

I have been fighting with this issue for a while and finally came up
with a solution. I am not completely happy with it, because it is a
work around.
The problem seems to go away if you delete the network printer and add
it as a local printer mapped to either '\\-server-\-printer-'
(file://\\server\printer), or in my case to the IP address of the
printer.
Like I said, it works, but I would like to know why defining as a
network printer causes it to be treated differently.

Downloaded the newest Canon LBP 5000 driver today (Jan.27.2008), R1.11 from
http://software.canon-europe.com/products/0010308.asp , removed the printer,
removed all Vista firewall printer entries, installed the newest driver and
THIS SOLVED THE PROBLEM! Now the printer prints through the Vista firewall
like a breeze.