Printer Lag

[brad83]

When we get busy, it's common that the kitchen & bar printers will stop printing tickets. Then the system seems to catch up and prints all the pending tickets.  This lag period can take 5-10 minutes and it destroys our ability to keep service flowing.  

[TheRealChipA]

@brad83 I had similar problems once.  I have one POS at my ice cream walkup window, and a handheld terminal at my bar, with a thermal printer and two KDS stations.  I kept noticing that my POS and Terminal would keep displaying messages that said a printer or two had disconnected, and then it would take a few minutes for that to resolve.  I tried everything.  First I upgraded my internet service to more bandwidth.  Then, I found out I needed to replace my WiFi access point with a much newer one with better bandwidth.  My WiFi access point was not rated for higher bandwidths and was causing bottlenecks.  It’s just a thought I’m putting out there because once I did that, I have had no other problems at all.  Device creep had finally reared its ugly head!

Best wishes in resolving this!

[brad83]

Thanks for that info! Do you happen to know what bandwidth rating your new access point is?

[TheRealChipA]

I use Linksys whole home mesh routers to cover two buildings and my whole property. The routers have a max bandwidth on 1GB, but my internet service at that property is currently 400MB. That seems to do the trick. 

I’ll mention that I went to a mesh WiFi system because I kept running into dead spots. It really helped fix the problem in my case, especially with a handheld Terminal that was roaming. 

Good luck!

[brad83]

I am using the Eero extenders that Square sells.  My Xfinity modem is capped at 600MB, but my wifi router is 1gig.   Maybe I need a separate & dedicated network for Square and another one for customers 

[TheRealChipA]

It is possible, or course.  That was the most maddening thing about setting up a WiFi network for my business, given the footprint and mixture of indoor and outdoor spaces, not to mention that the main building is a 150 year old solidly built building!  There are so many things that can go wrong with network architecture.  I’m a tech geek from the 80s and every time I get into internet/WiFi connectivity issues, I want to run away screaming!  It certainly sounds like you have enough bandwidth and coverage.  But remember one thing — with extenders you lose bandwidth with every “hop” that you go from the router/main access point.  It’s rarely a good idea for have more than 2 hops to your furthest point in the mesh because of this.  I’ve never used Eero, but I’d imagine you can do some analysis using their tools to see if there are any points in your mesh that might be lacking.

[brad83]

I think I figured it out..  the Eero extenders cap out at 250mb .  so I'm going to upgrade the extenders!  

[TheRealChipA]

@brad83 I’m happy to hear that!  Well, not happy to hear you are spending money, but happy to hear you might have found the solution.  At 250mb, you are probably on track since each “hop” from extender to extender reduces your bandwidth by at least half.  Suggestion, if you have the option — look for two-radio (or even 4-radio) extenders.  They use one radio for extender-to-extender communications between devices rather than using part of your bandwidth for that communication.  If not, at least more of a bandwidth cap should work wonders!  Good luck!