[cups.general] packet storms or improper Browse directives?

[marc at arctic.net]

I believe we have some crossed some wires as to Browse
directives and could use some help.

After some trial and error we seemed to have a stable
configuration of Mac OS X hosts printing via remote queues
obtained via a linux server (the Mac hosts have the
BrowseAddress of the linux server.) We live with an address
space that has a broadcast of 255.255.0.0, with hosts from
10.20.xxx.xxx to 10.71.xxx.xxx.  

We started out with local raw queues on the Macs, and then
after reviewing the discussion here, scrapped the local raw
queues with using the browse address of queues on the linux
box as that would mean that we would not have to address
creating the local queues on the Mac.

However, when we rolled out the image without the local raw
printers we developed a situation where the shared printers
just disappeared from the Mac queues and those that retained
them would indicate that the printer was busy. The network
appears very congested and we have seen packets take 20 ms
just to go from a host, through one hub to the server.

Every now and then printers would magically reappear and jobs
would move..... then printers would disappear again.

Additionally,  we have 3 Macs with static ip addresses (the
balance are configured dynamically via dhcp) that seem to be
unable to pick up the printers at all.

I believe this is an issue with setting the correect values
for the various Browse directives,  but the documentation is a
bit sketchy on how they all relate.

Can anyone provide info as to the following:

1) Is the use of the local raw queue equivalent to the use of
the remote queue or are we missing something here?

2) With a broadcast of 255.255.x.x do I need to do an Allow
>From for each portion of the space, as in 
Allow From 10.20.* *
Allow From 10.21.* *
etc
?

3) Should I use BrowseAddress or just use something like 
BrowsePoll xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:631
BrowseInterval 12000

4) If I use BrowseAddress,  how do I limit traffic from the
Mac hosts (I am concerned about balancing BrowseTimeout as
against BrowseInterval)

5) What would be the appropriate reciprocal settings on the
server??

6) Am I on the right track?