Brother HL-5170DN Netbios printing slow

Archived from groups: comp.periphs.printers (More info?)

Not sure if "Netbios" is the correct term anymore, but here's my
situation... With the Brother HL-5170DN on the LAN, I go to a Windows XP
workstation and:

1. Add a printer > Network printer > Browse for a printer > see the
workgroup, and select brother printer "netbios" name
Problem -- selecting options in an application's Print... dialog is slow,
and spooling pages to the printer is visibly very slow.

2. Add a printer > Local printer > create a new TCP/IP port > enter
brother's static IP address
Good! -- prints as expected, fast, just like a locally connected USB
printer.

I really like the Brother's NIC ability to just "appear" on a Windows
network and be easily added/browsed to from a workstation without fussing
with IP addresses, but the slow print performance is a killer. If I can
help it, I don't want to load any of Brother's little network printing
utilities from their CD, I want to keep the install as clean as possible.

Any ideas on improving Netbios print performance appreciated!

-- Paul