MacOS X slow/hangs adding network printers

I read about people here adding network printers, to print from Mac. In MacOS X, I click Add, then after 2 1/2 minutes it shows the workgroup pull-down. I pick the workgroup and after 4 minutes it shows the printer. I click the printer and 5 1/2 minutes it shows the models. I click the model and 4 more minutes until it is added. Now any time I try to open the Mac print tool or the printer itself to show its status, it takes about 4-5 1/2 minutes to refresh (in other words, I get the MacOS "spinny icon" for that long and the MacOS window in question is hung for that period).

Plus, in the end, it never does print; it gives an error after about 90 seconds of trying. I wasted literally an hour just adding and deleting this printer.

Why would this be so slow? Clearly there is a problem here. Even if it did print (which it doesn't), the delay is too long to be useful. Anyone have an idea where the problem(s) could be?