[X-Newbies] Printer, Network?'s

[Randy B.Singer]

K. Lalemand said:

>A Mac network, 5 Mac's, 3 OS X, 1 OS 9 and 1 OS 8.6
>
>I have a Apple Laserwriter II and a HP Laserwriter III, that I'd love to 
>hook up to the network. I'd use these printers for doing mailing labels.
>
>First off, can it be done, so that ALL of the Mac's can see these 
>printers, and if so, how or what do I need to do.


Yes, it can be done, but it will be a kludge.

The two laser printers that you have are LocalTalk printers.  To get them 
on your network you will need LocalTalk to Ethernet adapters.  There used 
to be several brands of these, now not a single one is still made.  
However, you can still find one easily and inexpensively on eBay.  This 
is the one that I recommend:

Proxim/Farallon iPrint Adapter LT 
<http://cgi.ebay.com/EtherMAC-iPrint-Adapter-Farallon-for-MAC-Apple_W0QQite
mZ5855433350QQcategoryZ80061QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem> 

Note: Each LocalTalk printer connected via an EtherMac iPrint to your 
Macintosh also requires a PhoneNET Connector (or equivalent).
$10
http://store.yahoo.com/lovemacs/apl1400u.html 

You don't say which Apple LaserWriter II model you have, (there were 
five, and if you have the LaserWriter SC, you're in trouble, it can't be 
made to work on a network no matter what you do) but I'm assuming that 
you have one of the ones that is a PostScript Level II printer.  A 
built-in OS X driver, or Gimp-Print will work fine with it.

The HP LaserJet III is only a PostScript Level I printer, so you will 
need a third-party driver for it to work with OS X.  Here's one:

PSLevel1 for Mac OS X:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/macosx/pslevel1/

 


Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html