Printing: Network Printers
Sep. 15, 2010
Sep. 16, 2010
Sep. 17, 2010
Sep. 18, 2010
Sep. 20, 2010
Sep. 21, 2010
Sep. 23, 2010
Sep. 24, 2010
Sep. 25, 2010
Sep. 27, 2010
Sep. 28, 2010
Oct. 5, 2010
Oct. 9, 2010
Oct. 11, 2010
Oct. 12, 2010
Oct. 13, 2010
Oct. 14, 2010
Oct. 15, 2010
Oct. 16, 2010
Oct. 19, 2010
Oct. 20, 2010
Oct. 18, 2011
Jan. 23, 2014
Jan. 24, 2014
Jan. 25, 2014
Sep. 12, 2014
Sep. 13, 2014
Jeffery Press
I printed to a shared HP printer from my iMac (mid 2009) running 10.6.4 through an G5 Tower using an Asante ethernet to Appletalk bridge. The G5 just died (probably the motherboard) and is no longer part of the network. There is no vestige of the shared printer in Print&Fax preferences. However, whenever I want to Print to PDF from the print dialog box, or make any changes for paper feed, etc. my computer takes about 30+ seconds before reporting back "The server "G5" may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again."
How do I get rid of this extremely slow search of the network? How does my iMac remember that a shared printer connected to the G5 should be searched for before it can not be found?
I have reset the Print&Fax, I have tried deleting anything that looks
like a preference for printing to no avail.
Kevin Lepard
Does anyone know how, when selecting Save as PDF when printing a document to keep it from spitting images across two pages when possible to do so?
Thanks.
Antonio Tejada
Ed Wilmsen wrote (and others have written to the same effect):
"I have an old AppleTalk Apple laser printer that I use with a new iMac and an Asante Appletalk to Ethernet converter. Works great."
Let's clear up a common misconception: AppleTalk is a network protocol "a network "language", if you will "and not a physical network (hardware) type. The hardware often erroneously referred to as "AppleTalk" is actually called LocalTalk. (Farallon's PhoneNet was an exceedingly popular alternative.)
The converter you use is a LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridge. It operates strictly at the hardware level (i.e. connecting two electrically incompatible networks) and does not convert protocols " in fact, that's not actually possible. (For the interested, the closest you can get is "encapsulation", but that requires support from all devices involved.)
Apple used to refer to AppleTalk-over-Ethernet as "EtherTalk", by the way (and AppleTalk transported across the now largely extinct Token Ring hardware was called "TokenTalk").
The upshot is, bridge devices cannot and will not fix the Snow Leopard
situation, because the issue at hand is the protocol, which those
devices pass through from one physical network to another untouched. Mac
OS X 10.6 removed the AppleTalk protocol, so it will not work on any
kind of network any more. The only solution is to use a print server
which supports the TCP/IP protocol (which itself can be used over myriad
physical network types). This includes HP's own integrated servers, many
ethernet-to-parallel print servers, and even a USB-connected printer
running off a Mac.
Michael Fryd
Antonio Tejada wrote:
The upshot is, bridge devices cannot and will not fix the Snow Leopard situation, because the issue at hand is the protocol, which those devices pass through from one physical network to another untouched. Mac OS X 10.6 removed the AppleTalk protocol, so it will not work on any kind of network any more. The only solution is to use a print server which supports the TCP/IP protocol?
Why not just install AppleTalk on your Snow Leopard machine?
Although Apple no longer supports AppleTalk, there are third party solutions. I don't know if CAP (Columbia AppleTalk Protocol) is still around, but NetATalk still has an active page at sourceforge (http://netatalk.sourceforge.net/)
Paul Huang
Don't forget AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme. Hook up the
LocalTalk-only printer (that also has a USB port) to an AirPort base
station that has a USB port and suddenly it's Bonjour-compatible over the
network.
David Honda
Parker Montgomery wants to print from a Snow Leopard Mac to a HP LaserJet 4050N, and he does not want to use printer sharing on his other Macs that are running Leopard (probably to avoid adding additional workload to those Macs).
Antonio Tejada (and others) recommended setting up an HP server or a ethernet-to-parallel print server. To an extent, there is a learning curve in getting them configured.
As an alternative with less of a learning curve, consider buying an inexpensive used all-in-one Mac such as the iMac G4 or the eMac G4. I've seen these Macs selling used for less than $170. Install OS X 10.4 and the HP print driver/PPD, connect it to the ethernet network (preferably using a wired connection so you don't have to chase down a G4 AirPort card), set up print sharing, and you're in business.
Michael Fussell
RE: creating a printer server using an old Mac. How about an old G4 Mac
Mini? It is small and can be headless, keyboardless, and mouseless until
you need to do something on it.
Tim Pipes
Concerning Appletalk printers.... as we upgraded our staff here at school to 10.6, I realized that all our AppleTalk printers were not showing up over our network. Stressed me out for just a minute but I had been planning on setting up IP addresses on most printers. What I found was that some printers (Ricoh CL3500 for example) did have a bonjour setting once I was able to connect through the web interface. Our HP4050N, which has also been brought up on this thread, is working perfectly with an IP address. Just not 'discoverable' anymore. I would look at giving all your printers an IP address and then looking at it through the web interface to see if there's a way to turn on bonjour.
Just a thought....
Antonio Tejada
Paul Huang wrote:
"Don't forget AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme. Hook up the LocalTalk-only printer (that also has a USB port) to an AirPort base station that has a USB port and suddenly it's Bonjour-compatible over the network."
Can you name a printer that has LocalTalk and USB but not Ethernet with TCP/IP?!? Given that LocalTalk was moribund by the time USB came out, and basically extinct by the time USB printers became popular, I can't imagine you'd be able to find a machine with LocalTalk and USB but not Ethernet and TCP/IP. (Laser printers started supporting TCP/IP in the mid-90s, before USB actually had taken root.)
Ken K
Michael Fryd wrote,
"Why not just install AppleTalk on your Snow Leopard machine [using e.g. netatalk]?"
'Just'? *Just*?! I looked up netatalk. It's a kernel-level suite of Unix protocols to be manually compiled, installed, configured, and carefully deployed, preferably as a backend to CUPS, in conjunction with a bunch of other necessary Unix components that also need to be downloaded, compiled, installed, and configured.
Using the word 'just' [...] reminds me of a DIY clutch repair procedure that started, "just remove engine from car, detach transmission from engine, and partially disassemble transmission."
Great idea, though. Got a link for a netatalk version that is as easy to
install and use as any other Snow Leopard application or utility?
David Honda
Adding to Michael Fussell's idea: If comfortable with the idea of a headless print server, another inexpensive possibility would be a Power Mac G4 tower. While it requires more space than a Mini, the Power Mac G4 appears to be cheaper than the Mini G4 on the used market; I've seen used Power Mac G4s selling for as low as $80.
If given a choice, try to get a Power Mac G4 Sawtooth/AGP Graphics model or newer, and skip the original Yikes/PCI Graphics model (which usually came in CD-ROM configurations).
Ted Spinkle
Tim Pipes mentioned using the web interface to access a networked printer. It sounded like a good idea, so I tried it with my (now ancient) HP LaserJet 2100 TN. Unfortunately, I got this message:
"Macintosh OS is not supported to run this application."
BTW, it was a bear to set up this printer with an IP address under Snow Leopard. No LCD panel, no web interface. It took days of Googling, along with plenty or trial and error, to get it to work.
Was it worth the time and frustration simply to avoid buying a new printer? I'm not sure.
Update: I fired up Parallels and was able to login to the web interface. I wish I had thought of that before...
MacInTouch Reader
I don't know if this is useful information or not - My Epson Stylus Color 900 inkjet printer has LocalTalk and USB but no Ethernet connector. It works fine plugged into either the serial port on my G3 or the USB port on my G5, running Tiger OS. I haven't tried it on a network.
George Costello
The easiest way to deal with AppleTalk printers is to have an older Mac
running OS 10.5.x connected to your network via Ethernet & simply share
the AppleTalk printer via Apple's own Printer Sharing. Presto: every other
Mac can see it. Works like a charm.
Ed Wilmsen
I just got a new iMac 3.06 and when I first turned it on it saw my printer
just fine. I have an old Apple LaserWriter Pro 600 that uses AppleTalk and
I was running it just fine with an AsanteTalk Ethernet-to-AppleTalk
converter. I have a wireless network set up and previous to the new iMac
had an eMac g4 running 10.5.8 and a G4 iBook, same OS. The trouble started
when I disconnected the eMac. The new iMac would not see the printer. The
iBook still printed OK. I turned on printer sharing on the iBook and then
the iMac could see the printer but in the print queue I had a msg "On
Hold(authentication required)" As I worked on it, trying things, I now
cannot print from anything. Neither the iBook nor the iMac can see any
printers. Any ideas? Do I just have to assume it's the Asante converter
and buy a new printer?
I spent over 1 1/2 hours with Apple on the
phone and they couldn't help me. I don't think any were old enough to
remember the LaserWriter or AppleTalk let alone the Asante converter.
Bruce De Benedictis
Ed Wilmsen was trying to connect an old printer via an AsanteTalk box to a Snow Leopard computer. That will not work, as the AsanteTalk box uses AppleTalk exclusively. His best bet is to get an old HP JetDirect print server to connect to the printer to his network.
J Caddell
I would guess that the G4 running Tiger could see the AppleTalk printer
and was running as a shared printer. The new iMac running Snow Leopard
doesn't see AppleTalk printers - unless they are shared off of a computer
on the network.
Kevin Smith
Isn't the converter still relying on receiving AppleTalk communication over Ethernet? I had an old LaserWriter 8500 that I had issues with using AppleTalk but thankfully I could print via IP to that.
One thing that got me when I was still trying to use AppleTalk on that
was that as simple as it sounds, rebooting the printer after it was all
connected often made a big difference. It's not as plug & play friendly
as most newer devices.
David Margolis
I wonder if you are having a problem with the sequence at start up. I have
the AanteTalk as well and I have to turn on my printer before I power up
the AsanteTalk. This really only happens when I have a power outage. Good
luck
Andrew Schultz
Ed writes
"I just got a new iMac 3.06 and when I first turned it on it saw my printer just fine. I have an old Apple LaserWriter Pro 600 that uses AppleTalk and I was running it just fine with an AsanteTalk Ethernet-to-AppleTalk converter. I have a wireless network set up and previous to the new iMac had an eMac g4 running 10.5.8 and a G4 iBook, same OS. The trouble started when I disconnected the eMac. The new iMac would not see the printer. The iBook still printed OK. I turned on printer sharing on the iBook and then the iMac could see the printer but in the print queue I had a msg "On Hold(authentication required)" As I worked on it, trying things, I now cannot print from anything. Neither the iBook nor the iMac can see any printers. Any ideas? Do I just have to assume it's the Asante converter and buy a new printer?"
I'm going to guess that the eMac had printer sharing turned on and the other machines were connected to the eMac not the printer.
An Ethertalk to Appletalk converter still is using Appletalk all the way through and there is no Appletalk at all in 10.6.
MacInTouch Reader
Ed Wilmsen Said:
"I just got a new iMac 3.06 and when I first turned it on it saw my printer just fine. I have an old Apple LaserWriter Pro 600 that uses AppleTalk and I was running it just fine with an AsanteTalk Ethernet-to-AppleTalk converter. I have a wireless network set up and previous to the new iMac had an eMac g4 running 10.5.8 and a G4 iBook, same OS. The trouble started when I disconnected the eMac. The new iMac would not see the printer. The iBook still printed OK. I turned on printer sharing on the iBook and then the iMac could see the printer but in the print queue I had a msg "On Hold(authentication required)" As I worked on it, trying things, I now cannot print from anything. Neither the iBook nor the iMac can see any printers. Any ideas? Do I just have to assume it's the Asante converter and buy a new printer?"
My guess is that you had printer sharing turned on on the eMac, and the iMac saw and used that; it never spoke to your printer directly.
Andrew Schultz
Ed writes
"I just got a new iMac 3.06 and when I first turned it on it saw my printer just fine. I have an old Apple LaserWriter Pro 600 that uses AppleTalk and I was running it just fine with an AsanteTalk Ethernet-to-AppleTalk converter. I have a wireless network set up and previous to the new iMac had an eMac g4 running 10.5.8 and a G4 iBook, same OS. The trouble started when I disconnected the eMac. The new iMac would not see the printer. The iBook still printed OK. I turned on printer sharing on the iBook and then the iMac could see the printer but in the print queue I had a msg "On Hold(authentication required)" As I worked on it, trying things, I now cannot print from anything. Neither the iBook nor the iMac can see any printers. Any ideas? Do I just have to assume it's the Asante converter and buy a new printer?"
I'm going to guess that the eMac had printer sharing turned on and the other machines were connected to the eMac not the printer.
An Ethertalk to Appletalk converter still is using Appletalk all the way through and there is no Appletalk at all in 10.6. So you will have to use the iBook to translate.
Try deleting the printer in the iBook and then setting it up as a new printer. If that works then turn on sharing.
Or get a ethernet to parallel port print server for $35 to replace the Asante. The Laserwriter talks both Postscript and PCL4+ so drivers shouldn't be an issue either.
Erik Jensen
Hi Ed--
Regarding the use of the AsanteTalk Ethernet-to-AppleTalk
to print to your LaserWriter Pro 600, my advice is that it is time to move
on. Now that AppleTalk is removed (as of Snow Leopard), it is best to send
the Laserwriter to your local electronics recycler. I hated doing the same
to my Laserwriter last year, but take some consolation in the lower power
bills (get a new printer with Energy Star certification) and hence lower
GHG footprint. A side benefit is that even relatively cheap laser printers
will be much faster both in time to print and pages per minute.
It
is possible to get a networked laser printer for not much more than $100.
The converter was a good stopgap that extended the printer's life for
several years but now that time is at an end.
Antonio Tejada
[Here's] what I wrote just 10 days ago posted right here on MacInTouch...
There's your answer, sorta: the new iMac never printed through the adapter. It was piggybacking through printer sharing off another Mac.
David Walker
There are two separate and unrelated problems trying to use an old Asante box on a new computer:
1. Asante Ethernet to LocalTalk boxes use AppleTalk which was included in OS X from 10.0 through 10.5.8, but is not part of 10.6.
2. Some Asante boxes only work at 10baseT speeds and cannot cope with any Ethernet port with automatic speed negotiation. Any Mac, PC, router or switch made this century should have the ability to switch between 10Kb and 100Kb operation and newer ones also do gigabit.
My parents have my old Asante box hooked to an Apple LaserWriter and the
only way it will work is to plug both the Asante box and their Mac Mini
into an old fixed speed 10baseT hub.
Ken K
It's amazingly easy to use most AppleTalk laser printers under Snow Leopard. Look at the printer to see if it has a parallel port connector. Almost all still-active AppleTalk laser printers have one, including all Apple LaserWriter Pro printers except the 810, and all HP LaserJets. If there is a parallel port, you are in luck. Buy a simple USB-to-Parallel-Printer cable. (The Belkin F5U002V1 is a reliable one, about $30 on Amazon.) Bingo. Your printer is back in business.
I really wish this simple solution were more widely known. It took me forever to track it down, find stories of success, and try it myself. I would have done this the moment Snow Leopard came out if I had known about it.
Here are more details for the skeptical or nervous, so that you don't have to go hunting all over the internet like I did.
Once you have the cable, the process is nearly as simple as plug and play. It is literally "plug in the cable, do the 'Add a printer' process in System Preferences, print." Amazingly, your ancient printer will show up automagically in the Add A Printer dialog. (If it doesn't appear automatically, try restarting the printer, or the Mac, or both. Worked for me.)
Which driver to pick in the Add A Printer dialog under the "Print Using:" popup menu? Most printers will have one or two originals from the manufacturer, plus there might be a CUPS+Gutenprint driver available (look in "Print Using > Select Printer Software..."), plus Apple lets you choose to use a Generic PS or Generic PCL driver if you wish. If one doesn't work, try another. In the case of my own HP LaserJet 6MP, the auto-assigned CUPS+Gutenprint driver didn't work, but the HP 6P/6MP Postscript driver works perfectly. (Note: to pick a different driver, you have to start over with the "Add A Printer..." process. You can't edit old ones, afaik.)
Here's another great tip if the cable works for your printer. As you already know, you can plug the cable directly into your Snow Leopard Mac and turn on Printer Sharing so other Macs can use the printer over the network. Even better, however: plug it into an Airport Extreme, Airport Express, or Time Capsule for wireless printing from any Mac in the house. Even when connected to an Airport or Time Capsule, the printer will appear automatically in each computer's Add A Printer dialog.
It's brilliant. I now have my trusty 14 year old HP LaserJet 6MP connected to the USB port on my Time Capsule. I cheerfully print wirelessly from a MacBook Air running 10.6.4 and from a 12" PowerBook running 10.4.11.
Wow. No more printing via AppleTalk through an OS X 10.4 or 10.5 Mac that has Printer Sharing turned on. Finally, my Farallon iPrint adapter and its tangle of wires have been retired. My 12" PowerBook, formerly my print server, has had its Printer Sharing turned off. No need to find and configure a JetDirect box. And my HP 6MP stays out of the landfill. Life is good. Well, okay, it's better.
Usual caveats: there is a chance the cable won't work with your printer. That's life.
Bruce De Benedictis
If a USB to Parallel cable does not work, try the USBTB backend before giving up.
These cables can be used, but if you need a network connection, then a
print server is a better option. However, not all drivers will work with
some print servers. For most Postscript printers, there should be no
problem.
MacInTouch Reader
Ken K wrote:
It's amazingly easy to use most AppleTalk laser printers under Snow Leopard. Look at the printer to see if it has a parallel port connector. Almost all still-active AppleTalk laser printers have one, including all Apple LaserWriter Pro printers except the 810, and all HP LaserJets. If there is a parallel port, you are in luck. Buy a simple USB-to-Parallel-Printer cable. (The Belkin F5U002V1 is a reliable one, about $30 on Amazon.) Bingo. Your printer is back in business.
How reliable? I tried several USB-parallel printers cables a couple of years ago to connect my HP Laserjet 5MP to a dual 1.8-GHz G5 tower running 10.4.11, and finally settled on a Keyspan, and it worked...more or less. Actually, more like when it feels like it. Otherwise the Printer queue fails to establish a connection, and the pages to be printed sit in the Printer Queue until I tell it to start printing again. I think I even tried the Belkin, but can't remember.
Is there a tendency of the USB-parallel cables to be wonky or have bad connections? This has been behaving erratically ever since I started using it, with the only saving grace being that I don't have to print much. I use Shared Printer connections to print with the 5MP using a couple of laptops, but 2-3 months back that stopped working with the old iBook G3 running 10.3.9.
David Reaves
My experience was with Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and an aging yet quite functional HP 6MP LaserJet networked via a separate HP JetDirect 300X parallel/ethernet interface box (also aging, but working nevertheless).
As has been a common experience, what had worked fine under Leopard with AppleTalk stopped when AppleTalk was dropped in 10.6.
I went round and round trying to get things to connect via the System Preferences' "Print and Fax" software interface until finally realizing that at some point in the distant past, under OS9 or earlier (yes the printer is that old!) I must have manually set the JetDirect's address to a static one that I could no longer get to connect via the router (IIRC, with AppleTalk I don't think the IP address was relevant).
I downloaded the instructions for the 300x (which HP graciously still keeps available online). By resetting the JetDirect box by holding the panel button for 10 seconds while re-applying power, it was assigned a new, valid DHCP address by my router. Pressing the button again told the printer to print a page that included the JetDirect's address. So now at least I could get the connection going, and could actually print. But I didn't like the idea of a dynamic address that might change over time.
So I went further and downloaded and ran the HP Windows-based setup utility (via Parallels) to assign a new static IP address within the router's range (I assigned 192.168.1.150, a 'standard' printer IP address).
So things are back to normal here, or at least in the printer realm. ;-)
David Charlap
A MacInTouch Reader wrote:
"How reliable? I tried several USB-parallel printers cables a couple of years ago to connect my HP Laserjet 5MP to a dual 1.8-GHz G5 tower running 10.4.11, and finally settled on a Keyspan, and it worked... more or less. Actually, more like when it feels like it. Otherwise the Printer queue fails to establish a connection, and the pages to be printed sit in the Printer Queue until I tell it to start printing again."
I think there's some bug in Mac OS regarding USB printing (and maybe USB in general.) I've seen this exact same problem with my HP DeskJet printer.
Sometimes (usually on the first print job after a reboot), the job will sit in the queue. Mac OS will report a failure opening a connection to the printer and stop the queue. In my case, power-cycling the USB hub (disconnect from the Mac, and remove power, then reattach) will fix it and printing will run fine until the next reboot.
Disconnecting and/or power cycling the printer doesn't change anything.
I thought this might've been a flaky hub, but after swapping it for a new hub, the problem remained. Other USB devices on that hub usually don't show similar problems.
I've pretty much resigned myself to dealing with this problem. I intend
to avoid it in the future by making sure that my next printer is
LAN-connected.
Gary Kellogg
MacInTouch Reader, in an exchange with Ken K wrote:
Is there a tendency of the USB-parallel cables to be wonky or have bad connections?
If you use the USBTB backend software, you will probably find that the
USB-parallel cable solution will behave as it should. At least it does
on my ancient HP 4M. We recently tried it on a USB print server and it
was quickly and easily found over our network and even worked with a
Windows XP VM under Parallels 5 after some Windows fiddling. It's the
18-year-old printer that won't die!
MacInTouch Reader
Folks in David Reaves' situation may also want to look at their router configurations. Many routers provide a way to assign a static address to an attached device. With the availability of this feature, this obviates the need to run any software to configure the printer with a static address.
MacInTouch Reader
David Charlap wrote:
I think there's some bug in Mac OS regarding USB printing (and maybe USB in general.) I've seen this exact same problem with my HP DeskJet printer.
Sometimes (usually on the first print job after a reboot), the job will sit in the queue. Mac OS will report a failure opening a connection to the printer and stop the queue...
I suspect there's a bug, but I'm seeing a different effect. Usually my HP 5MP prints the first job after booting up the Mac flawlessly, but bogs down in a later job. When I go to the Printer Queue, I find it's stopped and restart it. Or wait for the next time I print a page, when the Print dialog tells me the queue has stopped and asks if I want to restart it.
Gary Kellogg wrote
If you use the USBTB backend software, you will probably find that the USB-parallel cable solution will behave as it should. At least it does on my ancient HP 4M. We recently tried it on a USB print server and it was quickly and easily found over our network and even worked with a Windows XP VM under Parallels 5 after some Windows fiddling. It's the 18-year-old printer that won't die!
No luck here. The problem may occur less often with the USBTB software, but it still happens enough to be annoying. When I installed the USTTB software the installation routine could not find the HP 5MP driver, making me wonder if the problem may be in that driver.
MacInTouch Reader
I am running Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro OS 10.6.4. I have a LaserWriter 8500 that I reset with an IP address. Everything worked great at my office. But when the office closed and I moved the printer home, I'm having problems. The Ready light is blinking amber/green and the printer has been Paused. I cannot to get it to Resume. Any Suggestions? Thanks.
Patrick Mead-Robins
From Apple's kb article:
"This document discusses when the Ready / In Use light flashes amber and green.
The demonstration feature of the printer is enabled. To disable this feature, turn off the printer. Press the Ready/In Use light while turning on the printer."
Or you could try using your broswser and enter "localhost:631" in the address field and have a look at the various options - if the LaserWriter 8500 shows up.
Dimmer FJ
For the LaserWriter 8500: see
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25509
"The demonstration feature of the printer is enabled. To disable this feature, turn off the printer. Press the Ready/In Use light while turning on the printer."
Don Gillespie
Re:
'I am running Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro OS 10.6.4. I have a LaserWriter 8500 that...'
Does your printer's IP address match your home router's subnet address? Say your router is 192.168.0.0. Then your printer's IP has to be set 192.168.n.n, and that address has to be unique within your LAN. Otherwise, your printer will not be in your LAN.
Mark Tennent
We too have an old LaserWriter 8500 and with the arrival of Snow Leopard we lost access to it from our Intel Macs on the network even though we had given the LaserWriter a static IP.
Luckily we still have a G5 and an ancient G3 laptop. To access the LaserWriter's settings we can use Telnet on the G5 Mac or better still run the old System 7/8/9 Printer Utility on the laptop which can set up all the various options. The Telnet control panel has far less options.
To print to it from our Intel Macs we have to select it as a Shared Printer running on the G5 Mac. That G5 is due to be replaced soon and we have no idea what to do other than connect the old laptop to it and using that as a printer server.
Open to all ideas.
MacInTouch Reader
Nice to hear that LW8500s are still getting the job done. Not bad for a model discontinued in January 1999.
Keeping a Mac (or PC) that can share the printer is obviously a way to keep it useful.
Somewhere down the line, keeping a printer that old running might not be a good deal compared with a newer printer that might have higher resolution, faster print times, compatibility with Snow Leopard or a later version of the Mac OS and may be more energy efficiency.
Not to mention availability of parts and supplies.
A3 printers are obviously a lot more expensive than 8.5 x 11 printers so keeping the old box running is not unreasonable if you need A3.
Jim Rietz
Mark Tennent states:
"To print to it from our Intel Macs we have to select it as a Shared Printer running on the G5 Mac."
I also have an 8500 and use it with Intel Macs without any issues. The 8500 is listed on Apple's Mac OS X v10.6: Printer and scanner software page:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3669#apple
To add the printer, you must select IP in the Add Printer dialog. Enter its IP address, a name, and in the popup Print Using: Select Printer Software to access the Apple Laserwriter 8500 v3010.103 driver. After adding, you can manually add any options (duplex and cassettes).
Good luck!
Joseph Koenka
CNET has a good article on using OS/X IP printing to print to the LW8500 on Snow Leopard - see http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10402240-263.html
Ed Wilmsen
I had the same problem with a LaserWriter Pro 600. Finally decided to
replace it and got a Brother 2470 for $90 brand new at Office Max. Much
faster, higher Res and it's wireless. It was time.
Dwight Early
I'm am still using a LaserWriter 360 w/fax on my home Mac farm. I can
print to it even from my MacBook Pro, running 10.6.4. I use an old Axis
print server which plugs directly into the 360's parallel printer port and
an Ethernet cable to a switch. The server runs a skinnied-down *unix
and... well, it just works. I administer it - rarely - using the print
server's web interface. I got mine off of eBay years ago.
Bob Crummett
My LW 8500 is working just fine over IP using Snow Leopard. Had to resort
to an old G4 with classic installed to run the original Apple Printer
Utility to turn on the TCP/IP port, assign an IP address and subnet mask
(the printers start-up page gives all the status details). After that I
was able to launch printer setup in snow leopard: add new printer (+),
choose LPD protocol, enter IP address, after a moment, you can choose the
correct driver, name the printer, hit add and there you go. You can then
go into the printer options at this point and choose extra config settings
(RAM, extra paper trays, etc.).
Mark Tennent
Thank you for your answers but you are only telling me what I have tried already. We had been printing to it as an IP printer for years until Snow Leopard
Just to make sure, I set it up again. All looks correct in the dialogue
boxes, select RAM and extra paper trays and set it to print. But it
doesn't. I just get the message: Network host '192.168.0.121' is busy;
will retry in 5 seconds...
until it times out.
Does it from every Snow Leopard Mac. Switch them (where possible) to
10.5, and printing is fine.
Dave Jacquith
Re. Mark Tennent's response:
Thank you for your answers but you are only telling me what I have tried already. We had been printing to it as an IP printer for years until Snow Leopard. Just to make sure, I set it up again. All looks correct in the dialogue boxes, select RAM and extra paper trays and set it to print. But it doesn't. I just get the message: Network host '192.168.0.121' is busy; will retry in 5 seconds... until it times out.
I have been trying for about a week now to get my LaserWriter Select 360 to print in 10.6.4 using a Parallel to USB cable but to no avail. I get the same results as Mark Tennent (noted above). It prints fine in 10.5, using an Asante Talk box. I am wondering if it will work if I unattach the Asante. I'm afraid to do this because I want it to keep printing in Tiger and Leopard which is what the other computers are running on the same network. I want the best of both (actually, three) worlds for that printer, working at the same time in Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. Is this possible?
Robert DeVoe
When I get the message "Network host '192.168.0.121' is busy; will retry in 5 seconds...", I can often solve the problem by selecting the printer in System Preferences/Print and Fax, deleting it, and reinstalling it.
Gary Kellogg
Mark Tennent writes:
Thank you for your answers but you are only telling me what I have tried already. We had been printing to it as an IP printer for years until Snow Leopard
Just to make sure, I set it up again. All looks correct in the dialogue boxes, select RAM and extra paper trays and set it to print. But it doesn't. I just get the message: Network host '192.168.0.121' is busy; will retry in 5 seconds...
until it times out.
I love these old printers, as you learn a lot from time to time as you keep them running -- maybe you are wishing you weren't having to learn so much just now! They are built like tanks and there is no way to tell a document printed from a brand new laser printer from an old one unless you have a printer's loupe.
Anyway, what happens when you simply ping that IP using something like the Network Utility? Do you know what is sending that busy message, a router, the print server machine, etc?. You might try simplifying things by just connecting the printer to one Intel Mac using an ethernet crossover cable, getting that working and then build out from there. If you are able to print a test page from another lash-up (e.g., a Leopard or Tiger install), sometimes there are printer settings reported on the test page that may provide a lead.
Bob Crummett
To Mark: make sure your LW 8500 assigned IP address is within your network
(192.168.0.xxx). You can use System Profiler/Network to verify.
Bruce De Benedictis
For Dave Jacquith, the best bet would be to find a printer server that would work with all of his printers. Apparently you can find HP JetDirect servers available inexpensively on eBay. That way all of the computers can connect in the same way.
There is a lot of information about using legacy printers with Snow Leopard on the Apple Support discussion board.
Steve Ebener
I have an old TI microLaser Pro 600 that has a AppleTalk port, parallel printer port, and a slot for an EtherNet card (which I kept putting off purchasing until it was to late to find one).
I used this for years with an AsantePrint AppleTalk to EitherNet box (which has to be 10 Mb and no faster. 10/100 doesn't work) in a mixed network at home for years. Then came along Snow Leopard and neither of the Macs on the network could print. And I tried all of the IP printing solutions I could find on the net.
My solution was to purchase a D-Link "Parallel Port Print Server" model DP-301+, which is working quite well on our mixed network. It configures easily via any web browser.
There may be other, similar, solutions out there that I didn't take the
time to find. But this is the one that was in my price range at the
time. So far I've had zero problems with it.
MacInTouch Reader
Also a good idea is using your printer utility software to assign a *static* LAN address to the printer. That way the OS can always find it. Maybe something in Snow Leopard changed how it locates printers on the network. Maybe the system is trying to send jobs to the printer at the underlying dynamic address that was originally assigned when the printer was added. This sounds like the reason Robert can print once he removes and then adds the printer again (with its current address). Assigning a permanent address to the printer fixes this.
We have a cross-platform household, and this used to be a big problem with the Windows machines. We ended up adjusting our router to assign dynamic addresses above 100 to the computers, but assign the printers their own permanent addresses below 100 so there were no conflicts. We have an ancient HP Laserjet 4M and a newer color Laserjet 2550. I'm not running Snow Leopard yet, but my husband's brand new iMac is and he has no problem printing to the 4M, bought in 1994. In fact, that warhorse printer only took about 30 seconds to configure in the System Prefs.
Julian Vrieslander
I can add a few words of encouragements to those who are struggling to
keep their old Apple LaserWriters running. They are terrific machines. I
still mourn the loss of my LaserWriter Pro 600. The printer that replaced
it (HP 2420) is faster and has higher resolution specs. But the LW had a
true PostScript engine (albeit not the most recent version), and the
quality of its text output was better than the much newer HP. The
PostScript clone in the HP produces inferior kerning and the glyphs are
not as well drawn. I doubt that it will last as long as my LW.
Patrick Mead-Robins
Just a thought on the troubles some are having with the LW 8500: that printer can be used to print as either an Appletalk printer or an LPR/LPD printer (or IP Printer), and it sounds like it still thinks it's setup for use as an AppleTalk-configured printer, regardless of what the later OS is saying.
And considering that 10.6.x no longer supports AppleTalk, you may need to use a pre-OS 10.6 Mac to re-configure the printer setup settings.
Or just use a 10.5.x or lower Mac as a print server and with its printer sharing enabled and make sure you get the name right as I recently posted to another list with more details.
But the IP printer settings the LW 8500 is capable of would be a better
solution. Our old HP LJ 4ML is AppleTalk only, but it's setup for all
network printing from OS 9.x to 10.6.x - wired and wireless, and our
wireless router died last month so the Intel iMac 10.5.8 with its
Internet sharing enabled is doing all the work to provide printing to
all networked Macs. 10.6.x MBP via airport included.
Mark Tennent
Thanks for all your replies.
The LaserWriter is connected to a hub which is connected to an ADSL modem/Switch which controls the DHCP allocation. The LaserWriter has a staic IP in the range the router (Belkin) can handle. Other Macs on the network are assigned IP's by the router although I use a static IP for one Mac when it runs an FTP server. That IP is always one more than the LaserWriter's.
I have connected the printer directly to the switch with no success, it has been allocated different IP addresses and so on. Printers have been deleted from the Control Panel queue. Nothing makes any difference.
The only Macs which can print to our LaserWriter must be running 10.5 or earlier and then they can act as a server for it as a shared printer for all Macs running 10.6. They print to it as an IP printer and not AppleTalk.
Pinging the printer from a Mac running 10.6 brings the message that the host is down and there is no route to the host. Yet the Mac is able to 'see' the printer to enable it to create a new printer queue in the Control Panel and even selct correct Ram and paper trays.
MacInTouch Reader
Just one more thing...make sure the subnet mask on the LW matches that of the router. Probably best would be the default 255.255.255.0. I had a similar problem with a networked LW 16/600 and that was the issue. Printer setup could see the LW but printing would time out, etc. As a last resort, and as someone else mentioned, if the LW 8500 has a parallel port, you can get an external HP Jetdirect (parallel type) print server very inexpensively on ebay.
Gary Kellogg
Mark Tennant writes:
Pinging the printer from a Mac running 10.6 brings the message that the host is down and there is no route to the host. Yet the Mac is able to 'see' the printer to enable it to create a new printer queue in the Control Panel and even selct correct Ram and paper trays?
I would not take that second ("Yet?") observation to mean much. The Printers and Faxes Preference Pane creates a little application for each of your installed printers in your ~/Library/Printers folder and it may behave this way -- often if the printer isn't connected at all. Did someone mention that deleting the application there for your printer and reinstalling the printer is a really good idea?
So, don't overlook that hint in the prior observation with the message about the host being down/no route. By the way, some of us in this discussion may be really interested in the outcome of this, so please don't leave us hanging when you finally get it solved.
Mark Tennent
Fixed!
Thanks for all the support, problem fixed by a very simple process.
Spray all plugs with switch cleaner, eg WD40, wipe off excess, plug back in. Fixed!
Just why the 10.5 G5 could print to it and none of the others would is a mystery but I can confirm the LaserWriter 8500 still works under Snow Leopard as a network printer with a static IP address and subnet mask as per router.
One extremely important thing to remember is never press the reset printer option in Telnet unless you have a Mac running System 7/8/9 to be able to allocate another IP address again. Got the G5 running from my Firewire iPod to fix that hole I dug myself.
Now then? where do I get replacement toner in a year or so when my last spare cartridge finally goes to the Lisa Landfill in the sky?
:-)
MacInTouch Reader
Mark Tennent wrote on LaserWriter 8500
Now then? where do I get replacement toner in a year or so when my last spare cartridge finally goes to the Lisa Landfill in the sky?
Enter "LaserWriter 8500 toner" without the quotes in Google (or other search) and you will find over 7,000 results. Not all of them are actual vendors but you ought to be able to find some.
The problem is if you buy too many toner carts, your printer will likely die before you use them all. On the other hand, if you don't buy soon, they may be gone when you need one.
...
And the Lisa Landfill is in Logan, Utah. They might have buried them in the sky except the law of gravity is more powerful than the reality distortion field needed to keep them aloft.
David Charlap
Mark Tennent wrote:
"... LaserWriter 8500 ... Now then? where do I get replacement toner in a year or so when my last spare cartridge finally goes to the Lisa Landfill in the sky?"
You can still buy LW8500 cartridges. A Google search found many suppliers. Third-party "compatible" cartridges, and refilled/refurbushed ones start at about $100. Apple-branded ones seem to start at about $150, including one sold via Amazon.
Vendors showing a picture of the original Apple packaging (for whatever that's worth) are charging about $185 and up.
It's also worth noting that several other printers use the same printing engine as the LW8500, including models by IBM, Newgen, Xante and Xerox. See [here] for the list. A cartridge for one of these should also work.
FWIW, I'd go with a cheap "compatible" or even refilled cartridge. For
an old-model B&W laser printer, it will probably work just fine. If it
doesn't work well, you still have the option to pay more for a new Apple
(or IBM, or Xerox) cartridge.
Dave Perrin
The LaserWriter 8500 uses a Fuji/Xerox engine that was also used in the IBM InfoPrint 20 and IBM 4320, various Xante Accel-A-Writers and Newgen LaserImage 1200 printers. A search for toner for any of these will turn up compatible cartridges.
Pete Masterson
Mark Tennant asks,
where do I get supplies for a LW 8500 when the last toner cartridge is gone...?
Xante still uses the "engine" of the LW 8500 in its Platemaker 5 (for print shops). They may still carry toner that will work with the LW 8500. (Their web site does not list "consumables" for their products.)
FWIW, my LW 8500 died a couple years back when the fuser assembly failed for the second time -- and the cost of a replacement part (that I could find) was prohibitive.
As an interim step, I purchased a cheap letter-sized Brother 5052 that was OK. But the "real" replacement was a Xerox 5550 -- an 11 x 17 printer that does letter size at 50 pages per minute -- duplex. What an amazing speed difference! (As a book designer, I often print 300-500 page projects.)
Hint: Xerox charges $500 for a RAM upgrade ... but you can by a memory upgrade DIMM for $18.00 from a third party RAM vendor.
C. R. Oldham
Greetings,
I have an old Hawking ethernet print server that I use to drive an older Brother HL-5140 laser printer. Sometime during the recent upgrades from Leopard to Snow Leopard to Lion printing to this device became glacially slow. I recall some people writing about it on the web, but now my Google-fu is not strong enough to find the fix. Is anyone else having slow printing issues to an LPD-based printer or print server? Is there a solution?
MacInTouch Reader
I do have an old Apple Laserwriter Pro 810 I would love to use with OS X, but the problem is, it came set up with a blank Ethernet address embedded, instead of 0.0.0.0. I don't know how to change that to work with my network.
I do have an old machine I could use as a printer share, but the
Ethernet address in the printer needs to be set first. Does anyone know
how to do that? If not, is there some type of network peripheral I can
add to the printer?
MacInTouch Reader
Regarding how to configure the IP of a LaserWriter Pro 810 - Google can very useful:
Dave Perrin
If you still have a machine that can run Classic, get a copy of Apple Printer Utility. It has a GUI that can access the printer over Appletalk and set the IP address.
The latest version, Apple Printer Utility v2.2, may be downloaded from the web at
http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html
It is posted on the web on Apple Software Updates: Macintosh: Printing: LaserWriter: "Apple Printer Utility 2.2"
MacInTouch Reader
For AppleTalk I used an
Asante Ethernet to AppleTalk
bridge. It worked but was a little bit squirrelly.
MacInTouch Reader
Need help connecting an old HP 2100 series printer to the second ethernet port of a Mac Pro (2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" FB871LL/A).
The Mac Pro is getting internet access using DHCP via one of its two ethernet ports, but the printer attached via ethernet to the other Mac Pro ethernet port is failing to boot up, because it can't get an IP address ("0.0.0.0").
I'm not sure which of the two ethernet ports on the Mac Pro is "1" vs. "2", but I have tried enabling "Internet Sharing" first to "Ethernet 1" and then to "Ethernet 2" but the printer fails to get an IP address in both cases.
One discussion says that "you also need to make sure it is set to share from your primary ethernet port (the one that goes to the modem) and to your secondary port" but I don't know what setup that refers to.
Can a network guru help me to complete the setup for enabling the second ethernet port of my Mac Pro to supply an IP address to my ethernet HP printer?
Thanks!
Nick Harvey
Hi,
Use a manually assigned IP on the printer Ethernet connection port, and use a manual IP on the printer in the same range (but not identical). If you connect the printer directly to the Mac, you should use a crossover Ethernet cable. The Mac Pro should make this unnecessary, but in practice the HP Ethernet works more often with a crossover cable.
There is usually a button to push on the printer to get a current set up page which will give the current IP used by the printer. Set the Mac Ethernet port to be in the same range. If that is not possible, the Ethernet "box" on the printer will likely have a recessed button to return it to factory default IP which you can look up and use.
Hope this helps.
Dave Perrin
Why are you trying to connect it to the second ethernet jack? Why not to your router?
You may be getting a 0.0.0.0 address on the printer because that's what it's been set to. Does the configuration page show static or DHCP? If the printer was previously used on a network with computers that supported AppleTalk, it didn't need an IP address to work, and the 0.0.0.0 is still factory fresh.
Since anything past Snow Leopard doesn't support AppleTalk, you're going to need to know the IP address of the printer to add it, because the print/fax utility likely won't be able to find it on the network anyway. Bonjour didn't exist that far back. You need to set and know the IP in order to enter it on the HP JetDirect pane when adding the printer.
If you have a machine that can still run Classic, download the HP Printer drivers and utility for OS9 and use it to set a static IP on the printer. Configuring a fleet of old LaserWriters and LaserJets is precisely the reason I keep my PowerBook 540c around.
HP also has a utility for Windows called HP WebJet Admin that can
configure the JetDirect card, but it's cumbersome and twitchy, with
hefty system requirements (64-bit only now), and you have to register
with them and complete a survey before you can download it.
David Losada Soler
What I can say regarding old HP printers is that Apple/HP have messed up the drivers or PPDs in Mavericks and that the landscape orientation is blatantly ignored when you use a custom paper size: even if you select landscape, the HP printer prints in portrait.
Eric Hildum
The Mac Pro's primary and secondary ethernet ports actually refer to physical ports. Certain functions only occur over the primary port, which in my machine is the inboard port (closest to the center of the machine). You should connect your primary port to your network, and the secondary port to auxiliary equipment.
This is not well documented (partially because there are relatively few
functions that actually care which ethernet port is used, and few Macs
have two ethernet ports) and even few Apple staff are aware of this. In
my case, I have a kernel panic server set up to record the state of the
system in case of a kernel panic. I lost a couple of reports until I
discovered that which port is used matters for this function.
MacInTouch Reader
Before determining how to get the HP 2100 working on one of the Mac Pro's Ethernet ports, we should take a step back and understand why you're doing this. Are you only seeking printer access for the Mac Pro, or for other computers on your (home?) network? Is the network served by a (home?) router, or is the Mac Pro essentially connected directly to your Internet Service Provider (via a cable modem or DSL modem, for example)?
Robert Imhoff
To the reader trying to connect an HP 2100 Series printer to a Mac Pro:
I'm
not a network guru, so I don't know the answer to configuring the second
ethernet port, but maybe you can use the same setup I have for my HP 2100,
which is to connect it via the router on the same ethernet port you use
for Internet access.
The print a configuration self-test page on the
printer to find its IP address (or look in the router admin page which
should display the IP address of connected peripherals). (The
configuration page is obtained by pressing the go and cancel buttons on
the printer simultaneously).
Then you can Telnet to the HP printer to configure its IP as needed.
For
example, if it currently has the IP 198.168.1.15:
Enter the Terminal command
telnet 198.168.1.15
Then, to see the current settings:
/
For help:
?
And then, for example, to set a different IP address:
ip:192.168.1.100
In any case I found that the HP 2100 can't connect directly to an
Ethernet port on the Mac Pro (at least my MacPro 1,1): it needs to have
a router between itself and the Mac, so normally that should work on
your second port, too: just attach a second router there and connect the
printer to it.
Stephen Hart
David Losada Soler wrote:
"What I can say regarding old HP printers is that Apple/HP have messed up the drivers or PPDs in Mavericks and that the landscape orientation is blatantly ignored when you use a custom paper size: even if you select landscape, the HP printer prints in portrait."
As far as I've ever heard, Apple has nothing to do with creating or
maintaining drivers. It just distributes what the manufacturers give it.
HP's infamous for dropping support after only a few years. If you're
lucky, the old drivers keep working. (That's the case with my Scanjet
G4050.)

Comment...