personal laserwriter 300 on a network?

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personal laserwriter 300 on a network?

having slogged thru some archives, I'll try to make this as direct as possible.
I have a personal laserwriter 300 that I would like to use with my ibook g3 500. the latter has no serial port of course (usb only) and the former cannot be used with a usb to serial adapter (at least last time I checked). the solution I hope to implement is to use an idle beige g3 as a kind of print server. my preferences, from most desired to least would be:
1. stay in 10.3.9 on the ibook and send the doc (just word type docs as I believe the the 300 can't do postscript) to the printer via the g3 which is currently running 9.2. I could bump it up to os x but think that might be even worse for this goal
2. from classic or booting the ibook into 9.2.2 do the same (send to printer via the beige) I believe I saw a solution like this in the archives.
3. what's next? just use file sharing to send the doc to the g3 and go from there?

as mentioned, I went through some archives and would be willing to do it again, but a simple: yes or no, solution one can be done is all I'm looking for here. might be time for solution 4: just buy a new laser printer on the cheap, as I'm tired of dealing with the usb ink jet and I could print from both the g3 and ibook with that. just hate to have a laser sitting there and not functional. thanks

ibook pm7500 beige G3

Posted on Jun 27, 2008 9:51 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 27, 2008 5:43 PM in response to mnr3

If the Personal Laserwriter 300 is like the 320, it connects to a LocalTalk network through its serial port. So you can connect it to a Mac serial cable connect the other end to a LocalTalk-Ethernet bridge. Or you can use LocalTalk cables or the PhoneNet connectors (uses phone cables) if you need to go a longer distance.

For the bridge, you can use a specialize device, such as the [AsanteTalk|http://cgi.ebay.com/AsanteTalk-MAC-Ethernet-to-Localtalk-bridge-ada pter-NIB_W0QQitemZ260256046964QQihZ016QQcategoryZ80061QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQc mdZViewItem]. Or, if you have an older Mac (with a Mac serial port and an Ethernet port), you can run Apple's LocalTalk Bridge software. I don't think it works with Mac OS 9. Read the user comments in the download link below.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/353

Then, that Mac becomes the Ethernet to LocalTalk bridge. There should be a built-in Mac OS X driver.

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Answer 2

Jun 28, 2008 5:48 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

The BAD News:
These printers are QuickDraw-only printers, do not use LocalTalk or AppleTalk of any kind, and cannot be "recognized" or "identified" in the usual way. If you cannot get one of these to print by just sending serial data to it, it will not be useable under Mac OS X. They do not work with LocalTalk Bridge software, the AsanteTalk, or Farallon Ethermac iPrint LT.

LaserWriter IISC (SCSI)
Personal LaserWriter SC (SCSI)
Personal LaserWriter LS (Serial only)
Personal LaserWriter 300 (Serial only)
LaserWriter Select 300 (Serial only)

Apple made no apology for dropping support for the LaserWriter Select 310 in OS 8.5. It is a serial or parallel Postscript printer with no LocalTalk capability. This printer is NOT supported by the linux foundation driver.

LaserWriter Select 310 -- Postscript level 1 only; serial/parallel only

The Personal LaserWriter 320 is a MUCH more capable printer that uses postscript and LocalTalk, and is supported by LocalTalk bridges and boxes. It includes Postscript level 2, and so is supported by the drivers built in to Mac OS X.

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Answer 3

Jun 28, 2008 5:51 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

The good news:
The Mac OS 9 driver for the LaserWriter 300 features "grayshare" a shareable driver. There are some ways to work at getting it to actually share with Mac OS X, but it may be easier to hook it up to your Beige G3 running OS 9 or Classic and send the files over to the beige G3 to be printed.

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Answer 4

Aug 28, 2008 5:42 AM in response to mnr3

I have had luck using an adaptor called Keyspan USB Twin Serial Adaptor. I bought this a couple of years ago when I was switching to an Imac but needed to use my laserWriter 300. I've used the Farallon ethermac iprint adaptors to connect imagewriter printers to a network in a classroom setting and it worked fine but I haven't been able to get these adaptors to work with the laserwriter. But, no problem with the keyspan adaptor the printer works perfectly. (and it's cheap and small)

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