Can't Print in Color to Laserjet 4550?!

A friend of mine just got a new iMac and is having problems getting the iMac to talk to the HP Color LaserJet 4500N he has. I tryed AppleTalk, but there was nothing listed in teh Local. I was able to ping and traceroute to the IP address of the printer, but even with the latest HP drivers from Jan. '08, I still can't get the printer to be recognized. His iMac is wired into a wireless router that is connected to his DSL router with the printer wired to that. How did you get Appletalk to spot the printer?

Success!
Ok, I was able to get the HP Color LaserJet 4500N working for color and black and white printing. First, the printer and the computer had to be connected to the same router and not on different routers like the original setup. Second, once that was done, with the latest drivers from HP installed (Jan. 2008), the add printer using AppleTalk showed the printer in the AppleTalk network:) Then, selecting the printer and letting it autoconfigure was all there was too it. Hopefully this will help others.

How can I interface an HP Colour Laserjet 4550 printer with a parallel cable to a new iMac.
I have bought a 25 pin parallel to USB converter and plugged in the USB cable but nothing.
How can I get a list of printers up which include the 4550. Am I wasting my time and this just cannot be done and I should just bite the bullet and buy a new printer. I am loathe to do this because it is such a fantastic printer. Helpppppp.

What driver are you using? I had a Color LaserJet 4550 that was experiencing the same problem, though I fixed it by connecting via AppleTalk.

Make SURE you are connected via AppleTalk and not Bounjor (mDNS) or anything else.

A bit more info. My wife changed her PC to a 2008 iMac. I have an old [10yrs] HP Color laserjet 4550. We have a hard wired network in the house connected via a Linksys router. My computer is a Dell PC laptop running XP, my son has a desktop PC running XP, my wife has a new iMac [2 mths old] running OS 10xxxxx. We do not have a network printer as the 4550 is not the n version. I want to connect the 4550 to the USB port on my wife's computer. The printer cable used to connect to the 25 pin Parallel port on her old PC. I bought a 25 pin parallel to USB converter, plugged it in to her USB port and nothing. I am an engineer but a Mac is a totally different animal to me. I was bought up with 8088, Pentium bases computers and am I right in thinking Appletalk is now an obsolete product? My wife can connect to the internet and has complete web functionality. The only thing I can't do with the Mac that I could do with the PC is get the printer working. I have downloaded the 4550 driver from the HP web site but I think it is for the new 4550 and not the old one. Am I better off just buying a new color printer and be done with it or is it possible for this old, but in my opinion fantastic, printer to be connected in the way I am proposing? All help appreciated

If you are network-inclined, you could buy a JetDirect card for the 4550. It's easy to install and configure on the 4550 - I did it. As long as has an EIO slot on the back (the 4550 has two), it'll work - regardless of it is the "N" version or not.

If you want to go this route, buy a JetDirect 610N or 615N. They're relatively cheap on eBay (<$40) and work well. If you don't know how to configure it and want to do it this way, let me know and I'll tell you how to configure it to work on your network. I can also tell you how to get it set up to print on each of your PCs and the Mac if needed.

I think I got it.

Using 10.5.5, I have to set the default printer to the Color LaserJet 4550 whenever I want to print in color. If it is set to a black and white laser printer or an inkjet, it will get the wrong ColorSync profile and WILL NOT WORK 100% OF THE TIME IF YOU CHANGE IT MANUALLY.

It's a bit of a pain, but it works.