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Level 10

142,632 points

Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk

This article alleges that the release of Snow Leopard will end support for Appletalk.

Like WDS, it seems Appletalk is a protocol that Apple wishes would just go away on its own. Unfortunately I use it for two of my printers. When Apple discontinues the few lines of code that drive Appletalk, they'll have to add to a landfill's population.

I am not hopeful that anything the user community can do will save this unfortunate victim of progress, but it's worth a try:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Powerbooks  iMacs  iPods  Airports  Appletalk printers , Mac OS X (10.4.11),  24 years Apple!  "it's" means "it is"  "lose" is a verb  "loose" isn't

Posted on Jul 7, 2009 6:51 AM

194 replies

John Galt Author

Level 10

142,632 points

Feb 5, 2010 8:33 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant, while I'm awaiting the results of Jason's external print server above, would you care to speculate if such a device would work? I'm contemplating using an HP JetDirect print server, which I could probably buy used for ten bucks or so, with my Laserjet 4MP's parallel interface. I would have to instruct the 4MP to use the parallel interface of course.

This would still leave my bulletproof Localtalk-equipped Imagewriter II without support, but it's just a matter of time before I'll have to succumb to Snow Leopard's demands.

Of course, "matter of time" could mean "in a few more years" in my case...

Feb 5, 2010 9:51 AM in response to John Galt

I'm contemplating using an HP JetDirect print server...
... would you care to speculate if such a device would work?

I expect it would, as long as the Ethernet side supports a protocol like LPR or IPP to print over Ethernet.

Feb 24, 2010 4:25 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I just wanted to report back. It's been a while. Getting my Snow Leopard iMac to print to either of my old Apple printers was pretty frustrating.

- Through the help of Grant Bennet-Alder and othes, I realized that the IP method would not work for the LW 630. That is a secondary printer so I put that issue aside. Don't know if I will even pursue that fix.

- At first, I also failed to get my LW 8500 printing via IP. My router was ancient and needed replacing anyway so I decided to wait until I could upgrade that first. In the meantime, I have a G4 running Tiger and we were just printing everything from there.

- Anyway, today, I spent some time reading up on the links I had saved. I don't really understand this network stuff but I now have an Airport Extreme Base Station, so I just cranked up Classic on the G4 and set the 8500's IP to "10.0.1.150" per this article:

http://theappleblog.com/2009/09/04/how-to-resurrect-your-appletalk-printer-in-sn ow-leopard/

Printing from Quark, I had some additional hurdles which involved selecting a PPD folder via the Utilities menu, but once I got past that hurdle, sweet success! The 8500 is a real work horse so this is really great news.

I'll have to see how it goes but so far, looks pretty good. Prints just as fast as AppleTalk and I don't notice and difference in fonts or graphics. Take it from me, if I can do it, anyone can. But truthfully, I wish they had just left things the way they were. Who need all this just to restore original functionality? Oh well! I guess there must be some technical reason why we have to suffer. 😉

THANKS A BUNCH!!!

Feb 25, 2010 9:36 AM in response to Long time Mac fan

Congratulations ! You made it, but don`t give up with your LW630. All you need is a small print server like the D-Link DP301P+ for example. I got mine working just fine. I know you can`t give the 630 an IP, but the print server has one and will get the LW to work just fine.

hwk

Feb 25, 2010 1:53 PM in response to Helmut Kaleth

Helmut,

I am not sure we need to do that for our purposes. The 8500 is the workhorse. Now, we can print to the 8500 over the network from both the new iMac and G4. The G4 (runs Tiger) can print to both the 8500 and the 630 but the iMac only to the 8500 via IP. That's good enough for what we need. But thanks for the advice. It's good to know that there is a solution if that becomes a necessity.

Mar 3, 2010 3:15 PM in response to Long time Mac fan

Finally following up on the external print server solution. While I have not performed any actual tests the print server appears to work better than the USB / Parallel cable I had but doesn't seem to work quite as well as my original (pre-Snow Leopard) setup. It has not timed out as the cable did but it does seem to take a little longer with some jobs than I would expect, or that I recall the Asante set up did. Could just be my memory. I was hopeful the print server would be quicker than the original set up but probably the same or a little slower. No complaints.

I purchased an HP JetDirect EX Plus J2591A external print server online for about $13. Since I no longer had any parallel cables laying around I also bought the specified HP parallel cable to run between the print server and the HP 5MP printer ($9).

My set up is Mac to Airport Extreme via Ethernet - Airport Extreme to HP JetDirect print server via Ethernet and HP JetDirect print server via HP parallel cable.

Overall I'm satisfied with the solution. At a cost of $22 (plus shipping) it sure beats buying a new printer.

John Galt Author

Level 10

142,632 points

Mar 10, 2010 6:12 AM in response to Jason West1

Thanks for the update Jason.

Did you have to make any printer-specific setting changes? In other words, was it necessary to instruct it to use its parallel port instead of whatever you were using before?

I'm slowly headed toward upgrading my systems but making my printers work is a prerequisite.

Mar 10, 2010 2:31 PM in response to John Galt

I don't recall the set up being a significant issue. With the USB to Parallel cable it was fairly simple and with the JetDirect print server it was also fairly simple.

It runs through my Airport (which is not necessary - you could easily just plug into the ethernet port). After I hooked up the print server to both the printer and Airport I followed the instructions included with the JetDirect. Sorry, I don't recall the exact steps, but the whole process took maybe 15 minutes.

There were not specific things I had to instruct either the printer or print server to do. Just added it to the Airport printers and downloaded the latest drivers.

I can try to provide more specific info if it would help.

John Galt Author

Level 10

142,632 points

Mar 10, 2010 2:45 PM in response to Jason West1

Sound good Jason!

I may invest ten or fifteen bucks in a JetDirect server, and a Centronics cable I've had lying around for decades to see if this works with my HP LaserJet 4MP.

I'll probably still be out of luck with my Localtalk-equipped Imagewriter II, though. I still use it for printing multipart FedEx waybills.

Mar 17, 2010 12:15 PM in response to John Galt

After reading through this thread I was able to get my HP LaserJet 6MP working with my new Mac Mini running 10.6.2. My HP has the following connection options: LocalTalk, IEEE ECP 1284C, and IEEE ECP 1284B. I have an old Asante LocalTalk to Ethernet box I was using but could not get that to work--I tried various options with LPD although I was not clear if that would work with this box or if you need to have an actual ethernet plug on the printer. I found the LocalTalk Node and LocalTalkNetwork ID for the printer but none of the addresses I tried worked--I tried various other suggestions on here for coming up with the right IP address but I just have a home office and vary basic understanding of configuring networks. Finally I decided to order a parallel to USB cable for the ECP 1284C parallel port. This was confusing because on the specs for the available ones I could find none of them explicitly stated that they worked with Mac OS. I went with a suggestion of someone else on this thread and ordered the Belkin USB to Parallel Port Adapter Part# F5U002v1. I plugged it in and added the printer via the USB option and am now happily printing with OS 10.6 and my old--and fully functional--HP LaserJet.

wtfisk

Level 1

8 points

Mar 19, 2010 1:33 PM in response to edharson

Thank you very much, Ed Harson! This works like a charm with my LW Select 360! And only cost me for the Centronic's Cable USB-to-USB extension cable from Cables to go! Incredible! And none of the Apple Techies knew of this! You are really a big help!!!
~Wayne

wtfisk

Level 1

8 points

Mar 19, 2010 1:38 PM in response to wtfisk

Correction: It's Monoprice.com Not Cables to go!
#1610 USB to Parallel(CN36 Male / IEEE1284) Converter Cable - 6ft
#5433 USB 2.0 A Male to A Female Extension 28/24AWG Cable -(Gold Plated) -6ft

Mar 20, 2010 8:23 PM in response to wtfisk

No love for the Applewriter 4/600, anyone? Doesn't have a Parallel.

Mar 21, 2010 12:42 PM in response to Peter Payne

I love the LaserWriter 4/600 PS. But you will need to keep a Mac with 10.5 or earlier on it to continue printing. Peggy, queen of the AppleWorks forum, uses an old Mac Mini dedicated to Sharing her old Printer.

John Galt Author

Level 10

142,632 points

Apr 12, 2010 4:12 PM in response to BobM.Apple since 1983

BobM.Apple since 1983 wrote:
I bought an IOGear USB to Parallel Printer Cable, part# GUC1284B for $17.95.

I found one of these on eBay for $10. It works! Better still, with this adapter I can connect my old HP LaserJet 4MP to an Airport Express and that works too. No Appletalk required.

The idea is to run my old printer on my wireless network, in other words, not directly connected to a computer. This USB to Parallel adapter in conjunction with the Express is a good workaround.

Next, I'm going to try a D-Link wireless print server. I'll post the results.

Spread the word!

Consider it done.

Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk