Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk

We've finally managed to get our trusted old 16/600 to print again. Fourteen years old, thats 98 in dog years.

We were lucky in as much as we already had a twisted pair receiver which connected the printer to our ethernet network (but I think it was previously receiving Appletalk data down ethernet cabling). The problem was it wouldn't pick up an IP address.

We tried the USB to serial cable, but couldn't get it to work.

So we resurrected a 10 year old laptop, fired up System 9 and logged onto the printer using Apple Printer Utility and changed the TCP/IP configuration from 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.1.150, which we knew to be a spare port (I guess I'll need to reserve it on the router).

We were then able to add it as another printer on the computers that are running 10.6 using Line Printer Daemon.

I'm not sure if this is the fastest/best connection, but it works.

I have a 15 year old HP LaserJet 6MP that works better than ever before with Snow Leopard. I had it connected to my network for years using an Asante Ethernet to LocalTalk Bridge and it was dreadfully slow due to the ancient 10BaseT and AppleTalk protocol. After Snow Leopard was released, I found an HP JetDirect 300x on eBay for $16. Connected the 6MP to the JetDirect with a parallel cable and now my printer has a true IP address with 100BaseT Ethernet connection. It is faster than ever. Now when I press return, the status light blinks immediately to process the print job. With the Asante bridge, it took 10-15 seconds before the printer would acknowledge the print request. So good riddance AppleTalk. Don't miss you at all. Most Apple LaserWriters were also Windows compatible with parallel ports so they would work just fine with a JetDirect 300x server.

hi
I did not read all the posts and don't know, if your problem has gone. But I connected today a Laserwriter 8500 over ethernet with a macbook pro with 10.6.6. I had to give the LW 8500 a fixed static IP with the help of an older Mac booting with OS 9 and AppleTalk. With the "Printer Utility" you can set the IP and other preferences directly in the printer. After that you can setup the LW in the printer-preference-pane with the LPD-protocol. Ans best: it works...!!!
Cheers

Have a look at this post:
http://thedambook.com/blog/?p=308

Grant,

I looked briefly for the link to the Carlson networking tutorial website and did not find it.

Meanwhile, what I am gathering is that networking 10.6 to legacy macs will need to go through something like a G3 that is able to be on the web - TCP/IP and Appletalk/Ethernet. Is that the short and sweet of it?

Jim

Car1son \[note spelling with a numeral 1 ] may have revamped his website. It now includes setup guides for lots of routers.

A variant of the illustrated OS 9 to OS X guide is here, at this writing:

http://homepage.mac.com/car1son/os9xfilesharingonly.html

(delete everything after car1son to get his home page)

early 10.6 had a File Sharing bug that was fixed about 10.6.2. When fixed, it could File Share back to all the TCP/IP-capable Macs (including OS 9, if configured correctly).

A variant of Open Door Software ShareWayIP was the stuff included to make OS 9 share via IP. They say can be retrofit into Legacy Macs as old as 7, probably 7.5.3.

AppleTalk File Sharing dropped out at 10.4.
But any Mac running 7.5.3 plus a few little updates can get the "Server IP Address" button to appear in its Chooser > AppleShare ... window so that it can share Other Mac's files via IP, although it cannot share its own files with more modern Mac's via IP without SharewayIP (or OS 9).

AppleTalk PRINTING:

10.5 was the last Mac OS X to support AppleTalk Printing. To use a LocalTalk-only Printer (with no other ports, such as the LaserWriter 4/600 PS) under 10.6 , you need to set it up as a Printer on a 10.5 or older Mac and SHARE it back onto the rest of the Network, where it will appear as an IP or Bonjour Printer as long as the older Mac is powered on.

To print from OS 9, you can use Desktop Printing which creates a "Virtual Printer" or "Print Queue" that forwards to an IP Printer.

If that did not answer your question, please ask again.

Computers that have only LocalTalk cannot get on the Internet by any method I know of.

Translators/Bridges can go AppleTalk/LocalTalk <--> AppleTalk-over-Ethernet, but there is no simple way to get an IP Address from that Bridging. AppleTalk-over-Ethernet uses the same Highway as TCP/IP, but it is not interacting in a way that yields an IP Address, so you cannot use it alone to get on the Internet.

Grant,

Thanx for the great summary. That was just what I had in mind for the lady in Great Briton. She may not see this post unless we point her to it. Bottom line is to configure three Macs, one in 7.5.3 for the early software, one in OS 9 for top of the line Classic software titles and then an OS X machine for current apps.

Jim

Problem - The LaserWriter default configuration had IP disabled so most user just used AppleTalk (Local Talk) to print. When Apple deleted Classic, users were not provide with an updated Utility to configure LaserWriter with a static IP address.

When you move to Snow Leopard your Apple LaserWriter printer needs a static IP address otherwise it may always show busy (LaserWriter 16/600, Select 360, 12/460, etc manuals show they can be assigned an static IP address for printing). To put a static IP address, first determine the range of IP addresses in your router (example 192.168.001.100 thru 1xx) and select a high address like 192.168.001.106 to put into your LaserWriter. Next you will need either the last version of the Apple LaserWriter Utility or the Apple Printer Utility on an older Mac running Classic or System 8 or 9 connected to your LaserWriter. Once you open the Utility and locate the LaserWriter you can manually enter a static IP address like 192.168.001.106. Once the LaserWriter has a static IP you can use the Snow Leopard Printer & Fax found in the System Preferences to add the LaserWriter. I was lucky I found a Mac running 9.2 and and had a copy of the Utility in my disabled Classic folder on an older G4 Mac. My LaserWriter now continues to be a Great printer.

Dennis,

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We still use all the printers you listed.

Jim

If you don't have a Mac with OS 9, you can try it with SheepShaver:
"SheepShaver is a MacOS run-time environment for BeOS and Linux that allows you to run classic MacOS applications inside the BeOS/Linux multitasking environment. This means that both BeOS/Linux and MacOS applications can run at the same time (usually in a window on the BeOS/Linux desktop) and data can be exchanged between them. If you are using a PowerPC-based system, applications will run at native speed (i.e. with no emulation involved). There is also a built-in PowerPC emulator for non-PowerPC systems."

http://sheepshaver.cebix.net/

I installed a freshly Mac OS 9 in SheepShaver on a Intel-iMac with 10.6.6 and it works, but haven't test it if it works with the "Apple Printer Utility" to configure the LaserWriters..

I have an Apple LW320 which I have I used for a million years. Yesterday I switched computers from a G4 desktop (10.4.11) to a MacMini (Snow Leopard), and lost the use of the 320. The 320 was connected to the G4 through a Farallon Ethermac iPrint Adaptor. I have read most of the posts and have tried several IP addresses without success. Question: Does it make any difference whether the Farallon is connected directly to the computer or through a router? I can't see that it should, but the posts are confusing on this point. I would love to be able to use the 320, as it works beautifully. Thanks for any help.

The Personal LaserWriter 320 is a Postscript level 2 printer that has only AppleTalk/LocalTalk capability.

The farallon Ethermac IPrint LT converts AppleTalk-over-Ethernet to AppleTalk/Localtalk.

Mac OS X supports AppleTalk-over-Ethernet through 10.5, beyond which it is no longer supported.

So if you want to continue to print with that printer, you will need to set up a Mac OS X 10.5 or earlier computer to talk AppleTalk-over-Erthernet to the Printer and have it Share the printer with the rest of the Macs (which it can easily do with different protocols) on your Network.

I have just set up a computer (a clamshell iBook with FireWire) to do this job to support a couple of LaserWriter 4/600 PS, in preparation for an upcoming move to 10.6. That computer can be anywhere on your Network, but has to be on and awake (and cover open) to print.

Thanks for the reply. I still have my desktop G4 (OS10.4.11 so I could share, but I hate to give the office space to it, I was hoping that if I found the IP address of the printer my new MacMini could talk to it, but apparently not. The Snow Leopard software recognizes the LaserWriter 320, which got my hopes up, but from what you tell me I am out of luck. It has been a terrific laser printer, but I guess Apple has other fish to fry these days.

AppleTalk was an amazing achievement in its day. Long before the RJ-45 twisted pair Ethernet we know today, It allowed some very early Macintosh and other computers to share files and printers at a speed of 240,000 bits/sec over essentially telephone wire.

But the AppleTalk protocol (even AppleTalk-over-Ethernet) does not use IP Addresses. It has its own private Addressing scheme. It uses the same Highway as TCP/IP, but does not interact with it in any way.

I am sad to see AppleTalk being phased out. But the fact remains that there is no substantial new development going on using AppleTalk -- inside Apple or out.