Personal LaserWriter 300, printer sharing

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Personal LaserWriter 300, printer sharing

I have a Personal Laserwriter 300 connected with a serial cord to the printer port of a Power Macintosh G3 desktop, running OS 8.0. I am trying to share this printer over a network with my Power Macintosh G4 (AGP Graphics), running OS 9.2.2. Appletalk is active, and file sharing works fine because both macs are networked with ethernet cords to a Linksys WRT54G wireless router. I have designated the LaserWriter 300 as a shared printer in the G3 chooser. Both macs have the LaserWriter 300 extension and Printer Share extension installed.

When I go to the G4, the shared printer icon appears in the list of printers available in the Chooser. I select it, and then try to print a document. A window pops up that says "spooling page 1", and it looks like it is working fine. Until suddently, a message pops up that says something like "you cannot print to this shared printer, please install the printer share extension and try again..." I'm confused, though, because I already have the printer share extension installed on both macs.

Thanks for any help anyone may have.

power macintosh G4 (AGP Graphics), Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Feb 22, 2006 8:03 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 22, 2006 10:02 PM in response to rmgrazi

rmgrazi,

I am not sure OS 9 is going to talk to a personal 300. I would love for someone to prove me wrong.

I have only had success with those printers when they printed directly to the printer. Spooling has been marginal at best for me.

The best way to print across two disperate OS platforms is to share the document, open it on the machine directly connected to the printer and then print. The personal 300 is not a network printer and does not use Appletalk. I think the print file is getting lost in the transition.

Jim

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Answer 2

rmgrazi Author

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Feb 24, 2006 5:39 PM in response to Appaloosa mac man

Jim, thanks for the message.

This printer does have the capability to be shared over a network. However, since it uses a direct serial connection, the Mac G3 will be the "slave" or printer server.

The LaserWriter 300 has its own icon in the chooser; if I select it and click the Setup button it has an option to share the printer. It allows me to create my own unique name and password. I can then "see it" in the chooser of the other Mac G4. I just had to install the LaserWriter 300 and PrinterShare extensions on both computers.

I've been searching around and discovered the LaserWriter 300 is a "QuickDraw" printer... perhaps this was no longer supported in OS 9.

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Answer 3

Feb 24, 2006 6:32 PM in response to rmgrazi

I think the driver may have been updated for 9. Check out this document to see version numbers and download the driver:

30154 -- LaserWriter Printers: Mac OS Print Drivers and Cable Matrix

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Answer 4

rmgrazi Author

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Feb 25, 2006 12:36 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant, thanks, but no help there. That's the document where I found the LaserWriter 300 extension in the first place.

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Answer 5

Feb 25, 2006 5:42 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Do you have Appletalk Control Panel set to use Appletalk-Over-Ethernet on each Mac? They can share files via TCP/IP, so just saying they can share may not tell the whole story.

Do you have Network Assistant installed? There may be a conflict with that-- if you don't absolutely need it, try removing it.

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Answer 6

rmgrazi Author

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Feb 26, 2006 8:20 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes, Appletalk Control Panel is set to use Ethernet on each Mac. No, Network Assistant is not installed.

Clarification: I was away from home when posting my original question. I should have said the G3 is running Mac OS 8.1 System Enabler 777 version 1.0.

When I try to print from the G4, here is the message that comes up:

"You must install the Printer Share extension to share your printer. Use the installer on the disks that came with your printer to install the software you need."

I think the problem is because the G4 is running OS 9.2.2 and it uses USB printer sharing. So the LaserWriter 300 is not recognized.

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Answer 7

Feb 26, 2006 8:36 AM in response to rmgrazi

i know you said this does not apply, but it has too much in common with your setup to ignore:

22224 --Power Macintosh G3: Network Assistant & Printer Share

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Answer 8

rmgrazi Author

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Feb 26, 2006 6:55 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

After a little experimentation, I found a workaround.

In the G4 (OS 9.2.2) Extensions Manager, I disabled the following items:
. USB Printer Sharing (Control Panel)
. USB Device Extension
. USB Printer Sharing Extension
Then I trashed the LaserWriter 300 desktop icon and restarted the computer. After restart, I went to the chooser and selected the LaserWriter 300 again so new icon appears on the desktop. Tried printing and it worked!

I tried a couple items to make sure this was consistent... SimpleText "read me" documents work fine. I can print from my browser too.

The only problem is with PDF files using Acrobat Reader... a message pops up on the G3 saying: "Not enough memory to print this document. Quit other applications and try printing again."

Also, not sure I want to permanently sacrifice turning off the USB printer sharing control panel/extensions listed above.

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Answer 9

Feb 26, 2006 7:48 PM in response to rmgrazi

I am pretty sure Acrobat Reader will not print to it anyway. It usually wants to talk to PostScript printers, which the personal 300 is not.

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