AppleTalk printing with Graphite AirPort Base Station doesn't work

"Progress" to me equates improvement. I don't see any improvement in having to move to another printing protocol. On the contrary, moving to TCP/IP printing would just force me to buy new printers! (One of my printers doesn't support it at all, and the other one supports it, but OS X doesn't provide make the required driver available when I try to add the printer via TCP/IP.)

AppleTalk is still supported in Mac OS X 10.4.x on Intel Macs, so there's no reason why it shouldn't work here.

My printers might not be the latest and the greatest, but they work just fine and I see no need to replace them, on the contrary.

Unix is a decades-old technology. Does this make Mac OS X obsolete?

The AirPort Extreme BS had better work with AppleTalk and the MacBook, because I just ordered one 🙂.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for progress and for leaving the past behind. But then I would expect Apple to drop support for AppleTalk altogether. What irks me here is that AppleTalk is supported, but not the MacBook-AppleTalk-Graphite AirPort Base Station combination.

As far as I know, Apple has no plans to drop support for 802.11b any time soon, so obviously they are going to continue to support the Graphite AirPort Base Station as a 802.11b device. If they are continuing to support AppleTalk as well, then why on earth can't I use AppleTalk over the Graphite AirPort Base Station with the MacBook, when it works just well with the PowerPC machines I have?

It simply does not make any sense to me. I wouldn't be surprised if it were carelessness more than a conscious decision here. I find it hard to believe that this particular failure reflects a conscious decision by Apple to "draw the line" and drop support for AppleTalk printing over 802.11b with Intel Macs. (I don't know if things would work with a non-Apple 802.11b device. I don't have one handy.)

The end result is that this MacBook purchase is going to cost me $250 more than it should have. And I find this rather disappointing.

Thanks for the suggestion, Ned. However, the MacBook's built-in firewall (in OS X) is not on and there's nothing blocking AppleTalk either in my AirPort Base Station or on my Ethernet hub. (Obviously, since printing via AppleTalk from the MacBook works perfectly well over Ethernet.)

Obviously the MacBook's wireless architecture blocks something that the PowerPC Macs' wireless architecture does not, but I don't know what it is, and it certainly is not something that's visible in the MacBook's user interface.

If you have any other suggestions to test AppleTalk connections over wireless with the MacBook, even involving the CLI, I am all ears 🙂.

Out of curiosity, I tried to activate Printer Sharing on the G5, and low and behold, the shared printers became visible on the MacBook (only after a machine restart, though). For some reason, the printers are all shared twice (maybe it has to do with the fact the G5 is connected to the network both via Ethernet and via AirPort).

But now printing works from the MacBook via the shared printers. It's not really an ideal solution, but it works… (I don't think I am going to cancel my order for the AirPort Extreme at this stage, but this would probably be an acceptable workaround for some people.)

I am using 10.4.6, which is what came on the MacBook.

It's not that AppleTalk printing is completely broken. It's just that it's broken when printing over AirPort via an old Graphite AirPort Base Station. Of course, if it doesn't work with the new AirPort Extreme Base Station that I ordered either, then I will be *really* ****** off!

I find it surprising that you haven't been able to maake AppleTalk printing work. It is most definitely supported in OS X for AirPort connections. Otherwise, the AirPort settings wouldn't include the option to turn AppleTalk on.

Maybe it has to do with your actual printer. Some older laser printers didn't support any kind of networking, only a straight serial connection to the computer. I can't remember what the LaserWriter 12/640PS could or could not do. Now that's really ancient technology 🙂. Although if it works with a wired connection, obviously it should work via the wireless access point too… Strange.

Now I have to decide whether I should cancel this order for the AP Extreme altogether or wait until it gets here and then get on Apple's case because it's not working with the MacBook either. 🙂

That makes two of us! What annoys me the most about
it is that I do nothing out of the ordinary when it
comes to both the infrarstucture nor setup of our
network.

What I find particularly surprising in your case is that you've never been able to get it to work. Maybe it's something to do with the "flavour" of Ethernet used by the LaserWriter? Maybe it has a problem with Ethernet-to-AirPort bridging that later Ethernet connections didn't have? How old is the LaserWriter exactly? Which kind of Ethernet connection is it? (There weren't that many laser printers with built-in Ethernet connections back then…)

Maybe it has to do with your actual printer.

Doubtful. If it works fine under an Ethernet
connection it should work exactly the same under a
wireless connection. When it comes to the printer
nothing is different. It does have in-built Ethernet
so there's no way there's an issue with a bridging
device.

All I can say is that Ethernet-to-AirPort AppleTalk has worked fine for me for years with the HP LaserJet 5 MP connected to the Ethernet hub via an AsantéTalk adapter. If anything, I should be the one with a problem here! 🙂

It's only with this new MacBook that things have stopped working properly.

Now that's really ancient technology 🙂.

Snicker all you like 🙂. This thing's been a real
workhorse for us and I'll be sad to let it go.

Oh, I am not snickering! I feel exactly the same way about my HP. In 11 years, I haven't had a single paper jam. It's worked like a charm from day one. Never given me any problems. I have absolutely no incentive to change printers.