Adding LaserWriter 4/600 PS

Hi James,

To begin with, take a look at the AppleTalk printers section in the OS X: How to connect to an IP-based printer or AppleTalk printer via IP - Apple Support article. You will notice that AppleTalk is not supported in Mac OS X 10.6.

Under normal circumstances, one would try TCP/IP instead. The LaserWriter 4/600 has a LocalTalk port only. However, it appears to be questionable whether the LocalTalk to Ethernet bridge in question, Dayna Mini EtherPrint, is able to pass TCP/IP packets (you may want to check this). If not, another solution (as indicated in the aforementioned article) may have to be tested.

The article LaserWriter Printers: TCP/IP Solutions Guide could possibly be of interest, too.

James,

>I have other installed versions of OS X (10.8.5 & 10.11.2/3?).

>Would either one of these installed OSes be better @ handling the AppleTalk issue?

Versions 10.6 and higher do not support AppleTalk.

>So at this point, it sound like a matter of having an AppleTalk stack supported in the OS.

You could perhaps check whether an older machine, somehow, could be transformed into a print server/station. See also, for example, Re: Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk.

James,

Information about Dayna Communications products is not easy to find. Intel had a Dayna support site for several years (http://support.intel.com/support/dayna/), but that address today leads to a general support page.

You could perhaps try a web search for something like Mini EtherPrint TCP/IP to begin with (which may confirm that the device is limited to printing via AppleTalk over Ethernet). An Internet archive search may or may not provide additional results of interest.

Unfortunately, one of the few possibilities for this very printer (because of the single LocalTalk port) would be using an older Mac. See, for example, Grant Bennet-Alder's reply here: Re: Snow Leopard means no more Appletalk. Also, there appear to be solutions for printing to the LaserWriter 4/600 PS under Ubuntu.

If you are using farralon LocalTalk connectors, you must an active device plugged into every phone-jack port, so that no phone jack is left empty or with just a cord. A 600 ohm resistor on a phone plug is what goes into the last jack.

The EtherPrint is notorious for losing track of the AppleTalk-Side devices, and needing to have its power cycled again to find them.

On the 10.4.6 computer, set up the LaserWriter 4/600, using Print&Fax pane or equivalent. The computer should see it and print to it across your Ethernet connection, to the EtherPrint, and over LocalTalk cabling to the LW 4/600. The Ethernet connection can go through your Router, Switch or Hub, and does not have to be co-located with the old computer.

Then ONLY on that computer, click the checkbox to Share that printer (with the other computers on your network).

The you should be able to add that Shared Printer on a different computer on your network.

Hello James,

Thank you for the kind words.

Glad to hear that you have been successful.

Grant is the real authority as far as network printing is concerned, but in the meantime just one comment.

>So I can get an idea of how many pages have been printed and configure if a test page is printed upon power up.

Do you have access to the Power Macintosh 8600 mentioned in your original post? If so, do you have the Printer Utility (http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/Printing/LaserWriter/Apple_Printer_Utility_2.2.img.bin)? That utility would, for example, let you turn the startup page on (if earlier set to off).

Jan

Why can't I print a test page from the host computer? 😕 I can print a test page from the client computer. 🙂

Do you know of any kind software that can create/generate an "old style" test page, say from either the host and/or client computer?

The built-in test page is generated by the Printer itself when it powers on, provided that option is enabled.

Which computer are you calling the host and which are you calling the client? You can poke inside Cups using Terminal to get it to issue a test page, but that is way too much work.

Can I share the client's Wi-Fi and turn it into an AirPrint server?

AirPrint is particular kind of Printer that is intended to service iDevices. The LW 4/600 is not an AirPrint device, but you MAY be able to add some software on a Server to get it to fake it. Odd as it may seem, Wi-Fi is not a requirement for supporting AirPrint Printers.

These add-ons to a computer can support making any network Printer AirPrint-capable:

Handprint Pro

Printopia

Fingerprint2

AirPrinter and lite version

Odd as it may seem, Wi-Fi is not a requirement for supporting AirPrint Printers.

A Wi-Fi access device is usually a Router.

You may be able, in the same way, to use the address localhost:631 in a Browser window on the iBook to talk directly to CUPS and get a test page. If that does not work, it may be that CUPS was not fully implemented in that version of Mac OS X.

There is not a Print Utility in the works, but the one Jan Hedlund pointed out has exactly the capabilities he said -- it can turn on the test page that will print the page count, or it can report the page count (in the Utility). But this printer prints so slowly, it cannot have printed a deadly amount of pages even if someone was pushing it fairly hard.

The add-ons (software) you mentioned, Grant, are for the host/print server and are NOT for the client?

Yes, they are for the host computer. They interpret AirPrint print streams from the client and and change them into regular print streams and send it on the the regular printer.

Your Network should be medium-agnostic. By that I mean it does not care whether data are presented over Ethernet or Wi-Fi, if it is from the same network, it is good. AirPrint does not require direct access to Wi-Fi -- it is printing to the existing devices that are reachable on your local network. You are NOT talking directly to these Printers, you are talking to your Router (through any medium) which is connected to the printer, possibly by Wi-FI, but Wi-Fi is not required. An AirPrint Printer can be connected to a Mac via only USB, and still be reachable from your iPhone.

The device you mentioned is a specialized device for something, but I am not quite sure what. You would be better served by getting a "regular" Dual-band Router, and you can connect your existing Ethernet gear directly to it with a single Ethernet cable.

Also, your current Mac can act as a primitive Wi-Fi gateway through Internet Sharing, so you can fiddle around with this before you buy anything.

About AirPrint - Apple Support

.

James,

If you just want to change the printer startup page from off to on, it may be easier to, temporarily, activate your Power Macintosh 8600. You could then connect the LW 4/600 PS to the printer port of the computer merely for this purpose.

You may even want to consider a permanent connection of the 8600 to a network; either in a separate LocalTalk/PhoneNET section (with other older Macs) or via Ethernet. The 8600 could be an excellent intermediary between old and new systems, since it has SCSI, ADB, serial ports, a CD-ROM drive, a floppy drive and possibly a Zip drive.

If you expect to frequently change printer default settings, and handle fonts etc, you could of course try an appropriate Mac OS version (at least 9.0.4 required?) on the iBook instead. If there is a custom system CD installation option for an Apple Printer Utility, it would probably be wise to use that one. Be prepared to carry out a few experiments to see how the utility would work in connection with the Mini EtherPrint. Booting from Mac OS 9.x and running the utility ought to be OK. The Classic environment (in Mac OS X) is another matter.

The Apple Printer Utility 2.2 needs System 7.1.1 or later.