LaserWriter II with a PC

[Neil Toulouse]

Hi folks!

Need some advice on this one!

Recently, I was given a Laserwriter II by a friend of mine who was leaving the country for a long period, and was about to bin it. He said there was nothing wrong with it except that it needed a new cartridge. He also gave me the drop box for converting whatever the apple connector is to CAT5 ethernet.

So having given myself a hernia, and dropping the thing on my foot, I get it to my place and wire in to my home network.

I then fired up my Windows XP Pro machine in an attempt to connect to the printer. The printer cannot be seen.

I then did some reasearch to try and find out how to print a test page as I was assuming this would tell me what IP address or other info I could use to set up the printer on my Windoze machine.

The info I found stated that the Laserwriter prints a test page everytime you power it up. For whatever reason this one doesn't!! It warms up or whatever, and then the green ready light appears.

So my question to you Gurus is how do I get my Windows machine to see it? or how do I find out the printer's IP address? or how do I force it to print a test page?

Unfortunately, since my friend has left I do not know any other apple users so the solution will have to be a PC one, otherwise I may as well bin the printer

Hope you can help!

FatSlug

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[drlex]

FatSlug,
Can't help on the IP bit, as my LWII is still in the cupboard from 3 years ago, when I last used it with a G3 imac on a direct ethernet connection. If no-one else answers, I'll try and bring it out and connect it to my current network of G4 iMac and WinXP boxen to see what happens. I wonder whether Bonjourforwindows (see apple.com) might assist here? (used to be Rendezvous before a trademark owner complained)

I can tell you that I had used a hack on it to disable the test page, as I only used it rarely and was fed up with the waste of toner and paper.
On my experience, they are reliable - I bought mine new in 1985 and used it for 17 years, with only one fix required. These days, you can buy an entire laser cheaper than the toner cartridge for the LWII, so you might not stick with it for long.


soi la, soi carré

 

[Neil Toulouse]

Hi drlex!

Thanks for the response!

I always find it a real shame to bin perfectly working equipment, but I agree with your statement about getting a new laser cheaper than a cartridge for the LWII! If I can getting it working with XP I will stick with it until it blows up, otherwise I will have to bin it. My mate always claimed it was the best printer he ever owned as he never had a problem with it.

I will take a look at that BonjourforWindows see if it can guide me in the right direction.

On a side note, do you know if there would be any benefit of installing the AppleTalk protocol on the XP box along with TCP/IP? I am not with the machines until later tonight so can't have a play!

FatSlug

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[Neil Toulouse]

...actually having a read of the BonjourforWindows blurb, it seems like it is exactly what I need! I will have a play with it later tonight and post back the results.

Thanks again!

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[drlex]

FatSlug,
You're welcome.
Bear in mind, that the LWII was rolled out in the early 80s, so I doubt that TCP/IP would have been implemented. I suspect that it's therefore unlikely that Bonjour will work with a LWII unless you can find some reference to it. (I can't google at present - limited net access at work). If there's AppleTalk for PCs, that's likely to be a better bet for success.

soi la, soi carré

 

[drlex]

Via a circuitous route, dug a bit more to assist you.
You can't give the LW IINT an I.P. address - see

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=20148

XP lacks the appletalk option as at Oct 01 - see

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=305989

If you've a home network, I assume the router will supply the ethernet>LocalTalk connector box with an I.P. address, so that it should show up for a ping.
I imagine that it might be best to have a direct connection to test for a suitable driver - there should be a serial or parallel port on the printer (can't recall, as never used it)

soi la, soi carré

 

[Neil Toulouse]

Hi drlex!

Thanks for doing all this! It's all getting a bit 'interesting' and actually is starting to make sense! I think my mate has confused me a bit about the IP side of things. Basically he must have just wired the printer to his Network via ethernet and his Mac (as you would expect) just saw it!

I know there is no parallel port on it but there might be a serial.

Anyway, looks like my evening will be interesting!

FatSlug

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[BabyJeffy]

As I recall (from a long time back) there might be a thinwire ethernet card installed in the printer. If so, then you can connect it to a hub or something.

If there is no ethernet card installed, then you can use LocalTalk (basically nothing more that 2 wires that "back to back" or "daisychain" AppleTalk devices) to connect it to an "EtherPrint" device (I think that's the name). This device bridges localtalk into ethernet and would allow you to plug that printer into your network.

Now let's assume it's connected to the network. It's old hardware. You won't just be able to use XP "discover" mode to find it. It speaks AppleTalk - so you'll need to have AppleTalk support installed on your XP box and the firewall will need to be opened to allow such traffic.

I've been "out of the loop" for so long now that I might be leading you right up the "garden path" with my fragile memory. Hopefully something in there will prompt someone with some more suggestions for you.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Cheers,
Jeff

[tt]Jeff's Page [/tt][tt]@[/tt][tt] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/jeff/

[/tt]

What is Javascript? faq216-6094

 

[Neil Toulouse]

Thanks Jeff!

I have an Ethernet to AppleTalk convertor drop box, but from what drlex has found, it will all depend if the drop box gets given an IP. If it does, I can use Bonjour to access the printer and get XP to setup the printer.

If not, I have a problem as XP does NOT support AppleTalk. There is 3rd party software such as PC MacLan that I could use to (maybe) get around this, but I don't know whether you still need a Mac in the network to use it, and I don't have one! ie whether the Mac needs to 'have' the printer and the PC sends its data to it via the Mac.

The LWII does NOT have a parallel interface but it may have a serial one, so I may be able to connect directly, but again this would not be ideal as I want to use it as a network printer.

If all else fails I can see me either binning the printer (shame) or putting Virtual PC on my machine and running NT or something that supports AppleTalk, and using it purely as a print server!

Anyway, I'll let you know how I get on later

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[drlex]

just dropped by again...
BabyJeffry's comment about IP addressing would hold true if it was, I think, a 'g' spec LW. The appledoc referred to above provides an exhaustive list of the types available.

If your printer adaptor is similar to mine (asante localtalk to ethernet adaptor), then with XP's lower functionality, you'll be S.O.L., as you still need to send AppleTalk data over your network. As you've already noted, you'd need to revert to NT or similiar. There might be some uber-geek solution involving Unix for windows to configure a LPR system, but I'm not the guy to advise on that.

A further issue is whether your router is OK to handle AppleTalk traffic - as I understand some won't, which is not a big surprise, really.

On the plus side, your XP install should contain a suitable driver, so the direct RS232/serial should be ok (I assume PCs still have these, as they've been absent from macs for a good number of years).

Your solution of VirtualPC or similar virtual machine may prove to be the only practical way for the LW to be used on your network. As you say, shame to bin it and therefore worth a bit of tinkering, even if only to 'win'. I can't bear to part with mine, since although fully written-off against tax over the years, it cost me almost £2,500 new! With the Mac and software, I wrote a cheque for £5K. Ouch..



soi la, soi carré

 

[Neil Toulouse]

Bonjour didn't do anything! Looks like it ONLY looks for Bonjour compatible devices, whereas I thought it would track all of them and only configure the Bonjour ones!

I put Virtual PC on the machine last night but couldn't put my hands on my copy of Win2000Server. Will look for it again later and get back to you tomorrow!

Off to a Microsoft thing now. Hope the lunch is worth it...

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[Neil Toulouse]

Well I have done all I can!

Installed Virtual PC and Windows 2000 Server and the AppleTalk protocol.

Unfortunately the LWII is just not seen on the network so it could be the router not allowing the AppleTlak traffic to pass!

Anyway, I will play no more and take the LWII to its final resting place (the tip) at the w/e.

Long live the LWII!

Thanks for all the advice though guys, it was worth a try

Neil

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...

 

[BabyJeffy]

Rather than dump it... phone up the local Mac repair shop... there will be a 16 yr old guy that helps out from time to time that'd just love to get a christmas present like that! He might even come and collect it - as long as it's free

Cheers,
Jeff

[tt]Jeff's Page [/tt][tt]@[/tt][tt] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/jeff/

[/tt]

What is Javascript? faq216-6094

 

[Neil Toulouse]

I know nothing about Apple repair shops and I can't imagine there being one in Worcester (UK)!

The nearest thing we have (I think) is the Apple Centre in Birmingham bull-ring, and I can't see them wanting it!

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours...