Using a LaserWriter IINT on home network?

[mr1970]

Hi there

I've recently fallen heir to a LaserWriter IINT in very good nick and with (allegedly) a pretty new toner cartridge. I'd like to use it on our home network along with the Canon colour inkjet which is great for photos but is both expensive and slow for plain old b&w text printing.

The problem is, of course, that it's got a choice of two ports - parallel or good old AppleTalk. I think there are a number of options here:

- a parallel to USB converter (then onto Airport Extreme)
- a parallel to ethernet box like the Netgear 101 print server
- some sort of AppleTalk converter

Obviously I'm keen to spend as little as possible here (otherwise I'd be as well spending 150-200 pounds just buying a new laser printer) so any thoughts on the right approach welcome....I'm reticent to junk it as I know the guy who it came from kept very good care of it and I have a bit of an objection to adding to landfill if there's no good reason to do so.

Many thanks in advance

 

[gr8tfly]

Unless you really want that particular printer running, the adapters would cost a significant portion of a new printer (for instance, a Brother 2140 printer or 2170).

From what I can see, that printer doesn't have a parallel port on it - just serial and LocalTalk. The only network option from that would be the Asante ethernet bridge. I think that's an eBay only item these days.

Unfortunately, I don't believe Snow Leopard (if that's what you're running) supports AppleTalk any longer. The Asante device (AsantePrint, I think) is only a bridge between LocalTalk and ethernet and doesn't support any protocol other than AppleTalk.

One option for the bridge would be connect it to another Mac running a version supporting AppleTalk, then share the printer. That should work OK, from what I can find.

Good luck!