Advice on LaserWriter Pro 630 and Mac Printserver

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Advice on LaserWriter Pro 630 and Mac Printserver

Ok now for my first non-Steve Landon post of the day...

I've got a LaserWriter Pro 630 currently connected to my network via ethernet. It was jamming up for awhile so I haven't used it much, only a few pages printed from my G4 running 10.3 using Appletalk.

It was SLOW last time I used it! It seemed to bog down the G4 for quite awhile before printing started as well!

I gave it a cleaning this past weekend, hopefully solving the jamming issue. I also upgraded the memory from 8MB to the max of 32MB. While reading up on the memory requirements and how to get the thing opened I found that it doesn't support TCP/IP so I can't print to it from the family PC without Appletalk. And XP doesn't support Appletalk AND I'm not going to install 2000 or bother with a third party solution. I stay as far away from that virus infested mess as possible these days!

Before worrying about the PC, what else can I do to pep this thing up a bit? You can attach an internal 2.5" (don't have any at the moment) or external SCSI drive to store fonts on. Would that be of any help?

What about setting up a Mac as a print server? That should solve the printing from the PC problem correct? Any help on speed or at least curing this problem with the G4 stuttering until things print? Note that's only happened with the Laserwriter, not my HP inkjet attached via USB. And I haven't tested things out since uping the RAM.

What would be the best choice for a print server? Here's my options:

1) I've got a 40MHz '040 SE/30 I've been meaning to get back together. That could serve as a print/file server ands its a convient all-in-one.

2) I could stick a 6100 on the rack with the LaserWriter (see my image gallery) and run it headless - not enough monitors to go around.

3) I've been wanting to setup an OS 9 (or earlier) machine to run some old apps on and to use while the G4 is tied up. This will likely be a Beige G3 which I suppose could also act as a print server though I wasn't planning to leave it running all the time.

4) The G4 is currently connected via ethernet to a wireless base station. I could go back to a wireless connection with the G4 and use its ethernet port to hookup the Laserwriter. This would reduce the need for extra Macs that stay on all the time.

Thoughts?

thanks,
Tom

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If it was USB, I'd say hook i

If it was USB, I'd say hook it up to the G4 in your pic and turn on USB printer sharing and windows sharing. This allows PCs to access shared printers. But I'm assuming that's not an option unless a USB to serial adapter would be recognized by the G4 in OS X...

Does the printer have a parallel port? (I'm not familiar with Apple printers). If it does, you could use an external print server such as an HP JetDirect 300x... Wink

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LWPro 630 supports PCs thru P port

(parallel port) RTFM eh? Blum 3

http://manuals.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Manuals/printers/0302508LW600630Pro.PDF

dan k

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LPT print-server

why won't you try with printserver that has LPT port to connect your Laserwriter to XP piiciiii

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