This blog will grow in 2 directions - hopefully I’ll keep it up going forward, but I also want to try and make some historical posts, as if I did have a blog in the past. So posts will show up as new for a while... Then I’ll change the date to reflect when it would have been posted so it’s chronological.
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Printing to an AppleTalk Printer with Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”
Posted on April 27th, 2010 11 commentsPreamble
The arrival of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard meant the end of support for AppleTalk (see my previous article on some other aspects of Upgrading to Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”), and so the ability to print from computers running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard directly to printers that used AppleTalk. In my case, for many years I have been using my HP LaserJet 4MP (it’s now into its 17th year!!!!) connected to an AsanteTalk box so that the printer could be seen on our home network by any/all computers on the network.
But after I installed Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on my MacBook, that computer could no longer print to the LaserJet. The workaround was to set up another computer (my FileMaker Server eMac) running Mac OS X 10.4.11 (or one running Mac OS X 10.5.x would have worked too) to share the LaserJet 4MP using Printer Sharing.
But eventually as I upgraded our other computers to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard this wasn’t going to continue working. So after some digging around online I learned that using an HP JetDirect Print Server should allow me to keep the trusty LaserJet 4MP, and get to use the 3 spare $100+ toner cartridges I have on hand for it.
HP JetDirect 300x Print Server
I purchased an HP JetDirect 300x Print Server on Ebay – not for the $250 that the HP page says they cost, but for $5 plus $8 postage to me. For that I got the print server, and a short parallel printer cable. I didn’t get a power supply with it, so fortunately in the collection of about 100 various power bricks I’ve accumulated over the years I had one that had the right connector on it (see below).
Front of JetDirect 300x shows the two indicator lights "Status" and "Activity" and the "Test" button between the 2 lights.
The rear view shows DIP switches, RJ-45 10/100 EtherNet connection, Parallel port and power socket.
Setup
Setup was very easy.
- Connect the parallel cable to the JetDirect and to the printer.
- Connect the network ethernet cable to the JetDirect
- Connect the power supply to the JetDirect
Once it is connected and powered on, you can then press the Test button on the top. This generates a 2 page printout titled “Hewlett-Packard JetDirect 200X (PCL Configuration Page)” in 5 languages
HP JetDirect 300x Configuration Printout
The above is the English language column from both pages. The items of interest are highlighted:
- The configuration is by DHCP
- The assigned IP address is 192.168.123.211
- The subnet mask s 255.255.255.0
- The Default Gateway (router) is 192.168.123.254
So now this is setup, we can go to “Print & Fax” in System Preferences to Add a new printer. NOTE: There might be some merit in changing the configuration so that the JetDirect has a fixed IP number – see below for notes on this.
First window for the Add Printer steps
Click the + button to open the Add Printer window
Add Printer - Step 2
In this window do the following steps:
- Click the IP button at the top of the window – we’re adding an IP Printer;
- In the Protocol menu choose “HP JetDirect – Socket”;
- In the Address box, enter the IP address we have learned from the Configuration page above
- In the Name box enter a name for the printer – this is the name the printer will show as in Print Dialogs
- In the Location box enter a location for the printer – where it physically is if you want to
- From the Print Using menu choose “Select Printer Software…” This opens the next window you see
- This window contains a list of all the printer drivers known to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Type a few characters from your printer’s model to narrow the list down – I typed 4MP and got only 1 match.
- Click that printer to select it
- Click OK
Add Printer - Step 3
Click the Add button to add this printer to the list of Printers in the Print & Fax System Preference
Add Printer - Step 4
The printer now shows up in the list of printers configured on this computer.
Some Notes:
• The power supply connector on the HP JetDirect 300x is not like the ones commonly used for computer peripherals currently. Technically it is a “EIAJ-04″ as described on WikiPedia and has a yellow tip with a 1mm diameter pin inside it. The more common yellow tipped connectors are hollow in the centre. So if at all possible, when buying an HP JetDirect 300x on Ebay, make sure it comes with the appropriate power supply.
• As noted above, there may be some merit in changing the settings of the HP JetDirect 300x to use a fixed IP number. Once the HP JetDirect 300x is connected to your network and powered on you can telnet into it to view and change the settings.
• The HP JetDirect 300x also functions as the AsanteTalk box did, so computers already set up to print via AppleTalk don’t need to be reconfigured to use the HP JetDirect 300x for printing
• Since the set up under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to use this is via IP Printing the MacBook can now print directly either by AirPort or when connected by EtherNet cable without having to turn AppleTalk off on one interface and turn it on on the other.
[MacPro:~] roger% telnet 192.168.123.211
Trying 192.168.123.211…
Connected to 192.168.123.211.
Escape character is ‘^]’.HP JetDirect
Please type "?" for HELP, or "/" for current settings
> /===JetDirect Telnet Configuration===
Firmware Rev. : H.08.05
MAC Address : 00:10:83:5b:9b:6d
Config By : DHCPIP Address : 192.168.123.211
Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : 192.168.123.254
Syslog Server : Not Specified
Idle Timeout : 90 Seconds
Set Cmnty Name : Not Specified
Host Name : NPI5B9B6DDHCP Config : Enabled
Passwd : Disabled
IPX/SPX : Enabled
DLC/LLC : Enabled
Ethertalk : Enabled
Banner page : Enabled
>Then the Help
> ?To Change/Configure Parameters Enter:
Parameter-name: valueParameter-name Type of value
ip: IP-address in dotted notation
subnet-mask: address in dotted notation (enter 0 for default)
default-gw: address in dotted notation (enter 0 for default)
syslog-svr: address in dotted notation (enter 0 for default)
idle-timeout: seconds in integers
set-cmnty-name: alpha-numeric string (32 chars max)
host-name: alpha-numeric string (upper case only, 32 chars max)
dhcp-config: 0 to disable, 1 to enable
allow: [mask] (0 to clear, list to display, 10 max)
ipx/spx: 0 to disable, 1 to enable
dlc/llc: 0 to disable, 1 to enable
ethertalk: 0 to disable, 1 to enable
banner: 0 to disable, 1 to enableType passwd to change the password.
Type "?" for HELP, "/" for current settings or "quit" to save-and-exit.
Or type "exit" to exit without saving configuration parameter entriesSo as seen in the Help, it is possible to change the configuration to disable DHCP and then assign a fixed IP number to the HP JetDirect 300x if you want to be sure it always has the same IP number.
References
Details on the power supply and connector from here
10 responses to “Printing to an AppleTalk Printer with Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard””
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Roger,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this.
So very helpful. I came across some other directions for setting up an HP Print Server and they were convoluted, to say the least–including temporary use of crossover cables, etc. Your directions here are plain and simple–very clear.
Spent a frustrated hour with the other “directions.” 10 minutes with yours fixed everything. Kudos! -
Thanks Dave. I had found several that left me a bit confused, including instructions to telnet into the HP JetDirect 300x but no clarity on what you’d see or do when you got there.
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I followed you printer solution using the Jet Direct to blindly. My printer is the HP LaserJet 6MP. It does not have a cable that will connect to the Jet Direct. So far I haven’t found a connector that will fit the printer’s cable on one end and the Jet Direct’s parallel port on the other. Any suggestions??
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I followed your advice re connecting my LaserJet 6MP to my new MacBook with OS 10.6 through a JetDirect. Unfortunately I didn’t study the cable connection closely. The printer’s cable does have a connection that fits the JetDirect’s parallel port and I haven’t found a cable that will connect the two. Any suggestions?
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Keith – you need a cable – a Parallel Printer Cable – such as shown on this page to go from the HP JetDirect 300x to the large parallel port on the HP LaserJet 6MP. Of the 2 HP JetDirect 300x I purchased on Ebay, 1 of them came with the original cable which is a very short one – about 8 inches long so that the HP JetDirect 300x sits right behind the printer, but a longer cable would be fine too.
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Keith Schulz May 20th, 2010 at 16:54
I figured out the cable part.
Tried to follow your directions faithfully for the JetDirect 300X but did not succeed..
First the “test” printout from the printer didn’t read the same as yours. The differences:Under Network Statistics, my last line reads:
IPX/SPX Status: Disabled
I have nothing on Mode.
DLC/LLC Status: Disabled
AppleTalk Status: DisabledNevertheless I soldiered on through your instructions. Things seemed to be ok until step 3 when I clicked the Add button. At that point the window showed a horizontal bar twisting nonstop. The two buttons beneath the bar were Configure and Quit. After awhile I finally clicked Configure and got a library page on the side which looked strange.
Needless to say when I tried to print with this printer, it didn’t work.
Can you advise where I went wrong? -
The problem is back at the “test” printout I suspect. Did you have the part of my image that is highlighted filled out with an IP number, Subnet Mask, and Gateway address?
You could try resetting the HP JetDirect 300x by unplugging the power from it, then while holding the “test” button down, plug the power back into it. Keep the “test” button held down for 5-10 seconds. This came from this page . This should reset it to the factory default, which means it should then be able to get an IP number by DHCP – as long as your router is configured so that it will assign IP numbers by DHCP.
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Keith Schulz May 24th, 2010 at 14:38
Roger, thanks for the further information. I followed your advice and reset the JetDirect. This time the resulting printout read identically to your instructions. However, the result was the same–I couldn’t add the printer. So I went to Mike’s Tech Blog per your link and followed his reset directions (#1 through #7 moving the MAN switch up on the back of the JetDirect). After that the test readout showed only 0′s for an IP address. After moving that switch back down and doing another test, I still have nothing but 0′s for the IP address. I’ll confess that I have no idea how to telnet to the JetDirect per his instructions at #9 and following. In any event, the IP address is nothing but 0′s. Any further suggestions?
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Sorry I don’t know many answers, but I have some questions…
What was the IP address you got when it did get one
Is your router set to give out IP addresses by DHCP?
Did you reset the HP JetDirect 300x after each time you moved the switch up or down?
or at least remove the power and plug it back in to make it look on your network to get an IP addressWas the IP address one that matched other IP addresses on your network – the first 3 octets were the same as your Macintosh?
To check the second one you need to log into your Router at its IP address – something like 192.168.0.1 for example (you should be able to find this in the Network Preference Pane of System Preference – using your browser and see if it’s set to give IP numbers by DHCP. If not, you need to turn that on, then the JetDirect might have better luck getting an IP address
To Telnet into the HP JetDirect 300x it of course first needs to have an IP Number.
Then you can use Terminal (it’s in Applications ——> Utilities) and type as the notes on the page show
telnet 192.168.x.x
and press Return. Then type a / and press Return to get a list of the current settings as the notes above (in the grey box) show.
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Keith Schulz June 7th, 2010 at 16:45
I’m afraid the answers to your questions require someone way above my pay grade. Apple Help says get a new printer so that’s what I’ll do.
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dave beenken May 2nd, 2010 at 22:09