Preamble
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 : DHCP IP 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 : NPI5B9B6D DHCP 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: value Parameter-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 enable Type 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 entries
So 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
53 Responses to “Printing to an AppleTalk Printer with Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard””
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I have the same issue with no power supply, I went to the electronics store but none of those fit, does it need a center pin, can you post a picture of what the end of the power supply looks like?
Yes, there is a pin in the centre of the plug on the power supply. According to the WikiPedia article linked to, that pin is 1.0mm in diameter. There’s a picture on this page http://www.condorelectronics.net/catalog/table.php?subcat=30 on the line about EIAJ-4
Thanks for the info Roger. I have been using an older G5 for my print server but it’s now going wonky. I have ordered a new HP JetDirect 300x with a 30 day warranty. Do you think this setup will work with my HP LaserJet 5000n printer and new Macbook Pro? The printer has both parallel and seriel connectors plus ethernet. The Macbook is running OS 10.8.2. Sounds like it should but wanted to get your thoughts.
Lisa – I’m not sure on this – I’m an expert on what I’ve set up for myself, but other things, not so much – I guess my initial thought is it should work OK, but my initial question is why not just connect the printer to your local network with the EtherNet port – have you tried that and found it doesn’t work?
Hi Roger,
Your examples are perfect to follow to implement HP JetDirext 300X into Mac systems with 10.6. or over.
It took about 10 minutes to get it done for us on iMac (Intel – 10.6/10.7/10.8) and LaserJet 6MP.
Thank you very much for sharing your great experience.
Chuck
Thanks Chuck – glad it all worked for you 🙂
Roger..
Can you use the HP 5P and 6P with the modern Mac OS like Lion?
Or do you need the Simm to make it the MP?
What happens if you don’t have the M version?
Will it flat out not work..or just have limited functionality?
We actually have the older Hp PX +3 print server unit here.
It hac 10 base T and BNC on it.
It works with XP..think it would work with the MAC?
And..we are going to use it with the Mac running parallels or Fusion.
Who knows if it will work for that!
Thanks!
Hi Roger,
How long have I had this great 6MP printer? My receipt for it says it was purchased in November 1996–that’s higher math! I bought the server on ebay, and had to dig around in my “computer museum” for a parallel cable, but I’m now in business. Thank you so much, Roger, for so freely sharing this information! If you accept donations and have a PayPal address, please let me know.
Rob
Glad it helped you out Rob. I’d never turn down a donation 🙂 – my account is under rogerkiwi at aol dot com
Roger
Thank you for the fix. I bought an hp jetdirect box for $15 incl shipping from eeebay. after not using my printer for a couple years.
after reading and re reading i finally reset my box and turned it off and screwed around and now i can print with my old faithful 4mp
less ink for the 4 color!!! thanks thanks
jeff
Glad it worked for you Jeff – my HP LaserJet 4MP is still going strong after 19 years now, and I recently purchased 2 new OEM toner cartridges on Ebay for $25 – $12.50 each!!! So I’m good for a few more years yet. The expensive to run Espon Stylus Photo 1400 only gets used when I really need colour!!
This has been a very frustrating process for me since Apple Support does not have a clue about the printing discrepancies with Lion and Apple Talk printers. Thanks to the internet, I’ve been able to solve it on my own – thanks to all you guys – which was to purchase the parallel to USB cable. However, I’m now reading from Apple that these cables are not stable or reliable. The other challenge is ordering it from someone who knows what they’re doing. MacMall sent me one that works only for Windows. SO – you have to be very specific to get a cable that works on Macs. I’m getting so tired of hearing “sorry – doesn’t work with macs” or “sorry – we don’t sell anything that works with mac.” Hmmmmm – but the alternative – switching to a Windows machine – is not even anything to consider. And so it goes. . .
Hello Roger,
My Mac is connected via a parallel port to USB connection. When I press print, the printer responds, and prints, but unfortunately, not the text on my Word document. It just prints out the same line every time. So there is a connection, but something is wrong.
I have not tried a JetDirect yet because I’m wondering if I should just get a new printer (frustrated at Mac for not thinking of this).
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Have you tried reinstalling the Printer drivers for your printer?
Delete the current driver and then reinstall the driver for HP LaserJet 6MP and see what happens.
Help. I just upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) and my trusty old LaserJet 6P won’t print properly. It was working perfectly for 10.5.
I added it in the Printer and Fax dialogue. When I try to print a document, I get a line that says PS-Adobe-3 .. Encoding: UTF8 …
Do I have to get another printer? I think I already have a parallel port to USB cable.
How is the LaserJet 6MP connected to the Macintosh?
Have you tried the parallel port to USB cable connection to see if that works? Others have reported that it does.
Or look around Ebay and see if you can find a cheap JetDirect and use that – just a couple of posts above this is from Stan indicating he had success with this method on an HP LaserJet 6MP
Roger, success! I read the above move carefully and discovered how to reset the device. All is well and thanks so much for the terrific instructions.
Hi Roger, Wonderful instructions but still having trouble connecting my 6MP to Mac OS X 10.6.8. CONFIG BY was USER SPECIFIED and not DHCP and I couldn’t seem to TELNET to the JetDirect 300X to change anything. The IP address was 10.25.2.214. The FIRMWARE REVISION was H.08.49. Does any of this give you a clue as to why the connection won’t go through? Any help greatly appreciated.
Glad you go it all going LC
Success, Roger, with the JetDirect now connected via my Mac Airport to my old reliable HP 4MP. Being a tech naif, I haven’t yet attempted to get a fixed IP address for it—the directions to telnet to change the settings seem beyond my competence. So unless there are compelling reasons to do so, I’ll leave well enough alone and close with my sincere thanks.
Many thanks for the images and link to cable on eBay, Roger. Wish me luck!
Yes, Roger, the back of my printer is the same. So, one, at the risk of being obtuse, when you instruct, “Connect the parallel cable to the JetDirect and to the printer,” to which port on the back of the printer do you refer? And, two, if the JetDirect on eBay does not come with a parallel printer cable, are these easy to find and purchase? Thanks in advance, LC
Here’s an image of the cable I have
it connects from the Parallel port on the Jet Direct to the top port on the printer. It has 2 different ends on it since the 2 connectors aren’t identical. This one is very short since it only has to go between the JetDirect and the back of the printer.
Cables like this are on Ebay for a few dollars. http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-ft-Parallel-Printer-Cable-DB-25-IEEE-1284-25-36pin-/290726450273?pt=US_Parallel_Serial_PS_2_Cables_Adapters&hash=item43b0a59461#ht_500wt_1043 for example
Roger, thanks for the instructions and recommendation for the HP JetDirect 300x Print Server. Quick question for you before I complete purchase. My HP 4MP has a 9 pin port, much smaller than the parallel port you show and that I can see some models offered with cables on ebay have. Is there a cable to manage the disparity between the two ports? Thanks.
This image shows the back of my printer – note the model number C2040A. The 3 ports are all on the right side (as looking at the back, and are from bottom to top – Serial, LocalTalk and Parallel. If your printer is an HP LaserJet 4MP and doesn’t have those 3 I don’t know what to say….
Thanks for the instructions! $13 later, and I am finally able to print (over WiFi no less) from my Snow Leopard laptop.
My original Snow Leopard install had no HP drivers loaded, so only a generic PostScript driver appeared. But Snow Leopard is supposed to use Software Update to load printer drivers as needed, based on whatever printer is currently active. However at first Software Update failed to see the LaserJet 4MP…. for the pretty non-intuitive reason that it was OUT OF PAPER.
Once that was fixed and “READY” showed on the printer’s front LCD, I fired up Software Update, and it offered to install the HP driver package. Afterwards, the option “HP LaserJet 4MP v2013.103” was available in the “Select Printer Software” list.
Hi Roger,
Thanks for this article.
Had some problems getting it to work before i read about it here!
I spent many hours trying to get the jet direct working with SnowLeopard and was finally able to do it because of Roger’s clear instructions and Rocky K’s tip that he had connected his ethernet cable to the Router and got the correct IP address. Until I did that I got a lot of numbers that didn’t work.
Interestingly, I had once gotten the correct ip address from the jet direct 300x but it didn’t work. At that point the driver for the printer had not been loaded with the original install of SnowLeopard. It came later when I did a software update and I didn’t realize that I had the correct ip address.
None of this was easy but I learned a lot and feel good that I was able to solve a difficult problem with your help of course!
I almost went crazy with cables, and then I did what this web site suggested. I bought a JetDirect 300X from Ebay. Knowing nothing about networking, the set-up was done in under half an hour, and for less than $25. The results are perfect HP LaserJet 6MP printing for my 4 computers using Apples’s built-in PostScript drivers on 10.6.8. Kudos to Roger and his website!
Roger, I’ve spent TWO YEARS with this problem and never knew the source until now. I couldn’t figure out why my new MacBook Pro wouldn’t print unless the retired MacBook Pro was running and sharing.
I tried troubleshooting many times but always had to give up and go back to work.
Who knew it was as simple as “Snow Leopard will not print to an AppleTalk printer” ??????? SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!
When I think of my 20-year-old LaserJet 4 Plus printer, I NEVER think of it as an “AppleTalk” printer, since it has Ethernet and is viewable by the network. (When’s the last time I thought about AppleTalk??? OS 9?) The Print & Fax preferences would RELENTLESSLY TOY WITH ME by allowing me to add the LaserJet 4 to my printer list (using IP address), yet it would NEVER WORK.
Today, after hours of research, cold resets and restarts, I stumbled across the AppleTalk clue and, finally, the search term that led me to you.
THANK YOU for your answer. Logistically I’m no better off than before, but mentally and emotionally, I am resolved and can stop wasting time trying to solve an unsolvable problem. For now, I’ll live with the current config until my next $165 toner purchase looms and get a new printer.
I’ve been an Apple customer and lover for 20+ years but stuff like this makes me angry because this answer should not be so elusive.
Thanks again for your post. I hope all the other lost souls searching in vain for the answer find you quickly.
Victoria
MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 running OS X v. 10.6.7
MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X v. 10.5.8 (this is the Mac necessary to make the printer work)
HP LaserJet 4 Plus (aka 4m Plus)
Thanks for these excellent, clear instructions. I had been printing to an HP Laserjet 2100M from my iBook G4 via Appletalk. I bought a MacBook Pro and discovered that it does not use Appletalk.
I checked some sites and bought an HP JetDirect through eBay. I couldn’t get it to work at all but then I found your instructions.
After an hour of work I have the MacBook Pro, my iBook G4 and my wife’s iBook G3 all printing via the JetDirect.
Thanks again for the help.
Pete Nevett
Lucky that I found this man who adapted the right connector to the old power supply. It did the trick. (it is so much faster than with the old Asante box!)
I have been using for a couple of days the printer through the Jetdirect 300X and everything goes really well, I can print from Mac and Pc without a problem, well just an odd thing: from QuarkXPress 8 I can print if I am using TrueType or Postcript Fonts but when I try OpenType it doesn´t print at all. I cann get away with it by creating a pdf which prints fine. ANy ideas why OpenType won´t print from Quark? Maybe the printer is too old to handle OT?
Thanks again for your excellent support.
:)x10000
Thanks for this very helpful post.
I have an HP laserJet 4 MP with an old Asante box and an Imac using OSX 10.4. The printer was working oddly, sometimes missed a few pages when sending a large pdf. Had problems connecting a PC using Vista.
I finally bought through ebay a €15 Jetdirect 300X, without the power adaptor (i found a “magician” who did a trick and adapted an old one making it work) and installed it today following the above instructions. I had to reset the box, because it kept the previous owner settings, and “tachan!” it is working with both Mac and PC.
Thanks again for all your help.
Raul
Yes the power supply is a bit of an oddball one – and well worth trying to make sure that you get the right one with the JetDirect rather than having to try and find or buy one later.
I had a stash of over 100 various power supplies I had accumulated over the years and only 2 of them had the right connector for the JetDirect box.
Update: I got it to work. We had a Uverse technician over for an issue relating to the television part of the service, and he pointed out that I could connect an ethernet cable to any of the ports on back of the router/modem except the “red” one, which is where I had connected.
When I changed ports, Bingo! I got an IP address in my range, entered the info in SysPrefs Printers, and got a test print out.
Of course, ATT doesn’t post any advanced instructions on that piece of equipment, and their tech support agents push you towards a pay-per-month service for advanced help. Sorta like being hostage to their equipment and having to pay to get help that should be out there for their consumers to see 24/7. I don’t have any idea what the red port is for, but I know now not to use it only because of a different support issue.
Thanks for posting the D-I-Y on hooking up the printer here.
Rocky
Rocky – I don’t know much more about this than I wrote above, but it seems as if the reset didn’t really work correctly? From what I could find out the “default” was to configure by DHCP and resetting the JetDirect to defaults should mean that the line
Config by: Default IP
should really say
Config by: DHCP
I would try resetting the JetDirect again.
Also, from your iMac and MacBook Pro, what are the IP numbers you see if you look in System Preferences ——> Network for the IP Address? Does it start out with 192.168.1.xxx ?
Well, I’ve been faithfully following the instructions with no luck for my Laserjet 5MP. When I got my JetDirect, hooked it up, and printed initial test pages, I got 2 English-only pages with basically the same info cells, with these differences:
Config by: User specified
IP Address: 10.42.3.35
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0
Def. Gateway: 10.42.0.1
Couldn’t print with either MacBookPro or iMac on 10.6
I reset the JetDirect as mentioned above.
Now, I got the 5 language printout with these notables:
Config by: Default IP
IP Address: 192.0.0.192
Subnet Mask: Not Specified
Def Gateway: 192.0.0.192
So, here I’m getting a bit outside my knowledge base, but it looks like I have some conflict with DHCP and IP address range.
I have a 2-Wire ATT Uverse modem/router, and by accessing its web status page, I see an IP range of 192.168.1.64 – 192.168.1.253. Looks like that’s one of my problems. Not sure about the DHCP thing or how to tweak that.
Any hints appreciated.
Rocky
Thank you very much, for a primarily PC user, and a fan of my HP JetDirect for many years now, this has added my Mac to the mix now.
Thanks again, great summary,
Simon.
I just received a mint Laserjet 6MP as a gift from a friend who updated his hardware to an iMac 27 i5, etc. He probably heard “this printer doesn’t work with Snow Leopard”. He didn’t know I use Snow Leopard on my iMac (7,1 – aluminium late 2007). To add to the history, we live in Brazil, a place no one from Apple knows exactly where it is in the globe. Easy life for Mac users here…
Looking for solutions to connect my new old printer to my iMac, I found this page serious enough to deserve my attention. I read it, started looking for JetDirect 300X on our “eBay”, contacted some sellers. Then,before buying, two things came to my mind:
– let’s read the replies
– I’m a Mac user. Mac things are usually simple, more simple than a print server, more cables, configurations, etc.
Well, to my pleasure, Ken K is right. Instead of all new things, I just bought an USB/Parallel cable for US$ 28.00 and… PRONTO! Have already printed some 30 pages with NO problem.
On the Print & Fax I clicked +, selected the HP Laserjet 6MP, selected the HP Laserjet 6P/6MP PostScript driver and U-HU! I got an amazing workhorse that had printed only 1000 pages from 1997 until today! Pages are clean, toner is fine.
It’s a Mac. Keep things simple. Just Do It. Next step will be connecting it through Airport Express.
I just don’t know what to do with the Farallon EtherMac iPrint Adapter that came with it. Does anybody know any tech museum interested?
Glad to hear about the success with the Parallel – USB cables. Not a helpful solution in my case as it would need some other bit of network hardware to ensure it worked all the time on my local network – either a Mac on all the time with Printer Sharing to plug it in to, or an AirPort Extreme or something else to make it available to the 4 Macintoshes here.
The HP JetDirect 300x lets it sit on the LAN and be available to any Macintosh as needed – and for $13 🙂
Just to add a simpler solution. For most older HP LaserJet printers, you can skip the JetDirect and get a simple “USB to Parallel Printer” cable ($27 for high-quality Belkin from Amazon, or $12 for crap that fails in a few weeks). This works for most older AppleTalk printers, not just HP.
The process is nearly as simple as plug-and-play. It is literally “plug in the cable, do the ‘Add a printer’ process in System Preferences, print.” Amazingly, your ancient printer will show up automagically in the Add A Printer dialog. (If not, try restarting the printer, or the Mac, or both.)
You can plug the cable directly into your Snow Leopard Mac, or even better, plug it into an Airport Extreme, Airport Express, or Time Capsule for wireless printing from any Mac in the house. Even when connected to an Airport or Time Capsule, the printer will appear automatically in the Add A Printer dialog.
It’s brilliant. I now have my trusty old HP LaserJet 6MP connected to the USB port on my Time Capsule. I cheerfully print wirelessly from my new-fangled Snow Leopard MacBook Air to my old-fangled 6MP, thanks to a simple cable.
The only fiddling I had to do for my 6MP was to change from the CUPS+Gutenprint driver, which was chosen automatically in the Add A Printer dialog but which didn’t seem to work for me, to the 6P/6MP Postscript driver which works perfectly. To do this, I started over and did the ‘Add A Printer’ process again, this time choosing the 6P/6MP Postscript driver instead of the CUPS+Gutenprint driver — that is, for the “Print Using:” popup menu, I chose “Select Printer Software…” and chose from the long list. All these drivers are already installed under Snow Leopard, and apparently go all the way back to the LaserJet 2.
Wow. No more printing via AppleTalk through a 10.4 or 10.5 Mac that has printer sharing turned on. I have now retired my Farallon EtherMac iPrint Adapter and the Mac it was attached to. And no need to find and configure a JetDirect box.
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.
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?
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 address
Was 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.
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: Disabled
Nevertheless 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?
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?
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.
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??
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.
I hought it would be simple but it doesn’t appear to be.
I have a G5 (10.5.8) and wireless modem/router (Netgear) in room 1 and an eMac (10.3.9) and 2 4/600 LaserWriters in room 2.
I can access the eMac via Airport and thought if I plugged the LaserWriters (via Asante Bridge) into eMac’s ethernet port I should be able to print from either Mac, but I can only print when running a cable from the eMac to a hub, another cable from the Netgear to the hub and another one from the hub to the Asante Bridge to Appletalk connectors to the 2 printers.
I need to get rid of the Netgear-to-Hub cable running down the hallway.
First I thought having eMac System Preferences set to Airport precludes me from using Ethernet connection, but I do have the cable to the Hub, so that’s not it.
Is there a simple solution I am too stupid to see? Thanx
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.
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!
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