A workaround for printing errors over AppleTalk

Mar 24, '03 09:26:00AM

Contributed by: barryjaylevine

Many of us have used Asante's AsanteTalk or Farallon's iPrintLT to bridge between our older LocalTalk printers and our new Ethernet networks. For the most part, these devices have worked remarkably well.

However, with OS X, Apple has changed the way AppleTalk functions. What prints well from within OS 9.2.2 can choke older LaserJets in OS X. Some of the oldest LaserJets use Postscript Level 1; you'd best move printers of that ilk to an OS 9 environment because OSX Macs just won't print properly (if at all). OSX requires at least Postscript Level 2. But that's a Postscript issue and not directly related to this AppleTalk problem.

I had a situation with a Postscript Level 2 HP LaserJet 4M connected through an Asante bridge to the Ethernet network. Any print job larger than a simple page of text or AppleWorks draw objects would result in a "rangecheck" Postscript error. Changing to an iPrintLT did not resolve the problem. In OS 9.x, all documents printed properly. A newly installed OS X driver did not resolve the problem. The printing problem was repeatable on every Mac on the network (in OSX 10.2.4) but, in OS 9.x, no problems.

Could this have been a timing issue with LocalTalk-to-Ethernet bridges in general (with OS X)? I had an old Ethernet MIO card which I swapped into the LaserJet. Printing in OSX -still- caused the problem! Was the printer just too old?

Last chance - I set up the printer with a static IP and added the printer (in the Print Center) as an IP printer with "Generic" PPD (as I've found that the generic setting seems to print faster as an AppleTalk printer - YMMV). Sonuvagun! IP printing resolved the problem completely. Even a 20MB photo printed flawlessly from iPhoto at 600dpi.

So AppleTalk is a 90-year-old with a bad cough, folks. IP printing (and Rendezvous as the replacement for AppleTalk's discovery) is where we need to be.

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030320015146415