[tonymac]

I'm looking for suggestions on getting the following to work:
I have a PowerMac G4, PowerMac 8600, and an HP Pavilion with Win98. I need to connect all three to an Epson Stylus Color 600. The Epson has a Mac serial port and a PC parallel port. I have a USB to Parallel adapter for the G4 and a serial cable for the 8600. Is there a way to share the parallel port between the G4 and the PC? Is there a way to share the printer to the two Macs using Win98? I've tried EpsonShare (registered it, actually) and it isn't acceptable since it errors out when switching to another printer (ie. my PLW NTR). I would like to have an Ethernet or Parallel switchbox solution if possible. If there's no cost effective solution, I'll probably just buy a new printer with USB and Parallel interfaces and use Apple's USB Printer Sharing software. Any suggestions?

Have you tried the Axis print server? It's basically an ethernet to parallel bridge that Epson sells. I'm not sure if it's compatible with your printer, but it's worth a shot.

http://www.epson.com/printer/networking/axis/index.html

Kinda looks like you might be out of luck with your Epson 600. I also remember reading on http://www.macintouch.com (I think) about a hack for a similar print server from HP that would make it work with Epson printers.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Spelling

[This message has been edited by elehto (edited 06-29-2000).]

I had the same situation, with pratically identical hardware, back in March. While you could spend a little time trying to think of an elaborate way of doing this with switches, it's not worth it. For $129.00 go out and get the Epson 740i. It has a parallel for the HP, serial for your 800, and USB port for the G4. Not to mention, you'll gain a little more speed using the 740i.

[tonymac]

I'm seriously considering a new printer (possibly a 740, or adding a large format for the 2 macs and keeping the 600 for the PC). I did find an interesting shareware possibility (courtesy of www.macwindows.com). It's called Unicorn. Basically it's a Mac and Windows peripheral sharing system. I downloaded the demo (http://www.escom.co.jp/en/unicorn/) and if it doesn't work, I'll look into a new printer.

Thanks for your info.