Has anybody had success using LocalTalk or LaserWriter bridge with a LaserWriter 310 printer and (for example) an iMac, or other newer computer connected to the bridge machine through ethernet.
I would like to continue using my LaserWriter 310 with my new iMac, and since I have a IIci w/NuBus ethernet card laying around, why spend $100 on a stand alone localtalk bridge.

Thanks!

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-Eliott Wolfe
Winnetka, Calif

[wlonh]

FYI

An Apple TIL article notes the company's end of support for LocalTalk Bridge, with compatibility problems in Mac OS 8.5, listing some third-party products that perform similar functions.
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n30774

The Wolfe wrote:

> since I have a IIci w/NuBus ethernet card
> laying around, why spend $100 on a stand
> alone localtalk bridge.

Why? The AsanteTalk box (and others like it) is hardware, no software needed--thus, no software incompatibilities. It sits quietly on the floor and does its job. It doesn't make noise, it doesn't need to be booted up or down (you turn it on or off with your surge suppressor with the rest of your peripherals), it has a tiny footprint and won't take up much space, and you can probably sell your old Mac for more than this box will cost you.

My husband is connecting his G4 to a Select 360 with the AsanteTalk box. He could have used the old 7100 as a server, but the Select 360 is slow enough without it. YMMV.

and you can probably sell your old Mac for more than this box will cost you.


Sell a IIci!!! Heretic!

I know about the Asante (and other) bridge boxes you can buy, although I'd rather not buy a piece of hardware for which I will have no use after either the printer finally fails, or is no longer supported one way or another (bridge or not).

[Simon Kornblith]

I doubt you can sell the IIci for $100. They regularly go for $20 on eBay. I have successfully networked about 6 old macs (a 2 SEs with 1MB of RAM, an SE/30, a Mac II and 2 PowerBooks) to my internal network using a 7100/80 with LocalTalk Bridge installed. I have even used this with IPNetRouter to set up a web server on one of these old machines.

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Simon Kornblith
Computer Consultant
Programmer

[Walter J. Ferstl]

Hello Wolfe,

sorry to tell you this but the Select 310 is not a LocalTalk-capable printer, but just a plain serial one. So an Asante bridge box will most probably *not* work.

There might be a way to share it between the iMac and the IIci, as mentioned in the Apple TIL
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n11929
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... Using QuickDraw GX you can use the LaserWriter GX driver. This allows you to use the LaserWriter Select 310 on more than one Macintosh computer. However, anyone on the network who wants to print to the LaserWriter Select 310 must use QuickDraw GX. If QuickDraw GX is not used, it can only be used as a single-use serial PostScript printer.
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Hope this helps,

Walter.