Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

bofferma · Jan 17, 2001, 02:46 PM

I've got a LaserJet 6MP at home, which I love. After all, it's does 600dpi with RET, the toner lasts forever, it has a straight paper path, and understands Postscript Level 2 (which I actually use a lot). Only one problem... it only has apple serial and pc parallel connectors. When I retired my powercomputing machine for my B&W G3 and OS 9.04, now USB was the only option. Having this great laser printer that I didn't want to throw away. I went out and bought PowerPrint (usb-parallel) 5.0. This program is incredibly flaky on my machine; I loathe printspooler. I never know if it will work, or crash my machine hard.

So that didn't work. Out $90 bucks for a friggin cable. Next, I thought, why not hook this baby up to a network! That would solve my problems, and let me share the printer over my lan. So I popped out another $90 for the AsanteTalk 10BT Ethernet/LocalTalk Bridge. Cool, now I can access all my printers features via the standard appletalk/laserwriter 8 setup! Wrong. I have yet to get my computer to see the printer over this setup. The hub is a Xsense MiH-130 Xrouter Pro (10/100BT), all grey cables. My computers see each other fine with this setup.

I'm begging for help. Not being able to use this printer is driving me batty. If anyone has a suggestion, please share. I really don't want to go out and buy a new printer, but if I can't fix this, that's my next step.

------------------
boffermann@mn.mediaone.net

Thunderbird · Jan 17, 2001, 04:50 PM

Wow. You just saved me 10 minutes of typing. I was going to pose the exact same question. I have the exact same printer, the same internet router, and the same Asante bridge. I just bought the bridge yesterday, and I assumed that I would just plug it in and it would work. But alas, I was mistaken. It didn't even work when I plugged it directly into my G4 using the yellow crossover cable. The only difference between my setup and yours is that I also have 2 3Com 10/100 hubs on the network. Luckily Asante has a toll-free tech support line, but I haven't had time to call yet.

Thunderbird · Jan 17, 2001, 04:51 PM

I just read something in the manual about making sure that the Localtalk network is properly terminated. Could this be the issue?

bofferma · Jan 17, 2001, 05:31 PM

I sent an e-mail to asante (support@asante.com), and they gave me a pdf instruction manual. I did get it to work eventually... seems the key thing is to leave the asantetalk off until everything else is up and running. Wait 30 seconds or so, plug it in, go to chooser, and it works... at least for now. I hope it stays after a reboot, but I can handle powering it off and on before I print. As long as it works.

You might try that with the asantetalk->crossover->mac connection, and see if that works first.

Pretty freakish, two people having the same problem with the same old printer at the same time. ;-) Good luck. Hope you get it working.

------------------
boffermann@mn.mediaone.net

bofferma · Jan 17, 2001, 05:40 PM

whoops, wrong order. Should be:

plug in, wait 30 seconds, find printer in chooser.

------------------
boffermann@mn.mediaone.net

tjcrebs · Jan 17, 2001, 10:22 PM

The Asant�Talk "Ethernet-to-LocalTalk Bridge" works great with my Laserjet 6MP. I bought it when I bought my first iMac back in '98; never a problem--just use the yellow Ethernet "cross-over" cable (which is bundled with the Asant�Talk) when you use it with a single computer.

When I bought my Powerbook (Pismo) last spring, I also bought an Asant� Ethernet hub for $20; use the gray Ethernet cables (not yellow "cross-over") when you use a hub. Now both my iMac and my Powerbook share my 6MP--works like a dream.

I've seen the Asant�Talk bridges selling for as low as $60 but it lists for about $89. It pays to shop around.

Good Luck, T.

Thunderbird · Jan 18, 2001, 10:26 AM

I bought the Asante bridge at Outpost.com. I think I paid $89 for it, but there is a $25 rebate on it right now (final cost $64)

I did finally get it to work last night. The trick was turning the printer on before plugging in the bridge. That was with the crossover cable. I still need to try it with the grey cable and my hub (I'm waiting for a new cable to be delivered.) Oddly enough, I was able to get the thing to print even though the printer did not show up in the chooser until after I had printed for the first time.