Laserwriter Pro 630, Mountain Lion, and Macbook Pro

Question

Hi,
I have a very old Laserwriter Pro 630 that I use for simple inexpensive proofing. On my old system (G4 Tower w/Leopard), it was connected via an ethernet hub.
I'm now the proud owner of a Macbook Pro Retina (with no ethernet port), and I can't figure out how (or if) I can use this printer. Can someone give me some advice on this?
Thanks,
Mark

Answer 1

There are certainly potential obstacles, but the "lowest common denominator" approach of a parallel to Ethernet (or wireless) solution works for me. If using a print server, the goal is to create an IP address where this printer will reside on the network. Since the LW Pro 630 is a PostScript printer, the rest is easy.
To summarize the results of the thread you linked, including the links within it, regarding this specific model LaserWriter, based on my own testing on OS X versions from Jaguar through Mountain Lion:
IOGear GUC1284B parallel to USB adapter attached to a Mac's USB port: works
The same IOGear adapter connected to an AirPort Extreme or Express USB port does not work with the LaserWriter Pro 630, though it works with other parallel printers. I was never able to determine the reason but am pretty confident I exhausted every possibility. Read my responses to Loroi near the end of this thread: USB to Parallel Cable for LW Select 360?
D-Link DP-311P and D-Link DP-G301 parallel to wireless adapters: both work. Similar parallel to wireless or Ethernet adapters ought to work as well.
Another possibility would be to use a USB to serial converter, such as the Keyspan (Tripp Lite) USA-28XG. I have not attempted this potential solution. The challenge would be to discover the LaserWriter's default serial port settings, but a good guess would be 9600-n-8-1.
Configuring the Mac to use this alternative would require no small amount of tedium with which you are well familiar I suspect the LaserWriter used a configuration utility that requires OS 9 and AppleTalk to configure its serial port, and may also have been required for the AAUI transceiver which the OP probably doesn't have. The fact this particular LaserWriter has a parallel port that requires no configuration makes this an unattractive alternative.
The disadvantage of any of the above solutions is that complete, bidirectional communication won't work, meaning the printer will not be able to inform the Mac that it's out of paper for example. If the printer is not ready the print job will patiently wait until it becomes ready. Communicating with the printer to determine details such as page count are also unavailable without Intel-coded utility software that does not exist in OS X.