Printing with 10.5.6 on G5 Mac to Konica Minolta Magicolor 3100 printer?

Question

I'm tearing my grey hair out on this one. I have my 3100 configured with a certain IP address; does it need one? I've tried to connect it several ways, to no avail:
1: Directly to the G5's LAN port via cat5 cable. Looks like it is available and selected, but doesn't receive print job and process.
2: Ditto, only crossover cable used. Same result.
3: Connected to LAN port on AEBS (older "dome" model), with and without crossover cable. Same result.
Can someone "cookbook" me into proper connection and setup so I can use my printer?

Answer 1

John Reed6 wrote:
...I decided this was due to having an old "g" base station, and perhaps the link is too slow for passing all the data of the large job before timeout on the printer.
I don't think this would be the case. Page printers have memory to buffer the incoming spool file and will not print until the entire page is received. There must have been some other reason for the 'larger' failing. And how large are we talking? If it is a full colour A4/LTR page then the Airport will still cope with that.
So, I set the subnet mask on the printer to 255.255.0.0, the same one used by the G5, and set the G5's address to 192.168.0.100, to be on the same net as the printer, at 192.168.0.165. Now at last I was able to ping the printer from Network Utility. But, when I tried to add the printer, the system didn't "find" it, and when I finally got it going by manually putting the printer name into LP, I got a system error box: "Operation Could not be completed client-error-not-authorized"
When you add an IP printer, the printer is usually not 'found', even PS devices with installed PPDs. You typically need to manually search for the printer model via the Print Using menu.
What's the right way to set up the printer? Should I be using the crossover cable with the printer, and is the "LP" dialog the correct one to use? When the printer was connected to the base station, I found it through AppleTalk, but not when connected directly. Thanks for your help, you've brought me a long way already!
When you have the printer connected to the base station, you should be using a straight cable. The x-over is for direct PC to printer (peripheral) connections, although these days most devices will work with a straight cable also for these types of connections.
I'm not sure what you mean about the LP dialog. I would suggest you add the printer selecting the IP (as in Internet Protocol) tab and then selecting HP Jetdirect-Socket in the next menu. Then all you need to do is input the IP address of the 3100 and then browse for the 3100 in the Print Using menu.
If you want to use AppleTalk, which will let you browse for the printer, you will need to ensure that you have AppleTalk enabled in your network settings. I am not sure why you would be able to see the printer when it is connected to the base station but not when connected directly to your Mac. In the days when we had to use AppleTalk, the network would usually have a hub/router between the printer and Mac, so I've no experience with the c-cable connection with AppleTalk.
PaHu