Farallon iPrint LT

[Mk.558]

Hey lads,

What do we know about this thingy?

I picked this up from the conquest of a couple of weeks ago. In box, with the Farallon RJ45 and RJ11 wires, with the transformer. Practically unused.

It is meant to be a bridge between an Ethernet iMac (or similar) to a LocalTalk printer. But the back of the box hints at something else: file sharing! This must be relevant to my guide. But I tried various setups with the Duo and the SE/30 and nothing would work. Set one side up as LocalTalk and one as Ethernet.

The closest I got was when I used their RJ45 cable to my Mac mini to the SE/30. Got both serial and Ethernet activity lights blinking, but nothing besides that. I did hear once from somewhere that this doesn't support TCP/IP. Funny, because the Duo and the SE/30 can't use TCP/IP over Ethernet with AFP in 7.5.5.

 

[beachycove]

It'll only bridge localtalk and ethertalk.

You are running what OS on what iMac? And with Appletalk turned on?

Speaking from experience of similar products, my X.4-X.5 machines print happily to a localtalk LaserWriter 4/600 through this type of converter, BUT take a good 10 mins to find the printer the first time around in Print Utility.

 

[Mk.558]

I tried setting up an SE/30 with LocalTalk, and the Duo to Ethernet, and using the adaptor, didn't work. Flipped it around to Ethernet on the SE/30 and LocalTalk on the Duo, still nothing. Also tried OS X as mentioned, didn't work.

 

[beachycove]

The SE/30 and the PowerBook Duo are known to have working ethernet hardware with the requisite software support?

 

[spiceyokooko]

In my experience of these things, they tend to either work or they don't. The fact that you've got flashing lights on it once, suggest it is working.

I've only ever used this (mines an Asanté MicroAsanté Print) to hook up a printer on the LocalTalk side with the ethernet side hooked into a small ethernet hub, which the other ethernet macs hook into. If you have such a hub you might try doing something similar. I'm just wondering if plugging it straight into a Macs ethernet port might require an ethernet crossover cable, but putting a hub in between might get round that.

I think it's worth trying.

 

[Mk.558]

The SE/30 and the PowerBook Duo are known to have working ethernet hardware with the requisite software support?

Absolutely.

Well, the SE/30 needs a new Bourns network filter, it...works fine over Ethernet, though. LocalTalk...ho-hum usually doesn't work.

Principally, I'm interested in knowing whether this is a decent LocalTalk to Ethernet bridge. Which, it probably isn't, since it was meant to be a printer bridge.

Dunno. Here's the back of the box.

 

[olePigeon]

Make sure that the Macs with ethernet have AppleTalk set to EtherTalk (ethernet). I think they default to your serial port, so you'll want to make sure it's set correctly. Also, if your serial Macs have a printer and/or geoport, make sure it's set correctly to whichever port your AppleTalk adapter is connected.

 

[Mk.558]

Checked it yesterday. It works great. The reason it wasn't working with the SE/30 was because the Bourns network filter is/was dying and thus the serial ports were sporadic. With the Duo, it tests just fine.

Here it is with my iBook G3 900MHz, running 10.2.8.



It works fine with 10.3.9 or earlier. It will not work with 10.4 or greater. You must have Classic AppleTalk services, which 10.4 doesn't have. You enable this in NetInfo Manager. Once that is done, simply set up the LocalTalk side with MacIP Server in TCP/IP, head to the Network control panel and select LocalTalk, set AppleTalk to Modem/Printer Port, then set the other side up correctly.