Airport and printing

[beachycove]

I have a G4 Powerbook that prints to an Appletalk printer (well, an Appleshare 4 print server, actually) via Airport Extreme, with no problem. Connection is through a bog-standard SMC router.

However, I recently purchased a Pismo powerbook (running 9.2.1 - don't particularly want to take it to X) and an original Airport card for same, but I cannot for the life of me get it to recognize a classic Appletalk connection (through anything but TCP/IP) via Appletalk networking on Airport. All other functions of the Airport card are working properly. It would not be an issue, really, were it not for the printing problem: I have a couple of Appletalk printers that I use more or less daily, and would prefer not to have to plug in an ethernet cord every time I want to print to paper.

Is this a known limitation in the original Airport software/hardware combo (I am running Airport 1.2), or am I just missing something? My Control Panels etc. do appear to be set up correctly, so I am stumped. I can't really believe that Appletalk printing is supported via Airport in current (X.5) versions of system software but not under OS9!

Any help appreciated.

 

[porter]

I can't really believe that Appletalk printing is supported via Airport in current (X.5) versions of system software but not under OS9!

So your AppleTalk control panel show's it using the Airport card rather than EtherTalk or LocalTalk?

Can you see anything else using AppleTalk, eg any file sharing servers?

 

[beachycove]

Yes, I can see servers on Appletalk over IP, but not on classic Appletalk.

I have a network with zones, for instance, but cannot see them on the Pismo.

Yes, Control Panel is configured properly.

 

[porter]

From memory "AppleTalk over IP" only applied to Apple Share.

 

[MrMacintosh]

I seem to recall running into a similar issue with my Personal LaserWriter 320. What I think it boiled down to was that the Appletalk protocol is long unsupported. Most routers will forward it through ethernet, but most will NOT support it over wireless.

My solution was plugging in an Ethernet cable.

I have head however, that some old routers might support it, as might an Apple Airport of some sort.

 

[beachycove]

Clearly, the router is a possibility, but the trouble is that an OSX machine can print to the same Appletalk printer over the same wireless network. The router must therefore be forwarding some Appletalk packets over the wireless connection. My PB G4, for example, will print just fine to the same printer over wireless while running X.4, whereas my Pismo running 9.2.1 cannot even see the printer over Airport.

The printer (LWPro 630) in question is connected to the network by ethernet cabling. The problem is not localtalk.

As I say, I am stumped, but if someone can confirm that the limitation is indeed inherent in the hardware, I will live within my limits. Otherwise, I'd like to solve the problem. Googling has thus far yielded nothing of interest. I am wondering if I am missing some control panel or extension.... TCP/IP networking works fine, Appletalk not at all (excepting connecting via TCP/IP in the Chooser).

 

[beachycove]

Some changes to my network and a 20 minute experiment led just in the past hour to my resolving this small irritation from days of yore.

On my home network, I recently moved from an AppleShare 4 Server running on a Quadra to an Appleshare IP 6.3 Server running on a PowerMac 8600/300, and to a LW 4/600 from a LW Pro 630, which has gone on to do other useful work for me in another setting.

In AppleShare IP, I discover that it is a trivial matter to set up an IP print queue, outputting to an Appletalk-only printer. (Laserwriter 8 is required; an Appletalk Router is also needed if, as I did, you are bridging localtalk and ethernet — I use the Apple Internet Router running on an LC475, though LaserWriter Bridge running on the ASIP server should work fine for these purposes; also needed is the Apple Desktop Printer Utility to set up the printer on the wireless machine running OS9 or below from which you want to do the printing).

My Pismo now prints just fine to my LW4/600, which appears as an IP printer to it over Airport in MacOS9.2. The printer shows up on the desktop with its proper icon, and all the usual functionality appears to be in place: e.g., drag and drop printing. Whereas my wireless router would not forward classic Appletalk packets from the Pismo in OS9, it will forward IP print jobs just fine, and everything works as it should.

It was a small thing, easily resolved by plugging in an ethernet cable before, but I knew there had to be a solution on the wireless side of things short of finding myself an actual Airport base station. But why printing from machines on the home network running OSX has been unproblematic over Airport all along, whereas printing over Airport under OS9 on the Pismo needed this fix, I do not quite understand.

Any suggestions?