[Hoary] Laser Printer

[James Wilkinson]

David M. Carney wrote:
> The company I work for is closing it's doors.
> 
> That's the bad news. The good news is I picked up a HP LaserJet 4 for
> $2.00 with a new toner cartridge.
> 
> The only ports it has are for a network cable, serial and parallel.
> 
> I only have one NIC and it's connected to the cable modem. 
> 
> Which of the remaining interfaces would you suggest I use, and what will
> I need to do to set it up?

You've been given some good advice. Let me advise against serial in this
day and age. It had its place many years ago (i.e. many years *before*
the LaserJet 4), when printers were much slower and mainly printed text
(which takes a *lot* less bandwidth than printing graphics).

There's a lot more potential hassle with serial, getting speeds,
handshaking, start and stop bits, parity, and other stuff sorted.

Besides, motherboards are beginning to lose both parallel and serial.
But they're losing serial a lot faster. You may well find your next PC
doesn't support it.

Hope this helps,

James.

-- 
E-mail address: james | 'Defenestrate' means 'through / out' the window.
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | Does not refer to people, necessarily.  Therefore the
                      | 'Defenestration of Prague' probably required a pretty
                      | freaking big window.  -- Randy the Random