Two computers to one printer - parallel port & USB 2 port

[Eug]

I have a PC with a parallel port at work, and a Mac with USB 2, and I want to connect both of them up to the same Samsung ML-2510 printer. Will this work?

I already have a printer hooked up to the PC, but it's HUMUNGOUS and ancient. I want to get rid of it, but I'd like to be able to just run one printer. The Mac and PC are not on the same network.

 

[Paperdoc]

Check the Samsung printer manual - if you don't have it, look on their website. It should tell you whether the printer can handle two inputs, and what is will do if both computers try to print at the same time.

 

[Zepper]

What paperdoc said... Some printers that have both types of ports can only have one connected at a time while others can have both connected for sharing purposes. I suppose you could just try it - shouldn't hurt anything. Either it will work or it won't. Try sending jobs sequentially (don't try to send from second PC until first job is done) and see if it works. If that seems to work, then try sending jobs simultaneously and see what happens. If it works for sharing, it will show busy to one and print "first come's" print job - then show ready to the second comer's PC and that job will commence.
. If it works that way, you may want to set the printer to eject a blank page between jobs so it will be easy to keep them separate.
. According to the 2510 manual, the parallel port on the PC can be set to ECP for best performance (that is done in the BIOS settings). Windows will probably redetect the port if any change was required and configure for the new mode. If it was already set to ECP, then nothing should happen when you boot into Windwoes.

.bh.

 

[Eug]

Thanks. I bought the ML-2510 printer and discovered it's all moot anyway. The Samsung Mac drivers don't work. I tried two different Macs with USB, and the printer just wouldn't print anything.

I guess you get what you pay for. (The Samsungs were the cheapest in the store.)

 

[Zepper]

It says it works with Mac OS 10.3 or 10.4 - perhaps you need to try the latest version from the web site. What comes with the printer isn't always the latest version. Always check for later versions of drivers when instlling hardware.

Was your test document more than one page? If not, then you may need to press the page feed button on the printer to get it to print. And to keep that from happening, set your word processing programs, etc. to send a form-feed after each page including the last one.

.bh.