Bugs & Fixes: Ethernet-networked printers & Snow Leopard

04.09.2009
If you have an older Ethernet-networked printer, you may find that, after upgrading to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6), the printer no longer responds to your Mac's Print requests. That's what happened with my trusty old HP LaserJet 4000N (circa 1998). If this happens to you, don't despair. It's almost certain your printer and your Mac can be friends again. Here's what you need to know:

First off, Snow Leopard no longer supports AppleTalk. If your printer was connected to your Mac via AppleTalk (which was the case for me), the printer won't respond after upgrading to Snow Leopard. To get it working again, go to the Print & Fax System Preferences pane and click the plus (+) icon. This brings up the Add Printer window. Confirming the lack of AppleTalk support, the toolbar no longer includes an AppleTalk icon/button.

If the name of your printer appears in the Default list, select the name and click to add it. All will likely be well. However, chances are good that a previously AppleTalk-connected printer is too old to include Bonjour support and thus won't show up in the Default list. In this case, you'll need to do a bit more work to add the printer back.

While you can no longer use AppleTalk, most of these old networkable printers also support connecting via an IP protocol. If not, you may be completely out-of-luck; the possibility looms that you will need to buy a new printer. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

To attempt to add the printer via IP, click the IP icon in Add Printer's toolbar. What to do next varies a bit depending upon your printer model. In the case of my HP LaserJet, I followed the advice on this . In particular:

1. Click the IP button and select HP Jetdirect - Socket from the Protocol pull-down menu.