Customer Reviews

Asante Talk Ethernet to LocalTalk Bridge

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You are probably reading this because you have an old Appletalk-only printer, and you have just upgraded to a new Mac that only has Ethernet. If so, you are in the right place. Buy the Asantetalk. It comes with all of the cables you could possibly need to connect a new Mac to an old Appletalk printer, whether directly or through an Ethernet hub, and it works very well. If anything, I think my printing speed is better from my new, faster Mac going through Ethernet/Asantetalk than it was with my old Mac printing directly via Appletalk.

A colleague of mine asked me why I would want to spend money on an Asantetalk when I could go to eBay and get a whole new printer for just about the same amount. Well, yes, my little Laserwriter 4/600PS is a cheap little printer, but it still works perfectly, so why should I just throw it out? Waste not, want not. If I got another printer, my old one would probably end up cluttering my closet. (And, should I ever get to the point where I do want to sell my old Appletalk-only printer, it will be a lot more marketable if I bundle the Asantetalk in with it!)

Long story short, your mileage may vary, but it was worth it to me to keep my existing Appletalk printer humming in today's Ethernet world. If you feel the same way, the Asantetalk is a good way to go.

The Asantetalk is quite easy to set up and use. Since it is acting just as a simple network bridge, there is no configuration needed, just plug both ends (Appletalk/Ethernet) into it and away it goes.

Another note on ease of use: If you have ever had friends with similar units, as I have, you may have seen in the past that the Asantetalk really was not happy unless all of your gear -- Appletalk items including printer, the Asantetalk itself, Ethernet hub, Mac and other Ethernet stuff -- was powered up in a specific order. This drove my friends nuts. However, I am happy to report that Asante has updated the firmware in the device so that it is much more forgiving and friendly in this regard. Current Asantetalk units are no longer fussy about power-on order. (Several times, either my printer or Ethernet hub has gotten unplugged accidentally. In every case, once I fixed whatever it was that had happened, the ONLY thing I needed to reset to get my printer to show up again was the Asantetalk, which is as it should be.)

(By the way, don't forget that most versions of Mac OS X have Appletalk capability turned OFF by default. You'll have to turn it on for your Ethernet interface to use your old Appletalk printer with the Asantetalk. Check your Mac help for how to do this if you aren't sure.)

As an added bonus, if you have OTHER Appletalk equipment that you want to connect to your modern home Ethernet network, you can use standard Localtalk cabling (e.g. Farallon-style phonenet wiring) and connect a mini-network of up to eight Appletalk devices to the Asantetalk. This is, for example, a good way to transfer files from an old Appletalk-only desktop Mac or Powerbook to a modern Mac, or let an older Mac share the newer one's Internet connection.

So, if you do have any need at all for this one-trick pony, I think you will find the Asantetalk a very worthwhile addition to your computing menagerie.

A little less than five years ago I bought an AsanteTalk bridge for my LaserWriter 360, and it worked flawlessly until yesterday when it failed completely. Because the company proudly and loudly boasts a LIFETIME WARRANTY on the product (for original purchasers, of course, not for refurb'd models) on its website, in its support forums, and on other vendors' sites, I thought I'd have no problem getting it replaced right away.

WAS I EVER WRONG!

All of a sudden the supposed LIFETIME WARRANTY has become a FIVE YEAR WARRANTY . . . and calculated from the date of manufacture, not from the date of purchase! Something is very wrong here, folks, and based on the treatment I've received over the past 24 hours, I would strongly recommend avoiding this company.

I've cursed this device for a while since it only seemed to work when I connected a relatively old Mac directly to its Ethernet port and didn't do anything when I connected it to the rest of my network. After some tinkering, Googling, and playing with other devices, I finally got it working while hooked up to an old 10 Mbps Ethernet hub. I think it just can't handle the 10/100 negotiation or something.

Right now, it seems to be happy, and works really well for letting me transfer data from older LocalTalk Macs to newer ones on Ethernet.

This device does one thing great. It allows you to hook up non-AppleTalk printers to most any Mac running up to system 10.5.8. System 10.6+ no longer have AppleTalk. So, it is a non-issue.

Just run the wires, make sure AppleTalk is made active from your preferences and off you go.

I used one for years. Always plugged in. Always worked. Zero trouble. The true definition of plug n' play.

One of these set-ups will probably work for you.

mac / router > ethernet > Asante' > phone line > 3rd party dongle > printer (old version) or
mac / router > ethernet > Asante' > Apple serial printer cable >printer

Apple's LocalTalk cabling used a proprietary round mini-DIN connector, like an serial connector at the other end. It used a single pair of wires for both transmit and receive. The cable boxes were self-terminating, but limited to about 8 devices. The data rate for AppleTalk/LocalTalk is 240,000 bits/sec, or 0.240 Megabits/sec.

Farallon marketed an extremely successful product called PhoneNet that was manually-terminated, and used phone wire instead of a proprietary cable. Anyone intending to establish an AppleTalk/LocalTalk network today would be well-advised to use Farallon's boxes and phone wire rather than Apple's boxes and their special cable. The PhoneNet data is carried on the outer pins of a four wire telephone cable, leaving the inner pair for standard telephone. This cooperate perfectly with existing telephone wiring, which was their intent.

AppleTalk/LocalTalk is supported only on Macs with a round serial port, or by conversion from AppleTalk-over-Ethernet using an AsanteTalk or Farallon Ethermac iPrint LT, or using Apple's unsupported LocalTalk Bridge software running in the background on an older Mac.

AppleTalk/LocalTalk does NOT provide an IP connection or access to the Internet. Support for File Sharing was dropped in 10.4, and for Printing in 10.6.

AppleTalk/LocalTalk has been available for a long time, and preceded what we think of today as "regular" twisted pair Ethernet cabling. It was a ground-breaking technology, and was included in every Mac from at least the Mac Plus, and possibly earlier. Historically, it is very interesting. From a practical standpoint, it is obsolete, mainly because it is now considered too slow.[...]

I upgraded to a new Mac at Christmas. Ever since I have been singing the blues about not being able to use my old Laserwriter. Recently a friend recommended I get an Asantetalk. I got one and it works great. I have finally been reunited with my trusted laserwriter 360.

I was using an old one in my pro network for years. After the inclusion of new computers I noticed some erratic failures and I thought it was caused by a malfunction of the Asante Bridge. So I look for another new Bridge but once installed the new one things didn't change. Conclussion is that the use of the Bridge as an Local Talk connector is limited of a number of only one devide each. At least that's the way it works in my case. Delivery was fine as always. Asante Talk Ethernet to LocalTalk Bridge

This product is a tribute to Apple's relentless quest to disown previous Apple customers. Imagine building a computer without a printer port! When Apple stopped including an Appletalk port, and didn't replace it with a standard parallel printer port, they left us old timers high and dry. Hence, a $100 device that shouldn't be necessary in the first place.

I must have one of the older-specification models, based on another review I just read: The order that the printer and the adapter are powered on does make a difference. Some days it just will not work. A lot of times, it needs to be turned off and back on again. Some days, the printer has to be re-initialised (a relatively expensive HP 5MP). My workaround is to keep the adapter and the printer on separate power strips. First I turn on the printer; after 30 seconds or so, I turn on the Asante adapter.

The device appears to be indestructible. I bought mine about nine years ago (think silver-coloured G4 AGP with no CD writer), and it still works as well as it ever has. Another bonus is that a few years ago I experimented plugging it into a home cable-modem network. It has worked fine. For all those years before that, I used to unplug myself from the internet in order to print, and curse Apple every time.

I'm listed as a purchaser because a few years ago I ordered a replacement Asante Bridge because mine had stopped working. It turned out the cable connecting it to the Belkin router under my desk had gotten loose; I shame-facedly paid return shipping, since it was my mistake.

If you've got an old Postscript Appletalk printer, this is a must-have device for your G3, G4, G5 etc. About half the time, it works flawlessly.

I've used the AsantéTalk adapter for several years, plugged into an Ethernet Broadband Router that also connects two Mac computers running OS X, a cable modem, and a VolP telephone line.

The Asanté works fine when it works, but it's always been temperamental. Occasionally it goes off line, and the procedure for getting it to work again must be followed precisely: when to plug which cable into what.

Lately, however, it's gone off the wall. It has started to interfere with my Internet connection. For no reason that I can see, my connection is dropped but comes on again as soon as I unplug the Asanté.

My workaround is to keep it disconnected and only reconnect it when I need to access my Appletalk devices: an HP Laserjet 4 and an old Mac SE30.

I should junk the HP for an Ethernet printer. I only keep the SE30 running to access data on my old floppies; I should just copy all the data to a DVD and be done with that machine.

I ordered the wrong part, thought this was a mixer - Am I dumb.