Hi there, I currently have one of these printers on my home network and I'd like to report that it works great under Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and even Windows 7. To print to this printer via the network, you'll need a AAUI adaptor to plug in a RJ45 cable going to your network hub or switch. If you had a Mac running any version of OS X up to 10.5.x you'll be good to go at this point as you can print via the Appletalk protocol. But for Windows you'll need to assign the printer an IP address, unless you have an appletalk driver like Win2k used to have built into it. To assign an IP address to the printer you'll need to use the Laserwriter configuration utility. This is kind of tricky as Apple no longer updates the utility for modern Windows operating systems. The version I use is version 2.1 designed for Windows NT, which can be downloaded from Apple's website here:
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/DOS-Windows/Printing/LaserWriter_for_Windows_NT/LWNT_10.ZIP
I was not able to install this utility on my current version of Windows but I had a spare copy of Win2K laying around, so I used Sun VirtualBox to create a Win2K virtual machine and installed it there. If you have a real computer running Win2K it will do the same, this utility may or may not install under regular XP or Vista, I'm not sure, I was not able to get it to install under 64-bit Windows XP when I tried.
Anyways, once you get it installed you'll need to configure the printer's IP address through the utility. This printer doesn't support DHCP so you'll have to assign it an IP address that follows your network setup (usually 192.168.x.x, whatever). Once you have configured the printer's IP address through the utility you can verify the IP address by printing a configuration page through the utility. Printing a configuration page out of the printer will be very helpful as you work to get it configured for your network, you can do this by selecting "connect to network printer" under the Network menu of the utility. Leave the "network number" field as it is but in the "node address" field you'll need to enter the last six digits of the printer's MAC address. If you don't know this, try setting the communications switch on the rear of the printer to the RESET position, this will reset it to factory defaults, which includes printing a startup page whenever you turn the printer on. This startup page will provide you with some useful information, including the printer's MAC address (it will be listed above "netware frame type".
Once you have assigned an IP address to the printer you can install it through Windows but you must set it up as a LPR port, standard TCP/IP port will not work. When adding the printer to Windows Vista/7, choose to add a "local printer" and then create a new port of LPR type. This type of port is no longer available by default in Vista or 7, you'll have to add it through the Programs and Features control panel under the section "turn windows features on or off". For the "name or address of the server providing lpd" field enter the printer's IP address. For the print queue enter the IP address again but in the following form "_192_168_0_25" <-replace those numbers with your printer's actual IP address and remove the quotes. Additionally, Windows Vista and Windows 7 no longer provide drivers for this printer, but you can use the MS Publisher Imagesetter driver located under the "Generic" vendor and it will work fine for printing both high detail text and graphics. If you are using an older version of Windows such as 2K or XP it has a driver for this printer listed under the Apple vendor. Once you have the printer setup, try sending a test page and if all is well you should get a successful printout.
A much easier alternative is to connect the printer to your PC via the Parallel port connection (if your PC has such a port). From there you can add it as a local printer, again using the MS Publisher Imagesetter driver if you are using Windows Vista or 7, and then share the printer through the built-in Windows printer sharing. Good luck!
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