printer problem with 20 ft printer cable

[webhead1]

Hey gang, Im setting up a computer for a friend and their setup causes for a printer cable to be 20-25 feet long. I have heard of printers not printing with cables over 10 feet, but beleive there has got to be a fix to this problem by now. Any suggestions? printer is an hp laserjet, computer is running win xp. calbe is 25 ft long. THanks for any help, and have a great day.
Anthony

[rainbore]

I scanned HP's website. It looks like the IEEE 1284 parallel cables can be up to about 30 feet long (the spec. is 10 meters, and I couldn't come up with the exact conversion off the top of my head here). If you can't find a specification in the printer's manual, check your local computer store for compatible cables and rely on the marketplace to dictate the maximum length cable that the store stocks. That is, no cable manufacturer is likely to make a cable with a length that will exceed the technical limits of the design because it'd never sell or else the returns would be overwhelming.

You were smart to be concerned about this issue, but it looks like you're in the clear here.

[BerksWebGuy]

Keep it away from any potential electrical fields...such as lights, power supplies, or electrical cords. Try to isolate any data cable from any power cable.

[paulselhi]

i think so, in which case you can give it an ip address and run it from a hub with the pc also linking to the hub and acting as a print server using cat 5 cable you will be well within your limits

[(jj)]

Anthony,

If the manual says 10 meters as Rainbore found on the HP site, then that would be 32.8 feet.

As BWG stated, make sure you keep the cable clear of any power lines. Also use a quality high shielded cable, not some cheap little cable.

IF the printer has an ethernet built into it, you would be much further ahead to do as Paul suggests. Not all laser printers do have those, but some of the newer ones do.


Just my "For What It's Worth"

[teamantivir]

Just another $.02, if the printer DOESN'T have an ethernet port, or there isn't a hub/ home network setup, Ebay has some HP DirectJet print servers, reconditioned for $35, and you can pick up a cheap NIC for the PC, and still have the benifits. Just remeber, if you go direct to the printer from the PC (with out a hub), you'll need a cross connect cable.