The Lance J. Technoweb

I have a couple Brother HL-3170CDW color laser printers.  They're pretty old, circa 2015.  One is working fine, and the other is dead with a laser-related issue and is being slowly scavenged for parts. In any case, these machines have firmware that needs to be periodically updated.  There are two chucks of firmware for this printer: Main Firmware Version and Sub1 Firmware Version . As of this writing, on 10-March-2024, the firmware versions are as follows: MAIN FIRMWARE is at 1.32  SUB1 FIRMWARE is at 1.07 A printer's version information can be seen by looking at http://{printer_ip}/general/information.html Updating the Firmware Unfortunately, the HL-3170CDW printer does not offer a built-in UI to deal with firmware updates.  Instead, the Brother Firmware Update Tool must be used to keep the printer's firmware up to date.  The tool can be found at The Brother HL3170cdw web page.   It can be found under Windows and Macintosh downloads. Note that the u...

Now I am able to use my old HP LaserJet printer like a champ with Mac OS X - by using a low cost USB parallel printer adapter and a little bit of magic software. USB to Parallel adapters are inexpensive little adapters (generally under $20) that allow you to connect a printer using the old "parallel" connector standard over USB. There are generally two kinds of parallel interfaces on a printer: Either the 36-pin Centronics-style connector , or the 25-pin D-shaped printer connector . My HP used the bulkier 36-pin connector, so I bought an adapter with that style connector. The low-cost USB-to-Parallel adapter I use with my Mac But it all wasn't as easy as it should have been - even though I pluged it all together, my USB to Parallel adapter would either lock up after a single print job, or it wouldn't be detected by the Mac at all. I suffered with the situation for months, and even imagined purchasing a more modern printer. But perseverance paid off - I got it al...