Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ncsc1!tsp From: tsp@ncsc1.AT&T.NCSC (Tom Poindexter x8862) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Parallel Printer Port Summary: Parallel port used bi-directionally Keywords: Input Message-ID: <59@ncsc1.AT&T.NCSC> Date: 22 Sep 88 14:27:42 GMT References: <8579@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Distribution: na Organization: AT&T NCSC, Englewood,CO Lines: 23 I have seen advertised a software-based network package that runs through parallel ports. It's LanLink 5X from The Software Link; I think they use some sort of special cable to get the proper signal lines routed. This would certainly imply both input & ouput through the port. Also, check out the last few Byte issues; Steve Ciracia articles on 8051 development make use of an PC's parallel port as I/O to the controller. He shows a few hardware modifications (trace cuts, et.al.) that are needed to make an IBM parallel port work, and mentions that many clone parallel port boards should work bi-directionally as is. If you are really just interested in seeing what is sent to a printer over a network, I think you could just use any of the public domain printer spoolers that use a disk file; spool to disk, then hex dump the file. With a little more work, just trap INT 17H (I think) on the PC that has the printer attached. That's the standard BIOS interrupt to the printer driver. Any spooler or network redirector takes over this interrupt to provide its' own services. -tp -- Tom Poindexter {where ever}!att!ncsc5!tsp