That reminds me of a hack I did in university. We used a network print server and an actual printer to rotate a mirror ball.

http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/services/mirrorball.ucc

I looked at the project but there is little about the protocol – how does the applet talk to the IP print server? I have ton of older external HP jet direct print servers, some with 3 parallel ports but the protocol seems complex.

Could someone post more detials on that raw-mode situation – how does one read/write to the power via IP?

Thanks

To post #3:

The project is all in visual basic and the protocol is handled by a network object from included with visual basic. The last I remember, the network object is passed an ip address and a port. Since all we are doing is sending a byte at a time to the print server on port 9100, the programming is rather simple. I did look up information about ports on some other print servers. They state that most are defaulted at 9100 and can be changed if the device allows. And in your case with the jetdirect box, printer port one is 9100, port two is 9101 and so on… I am using a port sniffer to see what other ports are available on my netgear server plug so I try to access the other pins of the printer port.

hrm; networkig for though *cogh*

Will this work with an Intel Netport Express?