Adapters for USB ports

When I called Del about a new computer, I asked if the computer had
parallel and serial ports. He said no, only USB ports. I said I had a
printer that needed a parallel port and he very rudely said I should buy
a new printer. After saying I had a perfectly good laser jet printer he
said I should buy a parallel to USB adapter and for my serial needs buy
a serial to USB adapter.

My question is, do these adapters work well? I've heard of people that
can't get the serial to USB adapter to work, so I'm wondering about both
of them.

Henry

P.S. As an aside, he said I should buy one of their burners instead of
using the Plextor burner I now have, because if I installed the Plextor
and anything went wrong it would void the warranty. Needless to say I
didn't order a computer from them.

wrote:

When I called Del about a new computer, I asked if the computer had
parallel and serial ports. He said no, only USB ports. I said I had a
printer that needed a parallel port and he very rudely said I should buy
a new printer. After saying I had a perfectly good laser jet printer he
said I should buy a parallel to USB adapter and for my serial needs buy
a serial to USB adapter.

My question is, do these adapters work well? I've heard of people that
can't get the serial to USB adapter to work, so I'm wondering about both
of them.

I've never used a USB to serial adapter, but for a long time I ran an
HP LaserJet IIIP on a USB to parallel adapter. It worked quite well
for that purpose. At that time we also had a fancy photo-quality color
printer that needed two-way communication via the parallel port. That
machine was not happy with the adapter. Maybe that means I should have
gotten an adapter that supported two-way communication, I'm not sure.
I didn't have to worry about it, since I could run the HP on the
adapter and use the parallel port for the color printer.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)

wrote in message
| When I called Del about a new computer, I asked if the computer had
| parallel and serial ports. He said no, only USB ports. I said I had a
| printer that needed a parallel port and he very rudely said I should buy
| a new printer. After saying I had a perfectly good laser jet printer he
| said I should buy a parallel to USB adapter and for my serial needs buy
| a serial to USB adapter.
|
| My question is, do these adapters work well? I've heard of people that
| can't get the serial to USB adapter to work, so I'm wondering about both
| of them.
|
| Henry
|
| P.S. As an aside, he said I should buy one of their burners instead of
| using the Plextor burner I now have, because if I installed the Plextor
| and anything went wrong it would void the warranty. Needless to say I
| didn't order a computer from them.

I bought a USB to parallel port cable. It did not work with the Intel chip-set on my ASUS
motherboard. I brought it into work and tried it on a Dell GX240, Dell GX400 and on an
Intel made motherboard. It worked fine with the Intel USB v1.1 chip-sets on those platforms
but it didn't work on my Intel USB v2.0 chip-set.

I returned it for a refund.

Now I use HP JetDirect PrintServers. I print to an IP address and not to a parallel port.

You can get a PCI I/O card. JDR MicroDevices has some inexpensive cards.

http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=gr-mct-psp


--
Dave