[vox-tech] computer pretending to be a printer

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Mark K. Kim (lugod at cbreak.org):

> Just connect the analytical machine to a Linux box using an ethernet cable
> and have Linux box create a Windows share using Samba.  So you don't have
> to fiddle with the parallel port.  

Really, this _is_ the best advice.  Although you can force network
traffic over RS-232c serial or Centronics parallel ports, it's both slow
and twitchy.  The price of admission for ethernet -- whether you do it
using just a crossover cable or a pair of regular cables and an old
throwaway hub -- is really low and absolutely worth the money.

> PS: Don't connect the two computers using the parallel port... Serial port
> is okay but not the parallel port (unless you wanna make a custom cable
> and write some custom real-time drivers!)

As someone who's struggled through both, I'll take PLIP over parallel,
any day.  All you need is a "laplink" type parallel cable, and then
software setup is trivial.  (See the PLIP HOWTO.)  By contrast, with
serial, yes the cabling is more conventional, but then you have to fuss
around with all those communications settings at the software level --
and you get only pretty slow throughput, for your pains.

Better to just buy two cheap NICs and a crossover cable, anyway.