german internet provider telekom offers a device called t-sinus 154 for wireless access via dsl.

i got one of these thingies for my parents and the wireless connection is ok. what i consider more interesting, though, is the built-in printserver. because my efforts to connect a newly bought usb printer to a vintage non-usb powerbook via an appropriate pcmcia card failed shamefully (well, at least i found out that you surely can use serial printers with os x), i considered this as a welcome opportunity to give the printer another chance.

trouble was that (as usually) all documentation and driver support is available for windows only.

so i started to do some research on my own and first of all ran a portscan on the t-sinus.

as a result i got (besides the notorious http port for administrative access via a web browser) port 515/ldp and a port 4626 listed open for connections.

while trying the ldp port became a waste of time (its name was simply too tempting) i googled for port 4626 and pretty immediately found a good hint.

it's been said that most of telekom's hardware is manufactured by siemens, so if the t-sinus is a siemens-in-disguise device, why shouldn't it come with exactly the mentioned printserver features and settings?

so i opened os x's printcenter app, option-clicked the "add" button, selected the advanced settings from the drop-down menu, chose the appropriate printer model and finally entered lpd://192.168.2.1:4626/lpt1 in the device uri field.

then i printed a simple test document. and what shall i say? it worked. and it still works. and again i am amazed by the internet. (and by my intuition :)