I found an old HP 755CM 36" wide format designjet for $75 at our local Technology Recycling Center. HP officially doesn't have a driver for this designjet anymore. But the HP driver file - '*HP Designjet HP-GL/2 driver for Windows and AutoCAD 2000 - AutoCAD 2005'*-- *pl532en.exe - * for Windows Server 2000, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, will work for Vista and Windows 7.

To set it up: Connect the printer to your ethernet network. If your internet router is set up as a DNS server, it will get an IP immediately. If you don't have DNS on your internal router, then you may need to download HP's Jetdirect control software to access it and assign it an IP address.

Once an IP is assigned, execute the *pl532en.exe *file to a directory you make just for this driver. Run 'Add printer', select network printer, search for new printer, and the IP address of the new printer should show up. Cancel, then run 'Add printer' again but select *local* printer and use the IP address as the name, and the printer port will auto-create. When asked for the driver, browse to your directory so it can find the .inf file. The 755CM will be listed. I saw posts which stated that this file worked with Windows 7, and I read other posts that there's a 64bit version of this file which will work with 64bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 as well.

This designjet will print on clear film, coated bond, heavy coated bond, adhesive vinyl, and others. Will also print on 8.5" x 11" in landscape orientation.

I'll let you know when I get it hooked up with Linux.

- Susan