connecting old HP printer to network

I have a mixed G and N home wlan network on which I have 2 W 7 laptops
connected. One of these is a new laptop to replace an old XP laptop that
was connected to an old but working fine laser printer using a printer
parallel port.

My problem:
none of the new laptops have a printer parallel port. So I now have no
way to connect my printer which only has a parallel connection.

I was thinking of keeping the old XP laptop with its connected printer
as a printer server on the network so we can still access the printer
over the home network.

Questions:
1. Can the XP laptop (uses G wireless card) which I plan to put into a
sleep state be set to "wake up" from the sleep state when it receives a
print job for its printer? Also to wake up when it receives Windows updates.

2. How?

3. Is there another way to connect this parallel port printer to the
network? How?

Thanks, Jeff

 

For 3, assuming you have an ethernet port available at your network
router, an el-cheapo (nowadays) parallel port print server would do
the trick if the printer is nearby.

 

Thanks, I will look for one.

Jeff

 

There are usually quite a few on fleabay, as this is old-tech and
droves of people are getting out of parallel printer configurations.

I picked up a brand new Netgear PS101 mini print server for $10.

 

Thank you