I just went through many hours trying to upgrade some older HP LaserJet printer's JetDirect firmware. HP has dropped support and availability of the older tools to do firmware upgrades. These printers had firmware that did not allow firmware upgrades using the Web interface to the printers. Not having an actual PC running widows around, I used Parallels to do the firmware updates. After a lot of hours of experimenting and getting less than helpful messages with firmware upload failures, I finally figured out that Parallels must be in "Bridged" mode, not NAT for the network connection. Then HP Web JetAdmin will sort of work. With a LaserJet 4000DN with ancient firmware, the firmware does update and the printer resets, but you have to restart Web JetAdmin to see that the update took place. Web JetAdmin does not show the firmware progress as the update takes place. With a LaserJet 2000N also with ancient firmware, the firmware update takes place, with no progress indicated. After the update takes place the "error" lite on the printer lights up. I had to power cycle the printer then the new firmware started working just fine. With the latest firmware installed, it looks like future JetDirect firmware upgrades can be done via the web or FTP. Just wanted to post this info in case others try to use HP Web JetAdmin running on Win XP under Parallels.
