I have 25 of these installations. Any suggestions appreciated.
Huh? You have 25 installations that never did work right?
Or 25 installations that were never networked?
What do you want to change?
What is the new element?
In general, old printer port technology is not up gradable in firmware morin software, unless you wish to replace the whole operating system or write a custom driver in low-level code.
Much more detail is needed. Equipment that uses the old technology is hard to work with without full details.
Just a very wild guess, your scenario might be a candidate for use of Bluetooth adapters. Bluetooth can interface with some older technology.