I may just be being an idiot

[kingcrosscutie]

and I'm sorry if this is the case, but I have tried searching and can't seem to find anything that answers my question...

I have never had a mac before, but the other day I purchased a 12" ibook g4.

Anyway, I wanted to install broadband onto it, and I found the installation CD that I used with my old PC. I was not sure if it would work with a mac or not, so I called up BTbroadband and asked and they said it should be fine.

Anyhow, I slotted in the CD, and nothing happened, so I clicked on the little icon which had appeared on the desktop saying "BT BROADBAND" and I got taken to all the programs which were on the cd. I wasn't sure which one to click on, so I tried a few which said "install"...however whenever I clicked on any of the programs a little box kept coming up saying "there is no default application specified to open this document" and another box said "choose application?" but I looked at the list of applications and I had no idea which one to pick!

I thought I'd better give up trying to install broadband until i found someone who could help me, and so I decided to watch a dvd. I slotted the dvd in and the exact same thing happened. Nothing came up, so I clicked on the icon which had appeared and got taken to a list of programs, which, when I clicked on them told me that there was no default application specified to open this document.

I am probably just being silly and a complete novice to the mac world...but I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice? Are there applications I need to download? Am I doing the wrong thing?
Thanks in advance

 

[crazytom]

Help is going to depend on your OS. Go to the Apple in the upper left corner of your screen and select: About this Mac. It should give you what version of the OS you are running...let us know what it says. There are some big differences between OS 9 and OS 10.

 

[kingcrosscutie]

It said Mac OS X vs 10.4.2

Hope that helps?

 

[Flying Llama]

If it's a brand new iBook G4 then it's OS X...
That CD will only work on a PC, not a Mac. Don't worry, you didn't brake anything!

Sorry I'm in a rush, hope you find a solution.

 

[crazytom]

You shouldn't need to install anything to get broadband working. I'm making some assumptions here, let me know if I'm wrong:

The Broadband company should have set up some kind of modem in your house and given you an ethernet cable to plug into your machine. Do that.

Go to System Preferences and click on Network.
Next, click on Assist me...

Answer the appropriate questions and let us know how it goes.

Good luck.

 

[mkrishnan]

As for watching the DVD, you can insert it and then launch DVD Player, which is in your applications folder, or you can go to System Preferences -> CDs & DVDs -> When you insert a video DVD... and select "Open DVD Player" in that pull-down menu. Then you will automatically launch DVD Player whenever you insert a movie disc.