iMac G3 WiFi Questions

[jessicaleigh]

I got this computer a long time ago from an older man who worked on them for a school. When I was a kid I loved to mess with computers but all I knew was PC so he gave it to me to play with.

Well, I loved it for a couple years and eventually pushed it aside for a normal working computer, but I would love to get this thing into working order.

Its a tray loading, Bondi blue G3. The man I got it from said something about him making sure it couldn't have internet since it was in a school, but I would assume he just didn't have an AirPort card in it. I don't know a ton about Macs, so I'm not sure. Can this model use an AirPort card? Which one do I need? Etc. Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[Dronecatcher]

I don't own one of these models but I'm sure someone who does will come along soon and verify. But from memory I don't think you can add Airport on these - your options will be modem/dial up or ethernet.
A USB wifi dongle will be inoperable in OS 9 and I think OS 10.3 is the max you can go and the chances of a working driver in that are slim.
Bear in mind, once connected your options will be limited, Classilla is the only browser remotely capable of navigating the modern web but you can still use iTunes for internet radio.

http://macintoshgarden.org/

is a huge archive of software from your iMac's era - there's still plenty of other things you can do without going online

 

[Yoursh]

The previous post is correct, the tray loading iMacs don't have the option for airport cards. They added a slot for the 802.11b cards in the next generation, slot loading models.

Your options for wireless is either a usb wifi dongle or an ethernet to wifi device, like an airport express or something similar.

 

[eyoungren]

You are not limited to OS X 10.3 however. It's possible to install OS X 10.4 on an iMac G3. I've done it. It simply requires formatting your drive in two or more partitions with OS9 drivers. The first partition must be 8GB or less but the others do not matter.

Then you simply install Tiger on to the first partition. I did all this using my Quicksilver at the time and the iMac's HD in an external case. Put the drive back in the Mac and it booted right in to Tiger.

 

[0248294]

Yes, you can wriggle Tiger onto it, but the question is whether you really want to. The 233MHz G3 and outdated graphics will weigh it down, and you really want to max the RAM out to 512MB using Low Profile 256MB DIMMs. Only Low Profile ones work. But, with Tiger, you get the ability to use an older but working edited version of Spotify and listen to online music with that.

 

[bunnspecial]

The 233MHz G3 and outdated graphics will weigh it down, and you really want to max the RAM out to 512MB using Low Profile 256MB DIMMs. Only Low Profile ones work. But, with Tiger, you get the ability to use an older but working edited version of Spotify and listen to online music with that.

Two small things-

First of all, you want LOW DENSITY, not necessarily low profile RAM. In fact, I think the huge double-height Apple SO-DIMMs can be squeezed into the top slot. For relatively easy to find, though, you can find 144 pin 256mb SO-DIMMs with 8 chips per side(16 total). This is the key to making 256s work at their full capacity(8 chip ones will read at half). Also remember that PC-100 and PC-133 will both work also-I forget what the last modules I bought were.

Second, Rev. A Bondis will max at 384mb of RAM even with 512mb installed.

As far as adding WiFi, I like these little boxes

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR...8&qid=1465171250&sr=8-8&keywords=wi+fi+bridge

They connect to the computer through the ethernet port and can either be powered via a USB port or a wall wart adapter(an iPhone charger works great). They are configured entirely through a browser, so are platform agnostic, but support all the latest encryption standards.