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Question Profile
| DATE | Nov 11, 2006 |
| TICKET | #330882 |
| STATUS | Closed |
| SUBJECT | Wireless Broadband / ADSL on G3 iMac |
| CAT | Home/Business Network and/or Internet Connection |
| TYPE | Home Networking, Cable & DSL |
| DESC | |
| DESC | |
| PLATFORM | Apple Macintosh (PowerPC G3,G4,G5) |
| MODEL | iMac G3 500DV |
| PROC | 500MHZ |
| RAM | 128 |
| DRIVE | 30 |
| NAME | Sarah-Louise |
| USERNAME | KerkyraMac |
| TECHNICAL | Little Experience |
| ISSUE | Totally Lost |
Question Details
TICKET ARCHIVE -> Wireless Broadband / ADSL on G3 iMac
KerkyraMac - Nov 11, 2006 - 7:53 am
Hello!
I am in the process of upgrading the RAM and hardrive on my G3 DV500 iMac with a view to upgrade the OS to OSX (currently at 9.2). Broadband has just become available in my Greek village and due to the design of my house I think it would be better for me to go wireless.
My question is, what kit do I need to do this? Do I need an airport card? What sort of router etc.?
Also is performance affected by use of wireless networks. Our ADSL speed is a bit slow at the moment (768/ 192 Kbps, 1024/ 256 Kbps, or 2048 /256 Kbps) I would be prefer to keep the costs down so will be going with the cheapest option and therefore the slowest!!
Thank you in advance for any help!
I am in the process of upgrading the RAM and hardrive on my G3 DV500 iMac with a view to upgrade the OS to OSX (currently at 9.2). Broadband has just become available in my Greek village and due to the design of my house I think it would be better for me to go wireless.
My question is, what kit do I need to do this? Do I need an airport card? What sort of router etc.?
Also is performance affected by use of wireless networks. Our ADSL speed is a bit slow at the moment (768/ 192 Kbps, 1024/ 256 Kbps, or 2048 /256 Kbps) I would be prefer to keep the costs down so will be going with the cheapest option and therefore the slowest!!
Thank you in advance for any help!
stottm - Nov 12, 2006 - 2:59 am
For the iMac G3 DV500 you are going to need an Airport Card Adapter:
http://store.airportcardauthority.com/aicaad.html
And then an actual original Airport Card to plug into the adaptor:
http://store.airportcardauthority.com/apaica1.html
Get them while they last, very low quantity left!!!
You are also going to need to upgrade your firmware in the iMac to at least 4.1.9 to even install Mac OS X 10.3 or above. Recommend getting Tiger, it is unknown if Leopard will run on this old of a computer; it's not shipping until first quarter of 2007. So best to get Tiger now and possibly upgrade next year to Leopard if the minimum system spec's support it at the time.
http://www.apple.com/support/imac/g3/
Also max out your RAM! You need all the RAM you can get with Mac OS X. The more the better. The iMac G3 can go up to 1GB of RAM so quantity 2 of the 512MB SDRAM PC133 168-pin DIMM's. - Remember Mac's are extremely picky about their RAM so make sure you can return the memory if it won't work for you. I know Crucial's memory will be sure to work, but their price is rather high. Perhaps more so because you are in Greece, due to the USD exchange rate. Are you part of the EU nowadays? Then it's the reverse the EU dollar is worth more the US dollar. Goody for you if that's the case...
I found it at crucial.com for $92.99 USD... It's not cheap because it's older rare memory, shop around, you may find it cheaper.
Module Size: 512MB
Package: 168-pin DIMM
Feature: SDRAM, PC133
Configuration: 64Meg x 64
Error Checking: Non-parity
Speed: 133
SDRAM Timings: CL=2
Specs: SDRAM, PC133 • CL=2 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 133MHz • 3.3V • 64Meg x 64
As far as routers go, Linksys is by far the easiest to setup and use. It works very well with Apples. It's also rather inexpensive, at least here in the USA. Cisco bought out Linksys over all their competitors due to it's market dominance and ease of use that Cisco was never able to duplicate in the retail consumer market. Cisco may be the corporate leader but they simply couldn't compete in the retail market so they bought the leader Linksys.
Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router - http://www.linksys.com/
The router connects to the ADSL modem via ethernet and will auto-authenticate to the ADSL circuit via PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet). You can restrict specific MAC addresses so only those computers you want to allow to connect can do so. A MAC address is a unique alpha-numeric number assigned to every wireless and ethernet device. You can tell the router to only allow connections from a specific list of MAC addresses as well as setting a WEP / WPA password. This will allow your computer and your visiting friends computers but not your neighbors computers or someone driving by your house, etc.
http://store.airportcardauthority.com/aicaad.html
And then an actual original Airport Card to plug into the adaptor:
http://store.airportcardauthority.com/apaica1.html
Get them while they last, very low quantity left!!!
You are also going to need to upgrade your firmware in the iMac to at least 4.1.9 to even install Mac OS X 10.3 or above. Recommend getting Tiger, it is unknown if Leopard will run on this old of a computer; it's not shipping until first quarter of 2007. So best to get Tiger now and possibly upgrade next year to Leopard if the minimum system spec's support it at the time.
http://www.apple.com/support/imac/g3/
Also max out your RAM! You need all the RAM you can get with Mac OS X. The more the better. The iMac G3 can go up to 1GB of RAM so quantity 2 of the 512MB SDRAM PC133 168-pin DIMM's. - Remember Mac's are extremely picky about their RAM so make sure you can return the memory if it won't work for you. I know Crucial's memory will be sure to work, but their price is rather high. Perhaps more so because you are in Greece, due to the USD exchange rate. Are you part of the EU nowadays? Then it's the reverse the EU dollar is worth more the US dollar. Goody for you if that's the case...
I found it at crucial.com for $92.99 USD... It's not cheap because it's older rare memory, shop around, you may find it cheaper.
Module Size: 512MB
Package: 168-pin DIMM
Feature: SDRAM, PC133
Configuration: 64Meg x 64
Error Checking: Non-parity
Speed: 133
SDRAM Timings: CL=2
Specs: SDRAM, PC133 • CL=2 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 133MHz • 3.3V • 64Meg x 64
As far as routers go, Linksys is by far the easiest to setup and use. It works very well with Apples. It's also rather inexpensive, at least here in the USA. Cisco bought out Linksys over all their competitors due to it's market dominance and ease of use that Cisco was never able to duplicate in the retail consumer market. Cisco may be the corporate leader but they simply couldn't compete in the retail market so they bought the leader Linksys.
Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router - http://www.linksys.com/
The router connects to the ADSL modem via ethernet and will auto-authenticate to the ADSL circuit via PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet). You can restrict specific MAC addresses so only those computers you want to allow to connect can do so. A MAC address is a unique alpha-numeric number assigned to every wireless and ethernet device. You can tell the router to only allow connections from a specific list of MAC addresses as well as setting a WEP / WPA password. This will allow your computer and your visiting friends computers but not your neighbors computers or someone driving by your house, etc.
KerkyraMac - Nov 12, 2006 - 3:50 am
Thanks for the quick response and useful info! I have been having a bit more of a dig around for a wireless solution.
What do you think about a USB dongle, does this get around the need for the airport card? It seems that it may give a better connection if it is a viable option for me.
What do you think about a USB dongle, does this get around the need for the airport card? It seems that it may give a better connection if it is a viable option for me.
stottm - Nov 12, 2006 - 4:02 am
The problem with a USB wireless dongle is getting it to work in OS 9.2.2 and/or OS X 10.4.8.... I don't know if there is a vendor that supplies drivers for a Mac. I do know the Airport cards obviously work!
stottm - Nov 12, 2006 - 4:03 am
BTW, USB would be slower then the Airport card too. You have USB 1.1. in the iMac G3 which is significantly slower then USB 2.0. It would slow you down as it's slower then the ADSL circuit you are looking into (even the cheapest slowest one).
KerkyraMac - Nov 12, 2006 - 5:09 am
Right, so let's get this straight, I need an airport card and adaptor (why do I need an adaptor?) Using these 2 things I can connect wirelessly to my wifi router which is attached to my phone point? I don't need anything else?
Sorry to be a bit dense but this "no phoneline" business is totally new to me!!!
What are airport express and extreme? I've seen quite a bit about them.
After all of this, what do you think is better? A wireless connection or an ethernet connection (obviously taking into account my aged, but beloved imac.......I wouldn't swap it for 10pc's!!!!)
I will be upgrading to either panther or tiger, I've been told that panther might be a better bet than tiger for a G3. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your help
Sorry to be a bit dense but this "no phoneline" business is totally new to me!!!
What are airport express and extreme? I've seen quite a bit about them.
After all of this, what do you think is better? A wireless connection or an ethernet connection (obviously taking into account my aged, but beloved imac.......I wouldn't swap it for 10pc's!!!!)
I will be upgrading to either panther or tiger, I've been told that panther might be a better bet than tiger for a G3. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your help
stottm - Nov 12, 2006 - 5:37 am
I believe the adaptor is required because the Airport wireless cards came out after the iMac G3 shipped and the connector's different. The adaptor was to allow those who just bought iMac G3 to get in on the wireless fun. The port inside the iMac G3 was intended for future upgrades.
No you don't need anything else other then a power plug! ;-) Wireless is cool when you first experience it. You could just forget wireless and connect an ethernet cable directly to the ADSL modem. The only reason you would need wireless in an iMac G3 would be if you move the computer around the house a lot. i.e. you like changing rooms, etc. Wireless is more for laptops but would be handy for a desktop because you can move it from room to room and still have Internet as far as the wireless range goes. I recommended the router because you can use it for the future if/when you buy a new Mac. Or if you have friends coming over with wireless laptops, etc. It will also work with the latest game consoles. i.e. XBOX 360, PS3, Wii, etc.
The Extreme is a 54G wireless card (802.11g is the standard and it can send and receive data at 54 Megabits per second). However, I don't know if you can use an Extreme card in the iMac G3 you may have to settle for the regular 801.11 airport card. It's not a bad thing, your Internet cannot go 54Mbps so it's overkill. i.e. you bottleneck on speed between the router and the Internet. The only thing the 54Mps is good for is a local network in your house before you get to the Internet. So you would need more then one computer to take advantage of it. i.e. copying large files between multiple computers in your house. The performance of ethernet is faster but again, it bottlenecks at the Internet. The ethernet port in an iMac G3 can only go 100Mbps.
Computer 54Mbps -> Router 54Mbps -> other computers 54Mbps -> Internet at the lowend you stated 768Kbps down and 192Kbps up. Which is just below 1Mbps download speed and just under 2% upload speed.
The non-G airport cards communicate at about 11Mbps so it' still gonna be faster then the Internet between multiple computers in your house. The router allows multiple computers to use the Internet at the same time. You could connect say 50 computers if you wanted to. Even at the lowend the Internet will be rather fast for most web surfing and email. It's large download files 500MB+ that will take a while compared to the highend 2Mbps download speed.
Tiger is faster then Panther regardless of the hardware. Go for Tiger, just bump up your RAM. 1GB is the max in an iMac G3. The most important thing is the RAM. Mac OS X uses a lot more RAM then Mac OS 9.x. It also uses the RAM a lot more efficiently then Mac OS 9.x. It will use as much RAM as you can throw at it. New Intel Mac's are coming with 1GB or RAM and many upgrade that to 2-3GB's of RAM. The highend MacPro can go to 16GB's of RAM (for an insane price but you can do it. Only really needed for highend applications. Most people would be hard pressed to use more then 3GB's or RAM).
Here's a handy site - http://lowendmac.com/ They have articles on how to upgrade older Mac's and keep them running. It's where I found the tech specs for the iMac G3 DV500 that you have.
No you don't need anything else other then a power plug! ;-) Wireless is cool when you first experience it. You could just forget wireless and connect an ethernet cable directly to the ADSL modem. The only reason you would need wireless in an iMac G3 would be if you move the computer around the house a lot. i.e. you like changing rooms, etc. Wireless is more for laptops but would be handy for a desktop because you can move it from room to room and still have Internet as far as the wireless range goes. I recommended the router because you can use it for the future if/when you buy a new Mac. Or if you have friends coming over with wireless laptops, etc. It will also work with the latest game consoles. i.e. XBOX 360, PS3, Wii, etc.
The Extreme is a 54G wireless card (802.11g is the standard and it can send and receive data at 54 Megabits per second). However, I don't know if you can use an Extreme card in the iMac G3 you may have to settle for the regular 801.11 airport card. It's not a bad thing, your Internet cannot go 54Mbps so it's overkill. i.e. you bottleneck on speed between the router and the Internet. The only thing the 54Mps is good for is a local network in your house before you get to the Internet. So you would need more then one computer to take advantage of it. i.e. copying large files between multiple computers in your house. The performance of ethernet is faster but again, it bottlenecks at the Internet. The ethernet port in an iMac G3 can only go 100Mbps.
Computer 54Mbps -> Router 54Mbps -> other computers 54Mbps -> Internet at the lowend you stated 768Kbps down and 192Kbps up. Which is just below 1Mbps download speed and just under 2% upload speed.
The non-G airport cards communicate at about 11Mbps so it' still gonna be faster then the Internet between multiple computers in your house. The router allows multiple computers to use the Internet at the same time. You could connect say 50 computers if you wanted to. Even at the lowend the Internet will be rather fast for most web surfing and email. It's large download files 500MB+ that will take a while compared to the highend 2Mbps download speed.
Tiger is faster then Panther regardless of the hardware. Go for Tiger, just bump up your RAM. 1GB is the max in an iMac G3. The most important thing is the RAM. Mac OS X uses a lot more RAM then Mac OS 9.x. It also uses the RAM a lot more efficiently then Mac OS 9.x. It will use as much RAM as you can throw at it. New Intel Mac's are coming with 1GB or RAM and many upgrade that to 2-3GB's of RAM. The highend MacPro can go to 16GB's of RAM (for an insane price but you can do it. Only really needed for highend applications. Most people would be hard pressed to use more then 3GB's or RAM).
Here's a handy site - http://lowendmac.com/ They have articles on how to upgrade older Mac's and keep them running. It's where I found the tech specs for the iMac G3 DV500 that you have.
stottm - Nov 12, 2006 - 5:40 am
BTW, I run Tiger on an old PowerBook G4 at 500Mhz and it runs faster then Panther ever did. Tiger is much improved and I suspect Leopard may also still run on G3 hardware and will likely be faster then Tiger. Apple has been consistently supporting the older hardware. But since Leopard has not shipped yet and Apple might cut off the G3's I would just get Tiger and wait and see about Leopard.
stottm - Nov 12, 2006 - 6:20 am
I missed something... The Airport Express is the size of an Apple Laptop power supply and it's a portable router. It's the same thing as a Linksys but much smaller. You can use it as a portable router (people carry it with their laptops for wireless meetings, etc), plug it into your stereo and broadcast you music from iTunes to your stereo in either analog or full digital optical. You can plug a USB printer into the Airport Express and share it with other computers over wireless.
The Linksys is cheaper and still compatible. The Airport Extreme Base Station is also much more money then the Linksys but it can link up to multiple base stations to stretch the range of the wireless network and it can connect to corporate security servers like Radius, etc.
The Linksys is cheaper and still compatible. The Airport Extreme Base Station is also much more money then the Linksys but it can link up to multiple base stations to stretch the range of the wireless network and it can connect to corporate security servers like Radius, etc.
KerkyraMac - Nov 12, 2006 - 7:27 am
Thanks to everyone so far, for their input, I know what I need to buy now!!! Wireless coms here I come!!!!
KerkyraMac - Nov 23, 2006 - 7:06 am
Hi again!!
Right I've got my stuff ordered and on it's way!! I'm bumping up the hard disk too so will do everything at once (I'm either very brave or very stupid.....we'll see!!). We decided to go with tiger in the end.
Anyway, I was wondering if there is anything specific I should look for regarding the router. Our phone company sells the following wireless router
ADSL WiFi MODEM/ROUTER SAGEM FAST 1500WG
4 Ethernet PPPoATM / PPPoEth (protocol)
2 ΦΙΛΤΡΑ (filters).
I can get this included in my phone bill with an extra discount of €15.00 so as cost is upmost in my mind (what with the rest of the upgrade!) Would this be suitable?
Thanks again for all the help, I hope I am in a position oneday to help someone out myself!!
Right I've got my stuff ordered and on it's way!! I'm bumping up the hard disk too so will do everything at once (I'm either very brave or very stupid.....we'll see!!). We decided to go with tiger in the end.
Anyway, I was wondering if there is anything specific I should look for regarding the router. Our phone company sells the following wireless router
ADSL WiFi MODEM/ROUTER SAGEM FAST 1500WG
4 Ethernet PPPoATM / PPPoEth (protocol)
2 ΦΙΛΤΡΑ (filters).
I can get this included in my phone bill with an extra discount of €15.00 so as cost is upmost in my mind (what with the rest of the upgrade!) Would this be suitable?
Thanks again for all the help, I hope I am in a position oneday to help someone out myself!!
TechSupport - Nov 23, 2006 - 1:00 pm
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