iMac G3 700MHz summer 2001 - fastest wireless?

m0gely

I have been surfing eBay and some forums here and there, but didn't see any wireless cards for this Mac outside of the original 802.11b airport card offered. I'm not up on Apple hardware, so are there any 3rd party cards or easy mods to get an 802.11g card into this machine? TIA!



- m0gely

carniphage

Quote:

Originally Posted by m0gely


I have been surfing eBay and some forums here and there, but didn't see any wireless cards for this Mac outside of the original 802.11b airport card offered. I'm not up on Apple hardware, so are there any 3rd party cards or easy mods to get an 802.11g card into this machine? TIA!



- m0gely

The big problem, in my experience, is getting reliable drivers for third party cards. I have an old iMac with a wireless USB adaptor. The driver locks up regularly, forcing a re-boot.



The most reliable option is using a Wireless-Ethernet bridge. (As used by videogame consoles). The Mac then thinks it is plugged into a wired ethernet connection and needs no drivers. The bridge can be 802.11g n or whatever.



C.

gwoodpecker

As Carniphage said, there are no other wireless cards specifically for the old G3 iMacs. The Apple one is the only one you can use (although 11b only). USB adapters are no option either - no stable drivers available that I know of.



Just for my curiosity: why do you really need a 11g connection other than "because it is faster"? (and even then, the actual network speed is dependent on a lot of other factors as walls between the iMac and the access point and distance between the two). So basically an 11g and an 11b card could deliver the same speed, depending on your setup.



And by the way, if you already own a wireless router, that one can serve 11b and 11g clients...

m0gely

Isn't faster a good enough reason? Actually, I'm well aware of caveats of wireless; walls, cordless phones, microwaves, et al. And I also know about wireless bridges. All good suggestions and good info, but my questions are more for lack of Apple knowledge. I will most likely be using wireless for the iMac and will be transferring files to and from other machines on the network. So 54mb is highly desired if I can get it, and it sounds like a WET54G bridge is in my near future. Thanks guys!