iMac WiFi Capability?

digitalandres · April 16, 2004 8:02PM

I am totally ignorant on this subject so bear with me.

Next school year I am going to move into a house with some other guys and not be on the University ethernet network anymore. I'm not even sure the room I'll be staying in has a cable jack for internet, and one of my housemates (who lived in a house this year) plans to bring all his "WiFi" equipment along. (They have been using his stuff in the house they currently live in now.)

Now I have an iMac (G4), and I know that he and everyone else in the house have PC's. Will I be able to use their wireless network? I know that it certainly isn't built in, but the only wireless stuff for Macs as far as I know is an Airport card, which I think can only run on an airport base, and only with other macs. (I think).

So yeah, anyone have any idea about this? Do I need more specific information about their WiFi stuff? Help?

Thanks.

pscates · April 16, 2004 8:40PM

I don't know all the hardcore specifics and terminology, but I'm about 99.48% sure you'll be okay and can tap in. AirPort isn't exclusively "Apple only", just Apple's name for a particular standard, I believe (some of you smarter people here help me out!)

I do know this: my best friend has an iBook G4 with an AirPort Extreme card. Her brother set her apartment up with wireless gear from Linksys and Microsoft and she has no problem accessing the Internet (Apple equipment mixed with non-Apple equipment).

And there's a coffee shop here in town I've been to with my PowerBook. They don't have an Apple Base Station for their wireless Internet access (I think it's a Netgear model of some sort) and I walk in, open the PowerBook and *BAM* I'm online.

So I think the whole thing (802.11) is platform/brand independent. Turn AirPort on and it should find the signal. Mine does, as does my friend's (she accesses several wireless "hot spots" around the campus with her iBook and I'm willing to bet NONE of them are AirPort Base Station-equipped. Again, others here can probably get into specifics better than I can.

Others here can fill you in on the particulars and any sort of lingo and specific configuration issues, but you're not out in the cold. You should indeed be able to connect, wireless, to your friend's equipment.

You'll have to put an AirPort card in your iMac, of course. A 2 minute operation, if that (you'll spend more time unscrewing the bottom plate and screwing it back on than you will installing the card.

digitalandres · April 16, 2004 9:28PM

Awesome thanks.

Update:

I just ran over to their house to check it out and the way they had it set up was the internet cable came into the house and plugged into a reciever of some kind. Then that box was plugged into a transmitter-ish box that broadcast the signal.

The reciever for the signal (on their computers) was an external USB peripheral that hooked up to each individual computer. It was a little grey box about the size of a cell phone with a tiny antenna on it.

That seemed kinda strange to me, cause wouldn't cable internet sometimes be faster than USB could transport? I'm not really sure. In any case, it wasn't very reassuring because now I guess I need to be compatible with that little peripheral instead of get an airport card. I think, I dunno. Am I right?

(I hope that wasn't too confusing).

kingofsomewherehot · April 16, 2004 11:30PM

Airport cards will work with ANY 802.11b or 802.11g network ... its a STANDARD.

my iBook w/airport accesses WiFi in hotels all over the world ... you're all set dude !

and USB moves stuff plenty fast for a cable connection (but slower than etherNet

kenneth · April 17, 2004 5:12AM

Even in China? I heard about that they are doing their own standard of WiFi.

well.. pretty much well said for previous posters.

cosmonut · April 17, 2004 11:04AM

So everyone's clear, you CAN install an Airport Card in the bottom of a G4 iMac and then connect to ANY 802.11b or 802.11g wireless network. "Airport" and "Airport Extreme" are Apple's names for their 802.11b and 802.11g networking, respectively.

digitalandres, the reason they have those little cell-phone sized boxes connected to their PC's is because their computers don't have any internal 802.11whatever components on their machines. Your iMac DOES...and it's the Airport Card.

You've got it easy, my friend.

asen · April 17, 2004 11:26AM

Once installed, your airport card will sniff out the available networks and display them like this:

You just choose the one you want.

digitalandres · April 17, 2004 4:58PM

Wow, awesome. Thats a lot clearer, thanks guys.

Which brings up a second question though: would I be better off buying an Airport card or just using their USB reciever? (which I think they have extras of)

sworthy · April 17, 2004 8:49PM

the internal airport card would obviously be "cleaner" as there wouldn't be wires, but if they already have a usb one for you to use you might as well go the free route.

kingofsomewherehot · April 17, 2004 9:28PM

go to the website of the company that makes thier USB dongles and make sure they have a driver for mac/OSX

dmband0026 · April 17, 2004 9:52PM

Quote:

Originally posted by digitalandres

Wow, awesome. Thats a lot clearer, thanks guys.

Which brings up a second question though: would I be better off buying an Airport card or just using their USB reciever? (which I think they have extras of)

I would go with the card. First of all, if ya'll are running an 802.11g network (54Mbps) than you will be limited to the 11Mbps that USB can handle. Also, USB uses more processor power than an AirPort card will, so using that little adapter that they have may slow down the ol' iMac just a little bit. And of course, less cables is always a good thing.

iMac WiFi Capability?

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