IMac G3 problems connecting to internet.Updating software

Question

I bought an old iMac G3 running Mac OS 9.2. I can not figure out how to connect it to the internet using ethernet. I have at&t internet with wireless and all that. But the operating system is so old that im lost fooling with it. Can anyone help. Also id like some advice on how to update the operating system to the lastest version that would run on this computer. Any advice would be great. Thanks

Answer 1

Mike,
Welcome to Discussions (or is it Apple Communities that we're meant to call it ?)
OS9.2 on an iMac G3 should work fine for simple internet stuff. You may want to upgrade to somethng like OSX 10.2 or OSX 10.3, but the cost of required memory upgrades, perhaps a bigger hard disk and then the OS itself, may mean it's more efficient to to sell it again and buy an old iMac G4 or an eMac G4. These would be much faster and may already come with enough memory and disk, and maybe even with the OS. eMac G4s are pennies on eBay, if you buy on the right day (ie. not Sunday night), some sellers still try to command £70 / £90, but if you wait you can get one for £10 or top-of-the-range for £40.
Still, stick with the iMac G3 for now and see how you go.
So to get internet working o Ethernet ...
Firt thing to know is that OS9 and earlier are a real pain at detecting when an active connection over Ethernet appears.
So first thing to do is make sure the iMac is connected by Ethernet to the hub/router with a 'patch' cable, as opposed to a 'cross-over' cable. If you're unsure which you have it's probably a patch cable, but if you can try another cable, do so.
This is because the iMac G3 doesn't come with an auto-sensing Ethernet port, like all the G4s and all Macs aftr that did. An auto-sensing port can detect when a cross-over cable is inserted by mistake and make it work anyway.
Once the cable is in and the router is on and working, then start up the iMac.
In OS9 you're going to need to configure the AppleTalk and TCP/IP control panels.
AppleTalk first, make sure it's On, and selected to connect over Ethernet.
Then TCP/IP, select it to connect over Ethernet and to get everything from the router, ie. DHCP, everything else "suplied by router".
Start up Internet Explorer and go to google.com or something, then open the TCP/IP control panel again.
Does it have an IP address assigned ro you ? and a mask ? and a router IP addess ?
Hopefully it'll say your IP address is something like 192.168.x.x, Subnet Mask at 255.255.255.0, Router IP address at 192.168.x.x. And the Internet Explorer window has loaded google.cm for you.
Less helpful is if you still have no IP address in the TCP/IP control panel. This means TCP/IP has not started.
A dead loss here is that the IP address assigned to the iMac is something like 169.x.x.x, a self-assigned IP address that means the iMac cannot communicate at all with the router.
Or do you have some other IP address ?
If you don't have immediate success, try a restart and start Internet Explorer again and open TCP/IP control panel to check your IP address again. The restart is because, like I said before, OS9 is awful at detecting a new connection - there is a fix for this, but lets get the internet working first.
Post back what you tried and what happened and any errors you got. Don't be vague, the more complete and accurate the detail the waier it is for those here to help you get it working in a few minutes.