New to Macs - desparate for help.

Question

Hi all--I've seen nothing but decent answers here so I figured to give it a go and hope for the best.
I've just recently bought an iMac G3 at a yard sale. I purchased it from a friend who acquired it from her father. While I am no stranger to things techie- this system and its issues are a bit overwhelming. Its running 256mb RAM on Mac OS 9.2. I should start by explaining that the system is completely intact, software and all. My difficulties are in implementing internet through my digital cable modem (I have TimeWarner Cable). I've tried to do a number of configurations with an ethernet cable, but to no avail. I've also heard that I can set up a network on my PC and allow the iMac to piggyback off that connection as well as transfer compatible files from PC to Mac.
Is there a factory reset option that resets the system to "out of box" status? Maybe I could set up everything from scratch. (I don't have any actual OSs or anything).
Please MAC gurus...help. Any sound advice would be most humbly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi, bylmdman78 -
Part of this has been covered before -
• Settings -
  - in the TCP/IP control panel, set
    Connect via    -to-    Ethernet
    Configure    -to-    Using DHCP server
  - in the Internet control panel, be sure to enter the appropriate info on the E-Mail tab
• AppleTalk - unless you need to have AppleTalk enabled in order to connect to an ethernet-connected printer, set AppleTalk to connect via a bus other than ethernet. Having it enabled and set to use ethernet can sometimes interfere with other communications on that bus; unfortunately, just turning it off is often not enough.
• Ethernet Cable - there are two kinds of ethernet cable, Crossover and Patch.
    - if your iMac G3 is connected directly to the cable modem, and your iMac G3 is an early model and the cable modem does not have an auto-switching ethernet port, you will need to use a Crossover type ethernet cable.
    - if your iMac G3 is connected to the cable modem through an intervening hub, switch, or router, and your iMac G3 is an early model and the hub/switch/router does not have an auto-switching ethernet port, you will need to use a Crossover type ethernet cable.
    - if the iMac G3 is an early one and the cable modem or intervening hub/switch/router does have an auto-switching port, or if you have a later model iMac G3, you can use either type of cable (Patch or Crossover).
    Article #42717 - Apple products that require an Ethernet Crossover cable
• Device connected - many Macs will disable the ethernet bus during startup if a live device is not detected as being present on the bus at that time. This means that the device the Mac is connected to, modem or hub/switch/router, as applicable, must be on and warmed up a couple of minutes before starting up the Mac.
• Preference files - it can sometimes help to throw away the file named ASLM Preferences, then restart. This will cause a new prefs file by that name to be created.
• Specific extensions - be sure that both the extensions named Shared Library Manager and Shared Library Manager PPC are enabled in Extensions Manager; ditto any extensions whose names include OpenTransport or OpenTpt.
Minor correction on OS version - the last OS 9 version is OS 9.2.2. The last retail OS 9 Install CD released was OS 9.2.1, but there is a download update available for OS 9.2.2. Some later model Macs (such as some G4 Quicksilver models) came with a separate install disk for OS 9.2.2 - although this was a bootable disk, it was a model-specific one, usable only on the machines it came with.