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jckalen · Apr 15, 2003, 09:20 PM

I just got an airport extreme base station in the hopes of getting my new 17"er online and networking it to my imac. I'm having 2 problems.

1. I think my imac is too old and probably has no airport card. It's a G3 450 DV. Is it possible to install an airport extreme card? I would settle for a regular airport card if that's even possible.

2. I am on a cable modem via ethernet. If I unplug it from the imac and hook it up to the airport, the 17"er still does not go online. I ran the setup assistant and tried to follow the directions that came with the airport. I can't seem to find the software that is specific to roadrunner on the imac but I'm not sure if that is even the root of the problem.

I tried the help files but much of the info was too vague. Any suggestions would be appreciated - especially if they are in plain english!

maxintosh · Apr 15, 2003, 09:32 PM

Originally posted by jckalen:
I just got an airport extreme base station in the hopes of getting my new 17"er online and networking it to my imac. I'm having 2 problems.

1. I think my imac is too old and probably has no airport card. It's a G3 450 DV. Is it possible to install an airport extreme card? I would settle for a regular airport card if that's even possible.

2. I am on a cable modem via ethernet. If I unplug it from the imac and hook it up to the airport, the 17"er still does not go online. I ran the setup assistant and tried to follow the directions that came with the airport. I can't seem to find the software that is specific to roadrunner on the imac but I'm not sure if that is even the root of the problem.

I tried the help files but much of the info was too vague. Any suggestions would be appreciated - especially if they are in plain english!

1. NO! Only new Macs can use Airport Extreme cards. It won't fit, at all.

2. You'll need to configure your AirPort Base Station to the same settings that your 17"er had. For Roadrunner, it's probably just TCP-IP via DCHP with automatic IP discovery. Make sure your other computer has that airport network active.

JohnM15141 · Apr 15, 2003, 10:45 PM

The easiest way to get your Airport Base working is to connect your 17"er to your cable modem via ethernet. Configure it exactly the way your iMac is configured to reach the internet through your cable modem via ethernet. Once you've done this and you can succesfully connect to the internet this way, you're ready to configure your AirPort Base Station. Connect your cable modem to the Airport Base Station and run Airport Setup Assistant on your 17"er. This will transfer your settings to the Base Station.

(and No older Macs do not have Airport Slots...)

Originally posted by jckalen:
I just got an airport extreme base station in the hopes of getting my new 17"er online and networking it to my imac. I'm having 2 problems.

1. I think my imac is too old and probably has no airport card. It's a G3 450 DV. Is it possible to install an airport extreme card? I would settle for a regular airport card if that's even possible.

2. I am on a cable modem via ethernet. If I unplug it from the imac and hook it up to the airport, the 17"er still does not go online. I ran the setup assistant and tried to follow the directions that came with the airport. I can't seem to find the software that is specific to roadrunner on the imac but I'm not sure if that is even the root of the problem.

I tried the help files but much of the info was too vague. Any suggestions would be appreciated - especially if they are in plain english!

chipchen · Apr 16, 2003, 01:30 AM

also, the airport extreme base station comes with an extra ethernet jack (be sure you've got the cable modem in the right jack in the first place)... you can just plug the imac into there.

CaseCom · Apr 16, 2003, 02:50 AM

Just to correct one point: Yes, your iMac does have an AirPort slot -- for the older AirPort card, not AirPort Extreme. The slot-loading G3 iMacs all have AirPort slots except for some of the 350 MHz models; the slot is next to the RAM slots and is accessed through the rear door.

iMac: AirPort- and AirPort Extreme-Ready Models

iMac (Slot Loading): Installing or Replacing an AirPort card

If your Internet connection is "always on," though, and your iMac is next to the base station, it's probably simpler to connect via Ethernet.

I have an AirPort card in my iMac DV 400 because I have a dial-up Internet connection via AirPort. I discovered that I could passively share the Internet connection via Ethernet, but I could not actively control it (i.e. turn it on and off). I needed an AirPort card to do that, so I put one in my iMac. (Our other computer is a 12" PowerBook with an AirPort Extreme card.)

One last point: If you do decide to buy an AirPort card for your iMac, you also will need to purchase something called an AirPort Card Adapter for about $20. You slide the card into the adapter, then insert the adapter into the slot. The adapters used to be included with the cards but no longer.

scaught · Apr 16, 2003, 09:44 AM

1 thing to add...

if you put an airport extreme card into your 17" pb, then put a regular airport card into the imac, the whole network speed will slow down to the 802.11b speed to accomodate the slower standard.

i think if you just hook up the imac via the wan port, you will keep the 54Kbps speed of the 802.11g. im not positive about this though. maybe someone else can provide the answer here?

motti · Apr 16, 2003, 10:22 AM

One more thing, it is possible that your provider does filter the Mac-address. That means if you connect your imac, the cable modem will only assign an ip-address to this computer for 24h i.e.

With a base station this is not a problem because it acts as a router.

jckalen · Apr 17, 2003, 11:41 PM

What if I got an ethernet hub? I could route the cable directly to the imac, avoiding slowdown to the PB which would still go through the base station. Now I just have to convince the wife.

scaught · Apr 18, 2003, 08:07 AM

Originally posted by jckalen:
What if I got an ethernet hub? I could route the cable directly to the imac, avoiding slowdown to the PB which would still go through the base station. Now I just have to convince the wife.

you dont need a ethernet hub though? the airport extreme basestation has a network port on it that you can use to hookup your imac? i assume its not going to slow down your network speed...

jckalen · Apr 19, 2003, 08:08 AM

I tried that but it doesn't seem to work. Hooked up the cable to the cable port & the WAN to the imac. When I start up Safari, it cannot find any web addresses and when I start IE it opens as a local machine zone.

aaanorton · Apr 19, 2003, 12:53 PM

Originally posted by jckalen:
I tried that but it doesn't seem to work. Hooked up the cable to the cable port & the WAN to the imac. When I start up Safari, it cannot find any web addresses and when I start IE it opens as a local machine zone.

Cable modem goes to the AEBS' WAN port.
iMac goes to the LAN port.

jckalen · Apr 24, 2003, 05:26 PM

OK - I'm sooo close! I can hook up the computers to communicate wirelessly but then neither seem to want to go online. I know I have the cables in correctly. The airport is recognizing that the cable modem is hooked up (right-hand light blinks in sync with the "data" light on the cable modem) but neither computer will open web pages. Doesn't matter which browser I try (Safari, IE, Netscape, Mozilla) - is there a TCP/IP trick I haven't tried? I have been through most of the options in system preferences (Internet, network and sharing) and even tried entering my IP address manually. Any thoughts?

Mastrap · Apr 25, 2003, 09:08 AM

Originally posted by jckalen:
OK - I'm sooo close! I can hook up the computers to communicate wirelessly but then neither seem to want to go online. I know I have the cables in correctly. The airport is recognising that the cable modem is hooked up (right-hand light blinks in sync with the "data" light on the cable modem) but neither computer will open web pages. Doesn't matter which browser I try (Safari, IE, Netscape, Mozilla) - is there a TCP/IP trick I haven't tried? I have been through most of the options in system preferences (Internet, network and sharing) and even tried entering my IP address manually. Any thoughts?

You do know that you have to set up your base station to connect to the net, not your Macs, right? Sorry, not trying to be patronising or anything

You'll find the admin and set-up utility for your base station in your application/utilities/ folder.

Follow the instructions and everything should work out fine.