Can I get WiFi on my G3 iMac?

Need more info on your iMac. Is it tray loading or slot loading optical drive?

If it's tray loading, your options are limited. You could buy one of those universal USB dongles that will maybe work, but be slow due to the USB ports being USB1.1, or you could get an ethernet wireless adapter, which are more expensive, but more effecient.

If it's slot loading, you can pick up an original Airport card(not Extreme) off eBay, generally for $40 or so. And if the Airport card doesn't come with the iMac adapter for it, you'll need that as well.

As for your version of OS X - I have no idea whether it'll work or not with 10.1.

The original airport cards are pretty hard to find, and aren't cheap. You might have better luck than I did but I was surprised..

They are also pretty slow, similar to usb 1.1 I would say.. frustratingly so at times.

If your wireless network is using airports, would it be viable to pick up a cheap airport express (either second hand or a refurb, 1st gen would be cheapest) and connect to that using ethernet. That should allow you to connect to the network.

windowpain said:

The original airport cards are pretty hard to find, and aren't cheap. You might have better luck than I did but I was surprised..

They are also pretty slow, similar to usb 1.1 I would say.. frustratingly so at times.

If your wireless network is using airports, would it be viable to pick up a cheap airport express (either second hand or a refurb, 1st gen would be cheapest) and connect to that using ethernet. That should allow you to connect to the network.

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I think if the iMac has decent specs, it should be okay. My girlfriend runs a 466mHz clamshell with 576MB of ram and an airport card, and if the browser and adium are the only things running(and there no flash sites open), the internet is pretty snappy. Somewhat comparable to the speed of my Macbook Pro, honestly...

ddeadserious said:

I think if the iMac has decent specs, it should be okay.

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You are right of course. I have one for my powerbook and it's just frustrating sometimes trying to watch youtube or download an update, but for most things its ok.

Do you know the relative speeds of 802.11b and Usb 1.1? I thought they were pretty similar, but I may be wrong..

I was using this in my powerbook before I got the apple one, and although this is faster (and cheaper) I much preferred the airport. It just worked more seamlessly. I think I had to use the 'wireless' program that came with it to get OSX to recognize it.. I remember it being a pain, kept dropping the signal.