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iMac G4 and wifi (bt homehub)

R

richard-apples

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2014
18
0
I got myself an old (but lovely) iMac G4 15" flowerpot.

It had OS X 10.3.2 but I have since upgraded to 10.3.9

I have just put in an AirPort card and also upgraded it's firmware from 8.70 to 9.52 as it did not appear to support WPA2 encryption.

When I pic my wifi router (BT home hub) from the available networks, I get options for WPA and WPA2 (Personal and Enterprise).

Every time I try and connect, I get a message saying that "The wireless network BTHomeHub does not support the requested encryption method" which is odd as I know it does an all my other devices use it...

Do I need to create an 'Airport Base station'?

I used Airport Admin utility 4.2 to update the Airport firmware, but it doesn't seem to much else....

Any pointers?

I'd rather avoid having to upgrade to 10.4 as it would cost more than the machine is worth!
 
You can only connect to an open, WEP, or WPA network with that model iMac. You cannot connect to a WPA2 network with its built in Airport card. Make sure your wireless router accepts computers connecting in both the WPA and WPA2 encryption type.
 
richard-apples said:
I got myself an old (but lovely) iMac G4 15" flowerpot.

It had OS X 10.3.2 but I have since upgraded to 10.3.9

I have just put in an AirPort card and also upgraded it's firmware from 8.70 to 9.52 as it did not appear to support WPA2 encryption.

When I pic my wifi router (BT home hub) from the available networks, I get options for WPA and WPA2 (Personal and Enterprise).

Every time I try and connect, I get a message saying that "The wireless network BTHomeHub does not support the requested encryption method" which is odd as I know it does an all my other devices use it...

Do I need to create an 'Airport Base station'?

I used Airport Admin utility 4.2 to update the Airport firmware, but it doesn't seem to much else....

Any pointers?

I'd rather avoid having to upgrade to 10.4 as it would cost more than the machine is worth!
Click to expand...
I think that the AirPort card only supports WPA TKIP, not AES Check your router and make sure it is set to WPA with TKIP encryption.
 
Last edited:
Only the Airport Extreme cards supported WPA2. You will further note that if you do get WPA enabled, you need to use it with TKIP and not AES encryption.

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128keaton said:
I think that the AirPort card only supports WPA2 Personal TKIP, not AES Check your router and make sure it is set to WPA2 Personal with TKIP encryption.
Click to expand...
No, just WPA max.
 
128keaton said:
I think that the AirPort card only supports WPA2 Personal AES, not TKIP. Check your router and make sure it is set to WPA2 Personal with AES encryption.
Click to expand...

The Airport B card can only do a maximum of WPA+TKIP. It cannot do WPA2 or AES at all.
 
eyoungren said:
Only the Airport Extreme cards supported WPA2. You will further note that if you do get WPA enabled, you need to use it with TKIP and not AES encryption.

----------


No, just WPA max.
Click to expand...

Really? I vividly remember running my TiBook with an original AirPort card on my home WPA2 Personal network. I remember it was WPA2 since our Mac Mini hated it.
 
128keaton said:
Really? I vividly remember running my TiBook with an original AirPort card on my home WPA2 Personal network. I remember it was WPA2 since our Mac Mini hated it.
Click to expand...

It was likely a WPA+WPA2 network. Some versions of Mac OS X didn't like mixed encryption networks.
 
128keaton said:
Really? I vividly remember running my TiBook with an original AirPort card on my home WPA2 Personal network. I remember it was WPA2 since our Mac Mini hated it.
Click to expand...
Really.

Both my son and I are using Leopard and he can actually call up the box for WPA2. But he can never, ever, ever connect because while Leopard supports the protocol his original Airport card doesn't.

The same with my old TiBook when I had Leopard on it. WPA2 failed every time.
 
My router is set to WPA&WPA2 encryption.

I can't see any options to set TKIP or AES.

I might try switching to WPA only and see what happens...

As another alternative, If I stick a USB wifi dongle (like an edimax 7811), will I find drivers for OS X 10.3.9?
 
I just tried switching my router to WPA only and to None (just for test purposes) and the iMac failed to see it at all, but it is seeing the 'Public' wifi that BT routers make available....

I'll try switching back to WPA&WPA2 and see if it shows up again...

Yes it does!

So as long as I select WPA&WPA2 my router shows up on the iMac, but if refuses to connect. Setting my router to WPA or No encryption makes it invisible to the iMac.

My windoze pc if fine with all settings.....
 
Last edited:
Does your router have an N mode? If it does, try setting it to only be B and G. The original Airport card sometimes cannot see or correct to a B/G/N network.
 
Well for some reason, today its working fine!
Connected immediately set to WPA. Router set to WPA&WPA2.
I was getting the same message about not liking the encryption, so i tried a duff password which was correctly detected and then next attempt worked fine.

One question. There is no option on my router to set AES or TKIP, so is it possible that I was able to connect because the iMac was first to connect this morning? If my windows laptop connected first with TKIP would it prevent the iMac connecting afterwards?

Next I need to track down a cheap set of Tiger disks, currently they are worth more than the machine they are installed on!

Anyway, I am quite enjoying getting this classic machine going! (My first MAC too!)
 
My windows pc is set to WPA2 TKIP.

Setting it to AES doesn't seem to cause any problems for the iMac....

Just one of those strange mysteries...
 
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