Linksys Wireless USB Adapter & iMac G3

[maxrobertson]

I just got internet at my house (Not even kidding ) and I don't want to use my dad's PC, so I bought this Linksys Wireless-G USB Adapter, but I can't get it to work. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing? I'd really appreciate any help, otherwise I'm just going to have to return it, which would suck.

 

[Aperture]

Hi. About 7 months ago I was in the same situtation as you. iMac G3.. wanted to get a USB Adapter. The Authorized Apple guy at CompUSA told me I had to upgrade to Tiger before I could even use them.. (Had Jaguar) I then decided to get an ethernet game adapter instead, they work like an ethernet bridge and are much faster. I would exchange your USB adapter for one. (especially on USB 1.0) It is obviously meant for game consoles, but if it is set on "Infrastructure" you can use it as an adapter for the computer. It comes with and ethernet cable that goes into the adapter.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

SOME Linksys USB adapters work with third-party driver software. But not all Linksyses. (Hrm, my Google-fu is failing me, I can't find the software right now. I'll take a look on my iMac G3, which has the software, and let you know tomorrow.)

 

[CubeHacker]

You would be best off just avoiding USB adapters alltogether. They rely on drivers which usually don't exist for OSX, or are just very, very horrible. As mentioned before, look for an Ethernet based wireless adapter (sometimes called wireless bridge, game adapter). Either that, or an original Airport card which will always work great.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

...an original Airport card which will always work great.

It depends on which iMac G3 he has. The first four revisions (tray-load,) have no AirPort slot. And even if he has a slot-load model, he needs both the horrendously expensive AirPort card, and the also hard-to-find adapter. (I lucked out that my slot-load iMac came with the adapter, even though it didn't have the AirPort card itself.)