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Configuring an Older Mac G4 Tower for Wireless

Starbuck1975

Starbuck1975

Lifer
Trying to set up wireless printing in our home office for my wife's G4 tower. I called Apple tech support, and they stated we will need a Airport Extreme Card and a base station like the Airport Express. They told me that Wireless was a configuration option for this particular G4 model, but they were unable to point me in the right direction in terms of confirming whether or not her G4 has the necessary hardware installed.

I pulled up the system properties on her computer, and under the Network menu, Airport Card submenu, it states "No Information Found." I am assuming this means her Mac is currently not Airport or wireless capable.

I checked on Amazon, and it looks like they have a couple of Airport Extreme card options. I think this is the one I need:

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-M8881LL-...4124285&sr=8-1

However, I was a bit worried when I read this part:
"The AirPort Extreme Card can be installed only in computers that are AirPort Extreme ready. AirPort Extreme Cards cannot be used in AirPort ready computers with an AirPort Card slot."

How do I go about confirming that:
1. Do I even need the card and,
2. If I do need the card, is this the correct one
 
What version of OS X are you using?
Have you considered just buying a USB dongle?
 
Can you give us some more information about the model of that computer from the System Profiler? Will help pinpoint the exact model of G4 you're dealing with and help us make informed suggestions. That said, a USB solution might be easier.
 
You need to identify what specific model of the G4 tower it is. The only G4 tower with the ability to house an Airport Extreme card was the final model, the Firewire 800 model. If it doesn't look like that and have Firewire 800 ports, then it's no-go for Airport Extreme. You would have to use an old Airport (802.11b) card.

Consequently, the only G4 that can't fit an Airport card is the first one.

A Mac that is Airport or Airport Extreme ready will have an appropriate slot built-in to the motherboard, and an antenna running from that slot up through the case. So you only need to figure out what model you do (or don't) have, and you can tell from there whether it's wireless capable. Oh, and Airport was always optional on the G4 towers. So since you don't already have wireless capabilities, you can be sure that you will need some kind of card.
 
Last edited:
OK here are some additional specifics. I am a PC guy, and this is my wife's G4 that we are attempting to upgrade. I just assumed Mac's could magically do everything. 🙂

She is running OS 10.4.11

Hardware Overview:
Power Mac G4 (silver chassis with mirrored drive bays)
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4
1 MB L3 cache
2 GB DDR SDRAM

I did consider going with the USB dongle. Problem is that she is already limited on USB ports, and was hoping for an integrated solution.

Separate question. She just purchased a webcam. She has an Apple Cinema Display from before Apple made them with integrated webcams. The frame rate on her screen is very slow, which I am guessing is because she has a slow video card. Any guess on a budget video card upgrade option to get her a framerate boost?
 
Starbuck1975 said:
OK here are some additional specifics. I am a PC guy, and this is my wife's G4 that we are attempting to upgrade. I just assumed Mac's could magically do everything. 🙂

She is running OS 10.4.11

Hardware Overview:
Power Mac G4 (silver chassis with mirrored drive bays)
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
1.25 Ghz PowerPC G4
1 MB L3 cache
2 GB DDR SDRAM

I did consider going with the USB dongle. Problem is that she is already limited on USB ports, and was hoping for an integrated solution.

Separate question. She just purchased a webcam. She has an Apple Cinema Display from before Apple made them with integrated webcams. The frame rate on her screen is very slow, which I am guessing is because she has a slow video card. Any guess on a budget video card upgrade option to get her a framerate boost?
Click to expand...
Apple made two models using that case, so you have to figure out which one it is. Look for Firewire 800 ports; if it has FW800 ports then you have the one that can use an Airport Extreme card, otherwise if there are no FW800 ports you can only use a regular Airport card.

Internal PCI cards may also be an option, but TBH I've never looked in to the issue.

As for a video card, I'm not sure that your issue is the video card (Apple paired that cam with lesser hardware) but I'm also not sure what else it could be. If you did want to upgrade your card you have a few options (I'm thinking mainly of the Mac editions of the Radeon X800XT and GeForce 6800 at the very high end) but you'd need to use the System Profiler to figure out what card you already have, so that we can figure out what would be an upgrade for you.
 
I checked the back of her G4 case, and there are two Firewire ports. I am not able to find information on the specifics as to whether or not they are FW800, but if I look at the Firewire settings under her hardware profile, it states max speed of 400 Mb/sec for her Firewire bus. Does that help?

As for her video card, she has an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro on an AGP slot. Her G4 is over 6 years old. Is it even possible to find AGP cards anymore for a Mac G4 that would be a reasonable step up for her?
 
Sadly, the Radeon 9000 was in both models. Though, if it's saying 400Mb/sec, then no, it's not the one that supports the Airport Extreme. In that case, you're definitely best with a USB device or PCI card instead of the original Airport, not for reliability, but for the overall speed of your wireless network. It will brings things to a crawl when it connects at 802.11b speeds.
 
Starbuck1975 said:
As for her video card, she has an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro on an AGP slot. Her G4 is over 6 years old. Is it even possible to find AGP cards anymore for a Mac G4 that would be a reasonable step up for her?
Click to expand...
Apparently you can't use the X800XT or 6800 Mac Editions in a G4 tower, so your options are the Radeon 9600 Mac Edition or Radeon 9800 Mac Edition. Because Mac video cards are such a small volume item, both are fairly rare and can easily set you back a couple hundred bucks based on some quick price searching I did.
 
Starbuck1975 said:
As for her video card, she has an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro on an AGP slot. Her G4 is over 6 years old. Is it even possible to find AGP cards anymore for a Mac G4 that would be a reasonable step up for her?
Click to expand...
Apparently you can't use the X800XT or 6800 Mac Editions in a G4 tower, so your options are the Radeon 9900 Mac Edition or Radeon 9600 Mac Edition. Because Mac video cards are such a small volume item, both are fairly rare and can easily set you back a couple hundred bucks based on some quick price searching I did.
 
Tegeril said:
Sadly, the Radeon 9000 was in both models. Though, if it's saying 400Mb/sec, then no, it's not the one that supports the Airport Extreme. In that case, you're definitely best with a USB device or PCI card instead of the original Airport, not for reliability, but for the overall speed of your wireless network. It will brings things to a crawl when it connects at 802.11b speeds.
Click to expand...
I dont mind going the PCI card route. I went to the Apple store, Micro Center and Fry's, and none of them carried a PCI wireless card for MACs. Who makes Mac compatible PCI cards?
 
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