Ask Jacob

You are on the right track, you only need the Apple Micro-DVI to DVI Adapter to connect to the other end of male dvi to hdmi. Then it will connect to the cable you already own, like this HDMI/DVI cable and connect to your home theater.

All these adapters can drive you crazy, at least Apple as standardized on a single Mini Display Port for all new Macs, even the 2008 MacBook Air model uses it. If you ever get one of those you will need this Apple Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter.

Both adapters have female ports so the mail DVI connector will hookup.

- Jacob

There are a few ways to do this but here are the two ways I would recommend. The standard “Apple” method is that you would want to use the MobileMe service to do this. You can sync calendars Address Books and even BookMarks. It was designed with the idea of keeping your Home and Work Macs in sync but will work in a small office too. It is integrated into the OS so you really just have to enter the account info into the System Preferences and enable the services you want to keep synchronized on that computer. There is a annual cost for this service and although there are many more features than what I have mentioned, you may not find the value in the service.

So next look at the Gmail solution. With a free Gmail account you can sync your Apple Address Book with a single account from many computers. In Leopard, go to the Address Book preferences and click on the General tab. Then mark the checkbox for “Synchronize with Google.” Click the [Google] button and enter your email address and account password. Set up all you computer with the same info and soon they all will be in sync.

- Jacob

If your Mac suffers a lockup when connecting a USB device, it is often due to a bad USB device. Or it is a USB device drawing more power than what the port is supplying. Make sure you are connecting it to an internal USB port on the computer, not a keyboard or unpowered hub. If that still causes a problem, see if the device is a USB 2.0 device, your Mac may only have a USB 1.1 port. USB 2.0 devices can draw more power than the USB 1.1 port supplies.

- Jacob

Most times sharing a drive over the network will be fast, sometimes faster that FireWire 800. You must have a Gigabit switch for that to work and good wiring in the building. Also, all your systems, including the network drive, must support Gigabit Ethernet. That will be the fastest and most cost effective way to share a drive over the network. Everything beyond that will have a large start-up cost.

If the 2TB drive is not a network drive or only has 10/100 Ethernet , just attach it to your fastest Mac and use File Sharing to grant access to the other Apple computers on the network.

- Jacob

I could try to reiterate this article but they did good job explaining it. The basic sum of this is you need to use PPTP protocol on your OS X server to allow Windows clients.

The other option would be to use a different Windows VPN client.

- Jacob

Probably the simplest way to get that data over is with a PCI SCSI card. This will enable you to install the SCSI hard drive into your G4 and pull all the data from it that you want. It will also allow you to use some external SCSI hardware. Otherwise, you could try connecting both Macs to the same ethernet network and enabling an Appletalk network for file sharing. However, that could prove to be more complicated than it is worth for you.

- Jacob

I am fairly sure it is not an issue with your Apple equipment. This is because I have exactly the same setup in my home and it works reliably. The one exception is that I do not like the equipment Comcast provides. I instead use my own Cable modem. This is the Linksys router I have used for years and like its rock -solid performance.

Before you run our and get a new modem, try these two possible fixes. First off power everything. Let the cable modem sit, without power, for five minutes and then power it on again. After it is fully on and connected to the Comcast network, power on the Airport Base station. Make sure your cable modem is the only Ethernet device connected to the Airport base station and that you have it connected to the WAN port. That is the port off to one side with a dotted circle above it. Now you can connect your devices.

If that fails you may have been given a Cable modem that has its own DHCP / NAT serve and it is in conflict with your Airport’s DHCP / NAT service. Here is the process for disabling DHCP and NAT on the Airport Base Station.

If all my suggestions fail, get the Linksys modem. You may even save money on your monthly bill.

- Jacob

I use the Apple Airport base stations for this. They share a printer with Macs and PCs, but you need to install Bonjour on the Windows system.

Look at the Airport express if you just have wireless computers in the house. If some computers have to have an Ethernet connection, the AirPort Extreme is the one you want.

- Jacob

What you need is a KVM switch and there are two you should look at. The IOGear KVM switch is particularly nice for this kind of device switching. Many KVMs do not have audio switching or us DVI, but this IOGear Micro View KVM Switch will do.

Which ever unit you get should help with the monitor an speakers. The wireless keyboard mouse combo should work as long as it is the kind that uses the USB dongle attached to your current Mac computer. Otherwise you will have trouble pairing those devices with two computers. You may need to use the Keyboard and mouse that come with the Mac Pro until you retire the PC. After that a PC bluetooth keyboard/mouse will work well on the Mac.

- Jacob

For the best boot times and fastest game loads, I would recommend that you make your primary drive a 300GB 15k rpm SAS drive. That should make data and applications zip on that system, the hard drive is often the bottleneck of a computer. Your second and third drives can be 1TB in size. Make them a RAID 1 to protect your data if you have no other backup strategy. Remember Time Machine only backs up the primary boot drive.

Hope that helps,
Jacob

What you need is a wireless to Ethernet bridge, I like the Linksys G Wireless Bridge. If you add a small Netgear Ethernet switch to the setup you can have many devices connected to the one Ethernet bridge.

Because you are using an Apple base station, you have the option of using an Airport Express in place of the Linksys bridge. This would be a much better solution. You will set up the Express a WDS extension to your wireless network. Then you will share the Ethernet connection with the switch from above. The Express will also allow you the share your audio over the network, through the AirTunes port.

Hope that helps,

Jacob

Some of these off brand cameras are hard to deal with because they were never designed to work with Mac computers and they are so obscure that Apple did not build specific support for them into the Mac OS, as they do with more popular cameras. This is not to say that your camera will never work again, it is just not going to be easy to find specific info on your camera’s Mac connectivity.

This Emprex camera you are using charges from the USB connection. It could be this charging operation that is causing the problem. Not all G4 Macs had USB 2.0 ports on them and and that is likely going to be the requirement of this camera. Not that this camera needs the extra speed but a USB 2.0 port provides more power than the older USB 1.1 port. A good test would be to fully charge this camera from another computer that has USB 2.0, or a well powered USB port, and then check to see whether it properly mounts on the Apple Mac.

The other option would be to try removing the SD memory card from the camera and use a universal card reader to transfer the photos over to the Mac.

Hope this helps
Jacob

Buzzing in digital audio speakers can be due to all sorts or radio interference. The most common source is from a cell phone or cordless phone. Even when you are not talking on them, these devices emit radio waves that will be audible on powered speakers. It is more likely that interference has recently developed in your neighborhood than the port failing on your G4. However you can check that simply by connecting the speakers to another device. An iPod or portable CD player would work well. The important part of the test is to leave the speakers where they are and just change input sources. If the speakers sound fine on another device, and it is just a computer issue, then you can get a USB audio adapter to replace the internal sound system on the Mac. Many people use the Griffin iMic for a simple solution:

If the static does end up occurring on both the Apple computer and portable audio device you used to test with, then you need to eliminate possible causes of that buzz. To troubleshoot, try plugging in the speakers to another power source, in another room. If the move fixes it then you should be able to move it back to its former positions, in small step until you locate the source of the buzz.

Hope that helps get you moving in the right direction,
Jacob

The best solution for Apple computers that can’t use an internal modem, like your Intel iMac, is to use the Apple V.92 Data/Fax USB Modem.

The only requirement is that you have Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, and a free USB port. As the name implies, this will work for faxing as well as Dial-up internet access.

Hope that helps,

Jacob

Target Disk Mode should work for this process and you only need one 6 Pin FireWire cable. From “Big Red” you will want to download Carbon Copy Cloner 2.3 and install it.

Then boot up one of the other iMacs in Target Disk Mode by holding down the [T] key during startup. Let go of the key after you see a FireWire symbol on the screen and connect the TDM computer to “Big Red” via the FireWire cable. The hard drive of the TDM iMac will appear on Big Red’s Desktop. Format the drive as you want it to look with Disk Utility. Then use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy both the OS X and OS 9 volumes from Big Red to the other iMac’s partitions.

When done, eject the TDM iMac’s drives and restart it. It should boot up exactly as Big Red would and if it does, repeat the process on all the other iMacs you want to look like Big Red.

I like Leopard for many geeky reasons. It makes it easier to manage my teenager’s computer through Parental Controls. The Leopard Time Machine backup is great data insurance, which gives me peace of mind. The ease of screen sharing makes having a house of Mac computers work cooperatively.

That being said, it is not essential to your overall productivity. It will not change your speed or quality of work, nor will it revolutionize your computer experience. If you want to upgrade, I would recommend doing all your systems together. If you are updating many computers, the Family pack is the best way to go. Apple has its users on the honor system, so you can install the same copy of the single user OS on every Mac you own. However, the OS X Leopard Family Pack is not much more money than the single user version, so it is easy to “do the right thing” when it comes to software licensing.

You can absolutely get that G3 iMac online. Once you get the connection taken care of, setup is easy and documented in the users guide. The easiest way to get physically online is via the Ethernet port. That is the larger of the two “phone jacks” you saw on the side of the Mac. The smaller one is the modem and the larger one can connect directly to your router via an Ethernet cable.

If you want to go wireless with Apple branded equipment then you need two parts. You need the original G3 Airport Card and a G3 iMac adapter card called an InterPoser.

If you are running Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, you can use a USB Wireless adapter.

These Wi-Fi to ethernet adapters, like the Belkin unit you have, are great for connecting older Apple laptops and Apple computers to a wireless network. Because you have both PCs and Macs you have two options. You can program this Belkin Wireless Ethernet Bridge via your Dell with the setup wizard included on the CD that came with in the box. Connect the device to your Dell with an ethernet cable and use the setup wizard as if you were going to use it to get your Dell on the network with the adapter. Once you have the Dell online via the Wireless Ethernet Bridge, disconnect it from the Dell and plug the ethernet cable into the G3 Apple computers ethernet jack.

Then it is just a matter of setting the G3’s TCP/IP settings to use DHCP.

If you do not want to use the Dell for this or you have problems, you can use a web browser. First you have to set your G3 computer’s TCP/IP settings to Manual, and set the following settings.

IP address: 192.168.2.200
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.2.199

Save those settings and then open a browser and type this IP address into the browsers address bar: 192.168.2.225

That should get you to the router’s web interface to finish the setup based on the users manual. After you configure your adapter you will have to change the TCP/IP settings on your G3 back to DHCP.

Here’s a link to your Belkin G Gaming Adapter downloadable user manual.

One of my favorite features of the Mac computer FireWire port is that it supports “Target Disk” mode (all but the B&W G3). You can put a Mac into Target Disk mode by turning it on while holding down the [ T ] key. After you see a FireWire symbol floating around on the screen you can connect your two Macs together with a 6-pin to 6-pin fireWire cable. The hard drive of the Mac that is in Target Disk mode will appear on the desktop of the other Mac. All you need is the cable, here is a link to an inexpensive Firewire cable, if you do not already own one.

The drive you bought may be USB 2.0 only, and that could cause problems with a older USB 1.1 found on some used Macs. The drive will work fine for the G5 and newer Macs. Make sure you format it via Disk Utility to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.

You could be encountering a problem with having a “Fixed IP” address in your work’s network. Many IT people use fixed IPs to control network access, preventing unauthorized computers being brought in from home. Follow these steps to make sure you have your system set to request an IP address from the DHCP server in your Airport router.

To enable DHCP in Windows XP, follow these steps:
• On the Start Menu, select Control Panel > Network Connections.
• Right-click the appropriate connection name and select Properties.
• Select TCP/IP Protocol, and then select Properties.
• On the General tab, select Obtain an IP address automatically.
• Click OK.

If it does not automatically obtain an IP address, you may want to restart the XP computer. If that has no effect make sure your Airport Extreme router is set to share its network connection via DHCP. Also you may want to try temporarily removing any Access password you set on the router, just to see if this is a password issue. If removing the Airport password helps, please re-enable it and let me know and we can try to get your XP system to use the password.

I assume (ha!) you are using the Mac Pro wireless upgrade kit to add 802.11n to your pre-N MacBook Pro. In that case there is sometimes an “extra” antenna cable. There are two things to remember when dropping one antenna from a three-cable wire harness. The first is that you want to cap the metal end of the unused antenna cable. The second is that you want to use the black and blue cables with the new card, and cap the grey cable. If the cables are not color coded, the middle cable is the right one to cap.

I have been a fan of the Addlogix USB Wi-Fi adapter. It will work with Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, on an open USB 2.0 port. The USB 2.0 port is there requirement and I have heard mixed reports of it working on some USB 1.1 ports. Your best bet would be to get a USB 2.0 PCI card to add wireless to the G3 tower.

I cannot be certain but I would suspect this is related to WEP’s sometimes use of hexadecimal equivalents on some access points.

Here is Apple’s tech notes on joining non Apple WEP networks.

The main point being that you may need to add a “$” if a hexadecimal password was required to get the other computer on the network, use the same hex code, but add a “$” in front of it. Also if it is a standard password, use quotes.

Like any complex system, an Apple-enabled home entertainment system can be configured more ways than could ever be described in a short article. The basics of using all Apple equipment (with an EyeTV for good measure) makes it easy to add components as needed. The base of your setup is the central iTunes server. To keep prices low while protecting your iTunes library, look at the Drobo external drive enclosure.

Once you have a new destination to store your library., copy it over and then use Apple’s alternate iTunes library instructions to associate with the new library location.

Start sharing that Library and make sure that iTunes will always startup when the computer is turned on by [option] clicking on the iTunes Dock icon and selecting “Open at Login.” For adding new TV content I recommend using an EyeTV device. Most cable companies prevent you from importing shows off the DVR. An EyeTV 250 Plus will let you take control of your DVR needs without fighting the copy protection of most cable content.The EyeTV software will take care of getting your iPod Touch content in proper format and allow you to export Apple TV ready iTunes files. Consider adding an Elgato Turbo.264 Video Encoder to help speed up your video conversions on that G4 tower.I know there are many more options for you but starting with a good media server and building from there is the best way to start.

All iBooks, and most PowerBooks can go Wireless with a simple upgrade card. What you need is an Apple Airport card. There are two versions of airport card for the iBook - you’ll need a G4 iBook Airport Extreme card, or a regular G3 iBook FastMac Airport card.With iBooks, you just flip open the keyboard and plug in the card. Inside your iBook there is a built-in Airport antenna that attaches to the back of the Airport card. After the battery, Airport is the most user-accessible installation on the iBook.

As I understand your network, you have a Westell 2200 DSL modem plugged in through Ethernet to your Time Capsule router/Drive’s WAN port. Your PC is connected by Ethernet to the Time Capsule’s LAN port and your iMac connects wirelessly to the Time Capsule.

The problem you have is that the iMac is too far away from the Time Capsule to get a good signal. The best option for you would be an added Airport Express. You can wirelessly link your Time Capsule to the new Airport Express Via the WDS feature of Airport. This will let you place your new Airport Express halfway between your Time Capsule and iMac to create that boosted network range you wanted.

Don’t worry, there is a lot of common confusion as to what Wi-Fi is.

It may be helpful to think of Wi-Fi as a drinking glass. Your Comcast Internet connection is similar to the water connection to your house. If you want to drink it you have to fill your glass with water. You could drink right from the garden hose but it will not reach everywhere you want to go. A glass lets you drink water everywhere in your house without having to install new plumbing throughout your house. So, similar to the glass, Wi-Fi lets you get your Comcast Internet connection any place in your house. You still have to pay Comcast for the Internet connection if you have Wi-Fi, the same as paying the water bill even if you don’t have a drinking glass.

One more consideration is that you need to have a Wi-Fi adapter on both ends of your connection. The iMac has one built-in but not all Comcast modems have Wi-Fi adapters built-in. You need to call Comcast and ask if your Modem has Wi-Fi. If it does not, you can buy one to add to your modem. Apple calls its Wi-Fi connections “Airport” and you can buy an Apple Airport base station to get your Comcast connection turned into a Wi-Fi connection. Think of an Airport Base Station as a special faucet for your drinking glass.

The Airport Express Base Station is a good budget option and it is easy to use with your Mac.

I have a similar setup to what you want at my home. I use an Intel iMac as my main system in the office. It houses all the family pictures and music. I also use an Elgato EyeTV system to record TV and share it via iTunes. As long as you have a modern version of iTunes running on every computer, you should be able to share it via a single source iTunes library. I would recommend using an Airport Extreme base station as your router.

http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/a-mb053ll__a

Also, you will want to have Leopard installed on all the computers that can handle it. This will allow you to use Front Row on all your Macs, not just the ones that came with an Apple Remote Control.

http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/s-mb022z__a

Also, having Leopard will enable you use the AGP G4 as a headless computer (ie no display) . An AGP 450 G4 will not run Leopard well, so Tiger is the best OS you will want on it. Don’t worry, Tiger is fine for what you are doing. You will have to use a monitor at first to set up the Media server computer. As soon as it’s running Tiger, go to the Sharing section of System Preferences. Under the Services tab, enable the “Apple Remote Desktop” service and set the Access Privileges to allow the main user to do everything. Leave the Guest and VNC sections uncheck-marked.

You can now remove the display from the AGP G4 and connect the computer to the Airport base station via an ethernet cable. Also connect your Office computer via ethernet to the base station. With Leopard running on the Office computer, you can see the AGP G4 as available for screen sharing. Click on the Screen Sharing button and enter the Username and Password for the Administrator account on the AGP G4. You will have full control over the AGP G4 from your office Mac. You then can turn on File Sharing and setup the iTunes on the AGP G4 to be the master library for your home.

On the AGP G4, make sure that you have Sharing turned on in the iTunes preferences. All the other Macs just need to have the preference enabled to “look for shared music.” When you set up your Apple TV, you will have to pair it with the iTunes running on the AGP G4. You will also need to enable photo sharing in iPhoto if you want to share pictures.

Once the server has all the files sharing that you plan on serving, you can then test the connection on your other Macs. Using the new Front Row application that comes with Leopard, just change the source to the AGP G4. You should be able to browse the Apple TV-like menu system to find the media you want. You can also use iTunes and iPhoto to browse the remote media. I think you will find it very responsive on a home network.

We have two staff picks that will do the job and recover your lost tunes.

First there is iPod Access:
www.findleydesigns.com/ipodaccess/

and then we have iPodRip:
www.thelittleappfactory.com/application.php?app=iPodRip

Both should help you out but give them each a try and see which one you want to keep around… for the next time you need it.

Most bluetooth devices will have a Pair, Connect, or Link button somewhere on the remote control that will make it discoverable for a period of time. It is often in the battery compartment or on the bottom of a remote or mouse. Once you make a device discoverable, you then can use the Apple Bluetooth Setup Assistant to add the device. Some devices are only discoverable for 30-90 seconds, so you may have to hit the button a few times. Also if you are asked to enter a pass code, it is often four zeros, but refer to the devices manual.

Now if you just want to replace the Apple IR remote, that is available and much easer to use. It should work with your iMac right out of the box.

www.PowerMax.com/parts/show/l51929

The types of drives suitable for Time Machine use have varied over the Leopard development process. Figuring out what may work in the future is tricky. If you have multiple internal drives, you can designate one of them as a Time Machine drive. Any FireWire or USB 2.0 drive can also work as a Time Machine drive. The one prerequisite for stable performance is that a Time Machine drive should be formatted as a Mac OS Extended volume, with a compatible partition table. The type of partition scheme you need to use changes based on the processor type. If it is an Intel-based Mac, then the drive should be a GUID partitioned drive. If you have an older PowerPC Mac, those drives should use the Apple Partition Map. The partition scheme is selected from the Options button in the Partition Tab of Disk Utility.

Because of the partitioning of those drives, it can be difficult to get them to work with other computer platforms (i.e. Windows). In most cases it’s best to keep a Time Machine drive dedicated to backup work. You can, however, have many computers use the same Time Machine drive. You can also do that sharing over a network, wired or wireless. The first step is to designate one Mac to connect to the Time Machine drive. This can be FireWire, USB 2.0, or an internal drive.

Set up the drive as a Time Machine drive via the Time Machine section of the System Preferences. Then go to the Sharing System preference and enable File Sharing. In the File Sharing’ details section, click on the “+” button under the Shared Folders section. Select your Time Machine drive and you will then see it on the list of shared items. From your other computers on the network you can connect to the shared Time Machine drive; the same as you would any other network drive. Make sure you save the user name and password in the keychain when you connect. Then you can use the System Preferences on that computer to designate the shared drive as a Time Machine drive.

This is a great solution for people with desktop and laptop Macs or a household of Macs. It may not be the solution that you need, because it will require at least two Macs running Leopard, but I hope it helps.

I don’t believe that you made a bad purchase, but it may not do what you need. Most USB 2.0 cards will not work in OS 9, so you must have OS X 10.2 or higher on your PowerBook. Also, USB PC Cards (AKA PCMCIA cards) will not provide bus power to any device. So a USB printer or USB hard drive with its own power supply will work on your card, but a bus-powered device that doesn’t have its own power cord, like your flash drive, will not work reliably. Sometimes adding a powered USB 2.0 hub in between the card and flash drive will let the two work together.

Sharing email with two user accounts is similar to sharing email between two computers. There is an assumption that each user will have their own email account, and Apple does not have a sharable mail section in Mac OS. It is possible that both of you can share the same email account in different user accounts if your email provider lets you have IMAP access to your email. An IMAP email account stores your mail on a server, not your computer. Because the mail is always saved on the server it does not matter which computer you use or which user account you are logged into. As long as you have the connection info, you will have all your email accessible and everything will stay synchronized between computers and accounts.

Unfortunately many ISPs will only give you POP mail access, and that is much harder to manage from multiple accounts. It may be easier to get a separate email account for her to use. For instance, a Gmail account would work well and it can be used with the Apple Mail application. If she wants the mail that is already on the other user account, then you just need to copy one folder and one file to the new user account. Here’s the procedure:

From your older account, copy the Mail folder to the Shared folder in the Users folder, located here: Macintosh HD/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Mail.

Now copy the preference file here: Macintosh HD/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

Next, log into the new account and move the files you copied to the Shared folder. Place them into the same places you copied them from, but with “YOUR_USER_NAME” being the new user account.

After all that, your two mail accounts will be identical, but that will change as soon as one of them checks for new mail. You will have to disable one of the accounts from within Apple Mail’s Preferences.

I hope that helps.

Although there are several devices that will share printers on a network, my current favorite is the New AirPort Extreme base station. Not only will it share printers and hard drives, it will also act as a gigabit router.

Apple Airport Extreme Station

You can connect many printers to the base station’s USB port via a USB hub and have them all simultaneously shared. The complication will come from the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer. It is not Mac compatible and probably won’t work on the base station. That printer may need to be connected to your HP desktop and shared from the Windows printer-sharing feature. It may turn out that the LJ1600 will one day be supported–you might even find that it does work when connected to the base station now, but there is no guarantee.

Here is a link to printers that have been tested to work with Apple’s wireless printer sharing equipment:
Click Here for details.

It is not an official list, but can be helpful. If you already have an investment in good networking equipment then the base station may not be the best solution because of the expense added to your network. In that case, you can always use the OS X printer-sharing feature to share the other two printers. The option is in the System Preferences in the Sharing section. It is limited, but would work as a low cost option.

Seeing as you are having connectivity issues, I will try to give you a few different things to try so you do not have to wait around for the next set of instructions. The first is centered around the Mac remembering trusted wireless networks. You can tell your Mac to connect to “any” network, without adding it to the Preferred Network list. That network list could be your problem. To make these changes, select System Preferences from the blue Apple menu. Now click on the Network section and double click on AirPort from the Network Status window. Under the Airport tab, change the “By default, join” popup menu from Preferred Networks to Automatic. Click on the big Apply Now button in the lower right corner and test it on the network. If that fails to work for you, can completely remove the default Airport settings and see if that change helps. The preference file is located here: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plistDrag it to your desktop first and it will make a copy of itself for safekeeping. Now drag it again, but this time, place it in the Trash. You will have to enter your password. Now go back to the Airport System Preference section and change it back to Preferred networks. There should be no entries there now. Try joining a network and see if it works. If it still does not work, and networks you could join before don’t work, then you can copy the file on your desktop back to its original place.

The other possibility is that your Keychain is remembering the wrong passwords for some of the networks, or thinks it knows the network’s password, when it doesn’t actually have a password for the network. The Keychain is where OS X stores your passwords when you ask your Mac to remember them for you. You can look at your passwords through a utility called Keychain Access. It is in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. In the application, click on “All Items” in the left section of the window and then sort the list by kind. You can sort by any header category by clicking on the header (Name, Date, etc.). Delete anything that is an “Airport Network Password.” Try connecting now.

The only other possibility I can think of has little to do with your computer and more to do with the router being used. Most times we do not think about it, but Airport and Wi-Fi networks have channels just like TV. Wi-Fi is standard and around the world you can use channels 1 through 11 any place. Europe however, uses two additional channels in their Wi-Fi. These two channels, 12 and 13, are commonly used outside the US–but US-built equipment cannot communicate on those channels. It could be that you are trying to connect to a base station using channel 13 and your Airport card does not go that high. If you are able to ask someone in the know the locations where you’re having problems, check to see what channel they’re using. The only solution to this European router issue is to get a European-made Wi-Fi card.

When Apple switched its tower design from the G4 Plastic case to the all metal G5 case, they had to do something funky with the wireless antennas. Unlike plastic, wireless signals travel poorly through metal. So Apple solution was to route the bluetooth and Airport internal antennas to the back of the G5’s case. There are two antenna ports on the back connection panel above the optical audio jacks. The topmost plug is for a T-shaped Airport antenna that came with the G5s when they were new. The other lower-port is for a pin-shaped bluetooth antenna.

If you still have the original G5 box, the “T” shaped adapter could still be in it. Otherwise one can be ordered for you as an Apple Service part. A replacement antenna will cost $19.88 plus shipping. The free fix is to run your G5 with the side door off. The plastic airfoil will keep it running cool and the clear plastic will not stop the wireless signal like the metal door does. The “T” antenna is the best solution though.

The “T” antenna was often lost and Apple came to realize that it was a bad solution. Later on when Apple switched to the Dual Core G5s, they integrated the antennas onto the outside of the case in a plastic strip along the back.

Most USB 2.0 cards will work without drivers in OS X. They will not work well in OS 9, and if they do work at all, it is often at USB 1.1 speeds. If you are using OS X 10.2 and up, then you should be able to use a USB 2.0 card in that G4 tower of yours without any problems. It works like it’s native USB 2.0 for all devices and software, including iPods and iTunes.

A few things may be causing your eMac to forget what wireless network to join. The fist place to look is within your password keychain. In your Utilities folder is an application called Keychain Access.app that will allow you to view, edit, or delete your saved passwords. Search for “AirPort” in the search box located in the upper right hand corner of the Keychain Access window. Delete all entries you find for AirPort. Now when you try to connect to the network, you should be prompted to enter your password. Enter it and save it to the keychain. Test the eMac to see if it reconnects to your wireless network after sleeping.

If that doesn’t work, you can try deleting two preference files. One is found here: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist and the other is here: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.networkConfig.plist. Once you have placed those two files in the trash you will have to restart. After the eMac is running again, go to the Network System Preference and re-enable Airport.

Hopefully one of those two things should work for you and stop the tech support calls.

You absolutely can move your files over to the Mac. Most file formats are the same on the Mac as they are on the Windows OS. That is particularly true for photos and documents. Music will often move over without problems as well, unless the song is copy protected. Some online music stores make it difficult to move your music files from one system to another.

Most everything you will need from a Windows system can be brought over by copying your "My Documents," "My Pictures," and "My Music" folders onto a CD-R or USB hard drive. A Mac will see any hard drive that you have used with your old PC. Any disc you burn on the PC will work perfectly in the Mac. USB flash drives would also be perfectly suitable for file transfer.

Once you get the files over to the Mac, use iTunes to import your music. Use iPhoto to import your pictures. Then everything else can be placed in your Documents folder on the Mac.

I hope that helps move you to Mac, you are going to love it.

I have several Macs at home and I will often use the share features of iTunes and iPhoto to do what you want. This is done in the preferences of both applications. Look for the "Sharing" button on the top bar of the application preferences. Check the checkbox next to "Look for shared music" and "Share my music." Do this in iTunes and iPhoto on both computers. Now you will be able to access all your music and photos from any computer. It even works to play music from another computer and send that music to the AirTunes port on an Airport Express. Just look for Shared items in the left hand "Source" column of iTunes and iPhoto. 

I hope this functions as you wanted. There are other complicated ways to do this but this method will work best without constantly re-synchronizing.

Linksys makes many network products and there are a variety of ways to connect them to your Macs. If you are using the wired broadband router, you will have Ethernet wires running to your Linksys router from the computers and an Ethernet cable from the Linksys router’s "Broadband" port to your DSL/Cable modem. If you have a setup that looks like what I have described, just simply unplug the power from both the DSL/Cable modem and the Linksys router. Wait 60 seconds and then reconnect power to the DSL/Cable modem. After another 60 seconds, reconnect power to the Linksys router. Now try getting on the Internet from your computers.

You may also have a wireless Linksys router. It will have a single Ethernet cable running in between the DSL/Cable modem and the router. This router will also have antennas on it and your computers will connect wireless to this router. This setup should be powered down and then back up again as I described above, but there is an added step at the end. After everything has powered back on, go to your Airport icon next to the top right system clock on each computer. It looks like an arched triangle with grey or black bars. Click and hold on it to reveal a menu. Select your wireless network from that menu. When the Airport icon bars are black you should be connected to the Internet.

I hope that gets you connected again and if not write back with your specific model of Linksys router.

This is one of those semantic marketing tricks that many manufacturers use. In this case, one of the three ports must be used to connect the computer to the hub. The effect on this three-port hub is that it really is a FireWire 800 splitter. Instead of one FireWire 800 device you can have two off one port. In the strictest interpretation of "hub," it is a union of like items by a center device. With this hub there are three ports joined together in a box but for your use, just think of it as a splitter.

The PD726W is a nice projector with more than your average connection capabilities. The wireless presentation feature looks convenient, but I doubt that it will work through the Mac OS. That feature uses a built-in web server that lives in the projector. Often, device-based web servers use the Active Xweb programming language to actively communicate with the computer. That is why the Acer requirements for the wireless feature are Windows 2000 or Windows XP with Internet Explorer. Active X is a Microsoft proprietary technology and is, as far a I know, only available through Internet Explorer for the PC.

Some of these device-based web servers can switch from the Active Xlanguage to Java. If you can switch the language to Java, then it will work with any modern web browser. I did not see that as an option for the PD726W projector, but it could be an undocumented feature. Look around the menus and see if you can change that function.

Otherwise you should look at using Parallels and a copy of Windows XP to run Internet Explorer.

Apple no longer sells the tools you need to take your G3 iMac wireless, that’s why the Apple Store people could only offer you an extreme solution. You are perfectly right to think that a 600 MHz iMac will connect wirelessly. The original airport card that you mentioned will work, but you will also need an added part. Slot loading G3 iMacs like yours need something called an Interposer. The Airport card will slide into the Interposer and then get inserted into the iMac through the RAM hatch on the bottom of the computer. You need to remember to connect the antenna to the card before you slide the card into the iMac. Here is a link to instructions on installing the Airport card.

There is another solution to go wireless but it will only work in OS X. The Addlogi XWireless-G USB Network Adapter for Mac OS Xwill also work but it takes a little extra setup. Also, Addlogi Xwill not support OS 10.2.8 but I have tested it and found that if you use the 10.3 driver that it will work in 10.2.8.

Your WRT54G router should work fine, try running the setup utility from the PC and see if that fixes your problem. Also make sure that your DSL / Cable modem is plugged into the port marked as either Broadband, Internet, or WAN. You will want to also turn off the DSL / Cable modem before moving the connection to the wireless router. Then power up everything when the ethernet cables are connected.

You will first want to make sure that your fax modem is set up correctly. Test your phone line so that you have a known good cable plugged into the modem port. Double check that you have the phone line plugged into the modem port and not the larger ethernet port (It has happened to the best of us). Make sure that it is a snug fit. Now that you know your outbound modem connection is solid we can look at the settings.

Go to the Print & Fax section of System preferences and select the Faxing tab. Now click on the Padlock icon at the bottom of the window to unlock the preferences. If the Padlock icon is not unlocked, then everything you change will not be permanent. Check the checkbox to receive faxes and enter your fax number. Check the Checkbox for "Save to:" and set it for the "Faxes" folder that lives in your user folder. Now check the checkbox next "Email to:" and enter your email address. Next place a check mark for "Show fax status in the menu bar." Now make sure all your settings are saved. Click on the "show all" button and then click on "Print & Fax" again. If everything is there the way you want it, then click on the Set Up Fax Modem button. A new Fax List Window will open. You should see a listing for "Internal Modem." If you do not see that option you may need to try faxing something first. Open a web page and select print, when you are able, select Fax PDF. Enter in a number you own, for instance your cell phone. The Modem section should say Internal Modem. Send a test fax: it will fail but if your cell phone rings then you know it is trying. Your phone should ring and "Internal Modem" should be in the Fax List. If you get this far it should start working for you. Try some test faxes. If you still get Hold responses in the Internal Modem’s faxing queue, then try manually selecting "Resume" for the fax job. Watch for the specific error displayed. It is often only on the screen for a few seconds but it should tell you where the failure occurs.

According to Apple the only computers that support 802.11n connections are Core 2 Duo and Xeon based Macs, which of course is true for those Macs with Airport already installed from Apple. However, there is an unsanctioned upgrade option using Apple parts. We have performed some tests in the PowerMax lab and verified that you can replace the wireless card on older Intel Macs with the Apple 802.11n card. We used the Mac Pro wireless upgrade kit to replace the older 802.11b/g cards in MacBooks and Macbook Pros. It’s not easy work to open your MacBook Pro and exchange the wireless cards but it is a clean upgrade without the need for bulky cards hanging out of the computer.

The larger question is whether the 802.11n functionality is necessary for what you do. The 802.11n Airport Extreme Base Station is definitely worth the money even for non-802.11n Mac owners. It has printer/drive sharing and other cool features, but the best benefit is even without 802.11n clients on the network it offers extended range. The truth is that your cable or DSL modem is serving up an internet connection slower than even 802.11b speeds, so you really will not get any internet browsing speed bump with 802.11n connectivity. Also, when you have 802.11g and 802.11n clients on the same network, everyone’s connection speed decreases. All your computers would have to be 802.11n-enabled to get the expanded network speeds. I do recommend the new base station for all Mac users, but not primarily for its network speed.

I have no personal experience with a NC100U-WM but I have found that Mac OS 9 or OS X will often work with generic 10/100 ethernet cards. And there’s no harm in trying: if it doesn’t work then you can just pull it out. It will not damage your 8600 to try it out. In most cases it will work without any additional drivers. Sometimes you will have to get the model number from the main chip used on the card and look for drivers for that chip online. A Google search for chip model number plus the word “Mac” will often do it.

One of the many things I love about Macs is the variety of connections available in every model. Apple is constantly looking forward and making sure that users have as many connection ports as reason would allow. Because of that forward thinking, your G3 will have an ethernet port built-in. That will be the best way to connect to a DSL line. When you set up your mom with DSL just make sure the modem they provide has an ethernet port, and most do. That ethernet connection can connect directly to the G3 or to an Airport Base Station. If there is a phone line near where you are setting up the computer, then I would recommend just connecting the DLS modem directly into the G3. If the computer is away from where the DSL modems connect or there will be more than one computer on the network, you can certainly use an AirPort Base Station. You can still use the ethernet port on the G3 but you will need an ethernet to wireless adapter. Linksys makes the WET54G model that I have used before.Stay wired if possible but you have many options. Hope that helps.

There could be only a few things interfering with other accounts accessing your home wireless network without administrator approval. My best guess would be that you need to set your preferred network. This is how you can do it in Mac OS X 10.4 but it’s similar in other versions of OS X: When logged into the Administrator account go to the System Preferences. Select “Network” and change the “Show” pull down menu to “Airport.” You probably will have to click on the locked Padlock icon in the lower left hand corner to make changes. Enter your password when you are prompted and click OK. Now click on the Airport tab. Change the “By default, join:” pull down menu from Automatic to Preferred networks. In the window below you should see your home wireless network. If you do not see your home network, or you want to have more networks in that list, click on the “+” button. You can type the network’s name or if you are near the network you can select it by clicking the down pointing arrow to the right of the text box. Then enter the network password if you have one and click Ok. Before you close the Network preference window click on the options button. Make sure that the “Require administrator password to:” section has no checkboxes checked. Click the OK button to close the Options window and then click the Apply Now button to save all you changes. To be certain, you may want to repeat these steps for each account you have on your computer.Although other things could cause this problem of yours I think this will likely solve it. Let me know how it works for you.

900 feet is near three times the practical limit of ethernet, so your first option is out. That is, unless you want to place a ethernet switch every 300 feet to act as a repeater. Your other solution of going wireless with directional antenna is possible but probably expensive. Here is a link to a great antenna store which has a product called Q-Bridge (Link to Q-Bridge). This would handle your 900 foot network jump easily. Most wireless repeaters, like Apple’s WDS systems, will not work over this range without many midway hops between the two networks. In that case you may as well use the ethernet switches instead.Most professional network installers use fiber gigabit over fiber optic cable to span that distance. You would need to buy two gigabit switches that have a least one SFP port each. Then you would need to use two GBIC 1000BASE-LX FIBER SFP modules and 900 feet of 9 µm single mode cabling between them. This would be a pricey solution to say the least.If you try the Q-Bridge, let me know what you think about it or what you end up using.

You can use a FireWire-based iSight camera with Macs that have a camera built-in. To switch from one to the other is an option found under the iChat Video preferences. Although you may be able to switch cameras mid-chat, I would not recommend it. In most cases just leave your FireWire iSight as the primary camera. All Intel-based Macs can host video conference (multi-user) chats so you can start those for your family and friends as long as they have at least a 1GHz G4, dual 800 MHz G4, or any G5 / Intel Mac. Although you can host these chats over a wireless connection, you will get the best performance from a direct ethernet connection to your DSL modem.

DLS is often fast enough for four-way video chats but it will have slower data speeds the further you are from your phone company’s main office. Cable internet speeds can be faster than DSL because of that DSL distance issue. Get friendly with your neighbors and see what speeds they get from their cable internet connections. Switch if you find that they are outpacing your DSL connection.Hope that helps.

For the most part, any computer with a G4 350 MHz or G3 500 HMz processor or higher, but with speeds at or below below 900 MHz will take a original Airport card (Used Airport Card). Also, most Macs with a 1 GHz or faster processor will take an Airport Extreme card (Airport Extreme Card). The Mirrored Drive Door G4 (MDD G4) is the exception to these rules. For the MDD G4 you need to know if it has FireWire 800. If it has FireWire 800 it will take an Airport Extreme card, and if it does not have FireWire 800 then you have to use an original Airport card. There are a few other exceptions to the rules but this will take care of 99 percent of the Macs out there.

We have a team of web programmers that assemble the Bolt newsletter (http://www.powermax.com/newsletter.html). They use BBedit (http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/) most of the time, but they don’t use a HTML creation package for those emails. If you’re looking for a simple solution to create HTML emails, you can use a built-in feature of Safari. For it to work you’ll have to use the Apple Mail application for your emails. First, you will need to create a web page that looks the way you want your email to look. If this project is for a business, you may already have a page with the info you want to send. If you are creating original content then you should have a link for all the people who do not want to receive HTML emails; however the page does not need to be hosted online for this to work. Open the page in Safari. Click onto the File menu and then select “Mail Contents of This Page.” It will open a new email with the contents of that web page. Then just address the email and send it off.Remember to test your emails first before you send it off to a batch of folks.I hope that works for you.

Without FireWire on your computer, the next best method for file transfers is over ethernet. You do not need a hub, router, or switch however. You can use a “Cross-over” ethernet cable. This is one that will work: Crossover 25ft Cable for iMacThen you just need to turn on AppleTalk over ethernet on both computers.

This kind of .Mac connection failure is interesting because often it is a password or username typo. In this case you have entered the same information in the online .Mac login and it works. That would demonstrate that her account information is accurate and it is something with how the iMac is connecting to .Mac’s servers that has failed.. As long as you are using the same display name (the email address without the @mac.com) and the same password that gets you into the .Mac web-mail, then it should connect the computer to the other services.There was an issue this last summer with some .Mac users being cut off by the Wanadoo/Orang ISP. You can read the long discussion but this particular issue was resolved (Apple Discussion). One interesting solution that worked for some on this discussion was power-cycling the DSL modem and rebooting the system. In another instance the 10.4.6 update broke some users’ connection to .Mac (Apple Discussion). I believe updating fixed the issue, but an interim fix was to remove the passwords from the Keychain and preference pane, then reenter them. If your problem is related to these past issues, using some of the interim fixes could be worth a try. You should also temporarily eliminate any routers or hubs and just directly connect the Mac to the DSL/Cable modem’s ethernet port. It may even be worthwhile to take the iMac to another location. If you can connect to .Mac from a different ISP then you know the issue is with Hiedi’s ISP, but if it will not connect at both places then you know it is a system configuration issue.As a last ditch attempt, try to connect to the iDisk as if it was not hers. From the finders “Go” menu mouse over iDisk. There is an option to connect to another users iDisk in the pop-out menu. Click on that option and enter Hiedi’s information. Connecting that way should tell you if you are blocked to all .Mac services on her computer or just the one setup inside the system preferences..I hope that helps some, let me know how it works out.

Any Apple computer with Airport wireless capabilities can take the place of a base station. It is called an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network. This is a perfect solution for people who have a desktop Mac and a portable Mac. You will create the Ad-hoc network on your Mac with an ethernet or dial-up internet connection. From OS X you click on the Airport Menu near the clock in the upper right hand corner of your screen. From that menu select “Create Network…” From the window that opens you can name the network and chose a radio channel to broadcast on.. That is all that you have to do to start a wireless network, but you should consider password protecting your network. Click on the “Show Options” button and check the checkbox for “Enable encryption.” Then enter a password twice and you should be ready to go. If you have older equipment or a mix of PCs and Macs, first set up your ad-hoc network without a password to test the setup and add a password later. All you other computers will connect to your ad-hoc network the same as if there was a base station..

The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros do not offer a built in 56k modem for Dial-up internet connections (Apple USB External Modem). You can use Apple’s USB modem with those laptops if you only have a Dial up ISP account. If you have a DSL or Cable Broadband internet connection then you can use the built-in ethernet port or built-in Wi-Fi (AKA AirPort) connections. For a wireless connection you also need a Wi-Fi router to connect to your broadband modem.Another option if you have a dial-up internet connection would be the Airport Extreme Base Station (Airport Extreme Base Station). That has a built-in 56k modem that will connect to your ISP and send that signal wirelessly to your new MacBook.That should get you connected. Good luck

The Quicksilver can only accept a standard Airport card internally (Used Airport Card). Original Airport cards use different connections than Airport Extreme cards. You can always use USB wireless connections or other non-Apple solutions, but there are often advantages to using Apple Airport (Extreme) cards. The built-in antenna and automatic driver updates are just a few. Even though Airport is slower than the Airport Extreme, both wireless standards are faster than your internet connection.

You can use an Airport Express to bridge a wireless connection to a wired computer. You will have to have another Airport Express or Airport Extreme base station as your main base station. They both will need the latest firmware to support the secure WDS connection. Join your two base stations through WDS and then connect the Mac Pro to the ethernet port with any ethernet cable. The gigabit ethernet port on the Mac Pro will auto detect what kind of connection is on the other end of the cable and adjust to that. It is easiest to set up WDS when both base stations are setup together so if you encounter problems then reset them both to “Default” settings. Then set them up through the WDS tab in the Airport Admin Utility.Good luck… and I know the growl your girlfriend gave you from experience.

WPA wireless security is definitely what you will want for your mixed network. The main reason is that WPA is implemented with the same passkey system on both the Mac and Windows OS. WEP encryption is flawed and in mixed networks WEP often uses long Hexadecimal passwords that rarely work the first time you enter them. The largest Problem with WEP is that any kid with enough time can crack it. WPA is currently safe from Wi-Fi spying, and for business work that’s essential. If your wireless router supports WPA, then start using that instead of WEP and as long as your Macs are running 10.3.9 then you should be able to connect. Almost all wireless equipment is cross-platform, so there should be no reason to buy extra equipment. If all else fails, an Airport Express connected to the router will get you wireless quickly (http://www.powermax.com/product/Apple_Airport_Express_Base_Station_with_AirTunes/a-m9470ll/a.html).Hope that helps get you going without the cords.

The easiest way to go wireless on the Quicksilver G4 is with the original Airport Card (http://www.powermax.com/product/Used_Airport_Card/a-51540.html). It just slides into a special slot on the inside and a built-in antenna plugs into the back of the card. It is a very clean and easy install. As for the transmitting end: some DSL providers supply wireless routers but you can just buy yourself a Linksys wireless router (http://www.powermax.com/product/LinkSys_WireLess-G_BroadBand_Router/563043.html). That should get you wireless. For a cost-effective laptop, you could go with a previously owned G4 iBook, but also consider a MacBook. For as little as $1099.00 you could have a faster computer than your Quicksilver that can also hook up to your current display and keyboard. You could then use the MacBook as your main system and trade in your old computer.Perhaps that will work best for you.

Having a single wireless network comprised of multiple base-stations is one of the things that sets Apple wireless products apart from the rest. What you will want to do is set up “WDS” in your network. WDS stands for Wireless Distribution System and it’s what allows one base station to act as the primary connection to the internet, and every other base station in range to act as a repeater. With the latest version of Airport Admin Utility, connect to the Extreme base station. Click on the WDS tab. Check the checkbox next to “Enable this base station as a WDS” and set it to be the “main base station.” Next, select the “+” button to add your Express base station. It will have to be within 150 feet for this to work. Select your Express and then click the Update button. After everything resets, your two base stations will act as one network and each base station can support a printer. This is the best way to setup multiple base stations and you can keep adding Express base stations to the network as your needs grow.Have fun.Jacob Loeb

This is an interesting transition time for EVDO in which most offerings are only PCMCIA components. But Intel Mac users are not without options. One of the best places to go for EVDO information is a partner of PowerMax’s called EVDOinfo.com. They are Mac-loving resellers of both Sprint and Verizon EVDO services. If you have a MacBook Pro you can find ExpressCard units for both Verizon and Sprint wireless broadband. As time goes on more of the manufacturers of EVDO cards will make ExpressCard units instead of PCMCIA cards. That does not help MacBook users because like the iBook and 12″ PowerBooks, the Intel MacBooks have no expansion slots. Luckily MacBook users now have an option to get the Sprint EVDO service. There is a new USB EVDO modem made by Franklin that will automatically connect to Intel Macs with 10.4.7 or higher. This new USB modem is due to ship at the end of the month. Apple has built in support for EVDO in Intel Macs and EVDOinfo.com will help with all that Apple will not.That should get you connected.Jacob Loeb

A FireWire network could be just the thing to make your two computers work together quickly. You are going to need at least Mac OS 10.3 or higher on each system to do this. Both computers are gong to need to have FireWire ports that are connected by a FireWire cable for each computer do the following: Go to “System Preferences” under the blue Apple menu and click on Network. Under the “Show” pull-down menu choose “Network Port Configurations.” Uncheck every checkbox except “Built-In-FireWire.” If Built-In-FireWire is not an option you are going to click on the “New” button. From there create a name of Built-In-FireWire and choose Built-In-FireWire from the “Port” pull-down. Click OK and then back in the network section click “Apply Now.” If you connect to the Internet with these computers you may have to leave some checkboxes checked for the appropriate connection. When Built-In FireWire is not the only checked port you are going to want to drag Built-In FireWire to the top of the Port Configurations list. Now go back to the Systems Preferences main window and select Sharing. Check the checkbox next to “Personal File Sharing.” Head back to the Network preferences and select from the Show pull-down menu “Built-In-FireWire.” Change the TCP/IP setting from “Using DHCP” to “Manually.” Under IP address enter on one computer an IP of 10.0.1.2 and on the other computer use 10.0.1.3 as the IP address. Click Apply Now and close the window. From the Finder click on the Go menu and select connect to server. Enter the IP address of the opposite computer in the Server Address text field and click on Connect. You will need to enter the User name and password for the computer you are connecting to when prompted. Select the other computer’s hard drive and now you can get files from that computer at FireWire speeds.

BillI honestly have not been a strong supporter of Norton or McAfee products. They do offer virus protection and Spyware-vulnerability scanning, but their benefits have never outweighed the problems they cause. Mac OS X 10.3.9 has a great firewall built in, and the best protection is to be connected to the Internet through a network router. If you have a wired router or a wireless base station you are going to be safe and the OS X firewall will be more protection on top of that. My recommendation would be to turn off the firewall and other active parts of Norton and turn on the OS X firewall in the “Sharing” System Preferences.To keep using Norton’s firewall you are going to need to go into the preferences and adjust your notification levels. It sounds like it is notifying you about every application’s attempt to connect to the Internet. You are going to need to tell Norton that your applications are allowed outbound connections.Hope that helpsJacob Loeb

Mac-compatible USB Wi-Fi adapters will work with Apple’s Airport products. The only problem comes when you use WEP encryption on your network. Although Apple adhered to the 802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi standards, they implemented it using a slightly different method for encrypting the network. The Apple way was easier when using all Apple hardware, but it can become difficult when mixing hardware. It is only WEP that has a problem; WPA works the same on all hardware. Probably the biggest concern is that the USB options stick out of the computer and can snag on things. The Airport card is the cleanest solution, fitting completely inside the computer. You can still find original Airport cards used. Whichever way you go, just remember not to use WEP with the USB adapters.

You have a few options and really any wireless router with a built in switch would work for you. However, for ease of use and set up, Apple equipment is the best. I would recommend the AirPort Base Station with a modem, as opposed to the Express. The benefit of the AirPort Base Station over the AirPort Express is its ability to have wired and wireless connections. It will have one broadband port and one standard Ethernet port which allows the Base Station to sit in between the cable modem and your PowerMac 8100. With just a few configuration changes to the Base Station, you will be connected wirelessly to the network as well. The one item of caution is that the new laptop will need to run Mac OS X in order to configure the Base Station. This Apple option is going to be more expensive than others but the Apple AirPort Admin Utility is the best I have ever seen.

You most certainly can connect both those computers together with Ethernet. You can connect the two systems in a variety of ways. If you are connecting to the Internet via a dialup modem then you probably will just want to get a “crossover” ethernet cable. This is a special kind of cable that is meant primarily for computer-to-computer network connections. One end will plug into the G3 and the other end plugs into your eMac. Another way to connect the two computers is with regular ethernet cables and a hub, switch, or router. This is particularly helpful if you have a DSL/Cable high-speed connection. A router with a built in switch would be the best solution. Both computers will connect with a standard ethernet cable to the switched side of the router and the cable/DSL box will connect to the “Broadband” port. This would also work without anything connected to the Broadband port, so if you plan on getting a high-speed Internet connection in the future you will already have the equipment.

Now that the physical connection is established, you will have to set up both computers to see each other. On the eMac you need to go to System Preferences and click on “Network”. Double click on Built-in Ethernet and click on the “AppleTalk” tab. Check the checkbox next to “Make AppleTalk Active.” Now go back to the main System Preference window and select “Sharing.” Under the Services tab is a listing of services your computer can do. Check the checkboxes next to “Personal File Sharing” and “Printer Sharing.” If your eMac connects to the Internet via a dialup modem connection, click on the “Internet” tab. From the pull down menu select Modem and click on the checkbox next to “Built-in Ethernet” to allow users on ethernet use your eMac’s modem connection.

On the OS 9 G3, you should update to the most recent version of OS you can. It should be OS 9.2.1 and is available free from Apple. From the OS 9 Control Panels menu, found under the Apple Menu, select TCP/IP. Change the Connection pull down menu to “Ethernet” and set the Configure pull down menu to “DHCP.” Close the window and save the settings. Again from the Control Panels menu go to “AppleTalk” and make sure it’s active on Ethernet. Now you can go to the “Chooser” under the Apple menu and select AppleTalk. In the window you should see your eMac and clicking on it will prompt you enter a username and password. Use the username and password set when you first setup your eMac. Now you should be able to share files and an Internet connection.

For many years I did not own a TV but instead used my 6400/180 to watch TV shows. It was a great use for my old Mac and I am happy to know that I am not the only one who thinks so.

If I understand correctly, you are trying to share your iBook’s wireless connection to the 5400 through your iBook’s Ethernet port. I have done this before and it worked well. You will need to use a crossover cable and plug one end into each computer. Then go into the iBook’s System Preferences and click on “Sharing.” Under the “Services” tab check the checkbox that says “Personal Web Sharing.” Next click on the tab labeled “Internet.” Then from the “Share your connection from:” pull-down menu select “AirPort.” Below that are some check boxes. Check the box next to “Built-in Ethernet.” Click on “Start” and that should get your iBook setup. The 5400 will need to be configured through the TCP/IP control panel to connect via DHCP over Ethernet. Then you should also go to the AppleTalk control panel and switch it to Ethernet. Lastly you want to go to the “File Sharing” control panel. Click the checkbox to enable the “Enable File Sharing clients to connect over TCP/IP” option. You should be all set after that.

If that does not work then consider buying a Linksys Wireless to Ethernet converter. I have used them in the past but they do not support AppleTalk.

The AirPlug is a versatile wireless upgrade. I’ve always been drawn to the USB wireless network devices because it is easy to move them from computer to computer and they will outlast the life of the computer they are initially attached to. The only problem with them has been that most vendors do not support their product’s use on the Mac.

But thanks to the great people over at Ralink Technology, Mac users can use certain USB wireless devices. Ralink makes most of the technology used inside the AirPlug and they try to support every OS they can, unlike the companies they sell to. On the Ralink web site is a huge selection of wireless drivers for many different operating systems.

I do admit that there are almost too many versions of drivers up on the Ralink site. Here are the direct links to the latest files but you should check back to see if there is an update if anything stops working.

For Mac OS X 10.3http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Mac/STA_2500USB%20OS-10.3%202005_11_18.dmg

For Mac OS X 10.4http://www.ralinktech.com/drivers/Mac/STA_2500USB%20D-1.1.2.0%20OS-10.4.X%202005_11_29.dmg

Apple Mail sometimes has trouble letting go of the past, particularly with SMTP outgoing mail servers. To get rid of your old .Mac SMTP server, open Mail and go to the Mailbox menu and select “Go Offline.” This will stop any mail activities that could be crashing the Mail application. Next, from the Mail menu select “Preferences” and click on “Accounts.” Click on one of your email accounts. From the pull down field next to “Outgoing Mail Server” select “Edit Server List” and click once on smtp.mac.com. Click on the “Remove Server” button and then click on done.

You may also need to remove your .Mac account from the Accounts list. To remove it, just click on the account once and then click on the “-” button to remove the account. After that you should be able to close the preferences window. Before you select “Go Online” from the Mailbox menu clear out your Outbox. Check to see if there is anything in Drafts waiting to be sent. If you can, delete everything in drafts and then go online.

I can only hope the Performa will not be your primary connection to the internet. Many modern websites require web browsers that will not run on that computer. That being said you can get a 5200CD online with a few upgrades.

If you are going to use a dialup Internet account, it’s going to be as easy as buying a Mac serial 56k modem. Your 5200CD has two serial ports that will support modems and printers. I would encourage you to upgrade to Mac OS 9.1 before trying to connect new hardware. Otherwise you might have extension and compatibility issues. Now if you have a Broadband Internet connection then you will need a router to share the ethernet cable with multiple computers. Getting a 10BT Ethernet connection may be a little harder. You will need to find an LC slot Card for the 5200CD. You’ll probably need to go to eBay to find one, as the few companies that made them have long since discontinued production. It will probably cost you $15 to $50 for the card but you could easily find it for less, just keep searching.

Good luck getting this working but I would recommend finding a web surfing alternative.

There are two sides to wireless Wi-Fi networking (aka Airport). One side is the client card, like your Airport card, and the other side is your network access point. Sometimes coffee shops provide access points or other times there are open public access points. Most often though, you will need to buy an access point and connect it up to your current Internet connection. Apple makes a few access points, of which I would recommend the Airport Express.

If you already have a wireless network that you want to connect to, then you are only a few steps away from getting connected. The Mac OS includes all the software you need to connect to a wireless network as part of the operating system. To activate a new Airport card, go to System Preferences under the blue Apple menu. Next click on “Network” at which point you may be told that a new network connection is available. You will be asked if you want to use it, to which you should accept. You should now see the Airport as an active network connection. Also a new icon will be added to the menu bar next to the clock. It will be a pie shaped icon. Clicking on it will show you a dropdown list of wireless options. Turn on Airport. Then look for networks available to you listed below “Turn Airport Off.” Click once on the network and enter a password if you need to.

I would recommend not using a wireless PCI card. Wireless drivers for OS 9 and earlier versions of the Mac OS are almost non-existent. Instead, I recommend you buy a cheap 10/100 Ethernet card and then use an Ethernet to Wi-Fi adapter to go wireless. Support for an Ethernet card is common in OS 9 and you may already have an Ethernet port. From the Ethernet port you could easily connect a Linksys WET54G Wireless-G Ethernet Bridge. It configures through a standard web browser and works without any drivers installed. I have used this option with great success.

When moving files from Mac to Mac over the Internet you will need to make a few changes to your network’s settings. TCP ports 548 and 427 need to be opened up on your home router and your work router. Then you will need to have a fixed IP on your work computer or setup Port Forwarding on the Work Router. File sharing then needs to be activated on your work computer. At home you will then click on the “Go” menu and select “Connect to Server…” Enter “afp://YOUR.WORK.IP.ADDRESS” in the top text field and click “Connect”. User name and password are the same as when you access the computer locally.

The problem with the above setup is that most IT people will not let you change the network settings because it can leave a network vulnerable to malicious hackers and viruses. There are several VPN options as well but that requires some hardware and again, the help from your IT staff. This is where using a .Mac account might simplify your life. When I move files from my home office to my work computer I use a .Mac account. It is like a shared hard drive that is mounted on the desktop of both my computers at the same time. .Mac is not as seamless as a direct link to your computer but it requires a lot less “back end” work to get around your company’s network protections.

Congratulations on getting that high-speed Internet connection. I have been on one every place I have lived since 1998. It may be a little expensive but I would recommend the Apple Airport Base Station. It will be easy to setup and administer from any of your Macs as well as support connections from your PC computers. It will also include two Ethernet ports. One Ethernet port is used for the DSL modem from Verizon. The other port is for the G5 without a wireless card. The Airport Base Station will have a few other features that will be of use. It has a modem in it in case you ever go back to dialup. The modem port could also be used so that you could dial into your home DSL connection when traveling. It will also have an antenna port on it. If you have parts of your house that you do not get any signal then you can add an extra external antenna.

Any Product that is a NAT router will act as a firewall. This includes the Apple Base Station as well as many other home Routers. The PC should have an antivirus but the Macs do not need any additional protection. If the Apple Base Station cost more then you want to spend than I would suggest one from Linksys. The 4-port Wireless G router would be a good fit but harder to configure.

Mac OS X has always impressed me with its ability to communicate with Windows computers. Tiger 10.4 is notably the best at making those connections. The direction of the communication is important in grading how easy a Mac/Windows connection will be. Although connection to a client PC is possible from a Mac, it is far easer to setup Windows File Sharing on your Mac and having the Windows PC connect to it. For server connections, your iMac G5 will have no difficulty connecting to the Windows NT Server for file services. However, Exchange server connectivity is not as smooth as file sharing. It will take more work to establish Exchange services on the Mac and your Mac will not use 100% of the services available on an Exchange server. Adding a new Mac to a non-Exchange Windows network will be easy. You should not need to upgrade anything.

On the iMac you will need to turn on AppleTalk if it is not already on. Go to the Apple menu and mouse down to Chooser. In the Chooser, select “AppleTalk” in the left pane and then select “Active” in the right pane. Now close the Chooser and restart.

On your eMac select “System Preferences” from the Apple Menu and click on “Network.” From the “Show:” menu select “Built-in-Ethernet” and then click on the AppleTalk tab. Check the box marked “Make AppleTalk Active.” Now click on the “Apply Now” button. Next, from the System Preferences window, select “Sharing.” Under the “Services” tab check the box for “Personal File Sharing.” You may now close the System Preferences window.

Back at the iMac again, go to the Chooser. Click on AppleTalk and you should see your eMac listed in the window on the right. Double click on it and you will be prompted for a username and password. Use your OS X username and password from the eMac. Now you should be connected to your eMac like it was a server.

What you need is an Ethernet “crossover” cable and not a regular Ethernet cable. You can use a regular Ethernet cable if you are going to have a hub or switch in between both computers. You can also use a regular Ethernet cable directly connected if, at least, one of the computers has a Gigabit Ethernet port. But in your case, both computers have 10/100 ports, so a direct connection from computer to computer will require a crossover cable.

Another option, if your iMac has a FireWire port, would be to reboot the iMac with the “T” key held down. This will put the iMac into Target Disk Mode, which makes it work like an external FireWire hard drive. Once the iMac has a blue screen with a yellow FireWire symbol on the screen, you can then connect the two computers with a FireWire cable. Your iMac’s hard drive will then show up on the eMac’s desktop. FireWire is much faster than Ethernet at transferring data, but this of course will only work if both computers have a FireWire port.

I can understand your reluctance to buy the Airport Base Station. You would only be using one of its features. It would be your only option if there where multiple people in your house wanting to share a Dialup Internet account or if you wanted to print wirelessly, but if you just need to cut the phone cord it would be overkill. What you need is a wireless phone line. Some cordless phones will have modem ports in them but those are hard to find and bulky. Fortunately a company called Nebo Wireless (http://www.nebowireless.com) has just what you need. The Nebo Wireless base unit connects to your home phone line and the receiver unit plugs into your modem and USB port. The USB connection is only for power so there are no drivers. Your computer thinks it is hooked up to a regular phone line. The Nebo Wireless is only $49.99 and can be purchased directly from their site. I have never used this product but it looks to be the best solution for you.

All the dual-core based PowerMac G5’s use a new combo wireless card instead of the two cards used before. The card is similar to the combo Bluetooth/Airport card found in iBooks. The difference is that the card is attached to an adapter card before it is inserted into the G5. Additionally the two antenna cables have changed to the smaller standard used inside most Apple computers with built-in wireless.

Most people with basic mechanical skills could install this wireless kit into their G5 tower. The reason Apple does not consider it “User Installable” is that it’s a multiple part assembly in a tight space. We sell it because we feel people should have the option of installing it themselves. The only drawback to installing it yourself is that you will lose your Apple warranty on the wireless kit.

The slot that the assembled wireless kit fits into is the same mini PCI slot that Airport Extreme (APX) cards fit into. As a test, I installed an APX card into a dual-core G5 and it worked fine. Unfortunately the built-in cables will not work so you have to use an external antenna and cable.

So if you are confident with your hands, pick up one of those wireless kits.