On Oct 17, 2007, at 2:28 PM, Chris Hoffman wrote:

> So, my first question: I have my printer and my keyboard plugged  
> into the 2 available USB ports. Can I plug the printer into the one  
> remaining USB port on the backside of my keyboard, freeing one of  
> the USB ports on the side of my G-3?

That will probably work. What you have to look out for is that the  
ports on a keyboard generally do not supply power, so you can't plug  
in anything like one of those small USB portable hard drives. I've  
even had trouble plugging in some flash drives. A better solution  
might be to buy a powered USB hub and plug that into one of the  
ports. This would add several powered ports in the place of one  
original port. The older machines only had USB 1 ports, so make sure  
any hub will work with USB 1 and not just USB 2.

>
>               2. The Apple tech said, if it were his older IMac G-3, he would 
>  
> install an Airport card. (He said that operation, for him, would be  
> very easy.)

It is pretty easy to install an Airport card on most machines. Some  
machines also need a mounting bracket, and these are harder to find  
than the cards. Before you buy a card, make sure you're getting all  
the pieces you need.

> He said I needed specifically a B Airport card, NOT a G. (An A card  
> will work, but it will be slower than the B.) And the B Airport  
> card must be non-Airport Extreme. He said my G-3 still wouldn't be  
> as fast as the new IMac, but it would sure be a heck of a lot  
> faster than with the 28.8K dial-up modem.

There isn't much point in getting anything other than an 802.11b card  
for that machine. The faster cards from Apple won't work on it and  
the maximum speed on USB 1 port isn't enough to keep up with a g or n  
card.

Another possibility is to plug a wireless adaptor into your Ethernet  
port . This would allow you to get g or n speed out of that older  
machine. (Assuming it has a 100 Mb/s Ethernet port.) I've used  
machines with Ethernet adaptors made by Belkin (I think??), and they  
worked quite well. MacWireless [1] sells them specifically for Macs,  
and might be easier to set up.

[1] <http://www.macwireless.com/html/products/11g_11b_cards/ 
11gEthAdapter.php>


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