Can You Solve This Problem?

Anyone have an idea for solving David Passell’s problem? He describes it like this, “The problem is getting an older beige G3, running Jaguar 10.2.8, to connect to the Internet. (At first he said the problem was an older G3 iMac, running Tiger.) Read on, to see if this computes with you . . . Then please write to David.

"My wireless Router, a Linksys WRT54G, is remotely located (about 75 feet) from my computers. It is hardwired via a CAT 5 cable to a CommSpeed 'wireless modem' which is further remotely located (in a shed window) to get a decent signal.

"My Mini which is located at the same location as the iMAC has Snow Leopard and, of course, built-in Airport.  With the Mini, when I turn it on I see the wireless fan in the top menu and Internet connectivity is just there. I don't recall doing anything special except finding the identifier for my Router (W...W...), asking to join the network, and entering a password. In my case it is a WEP 64bit binary requiring the entry of 10 binary digits. Then I am connected. Speed is usually around 1.5 MBs.

"Similarly with the LINUX OLPC, i just find the symbol for the network, click on it, enter a password, and I have connectivity.

"The iMAC is a totally different cat. I am using a rather elderly D-link DWL 810 bridge connected to the Ethernet port.  The first step to connecting is to use a browser (Firefox) to access the DWL via its identifier (192.168.0.30). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Apparently I have to reset (button on the back) the DWL or else the browser reports I'm not connected.

"Then I am to go to a 'wizard' and get around to searching to find the ID of the Router, click a connect button, enter the 10 binary digits (note: I use WEP because that is the only kind of security offered by that device) and then hope.

"The Preference Pane of the OS X gets into the act as well as diagnostics and network connect. I am offered umpteen choices of interacting settings. There I start going around in circles. Nothing achieves the desired result of accessing the Internet.

"Before I go out and just buy a 75 foot Cat 5 cable from the iMAC to my router, does anybody have any idea how I might connect my iMAC wirelessly; perhaps I should scrap the DWL and purchase a USB plug-in 'bridge' (sorry about the fuzzy terminology) that I see some Laptop owners use to connect to WiFi nets. I am having great difficulty understanding why this no longer works."

In conclusion David adds, “Even more mystified why that more primitive machine worked and the much later iMac with Tiger won’t.  Can anybody help?”