setting up wifi on mac os9

If the early iMacs are like the early iBooks then the Airport card is 802.11b and will not connect to a modern base station. You can get adapters like I use with an iBook from OWC at the link. It requires OSX 10.x though. I would guess one of the original Airport base stations might work with OS9. You should check eBay.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MXP3802NU2C/

Hi,

The first question would really be, does the computer have an AirPort (802.11b) Wi-Fi card? The earliest iMac models did not have an internal connector for a Wi-Fi card. If there is a card, is it properly installed/seated? It would help if you could provide information about the exact iMac model/version (and also about the wireless router).

An AirPort Extreme (802.11g) card cannot be used under Mac OS 9.

Using the correct settings, it is per se possible to connect even an 802.11b AirPort card under Mac OS 9 to a newer router, but the latest security protocols cannot be handled.

As dalstott mentioned, the USB wireless adapter under the link needs Mac OS X. Requirements for USB adapters in general are often Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, if Mac drivers are available at all.

For a Mac OS 9 computer a good alternative could be a wireless Ethernet bridge (also known as a gaming or media adapter) connected to the Ethernet port of the computer. There are devices from several manufacturers (examples include Linksys WET610N and Netgear WNCE2001). Since special driver software is not (normally) needed, a wireless Ethernet bridge can be used with old computers under almost any operating system. A new wireless Ethernet bridge would support modern wireless security standards.

Jan