old school computers

Apple no longer provides support for them. If you wish to update software then you will need to shop for it on eBay.

Lots of schools usea proxy server. Check out your ethernet configuration.

blue apple > system preferences > network

check on the proxy tab see what you have.

Post back for other ideas.

Well, get rid off all that. I do not know what checking the box will do and not configuring. Keep the connection away from proxies.

Robert

We were donated some old imac powermac4,2 from a school.

This is the mac:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_800_fp.html

The internet works on them, but when i try to update the software on them it says " Software Update can't find the update server.

I check for updates on my 10.4.11 system. I didn't find any update. No problems with the check. If you are running 10.4.11 you have the latest software. There could have been security fixes.

Network diagnostics was able to connect to the internet, but not to the server "school server name".

What your saying is that it tries to connect to the school server instead of the apple update server. There are network caching servers, but I didn't think that the individual mac computer would notice them. Maybe they messed with the Internet routing.

Check out /etc/hosts. One could redefine the meaning of an internet address. Crazy to do this.

Here is my terminal command.

/Application/Utilities/Temrinal

Press return to run command.

mac $  cat /etc/hosts
##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1    localhost
255.255.255.255    broadcasthost
::1             localhost 
 mac $ 

How do I stop it from trying to connect to the old school server when trying to update software? Thanks

School do all sorts of crazy stuff. To protect themselves from the internet.

Perhaps you should re-install.

Restore Tiger 10.4 & Leopard 10.5 DVDs may be available/are available from Apple by calling 1(800) 275-2273. Have your serial number ready. Have your credit card ready too. There may be a small fee.

Another number to try is 800-767-2775.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4720126?tstart=0 -- January 20,2013

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5772721?answerId=24588313022#24588313022 -- January 22,2014

--------------------------------------------------------------

TenFourFox -- It's a port of the latest FireFox to run on older hardware and software.

"World's most advanced web browser. Finely tuned for the Power PC."

-- works for me on 10.4. Supports 10.5

http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

alternative download site:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37761/tenfourfox

Turn on pipelining. This will allow Firefox to make simaltaneous requests to the server. Chrome has pipeling turned on. Some sites could fail to load with pipeling set on. The site will be old. See "Increase pipelining" in:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/firefox-optimization-tips/

OmniWeb uses the lastest Safari framework. The open source WebKit. Other browsers like Safari and iCab use the OS version of WebKit. The OmniWeb downloaded dmg includes it's own copy of the latest WebKit.

http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniweb/

Safari 4.1.3 for Tiger

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1069

You do want to check out what and if the school is playing around with the ip addresses.

Another thing to look at is your DNS address. Could be going to their own server and altering addresses.

Change to the google DNS server.

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

I've switched to google it is faster and more secure.

see here:

Robert