iMac G3 OS

Of the two big variants among G3 iMacs, the color Lime crosses over. Therefore we need to know whether these have tray-loading optical drives or slot-loading drives. Also post the processor speed from "About this Mac,"

Once we have that info we can go farther, because the "tray v. slot" issue affects both max RAM possible and which Mac OSX version can be installed.

You are correct on the HDD sze issue and RAM. OSX--even old versions--can hardly run on a 6GB drive. I'd say a minimum of 20GB just for casual use. OX 10.2 Jaguar needs at least 128MB RAM to limp along. OS 10.3 Panther did best with 384MB or more, and OS 10.4 really wanted a min of 512MB regardless of what Apple says they need. No G3 iMac can run a higher Mac OS version that 10.4.11.

Thanks. Indeed, 10.3.9 is the highest OSX option.

Outdated Apple specs say that the max RAM is 256MB but, with newer memory modules developed after Apple engraved the specs in stone, you can achieve 512MB:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/G3_233MHz_266MHz_333MHz

Illustrated instructions for installing RAM are here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+G3+Model+M4984+RAM+Replacement/1500

In my experience, 256MB would "work" with OS 10.3 Panther but you would be better off with 384MB (one 256MB and one 128MB stick) or 512MB (two 256MB sticks).

The tray-loading iMacs have no provision for an Apple Airport card, leaving only third-party solutions. These are adapters that plug into an open USB port. Unfortunately, these require compatible drivers and all those I can find in a quick search require OS 10.4 or higher. So you are probably stuck with using a wired connection. Prepare for some really slow browsing, however. I have a 1.25Ghz G4 PowerMac with gigabit ethernet support and it is deadly slow because few if any web pages are now optimized for the long-abandoned PowerPC processor used in your iMac.

A bit late to chip in now but the iMacs aren't really a computer you can get your hands into apart from replacing RAM. Of course they do have a certain caché and color. 🙂 Now my G3 beige on the other hand... I haven't turned it on in a few years but it had room for dual video cards, two hard drives, a Zip drive, optical drive, a 2xFirewire + 3xUSB2 card. I am trying to remember the RAM but I think it had a couple of 256 MB chips in it. It was eminently upgradeable and a real tinkerer machine. I think it had the same clock speed as your iMac, and if you really wanted to tinker you could try overclocking it (I never did).

"I want to get into computers as a hobby, and figured these old iMacs would be perfect to start and they wouldn't break the bank. Thanks for reading and hope you reply."

Keep in mind that a computer manufactured in 1999 is beyond obsolete, in terms of its dated hardware technology and the newest OS version that it's capable of running. Given the correspondingly negligible market value of a fruit-colored iMac 333, you could conceivably break the bank by investing $50 in either. I've got a lime green iMac DV 400 MHz G3 that I upgraded (many years ago) with an 80 GB hard drive and 1 GB of SDRAM, and then installed Panther. I wouldn't consider buying/upgrading that same iMac today, in spite of the fact that it has better onboard graphics, FireWire, and a faster system bus speed than any of the tray-loading iMacs that preceded it. It's just not cost-effective at this point, when one considers the sluggish performance one can expect from it — especially if you hope to use it on the internet. Here's EveryMac's spec page for your iMac.

"I just ordered Panther on eBay because I read that's the max Operating System for these machines."

I hope that you bought the retail/universal installer disk set (black disks with a large, silver X across the face of them), and not a model-specific Restore disk (typically gray in color) for another Mac computer. The compatibility of the latter isn't a sure thing on an unsupported model.

An alternative wireless (Wi-Fi) solution that does not require special driver software would be to use a wireless Ethernet bridge (also known as a gaming or media adapter) connected to the Ethernet port of the computer. There are devices from a number of manufacturers (Netgear WNCE2001 and Linksys WET610N are merely two examples). A wireless Ethernet bridge should work equally well under Mac OS 9.x and Mac OS X 10.3. Modern devices would support the latest security standards. Normally, a wireless Ethernet bridge has a web-based interface for setup, which can be accessed by many browsers (if absolutely necessary, the configuration can also be done using a more modern computer).