G4 ibook not connecting to wireless

Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi, I have an old G4 14" 933mhz 640 mb that I have done a clean installation of the original OS discs to 10.3 and updated to 10.3.9 via ethernet cable direct link. There are two odd problems now, first it will not connect wirelessly to my virgin router - it says the password is invalid, even though I have just connected a newer macbook with the same password by wireless. Secondly it will not connect to the hotmail page, when connected by ethernet cable. Could these issues be related to the OS? it worked fine on wireless before I reloaded the OS. Would there be any benefit in me buying an old copy of 10.4? thanks for your thoughts! Alan
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
What kind of wireless security are you using on your router?
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
The router is a Virgin Media, Netgear VMGD 280 model and will be set for WPA2 according to the device documentation but it is not a subject I know about
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
The router is a Virgin Media, Netgear VMGD 280 model and will be set for WPA2 according to the device documentation but it is not a subject I know about

OK, that's what I needed to know. I'm going to make an educated guess here, because 10.3 is quite old now and it's not a version that I've ever used, but I'd venture to say that the driver for the wireless adapter built into your G4 iBook probably doesn't support WPA2, which is a relatively new wireless encryption standard. It certainly would post-date the last update to 10.3 at the very least.

This puts you into quite the conundrum because you really do want to use WPA2 encryption where available, but it's probably not practical to upgrade to 10.4 or 10.5 with a machine of that vintage.

I would say that if you really must use the iBook wirelessly, your best option would be to log into the router and change the encryption to WPA (as opposed to WPA2) and see if it works with it. This will degrade your network's security slightly, but for the most part, WPA is perfectly viable even today.

The specific process for making this change is going to vary from wireless router to wireless router. Hopefully your router came with some documentation (it may have been including electronically on the CD that came with it). Generally the process will be to connect to the router by visiting a special webpage, logging in and finding the wireless security settings to change and subsequently save the changes. Then, you'll need to reconnect to the router on each computer that uses it wirelessly.
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks for this very helpful answer and I think I could log onto the router and make the change. My real concern is in that having just purchased a newer, used macbook, I plan to try and sell my G4 ibook but don't want a new owner to have issues with it. Do you think upgrading to 10.4 would be too much for the G4 ibook?
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
10.4 (retail) is going to be hard to find and potentially expensive (same thing for 10.5). You'd also probably need to upgrade the memory. My only concern would be that you'd hit the point of diminishing returns pretty quickly with a machine of that vintage.
 
OP
A
Joined
Oct 28, 2009
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Yes, I understand what you are saying and it's funny that older OS versions are more expensive than current. Thanks for your advice!
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top