wireless and Bluetooth problems on a g4 mac mini

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hi everyone - hopefully someone can help!

I have recently been given an old mac mini g4 ppc 1.25 which I thought I would use as a handy media centre... however this thing is as old as the hills and as such doesn't even have built in airport or Bluetooth - I was going to use it with the wifi and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so bought a USB wi-fi dongle and a USB Bluetooth dongle, thinking I could just plug them in and I'd be up and running. no such luck!

I'll start with the Bluetooth - the spec says its mac osx compatible but as the machine has no Bluetooth built in there is no Bluetooth section in the prefrences - I'm guessing if I had this I could turn Bluetooth on and set it up? how do I get this? I tried installing Bluetooth 1.5 from the apple site but it told me my machine did not need it. any ideas how I can get this preference installed or available?

second, the wifi - it came with a disc with a mac installer and installed a wi-fi utility, the utility does open and detects my network but there are a load of options available - it does appear to auto detect everything but on putting in my password does not connect. if I go into preferences it seems to be picking up the USB dongle as an Ethernet port?

all help and suggestions appreciAted - any questions or requests for screenshots I'll provide people with anything they need to help!

any suggestions, links etc appreciated!
 
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also worth noting - I'm an experienced mac user and generally know what I'm doing but all the same, try to make any instructions as clear and step by step as possible! thanks
 
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hi everyone - hopefully someone can help!

I have recently been given an old mac mini g4 ppc 1.25 which I thought I would use as a handy media centre... however this thing is as old as the hills and as such doesn't even have built in airport or Bluetooth - I was going to use it with the wifi and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so bought a USB wi-fi dongle and a USB Bluetooth dongle, thinking I could just plug them in and I'd be up and running. no such luck!

I'll start with the Bluetooth - the spec says its mac osx compatible but as the machine has no Bluetooth built in there is no Bluetooth section in the prefrences - I'm guessing if I had this I could turn Bluetooth on and set it up? how do I get this? I tried installing Bluetooth 1.5 from the apple site but it told me my machine did not need it. any ideas how I can get this preference installed or available?

second, the wifi - it came with a disc with a mac installer and installed a wi-fi utility, the utility does open and detects my network but there are a load of options available - it does appear to auto detect everything but on putting in my password does not connect. if I go into preferences it seems to be picking up the USB dongle as an Ethernet port?

all help and suggestions appreciAted - any questions or requests for screenshots I'll provide people with anything they need to help!

any suggestions, links etc appreciated!
 
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hi everyone - hopefully someone can help!

I have recently been given an old mac mini g4 ppc 1.25 which I thought I would use as a handy media centre... however this thing is as old as the hills and as such doesn't even have built in airport or Bluetooth - I was going to use it with the wifi and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so bought a USB wi-fi dongle and a USB Bluetooth dongle, thinking I could just plug them in and I'd be up and running. no such luck!

I'll start with the Bluetooth - the spec says its mac osx compatible but as the machine has no Bluetooth built in there is no Bluetooth section in the prefrences - I'm guessing if I had this I could turn Bluetooth on and set it up? how do I get this? I tried installing Bluetooth 1.5 from the apple site but it told me my machine did not need it. any ideas how I can get this preference installed or available?

second, the wifi - it came with a disc with a mac installer and installed a wi-fi utility, the utility does open and detects my network but there are a load of options available - it does appear to auto detect everything but on putting in my password does not connect. if I go into preferences it seems to be picking up the USB dongle as an Ethernet port?

all help and suggestions appreciAted - any questions or requests for screenshots I'll provide people with anything they need to help!

any suggestions, links etc appreciated!
 
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hi everyone - hopefully someone can help!

I have recently been given an old mac mini g4 ppc 1.25 which I thought I would use as a handy media centre... however this thing is as old as the hills and as such doesn't even have built in airport or Bluetooth - I was going to use it with the wifi and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so bought a USB wi-fi dongle and a USB Bluetooth dongle, thinking I could just plug them in and I'd be up and running. no such luck!

I'll start with the Bluetooth - the spec says its mac osx compatible but as the machine has no Bluetooth built in there is no Bluetooth section in the prefrences - I'm guessing if I had this I could turn Bluetooth on and set it up? how do I get this? I tried installing Bluetooth 1.5 from the apple site but it told me my machine did not need it. any ideas how I can get this preference installed or available?

second, the wifi - it came with a disc with a mac installer and installed a wi-fi utility, the utility does open and detects my network but there are a load of options available - it does appear to auto detect everything but on putting in my password does not connect. if I go into preferences it seems to be picking up the USB dongle as an Ethernet port?

all help and suggestions appreciAted - any questions or requests for screenshots I'll provide people with anything they need to help!

any suggestions, links etc appreciated!
 
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An Airport Extreme Card will be the shot. They are quite cheap on eBay. The card is an 802.11b/g. The Bluetooth dongle needs to be a D-Link as many others are not compatible. Never found any WiFi dongle that works with a Mac yet and tried for years. problem seems to be drivers.
 
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Do not double post. Staff do NOT like it!
 
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And to say nothing of triple posting!
 
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thanks mate - unfortunately, from what I have seen, the airport cards are a nightmare to install on the minis, so I was hoping for a dongle solution first!

Hopefully someone else has an idea I can try out before having to go down that route.

Cheers
 
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thanks mate - unfortunately, from what I have seen, the airport cards are a nightmare to install on the minis, so I was hoping for a dongle solution first!

Hopefully someone else has an idea I can try out before having to go down that route.

Cheers
 
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As for the dongle - I have one OK, it even claims to be mac compatible, and instructions simply say plug it in, go to "bluetooth" in the preferences - and that's as far as I can get, as I don't have the bluetooth preferences pane - I'm really more wondering how to get this - can I install it seperately, even though the mac doesn't think I need it as it's detecting no bluetooth?
 
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As for the dongle - I have one OK, it even claims to be mac compatible, and instructions simply say plug it in, go to "bluetooth" in the preferences - and that's as far as I can get, as I don't have the bluetooth preferences pane - I'm really more wondering how to get this - can I install it seperately, even though the mac doesn't think I need it as it's detecting no bluetooth?
 
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OK - wireless sorted!

I had my encryption set on my router at TKIP, changed it to AES and hey presto, up it went.

Hopefully this can help someone else looking for a cheap wi-fi fix - certainly not bad for £5! I bought it here...

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace


Now, if I can just get the bluetooth prefs avaioable for me to turn on and set up, I'll have a fantastic media centre!
 
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OK - wireless sorted!

I had my encryption set on my router at TKIP, changed it to AES and hey presto, up it went.

Hopefully this can help someone else looking for a cheap wi-fi fix - certainly not bad for £5! I bought it here...

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace


Now, if I can just get the bluetooth prefs avaioable for me to turn on and set up, I'll have a fantastic media centre!
 

chscag

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@nidgemo:

You have triple posted this same message. Please refrain from cross posting or duplicating your posts to more than one forum as it causes confusion and unnecessary replies. Your duplicate posts have been merged together here.

Thanks.
 
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apologies and thanks - I had posted but then thought it was in the wrong forum so reposted in the right one. thanks for merging please delete any duplicates and hopefully someone can give me some help on the remaining Bluetooth issue here
 

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