Ppc

I have an iBook G4. I recently downgraded it from 10.4.11 to 10.3. , to see if it would run faster, and it did. But, it would not let me connect to my broadband. Saying that the password was incorrect. So, I have gone back to 10.4.11. And as before the Internet works, not slower than before, but still, i've felt the speed and I want more! I have been considering Linux, maybe mint, but I've read forums where fellow PPC users have lost Internet connection with it. I'm a bit of a lady geek, and would love to find a way to make this work well. Would appreciate advice, tips, a general sharing of knowledge. Thank you

I have a G4 tower that I've installed Debian linux on. Debian was the easiest to get installed, probably because of nVidia video driver issues. Your results may be different. I still have 10.4.11 installed, too. I don't see any speed difference.
When using linux, I haven't experienced loss of internet (haven't actually heard complaints about this either).
There are unavoidable issues, however. There is no modern browser for ppc. Newest Firefox variant is an independently compiled version - Tumuqumac (sp?) - like Firefox 4.x.
There is no Flash Player for linux ppc. These two things make internet on ppc linux less than satisfactory.

From memory this is probably because 10.3 did not support WPA passwords.
You would have to sacrifice it for the less secure WEP.

Also, do note that running an older, unsupported OS can be unsafe. Since it's not being actively patched, you are more vulnerable to hacking and/or malware. I would highly recommend running the newest OS X your machine can comfortably run or consider replacing it, particularly if you're doing sensitive activities like online banking.