Wireless routers?

[sidandnancy]

Hi there. I am a PC user. My bf has MAC. We are trying to connect his mac (g5 tower) wirelessly to the net. I have a netgear router through Timewarner and have purchased a netgear wireless adaptor. My bf is not computer savvy. I downloaded the driver for OS 10.4 at netgear.com for mac. We have installed the driver which seemed to be successfully....computer restarted. Nothing new came up. My PC is connected to the router in other room (where the cable modem is) and its working fine.
I have no idea how to get the mac to find the USB adaptor or the wireless network to get it working/connected. I'm not sure where to start looking, what terms I am searching for, etc.
Like I said I am a PC user so if anyone has any help they can offer (in basic instructions) I'd be extremely greatful. I am determined to get this working. I called APPLE and they said thats all I need. I really dont want to get airport extreme. Can anyone please help me?! I'm at my wits end.

Thanks!

[earthsaver]

Is the Netgear wireless adapter supposed to work with AirPort? Is AirPort turned on?

[djackmac]

There has to be a netgear connection utility somewhere inside the applications or utilities folders because since its a third party network adapter it more than likely won't be tied to system prefs. So look through those folders for something associated with netgear. Since you downloaded the drivers, did you go through installing the drivers as well?

[sidandnancy]

I did install the driver. I found the one specific to my system. Opened it, installed it, then it said to restart, so I did. Once restarted nothing happened. hehe Which I expected, just not sure where to look! I will try your suggetions and hopefully get it figured out.
Thanks.

[Satcomer]

On the Mac desktop hold down the "option" key while clicking on the top left Apple symbol and in the drop-down select "System Profiler". when System profiler launches in the left hand column select "Airport". There tell us what version of security can that Airport card (the wireless card in your Mac) and get.

Then use an Ethernet cable and connect to the Netgear wireless router and see how it is set up (when connect via Ethernet go to System Preferences->Network pane and get the wireless router IP. Put that IP in the address bard of you browser and go into that wireless router and see how it broadcasting and if it is running any security.

This way you can see if the Mac has the security card that can receive that wireless signal. Please write back because we can help you if you do some simple steps and report back to us the results. We want to help you to help yourself.

[MaraJenda]

If I make any changes to the wireless router through the program that came with it should restart it for the changes to take place.

[earthsaver]

The router may restart itself after making the changes.

[ex2bot]

Maybe a dumb question, but have you clicked the Apple (top left), click System Preferences, Click Network, and look to see if the wireless device shows up in there? Try clicking the check box next to "Show Airport status in Menu Bar" which will put a wireless icon in the upper-right of the screen. From there you may be able to connect to wireless networks.