my free imac

[billydkidd]

Hi all, I got a free working 233 OS8.6 (tray loading?) all in one piece imac from some friends and wanted to upgrade it to 9.?. I also wanted to hook up my internet provider. I have OS9.1 and 2 from two different neighbors but am stopped by the firmware update requirement. I have researched this on the net for a week or so. My interent connecting is stopped by requirements for isp servers and domain numbers. With my windows machine I am using I just type in a phone number, user name and password. I started off with an AppleIIe a long time ago and was hoping that a mac would be so much easier to use but so far not. I guess the bottom line is, am I going to be spending a lot of time working on this machine rather than using it. Thanks Bill

 

[nixgeek]

If you go into the Remote Access control panel in the Control Panels folder, you'll be able to enter the information from your ISP there. Make sure you get all the settings from the PC and set it up as similarly as possible on the Mac. In the TCP/IP control panel located in the same place, make sure you set it for PPP and have it get the information automatically (in other words, through DHCP).

As for the firmware upgrade, I believe the OS 9.x CDs come with the firmware upgrade in the CD. Of course, this is assuming that the OS 9 CDs are the full retail version and not the ones that shipped with another Mac. Also, that would be illegal and would be against board rules here, which would keep anyone from continuing to help. Not trying to be mean, but that is the way it works on this forum: illegal is a no-no topic.

Check on Low End Mac for some vendors that sell OS 9. It should be really cheap now. Or you could max out the memory and install OS X, but don't expect it to be a speed demon. The upside is that you'll have access to the latest apps with OS X 10.2 and up. Then there's also Linux, but I'll leave that decision up to you.