Help with a Mac

[gamarada717]

Ok, so I have this old iMac that has OS 9, and now I have a use for it. Since all my music equiptment is in my bedroom, I would love it if I had a computer in there that I could play music on with iTunes, look up tabs on the internet, and other music related things. What I need to know is....how the hell do I do all of this stuff? I already have a network on two computers and an xbox, and I have cables for everything. How do I set this mac up for internet, and how do I get iTunes and my songs from this computer over to the mac? This interface is very comfusing for me. And whenever I try to open up some files, it always says that I don't have enough memory. It's like changing languages.

[Kevmaster]

Ok, so I have this old iMac that has OS 9, and now I have a use for it. Since all my music equiptment is in my bedroom, I would love it if I had a computer in there that I could play music on with iTunes, look up tabs on the internet, and other music related things. What I need to know is....how the hell do I do all of this stuff? I already have a network on two computers and an xbox, and I have cables for everything. How do I set this mac up for internet, and how do I get iTunes and my songs from this computer over to the mac? This interface is very comfusing for me. And whenever I try to open up some files, it always says that I don't have enough memory. It's like changing languages.

I'm 95% certain that you need OSX to run iTunes. You certainly can get the 'net with OS9, but you'll need a ethernet card or a modem to get it. If you plug the ethernet cord into the mac, you should be set to go.

[White_Noise]

talk to Z-man, or check out his site www.zakvetter.com. hes a mac guy.

[Z-man]

Welcome to the Mac platform (even if it's the old OS 9 system). iTunes was made for OS 9 and was updated to version 2.04.

Though Apple no longer offers the 2.04 version for download, Mac nuts like me keep archives of all software updates and downloads for years and years and it so happens I have the original installation file for iTunes 2.04. Bear in mind this was way before the music store and all that stuff but it's sill 90% of the current iTunes in what it can do.

I have put up the smi file for download ---> HERE

As for the memory issue we first need to see how much RAM you have. In OS 9 the simplest way is to click the Apple top left and select "About This Mac". A simple dialogue box will appear and list the system and RAM usage. If you have oh... 64-128MB RAM you should be fine unless you plan on using photoshop and lots of other apps at once If you are a little lean on the memory the iMac takes standard PC100 RAM and a 128chip will be more than adequate for you. Heck I might have an extra laying around. It's very simple to install.

Before OS X, Virtual memory was an evil evil thing and slowed your machine down. If you have a respectable amount of RAM I will be happy to walk you through turning off VM and some of the less needed extensions to give the machine a little more pep.

Getting the Mac on your network is easy but you wont be able to see your PC computers as there was no cross platform communication built into the system till OS X. As you can see the iMac comes with a built in 10base ethernet port and 56K modem and 2 USP ports (BTW what color and speed is your iMac do you know? its helpfull for me).

1- You plug in the ethernet cable to your iMac
2- Go under the Apple top left -->Control Panels--->AppleTalk and select "ethernet"
3- Close the window and allow the machine to save

(your computer is now set up to look about on the network, now if you have a DSL or Cable modem running on there as well so you could have the net piped into the iMac you might be able to just set it to DHCP server and it will get on... or your ISP might have some domain names and addresses for you to enter. But it costs nothing to try the easy way.

1- Go under the Apple top left -->Control Panels--->TPC/IP and select "DHCP server" from the drop down menu in the window.
2- Close the window and allow the machine to save

Might work might not. Though I don't post here much, I am a very knowledgeable Mac resource. Happy to help.

By far the most useful forum for the Mac is Apple's own discussions forum. There are people there who spend more time posting there than CPhilip does just chilling here. Actually I am not sure if that is something to be proud of or not... oh well

[gamarada717]

Thanks Z-man, that info is really helpful. Unfortunatly, I'm about to go camping and won't have time to try it out until Sunday. Based on what you posted, it sounds like I need to get OSX. Will that work on my mac, and how much does it cost?

On the bottem of the computer, it has these specs...500MHz/512k L2/128mb/IMAC 30gb/DVD/56k/8f8. It's white.

[Z-man]

You can get OS X for that machine and it will run it. However I suggest 2 things.

1- If you go to OS X you will need a bit more RAM. 128MB is ok for OS 9 but its kinda skimpy for X. getting a 128 or 256MB chip will get you up where you need to be (a 512MB chip is ideal but as we all know, money is an issue).

A nice place to check RAM prices for the Mac is http://www.ramseeker.com/ If you cannot decide what iMac you have just look on the site for PC100 RAM prices.

2- If you decide to buy OS X, I suggest you pick up OS 10.2 (Jaguar). Though the current system is 10.3 (10.4 will be out this December) 10.3 is a much more demanding system on a machine of that speed. Sure there are a few things you dont get with 10.2 but its nothing you will care about and the machine is much zippier. OS 10.3 retails for like $130 or like $60 student pricing so eBay probably has a lot of older 10.2 CD's for cheap.

When you get back from your trip and have the stuff and are preping to install let me know and Ill walk you through.

Thanks Z-man, that info is really helpful. Unfortunatly, I'm about to go camping and won't have time to try it out until Sunday. Based on what you posted, it sounds like I need to get OSX. Will that work on my mac, and how much does it cost?

On the bottem of the computer, it has these specs...500MHz/512k L2/128mb/IMAC 30gb/DVD/56k/8f8. It's white.