Can you connect an iBook G3 to modern wifi

Hello AverageiBookUser,

I see nobody has attempted an answer to your question in the past day, so I thought I'd try although Wi-Fi isn't my area.

You can connect the G3 iBook to Wi-Fi, but it uses an ancient version of Wi-Fi called 802.11b. This is exceedingly slow by today's standards. Many routers can provide a signal for this standard because they are backwards compatible and will do so automatically while others might need to be set up to do so. You might expect though that some up to date routers might not use 802.11b.

Why would you want to use ethernet with a G3 notebook? Because ethernet is much faster and 802.11b will slow down your modern Wi-Fi network. When you connect Wi-Fi devices using older standards they require more time to communicate to your router and consume the bandwidth resources which otherwise would be available for faster devices.

Even so, your iBook's apps might struggle with today's Internet. I have a 2011 MB Pro with High Sierra 10.13 and Safari on it finds some of the security requirements of the modern age a challenge, for example.

I would hang on to your G3 iBook. They're becoming a bit of a collector's item now, twenty-odd years on from their first release.

Hi,

If I may add a few comments to David McKinlay's excellent answer.

Which exact iBook G3 is it? A clamshell model, or one of the white iBook computers?

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html

Which operating system version?

Another problem is that the built-in 802.11b AirPort card would not allow the use of modern wireless security (such as WPA2).

One could try to circumvent the security problem by using a USB Wi-Fi adapter instead. However, the few adapters suitable for Macs need drivers, and these require at least Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger...

If you wish to connect (almost wirelessly) to a modern Wi-Fi router, a better way may be to use a short cable from the iBook's Ethernet port to a wireless Ethernet bridge or a Wi-Fi range extender with Ethernet bridge capabilities in a client/adapter mode (perhaps something like this example: https://www.edimax.com/edimax/merchandise/merchandise_detail/data/edimax/global/wi-fi_range_extenders_n300/ew-7438rpn_mini/). A device like that would not normally require special software, meaning that it can be used under many old Mac operating systems.

An earlier version of a nano wireless USB adapter Edimax EW-7811Un (not EW-7811Un V2) had a Mac OS X 10.4/10.5/10.6 driver. It may or may not work with your iBook G3 and 10.4. If necessary, perhaps worth testing. There may be similar products from other manufacturers as well (but an appropriate driver is essential).

Ethernet should work, wifi too. You can't do much with browsers, most sites will fail, or with mail, but, you could easily share content and communicate with most other apple devices in your LAN, sharing files and screen.

Nice!