Imac G3 Tangerine VS WPA2 wireless encryption!

[comda]

alright, here is the story... I own a little imac G3 400 MHZ model with 320 MB 20 GB hard drive, 4x DVD ROm dual booting both mac os9 and OSX 10.2.8. I have a wireless card inside it and did a little research and found that it will not (and tried it) work with a WPA2 encryption, all i get is a error saying my password is incorrect. So i went to my routers ip address and set the encrytion to WEP and IT WORKED!!! But what i wanted to do was set the encrytion to WEP connect it to the wifi, then set it back to WPA2 but after returning back to WPA2 its a different password and the wireless doesnt work. Any ideas? Would it be better if i set no encrytion and connected it then back to WPA2?? or what? please help me out in getting this to work correctly i love this imac lots and want to use it as my music portal, using grooveshark and youtube on it. It works fine, the Wifi is fast. im actually on this site right now with it using firefox 2 and camino 2 i believe, but using hard wired internet connection to type this. Thanks in advance.

[Geek-9pm]

You need to review the kinds of security that lour machine can do it ought to be able to do WEPA. If it does WEP only, you are stuck. WWEP and WEPA are exclusive. The do not accommodate neath other.

WEP offers very little security. It deters honest people. But for real criminals it is a joke!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEP

Now WEPA is preferred even for home networks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_security

The is no provision for a loin with WEP and a switch to EWPA 'on the fly'

On the Wiki page, look for this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_security#WPAv2

In addition to this,  there is more  'jargon' that adds confusion to the acronyms.

Unless you machine was made over 7 years ago, it should be able to do basic WEPA. Avoid WEP.
To provide better help, the model number of the wireless card is needed  to find  the documentation.

Of course, a wired network is much more secure.

[comda]

not sure which number is the model number, i have however taken pictures of the front and back, maybe you will know better then i will.

[year+ old attachment deleted by admin]

[Geek-9pm]

Looking over the photo here is what I see:


That is a very old Apple card. It is for 802.11b only and does WEP, not WPA.
There  is not piratical way to do better security, unless there is a firmware update.

But maybe somebody else has a good idea.

[comda]

Hmm probably what i have is one of the firat models of airport cards. Since we are on the subject, what does 802.11b mean? And is there any chance it would work if i turned off encrgption connected to it then enable wpa2 again? Cause thr card was fast when i had it wep but once it went back to wpa2 nada. I am using jaguar 10.2.8

[Geek-9pm]

Wireless 802.11b is now a deprecated standard. Most routers  will allow a 80211.b computer to log in and use the network, unless there is a security conflict. The speed is only 11 mega bits.

IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee (IEEE 802). The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent amendments. These standards provide the basis for wireless network products using the Wi-Fi brand.

The standards are: a, b, g, n and who knows why they skipped some letters.

The gand n a current and serve the needs of most users. To reduce interference the higher band is better. It has short range and this is less likely to get interference.  The FCC really needs to open up more free spectrum space. The top tipped of either 54 or 108 mega bits is to slow  for a home network. People want to stream HDTV video to every room in the house.
Oops, I am starting to rant again!

But bask to topic. The card will work for you for just general surfing, but the security is weak. Weak in the sense that your neighbors an slip into you wireless and get free internet. Maybe you  don't want that.

In you router documentation there maybe a way to keep out your neighbors and still use WEP. Not sure of that.