So,cwtnospam,do I need a wireless card for the G4 ANYWAY? as well as the Bridge and Router?
I repeat:-
Please,someone, confirm the exact things I need to get in addition to the iMac!
1) Airport Express (eg)
2) Bridge
3) ? anything else?


And thank you all for all your help:)

Your G4 needs some sort of wireless adapter or wireless to ethernet bridge, which turns your built in ethernet port into a wireless adapter basically. Then you will need to purchase a router. Once the router is in place and working you can connect each machine to it over the wireless.

so something like this may work

http://www.provantage.com/hawking-te...a~7HAUD002.htm


Or, you can just run a CAT 5 cable from your router to your G4. Because all wireless routers also at least come with a built in 4 port switch. You don't have to go wireless as long as you are okay with either 1) running a cable from your router to your G4 or 2) keeping your router near your G4.

So in essence can I get by with a wireless to ethernet bridge for my G4,plus Airport Express functioning as router and print controller for both Macs? and nothing else?

Don't forget your dsl modem. :)

yup

but your printers must support printing to a network printer, ie the driver must. Or you will have to share the printers like mentioned earlier.

OK,thanks.
I have a DSL Modem-(Speedtouch 330)-at least I bloody well hope it's a DSL modem:D
and just the one printer,HP PSC 1210 AiO,although we're thinking of going laser.Can you get laser all-in-ones,reasonably priced? and will they fit this particular scenario?

honestly, I haven't had much luck with network printers on OS X unless the printer itself was designed to be networked. I have had to always download the open source drivers.

However, you can still hook them up and share them through printer sharing in OS X, the print server part just may not work.

I can't help but feel you're all complicating things when it isn't needed; you may have better insight than me but here's my take on it.

I have a WLAN setup, with two Macs running 10.4.10.

I also have an HP PSC 1205 connected to my iMac via USB.

My MacBook can print directly to this whilst connected via my WLAN, which uses a cheap and cheerful BT Voyager 2100 ADSL Modem Router.

Unless I've missed something (I may well have), why does it need to be any more complicated than this? Get the G4 wireless enabled or cable it to the router (ditch the speedtouch 330 imo), and that's it isn't it?

edit: admittedly my iMac must be turned on for the printer to be able to function but it's a much simpler setup for someone who - no offence zzzuppp - doesn't appear to be all that techy.

fair comment. I don't download all that much so it's not really that big a factor. I'd sooner know that they're going to pick up the phone if I have a problem :).

That is what I was referring to with sharing printers. With a print server you could print to it no matter what, and no machine would have to be connected to the printer and turned on for it to work.

OK,thank you everyone, I need some clarification now.
I have just bought a 2.16Gb Intel iMac.(Arriving next week sometime).
In summary,in the light of what aardtech has said,seems like I need to,in the simplest scenario,cable my G4 to the router (Speedtouch 330 USB DSL modem)? (It already is...?) or get it wireless enabled using a 'bridge'.Do I still need the wireless router? I'm puzzled...
What might be wrong with the Speedtouch 330 USB DSL modem?
How do I set up a WLAN?
Can someone suggest a simple and fairly uncostly solution to all this? (ie a way of getting a DSL signal to our two Macs,and hopefully getting one printer to print from both.)

The router handles the WAN.

Maybe a diagram will help. Here's one way to do it:

A picture is worth 1000 words.Thanks cwtnospam.
So I need the wireless bridge,for the G4 (ie LH Mac in the pic),plus a router,right?
In your pic,the RH G4type Mac is wired to the router.Is that just an example-so that our iMac,eg,doesn't need wiring,can be wireless,like the laptop on the RHS?
Is there any reason I'd need to change the existing Speedtouch 330 modem?
Would something like this-http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=111307&partner=froogle-do for the wireless adapter for the G4 or does it need special drivers or is it incompatible with Mac,etc?
Or this? http://www.computerwarehouse.co.uk/d...36736911296852
And would either of those work with the router that aardtech suggested?-http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/52244

Right.

The RH G4 is just an example. The point is that most wireless routers have ethernet ports so you can connect either way.

Wireless bridges don't need drivers. They just take the ethernet signal they receive and transmit it wirelessly, and they take the wireless signals and transmit them over ethernet.

Thanks
Can you confirm that those three links I gave are the right kind of thing?
Also,what kind of connectors would I need for Modem-router; and G4 to adapter?

Yes, they should work. Wiring is all ethernet, preferably Category 5 or 6. You can get them made to almost any length, up to their limits, which home users need not worry about approaching.

Do you mean wireless local area network

or

wide area network?

Thanks tlarkin,doesn't matter now:)
Re: ethernet cables-the socket looks just like a standard UK phone socket-does that mean that ethernet cables are the same as phone cables? (I'm assuming not,but thought I'd ask).Does anyone know whether routers/adapters ship with ethernet cables included or do I need to order them separately?
Next Q: when I get the new Mac/router/adapter and cables all together,is the setup straightforward-plug and play- or do I need to know special codes/numbers etc?

I don't know about UK phones.

Some routers ship with a cable, but some don't. You'll probably need two at least. One to go from the cable modem to the router, and another to go from the G4 to the bridge, or to the router.

Everything is fairly straightforward. You will need to connect via ethernet to set up the router's wireless portion. It may be turned on by default, but at a minimum you'll want to set some sort of security on it.

well I am not sure about UK standards, but in the US phone jacks are RJ11 connectors and Ethernet cable is RJ45, so they both look exactly the same except one jack is slightly bigger (more wires) than the other. So it should look almost the same.

Every router I have ever cracked open out of the box has at least one ethernet patch cable in it. However, some of the cheaper ones may not come with anything, I am not 100% on that.

There should be a quick set up guide with pictures that shows you how to hook it up. It is very straight forward. you mentioned you lived in the country earlier? How close is your nearest neighbor, in feet? I only ask because if no one is close to your house at all, there is really no need to secure your wifi network. though, slapping some kind of security is probably better than leaving it wide open.

For example I set up a network for someone right outside of town. They had many acres of land and their nearest neighbor was like 3,000 feet away. So I just left their wifi network wide open, that way they would never have to mess with security.