Ethernet on a PowerMac 5500

February 25, 2005 7:40 AM

I recently got hold of a PowerMac 5500/2275 (the black one with the TV tuner), but the ethernet port has been upgraded, and is now a modem. While this is all very nice, I'd much prefer it to have LAN functionality. What, exactly, am I looking for on eBay to equip this Mac with a network card, and how difficult are they to install?
posted by armoured-ant to computers & internet (3 comments total)

That should, of course, be 5500/275. Sorry.
posted by armoured-ant at 7:42 AM on February 25, 2005

From looking at Apple History (can't link directly, check 1997 on the right), that machine did have PCI (rather than Nubus) slots, so any PCI ethernet card that works with OS 9 should be fine. Something like this should work and is only $12.99. You should be able to find plenty under $20 new, so no need to deal with eBay.

Installation should take < 5 minutes, unless the 5500 case is hard to get into, which is a possibility.
posted by jalexei at 8:47 AM on February 25, 2005

there's also a CommSlot on the board (which is what the modem's plugged into) that you can probably use as well..just make sure you get an ethernet card that works with the flavor of comm slot in your 5500.

if you are running OS 9 just grab any old PCI Ethernet card that has a RealTek 8139 chip on it - if you can't find any for $5 your eyes are closed. (or you live in a really small town. :-) go to http://www.realtek.com.tw (link goes straight to downloads) and you can get the OS 8/9 driver for it. just be sure it's got that 8139 on it - if you shop online you can usually do a Froogle search for the chip itself, and some retailers do list what chipset the card has on it. (this is especially true of offbrands. SMC, Linksys, et. al. have cards based on the 8139 but they usually rebadge the chip, and sometimes they rebadge a completely different chip with the same model number. it's weird.)
posted by mrg at 5:01 PM on February 25, 2005