Question : Problem: iMac ethernet hub not working

Until recently, my iMac was connecting to the internet without any issues. It's an old iMac running on OS9, connected to a cable moden via a LinkSys etherfast cable/DSL router. When I moved the iMac to another room, it would no longer connect to the internet, and did not show up as an active connection on the router. I've verified on my new iMac that the cable works. I've tried everything from reinstalling the system software, reformatting the hard drive, rebooting the router, etc. without success. The IP address shows up as a 169, which means there's no connection. I've been told that, because the ethernet connection is built in, I'd have to replace the logic board to get my ethernet back. Does this sound right, and if so, could I replace this myself? Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer : Problem: iMac ethernet hub not working

Alas... about a year ago, I made a thorough search for a USB-to-ethernet solution for Mac. USB is extremely poorly-suited to such traffic, but I didn't want to pay for replacing a mobo!  I knew such things were available for PCs. (I also knew that they didn't work very well, having worked tech support for a cable ISP.) I came up dry, though, and ended up paying for the replacement motherboard.

I haven't been able to make any progress on finding a USB/ethernet tranceiver for Mac this time, either.

Approximately $160 would get you a basic Airport connection between your two iMacs. $200 would get you an Airport Extreme connection, which wouldn't do anything for Internet speeds (since you're unlikely to be getting anything close to the 11Mbps max. throughput of Airport from a cable connection), but file sharing at 54Mbps would ROCK!

Hope this offers some help/solace.