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Solutions for a family member to get internet in apartment

noobsquared
By noobsquared
in Networking
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So this is in concerns to a family member that lives in an small apartment room, approximately less than two miles away from my residence. He is just getting by on money (not so much) and does not have that luxury to purchase a quick access gateway via a provider to just do a few small tasks like communicating with email, file applications online, download pictures, and occasionally listen to YouTube music. No internet provider has something that would fit this need in a minimal costing package. Occasionally in order to do as such he has to make constant trips back and forth to the local library. He wants to alleviate this quickly...  

 

...He has two computers (both a desktop and a notebook of which I gave to him in spite of the situation he is in). The notebook has a WiFi card built-in as standard. However, the desktop computer I offered him he wants to migrate to ASAP as he just simply doesn't this now failing laptop with its trackpads and wants more power with a bigger screen and all that as he is used to the traditional beefy computer experience and such. Something that would be stationary on his desk that isn't fragile. He will then use the notebook in worst case scenarios. The computer that I will be giving him is a 9 year old Dell OptiPlex GX620 SFF that surprisingly upon discovery could be upgraded exponentially and all. There appears to be a spare slot lane on the motherboard that might fit a 16-pin card...

 

How could I fix this dilemma so that he needs not to waste fuel and time just to get past this digital age we now live and communicate in by just getting him online somehow?

 

  • Should I invest in a internal WiFi card that would plug in the motherboard?**

 

  • Should I insist on going a more probable route with those USB dongles with WiFi antennas?

 

  • Could I somehow employ a high-gain antenna system that could reach, discover, and connect to networks (including mine at the aforementioned residence a mile or so away)? How would this even work given that there are so many obstructions in between both places?

 

  • Other ideas to help?

 

**He is skeptical of using open networks around him (there are a few) given that the owner(s) of the network's background is/are unknown to us and rather call it safe and he would rather trust my network..but I insist that he should follow this route in an in case scenario that he can't get access to my network.

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5 minutes ago, noobsquared said:

So this is in concerns to a family member that lives in an small apartment room, approximately less than two miles away from my residence. He is just getting by on money (not so much) and does not have that luxury to purchase a quick access gateway via a provider to just do a few small tasks like communicating with email, file applications online, download pictures, and occasionally listen to YouTube music. No internet provider has something that would fit this need in a minimal costing package. Occasionally in order to do as such he has to make constant trips back and forth to the local library. He wants to alleviate this quickly...  

 

...He has two computers (both a desktop and a notebook of which I gave to him in spite of the situation he is in). The notebook has a WiFi card built-in as standard. However, the desktop computer I offered him he wants to migrate to ASAP as he just simply doesn't this now failing laptop with its trackpads and wants more power with a bigger screen and all that as he is used to the traditional beefy computer experience and such. Something that would be stationary on his desk that isn't fragile. He will then use the notebook in worst case scenarios. The computer that I will be giving him is a 9 year old Dell OptiPlex GX620 SFF that surprisingly upon discovery could be upgraded exponentially and all. There appears to be a spare slot lane on the motherboard that might fit a 16-pin card...

 

How could I fix this dilemma so that he needs not to waste fuel and time just to get past this digital age we now live and communicate in by just getting him online somehow?

 

  • Should I invest in a internal WiFi card that would plug in the motherboard?**

 

  • Should I insist on going a more probable route with those USB dongles with WiFi antennas?

 

  • Could I somehow employ a high-gain antenna system that could reach, discover, and connect to networks (including mine at the aforementioned residence a mile or so away)? How would this even work given that there are so many obstructions in between both places?

 

  • Other ideas to help?

 

**He is skeptical of using open networks around him (there are a few) given that the owner(s) of the network's background is/are unknown to us and rather call it safe and he would rather trust my network..but I insist that he should follow this route in an in case scenario that he can't get access to my network.

I would stick in a proper pcie wifi card, usb wifi cards are pretty terrible compared to pcie ones, I had this one (http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GC-WB867D-I-Bluetooth-Adapter-Computer/dp/B00HF8K0O6/ref=sr_1_9?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465191814&sr=1-9&keywords=wifi+card) in my computer and it was pretty good. If you want to let him use your internet, you are probably going to need something like this 

and that is if you have a line of sight between your two places. If he would use an open network, I would suggest buying a vpn and running all of his traffic through that, (I use private internet access and I really like it.)

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3 minutes ago, Jordaneer said:

I would stick in a proper pcie wifi card, usb wifi cards are pretty terrible compared to pcie ones, I had this one (http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GC-WB867D-I-Bluetooth-Adapter-Computer/dp/B00HF8K0O6/ref=sr_1_9?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465191814&sr=1-9&keywords=wifi+card) in my computer and it was pretty good. If you want to let him use your internet, you are probably going to need something like this 

and that is if you have a line of sight between your two places. If he would use an open network, I would suggest buying a vpn and running all of his traffic through that, (I use private internet access and I really like it.)

A vpn isn't going to stop malicious users from stealing your private data over a unsecured wifi  network

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