I'm thinking of getting the mother in law a cheap laptop and would like to know what, if any, options there are on her getting any kind of free wi-fi access. Are there places of business she can go? Is there something available like what Portland has? She currently has never had access to the internet, other than at my wife's place of work, or the library. We would like to get her internet access without having a monthly bill, via a laptop. She's in the vincinity of I205/Mill Plain in Vantucky, as Mrs M calls it. Also, any other helpful hints would be appreciated as far as laptop/card info, and thanks in advance.

There are lots of places in Portland that have free WiFi, so I assume there are in Vancouver as well. It's probably just a matter of snooping around to find a coffee shop or something that has the access.

All new laptops will have built-in wireless cards nowadays. They're likely to be MS Vista-based however unless you buy one specifically that still has XP. You might consider buying a used one.

DSL at home might be cheaper than you think, depending on whether she has phone service already. Have you checked into it? Having the internet at home is really handy once you get used to it; having to go to some place just to read your email can be a pain on a regular basis. If DSL is cheap enough, you might consider a cheap used desktop (cheaper than a laptop) instead of a laptop, since it seems that cost might be an issue here.

Andrew

She might already have it at her house, over 30% of people with wi-fi, leave it open.

She has a cell phone, which we cover for her, so there is no landline available, nor is their room in her budget. However, the fact that someone in her neighborhood has an open system is probably a good chace. She'd only use it for email and web surfing, and most likley, very limited use. I guess I don't understand how the wifi works. I see that T-mobile provides a hot spot at Starbucks, so can she use that for free, or do they need an account with T mobile?

Andrew, we'd definitely go used on the computer. Is craigslist a good place to go?

The T-mobile at Starbucks requires you use a credit card, or buy a pre-paid card.

If you look around, you can probably find a free connection at a smaller coffee shop. Vancouver libraries are going to provide free wi-fi, but it won't be in place for a couple of years.

http://www.jiwire.com/browse-hotspot-united-states-us-washington-wa-vancouver-14 4600.htm

You can find many free spots here

WiFi is like a cordless phone (not a cell phone). There's a base station broadcasting the signal and the receivers (laptops) can receive it only a certain distance from the base station. So she could pick up a neighbor's WiFi only if 1) the neighbor physically lives close enough to pick it up reliably and 2) the neighbor has not secured the connection. Now, if you find her immediate neighbor in fact has a secure wireless connection, you can approach the neighbor and offer, say, $5/month to let your MIL use their wireless. (If it's open, you don't have to "ask" you can just use it but technically that's theft. Some people might not take kindly to it, but many people do it and many owners of WiFi have no idea their open signal is being used by anyone else.)

You indeed must pay for wireless at Starbucks and yes, it's through T-Mobile. It's called T-Mobile Hotspot - not a thing to do with T-Mobile cell service, as you can subscribe to Hotspot without even owning a cell phone. It's $30/month to subscribe to Hotspot alone and that's on a year contract. If you have a T-Mobile phone you can get Hotspot for only $20/month and no contract...probably $20 more than she wants to pay however.

Note that you can opt for both the "neighbor's wireless" *AND* a desktop computer, since you can get cheap wireless cards for both desktops and laptops. There are cheap PCI wireless cards on sale at Fry's for under $20 (sometimes under $10) almost any given weekend. The PCI wireless cards usually allow you to attach a better antenna to pull in a neighbor's weaker WiFi Signal. Avoid the USB type of wireless card.

Craigslist is fine as a place to buy a used computer, as long as you are wary. If a computer comes with Windows XP make sure it's a legal, valid copy of XP or you won't be able to run updates (very important). I'd hook up such a computer to the internet before purchasing it and run Windows Update to verify that it can indeed get updates.

You might consider Linux as an option. If your MIL will only surf the web and use web email, Firefox is mostly all she needs anyway - who cares if it's Windows or Linux? Then you don't need to care about whether XP is legal as Linux is free.

Avoid computers so old that they have Windows 98 or ME - they are nothing but trouble. Windows 2000 is actually quite good and doesn't require activation (so no worries about Windows Update). But you need to make sure any old computer has enough RAM. Make sure it has at least (absolute minimum) 256MB of RAM, preferably 512MB or more. It's fairly easy to upgrade RAM if the computer isn't too old. If you get an Intel, make sure it has at least a Pentium III and is at least 1GHZ CPU (which should be at the very low end of what you would want to buy).

If you buy a used laptop, avoid anything with an Intel Pentium 4 in it, they are desktop CPUs and not reliable in laptops. (Plus they are HEATERS!) Pentium M is a very good laptop CPU; anything with Centrino (a package from Intel including a wireless-ready CPU and chipset) is great. I'm not so up on the AMD CPUs but their old laptop CPUs weren't as good.

Andrew

and this

http://hotspotr.com/wifi/list/318-vancouver-wa

Nwokie writes:
The T-mobile at Starbucks requires you use a credit card, or buy a pre-paid card.

Right, but you can subscribe to it and they just charge your credit card monthly or, if you are a T-Mobile subscriber, just bill it to your monthly cell phone bill. I've been a subscriber for years and am using it at a Starbucks at this moment.

Andrew

P-4's like Andrew said are good to stay away from in laptops. Centrino is the best bet. AMD I found usually run a lot hotter than the Centrino (not necessarily faster, just HOT to the touch, a real lap warmer). XP get a minimum 512mb of ram and Vista a minimum of 1gb of ram to run and not crawl.

If she has a cell phone, most plans have a data option for about $5.00 per month, you can get an adapter to let your laptop or desktop use your cell phone as a modem, and get service that way.

Its faster than dial-up, usually about 150KBS

You don't need an adapter - you usually just need a USB cable or (if the phone and the computer have it) Bluetooth. Plus the cell phone must have a built-in data modem. The cost varies depending on the carrier and the plan you have.

I've done this with both Verizon (Nokia phone) and T-Mobile (Motorola phone). While Verizon has a high speed data plan (not cheap), I used their 1xrtt network which as Nwokie says is not speedy and with my plan I could use their data network for no extra cost beyond using voice minutes. Free evenings/weekends is really nice but during prime time you eat minutes quickly.

With T-Mobile, you have to buy a data plan. T-Mobile's unlimited data plan is $20/month (I pay $30/month to get that plus Hotspot at Starbucks). So you don't eat minutes whenever you use the phone. The nice thing about my Motorola phone is that it uses a cheap, standard mini-USB data cable (which also charges the phone from the computer), whereas my Nokia used a proprietary cable that wasn't cheap.

I've found both T-Mobile's and Verizon's data networks (not the fast EV-DO network Verizon charges extra for) to be slow, about as fast as dial-up (despite the connection rate shown in WIndows, there's a lot of latency so response can be frustratingly slow). I use T-Mobile now to tether the laptop when I can't get WiFi and it's barely acceptable to use - frustrating when you are used to fast internet, but in a pinch, it works.

Andrew

Being that we're on the hook for the cell phone usage, I'd rather not give her an excuse to pile up more minutes. I like the free access plan, either with a neighbor, or at a place of business. I'll look into getting her a laptop with wifi access and see where she can use it. Thanks to all who replied.

Vitalogy, since you are already a good son, why don't you consider paying the less than $10 months that People PC (I think that is the name) charges for dial-up. That seems to be all that you Mom needs.

Well, she my mom in law, not my mom, but where she lives she does not pay for a landline (cell user only, which she only uses to talk to my wife and for work to get a hold of her). If a landline was already in place, we'd do the cheap dial up. That's why I was trying to figure out the wifi thing.

Is she in a house or apartment?

If she's in an apt, she likely has a network in range already. If a house, she may need an external (external to the computer, not the house) antenna to get good reception(if a network is available at all). And like any other radio connection, the quality of the link can vary depending on conditions.

In my experience, it's hard to find a place *in* the city that doesn't have a useable signal from somewhere. However, Vantucky may be a different story. It does seem like practically every decent coffeehouse(i.e. NOT Starbucks) has freewifi these days.

The problem with a laptop is that they rarely have connectors for external antennae, and the internal antenna generally ain't so good, so you're left with the option of adding an additional USB or PCMCIA wifi card.

this might be useful: http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/06/hfield-intros-vista-compatible-wi-fire-long-r ange-wifi-adapter/

You might try FreeGeek for a cheap linux laptop.

She rents a room in a house that's in a neighborhood very close to Cinetopia off Mill Plain Blvd. Based on her limited usage of the internet, the coffee house thing would probably fit the bill, even if she couldn't get any reception at home. She works at the Vancouver Mall, so there's a possiblity there might be something there as well.