Andy said:
Assuming this is a desktop, rather than a laptop yes, if it's a laptop
I assume you'd realise it's practically certain to have WiFi built in,
if it's new enough to run Win7.
Windows should "see" all available wiFi networks, and you click on the
relevant one to connect to it, the network ought to be secured and will
prompt for a security "key"
Indeed: as "Alias" says, if it isn't secured (doesn't ask), it's a dodgy
network, or at least open to any dodgy character. If it does prompt for
a key (which you will have to be told by the facility's staff), you only
have to enter it once: your PC will remember each network's password.
This also applies if you take your PC to visit anyone else (your
children perhaps) who have wifi and are willing to give you the key -
your PC will remember the password for each network you connect to.
There's just the key, it's not personal to you, but shared by all
people accessing the WiFi, Windows will store it for you, you won't be
prompted again.
That's the usual situation, though I think usernames are not unheard of.
It's also possible to set up a wifi router so that it will only allow
devices on a list inside it to connect: if they do this, either you'll
need to give them the ID of your device (USB dongle or laptop itself),
or they'll need to do something (I've seen routers where you press a
button on the router and anything that tries to connect in the following
few minutes gets added to the list, which seemed a good compromise
between security and usability). However, most places that "provide
wifi" don't restrict in this way, it being too much bother - they just
use a "key" (something you have to type in, once) which they give you.
(In theory they should change it from time to time, though they
obviously have to tell all the users whenever they do.)
Once you're connected you can access web, email, skype or whatever just
like you do now, if your email is tied to your current provider and
you're closing that home ISP account to move into the sheltered
accomodation, you might need to set up a new email provider.
As Andy says, if your email is web-based, it'll work fine. If not, and
you want to keep your existing email account (and, probably, pay your
existing provider for it), which you might I suppose if you don't want
to change the email address you've been using for years (and tell all
your contacts), then:
Sending: either you'll need to configure your mail software to use the
SMTP server provided by the company providing the wifi service to the
facility, or you'll have to set up authenticated use of your original
provider's SMTP server. You may already have this set up; however, a lot
of providers allow unauthenticated use of their server provided users
are physically connected via a known account. If you're very unlucky,
your existing provider won't allow email sending _except_ via such a
connection; in that case you'd need to find another one (hopefully the
one provided by the facility's provider) that will, and will also allow
your emails to have a different "From" or "Reply-to" address.
Receiving: again, it depends whether your existing provider allows
collection of mail from their server (POP3 rather than SMTP this time)
with authentication.
If you _do_ want to keep your existing email as privided by your
existing supplier (again, this is irrelevant for a web-based system),
it'd be worth asking them if they do a simpler (and thus cheaper)
provision that does email only, since you won't be wanting broadband
from them.
Looking back at the original post, I see you're at an @yahoo.com
address: I think that's one of those that will work regardless anyway,
certainly if you do all your email via a web browser. (If you don't -
and I see you are using Windows Live Mail, though obviously I don't know
if you use that for email as well as for posting - then it might be
worth asking anyone you know inside the facility who uses yahoo, what if
anything _they_ had to do.)
If your machine is a desktop PC, you might want to fit the USB WiFi
dongle onto a USB extension lead, so it can be positioned to pick up a
better signal, rather than the dongle being down at low level hidden
behind the PC, also less likely to being snapped off!
Good advice! In the UK, poundshops (shops where everything is a pound,
or 99p) often sell USB hubs (and sometimes other USB toys) with a short
(say 6") USB extension lead: it's probably cheaper to buy that (whether
you use the hub or not) than to buy the lead alone anywhere else. (I
don't know where you are, but I imagine the equivalent of poundshops are
everywhere.)
As Andy said, if it's a laptop, certainly one that came with 7 (or
Vista, or even many from the XP era), it'll probably have wifi built in.
Usually turned on by default anyway, but just in case it's turned off,
you'll obviously need to turn it on: sometimes a physical switch (often
at the front, sometimes a little underneath so you don't catch it by
mistake), sometimes just the function key plus one of the F keys (F9 on
this netbook). Look at the function keys for a suitable symbol -
sometimes waves radiating out from a point, sometimes a drawing of an
old-fashioned aerial. There's probably a light, as well, that comes on
when it's active - maybe next to the caps/shift/scroll lock lights,
maybe not, depending on the designer of the case.
If it is a laptop/netbook and you have a suitable friendly
neighbour/son/daughter/whatever who has wifi, take it round to their
place, and you can try all this out. You'll need them to tell you their
key of course. If no-one suitable is available, and assuming you live in
an ordinary street rather than an isolated home, you should still at
least be able to "see" several wifi networks, though you won't get any
further than attempting to connect and being asked for the key. (Unless
you have a neighbour who has set his/her network up as unsecured - it
isn't unknown! There may also be some which are part of wider "networks"
of a different kind - in the UK, BTOpenZone is one - where the
individual nodes _are_ unsecured, but if you try to connect to any
website through them, you see instead their payment page. They usually
block - by port number I think, we don't need to go into that here -
mail transfer, too, i. e. _only_ provide web access to everything. The
nodes in this case can be either things like petrol station signs, or
private individuals who allow their own system to be used by anyone who
has joined the system, in return for themselves being able to do so when
away from home.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
.... his charming, bumbling best, a serial monogamist terrified of commitment,
who comes across as a sort of Bertie Wooster but with a measurable IQ. - Barry
Norman on Hugh Grant's persona in certain films, Radio Times 3-9 July 2010
