Help with Internet please!

Hi to all you techies!

My daughter, Kate, has a problem which I am hoping you may be able to help with. She has recently moved to an apartment in Carboneras and has been told by 2 guys that she can't get wifi as she is on the ground floor. Iberbanda and Telefonica broadband are very expensive.

Those of you who know her, know that she works from home and uses the internet most of the day, every day. She desperately needs to get this sorted as it's costing her money each time she goes to the internet cafe - even if it's only a drink for the 3 of them it's 4 or 5 euros a visit which she cannot afford.

I would be so grateful if any if you could help her please. Oh, and can you reply in terms that us techno-phobes may understand!!

Thanks in advance. x

It sounds like the building has a communal WiFi that doesn't extend to her floor. One option would be to investigate the possibility of a WiFi extender - but it's impossible to be more specific without actually being there and seeing things first-hand.

If that is the situation (shared, building-wide WiFi) I personally would be very unwilling to perform financial transactions on it. There are too many ways for the signal to be hijacked or eavesdropped for me to feel safe. However, I would never use a public WiFi or internet cafe for those sorts of things, either.

Thanks Pete, but I don't think that is the problem. 2 different internet providers (the 3rd didn't even turn up!) have told them that they are too low (being on the ground floor) to connect to wifi. When they spoke to their landlord he told them to use Telefonica. She is very worried as she will soon have to do financial transactions and she realises that internet cafes are not secure. x

Sally, sounds like they may have the equivalent of Habland and their floor may be too low to get a decent signal, just like Zujar has a problem with Habland. Can she see any Habland type antennas on any of the other apartments. If so then she may be able to ask their permission to fit her antenna higher up on one of their walls. Other than that Telefonica ADSL may be the only choice.

Thanks La Mancha - I'm pretty sure that is the problem. Most of the other apartments are more or less holiday rentals so nothing to compare with. She is going to see a company called "Internet solutions" and another called "Puntomatica" tomorrow so I guess we'll know more then. x

Googling for 'carboneras internet' it seems it's a rural satellite system. As La Mancha writes, one solution is to mount the dish higher up the building if she can get permission.