Internet Access

[Johnny Lingo]

I am not quite sure where to ask this question, so I will ask it here.

My parents own an apartment building that they rent apartments to college
students. They want to offer internet access to the students as an
incentive.

I am a computer guy, but I have never setup this sort of system before. I
am picturing something like a hotel/motel that you plug in and have access.
Is this just through a router? Do they somehow lock down so that the
computers do not see each other, but only the internet, or is there some
other way to do this?

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Guest]

using wifi and turning off file sharing on the computers
that access the wireless router with their wifi cards.
beats running a bunch of cat5 wire over everything

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

You've not provided anywhere enough information on which to get
started.

How many apartments? How many connections per apartment? What
does the ISP from whom your parents will be buying the service
require? What specific broadband services are offered in the local
area? How do you ensure that your parents don't get entangled in any
law-suits (as facilitators) resulting from the any of the renters' use
of peer-to-peer sharing programs to illegally download copyrighted
material?

If it's only a couple of apartments, a router on a DSL connection
might do the trick. If it's more than 10 apartments, a better router
and a fractional-T1 line may be needed.


Bruce Chambers
--
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You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

 

[Chris]

Wow, there were even some things I had not thought about.
There are 10 apartments with a possibility of 4 connections per apartment.
As for ISP's, they are looking into that. It is in another state from where
I live, and I am not sure. It is a large college/university town with many
options though I am sure. They will have options of DSl, Cable, and T1. As
for the legal issue, I had not thought of that one! I guess they will have
to add something to the lease agreements!