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My in-laws across the street from me (approximately 500–600 metres away) have WiFi.
I would like to pull the connection to my house. I have no idea what to do.
If someone could please explain to me (in layman's terms, as I am not a computer wizz) what I have to buy, and how to set it up so I can pull the connection over to my place?
500 meters, even 300 is much too far to be in usable range for WiFi. WiFi is designed to, in the best case, transmit throughout one small household. Also, physical barriers, like walls, cars, other buildings will severely degrade the signal. You might be able to get WiFi through one or maybe even two walls if you're lucky, but to get it 500 meters, you'd have to transmit at power higher than allowed by the standards bodies (and likely your government), and use an extremely directional antenna, with line of sight (no barriers in between).
The solution is probably to get your own Internet connection rather than trying to use theirs. You could also obtain a line of sight between your property and theirs (likely by building a small tower on your roof; check local regulations) and set up a very high frequency point to point link, but since you seem totally new to wireless communications, you (honestly) probably do not have the expertise to set one of these up even if you knew what you wanted, and would have to hire a contractor to design, spec out, price, and install a system for you, in which case you're better off going and asking an actual expert instead of asking us.
Lastly: the cost of custom designed radio communication systems like the ones I am talking about (which go above and beyond "WiFi") is often in the tens of thousands of dollars (or at least 7000 British pounds or so), not including labor. At that price, it is almost certainly cheaper (over a period of, say, 5 years) to pay for ADSL or cable Internet connectivity to where you live.
This can be done at your in-laws' house and pointed to your house: Lifehacker Post DIY Wi-Fi Antenna Cheaply Extends Your Wireless Network
Or at your house pointed to your in-laws: Lifehacker Post Make a Long Range Wi-Fi Extender out of a Coffee Can
Both of these are not too technical and are very cheap!
First off, you would need to measure how far from the router you want to be able to access the wifi.
Wireless G can reach between 38m (indoor) and 140m (outdoor). This range is affected by line of sight, meaning if their are any walls between where the router is and where you want to access it, the range decreases.
Wireless N can reach between 70m (indoor) and 250m (outdoor). Again, line of sight affects this range.
The average consumer-grade wireless router has been Wireless G, but more and more routers are moving to N, is it possible to update us on which standard they are using?
If the router sits towards the back of their house, you could invest in a wireless range extender, which would need to be connected to their network and placed towards the front of their house to get the maximum effect. This location would preferably be outside of the building.
Directional vs Omni-directional antennae will also affect the signal distance. A directional antenna would be best in this case, as it directs the majority of the signal in one direction. The standard antennae on a router, however, are omni-directional, meaning that they send out this signal in all directions.
At 600 meters away, you are going to need to invest at least $500 in hardware to get a decent signal. WiFi typically has a signal range of 100m or less for home networks, and the antenna you would need to buy for a signal half a kilometer away would be more expensive than buying a used car to drive to your inlaw's house :)
However, for future's sake, here is what you need to know in order to get connected to a WiFi network:
You'll need a Wifi adapter: These can be bought at any computer store or online (for instance Amazon). This allows you to connect to the Wifi signal that is being broadcast.
Follow the directions that came with your Wifi adapter to install it. It will come with a CD that has included software that is necessary to install in order to use the adapter.
Assuming you are using Windows 7, after installing the Wifi router, follow these instructions to connect to a wireless network. Some networks have a password you need to enter in order to connect. Whoever maintains the network should have this password.
After you are connected, you should have internet access and a connection to other computers in the home network. If you have any problems, you can use the Windows troubleshooting to diagnose problems. It is very user friendly and can solve most basic problems with network connections.
This is an incredibly technical solution (so is more designed to help anyone looking to solve a similar problem rather than yours in particular) but if you have some mid points that you have access to you can attempt to use a mesh network rather than a repeater. It's standard is 802.11s and there's a tutorial to get it up and running with some reasonably priced hardware here.
You can achieve a 500 meters connection without greater issues as long as you have an acceptable los (line of sight) lets say the visibility between both radios or wireless bridges, and you will definetely have to use a different antenna not the simple 2 dbi of most common indoor equipment, another thing is to keep your equipment close to your antenna so you dont loose power.
Look at some long range wifi forums.
There is very easy to do. I'm sharing WiFi around 1500 feet away using my desktop as a server.
I'm using a dual antenna USB WiFi adapter with a 24db parabolic grid antenna on my roof, with a tripod and antenna rotor to move the antenna to fine-tune. I'm using 40 feet of cable from one side of the adapter, and the other side is connected to a 9db antenna with 10 feet of cable for WiFi in my house. Download Connectify and my side is ready go. My friend only has his router by a window.
The cost was about $300 at WIFI-LINk.COM for the adapter, cable, and antenna. An antenna rotor and tripod are cheap online. You will be able to move the antenna around to share with others you know.
Ubiquiti makes an affordable option that is advertised as having a 25km range for around $319.00 (Price as of 10/2016).
One of the product reviews actually mentions, "Connecting two houses to share cable internet and local Plex server a little over 3 miles apart with line of site."
Here is also a Linus Tech Tips Review to see it in action. (Note: It seems that the kit does not come with a pole to mount it on.) https://youtu.be/LG-AZz_nm5E?t=1m2s
I found this it's not cheap demanding almost $400 for the hardware. but they do claim it can span a much longer distance then the 500m so I think unless there's other buildings between you and them this will probably work. http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/Wireless-Bridge-Kit-WiFi-Point-to-Point-Link.php
They also make a routers that have a strong transmitter on it. http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/networking/802.11AC-Router-High-Power.php#HighPowerRouter
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/networking/802.11N-speed-wireless-router.php
I've not played with any of these setups so I don't know how well they will work. sounds like with the first one they do offer support on getting it setup on both ends. Do be careful if you plan on using either of the 2nd options as to get the range you need to have a high power device at both ends and I don't know if those routers can function both as the wi-fi host and the client. Reason being is for the internet to work you have to be able to send the signal back from your place to theirs so you can't just have one powerful router. As for why, think of your internet connection like a conversation between your computer and the server your trying to connect to. now picture two people standing far enough apart they can't hear each other when they try to talk and give one a megaphone that's loud enough so the other one can hear it. is it possible to attempt having a conversation this way? Nope because a conversation requires that both people can hear each other. The wi-fi will have the same problem, Your computer needs to be able to send the request for information to the internet first in order to get a response back.
