My apartment doesn't have wireless internet, but I do have ethernet access. In the past, I've used my laptop to create a wireless access point so that I could use my phone and tablet without worrying about running through my cellular data, but that was inconvenient because it basically turned my laptop into a desktop. A Raspberry Pi solved that issue for me.
I grabbed a model 2 B from Newegg, and it came with all the necessities so that I could get up and running. Once I had it set up, I configured the SSH server to start up at boot, and set up dnsmasq and hostapd. Hostapd uses the USB wireless adapter to create a wireless network that is fed from the ethernet connection. Dnsmasq manages the connections and assigns IP addresses to all of my connected devices. No more stationary laptops for me!
I also went ahead and took the next step and set up my pi to run as a cloud server for all of my storage needs. I grabbed a 4 TB external drive so that I would be sure not to run out of space any time soon, and created an encrypted drive using encfs. I then added the entry for my drive into the fstab so that it would connect on boot, and configured it with a samba share for remote access. Now all I have to do is connect it, SSH in to decrypt the drive, and then I can safely access my files from any device at my apartment. I would set up port forwarding and a strict set of firewalls for access to it from anywhere in the world, but I unfortunately don't have access to the router at the apartment and my requests for it have been denied. For now though, this will take care of my needs.
