microcenter has the hawking USB G adaptors for free after rebate, 5.00$ shipping.

NEXTEL I don't think has a tether option, but they do have a roaming agreement with Boingo I think. checkout where you live there might be a boingo location near by where you could do email and internet. As for in the appartment, there are a couple of websites, don't have the names, which will show you what people have found war driving (essentially, driving around neighborhoods to find open signals) So, yes you could probably get a signal somewhere to use for free.

but, we a bit wary of using other peoples signals, people are getting arrested for it around the country.

http://www.joegratz.net/archives/200...-wifi-network/