If you like the mobility, I think a laptop would work well for you. I still have my Dell desktop and it's old like yours, and as soon as I transfer all of my pictures, my son is going to strip the hard drive and reinstall only what's needed. With my grandkids using the Dell of mine when they were younger, I don't even know how much crap is on there that I'm not aware of. I know it's as slow as a snail tho...
I just bought myself a Toshiba 15.6" laptop a couple of weeks ago, and I love it. It's a
Satellite C55D-A5120. This one runs $328 at Walmart, tho I got another 10% off of that, so the price was right. It runs on Windows 8 and the Dell is on XP. I'm still learning my way around 8, but it's not difficult at all. Most of the time I use a wireless mouse with it, since it's faster and easier for me - especially with these hands that don't work well anymore. I bought it with the idea that I could use it anywhere, but find myself putting it on the desk and using it that way, more often than not.
As far as the battery goes - as long as you're near a power source, you can just plug it in and use it that way, and I have yet to run mine on just battery power alone. And much to my own surprise - I haven't used it in bed yet, either!
I don't like notepads or notebooks, etc - they are too small, and I don't like swipe or touch screens either, so the laptop was the best option for me. You can get smaller laptops than the one I have - originally I was looking at 14" ones, but then I spotted this one, and really liked it a whole lot better than others I had been considering. I had my son check it out, and he said it was a good price and had everything on it that I would ever need, so I bought.
As far as routers being hacked in to - I don't know if it's possible, but all of the computers in this house (6 now) utilize the router and have for at least the past 8 years or so, and there has never been a problem. That would be a question for someone that knows computers a whole lot better than I do. I'd ask my son, but he's at work now.
Good luck with your shopping.
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