Hospital bed-bound - need help setting up broadband/wireless

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Hi there!

I'm new to the forums. I am expecting our first child in July, and due to complications, have been admitted to the hospital here in NYC for the duration of my pregnancy...yikes!!

Anywhowhat, I am a writer, and rely on my stunningly gorgeous intel mac to work. For some reason, it's impossible to connect to any wireless networks here at the hospital, even though there are dozens of them that pop up when I turn on my mac. None of them connect. In the interim, my husband called netzero and set up a dial-up connection (I seriously forgot how incredibly slow dial-up is - yikes!).

Soooo, the question is, can anyone suggest how I would set myself up for broadband wireless? Should I bring my airport base station from home to the hospital? Another patient has a pc, and got a verizon wireless card. She has verizon cell service,and called them up and they set her up and she now has broadband wireless. The thing is, she had to get an external wireless card - isn't mine built in? I'm sorry, I'm so incredibly confused, but would like to get set up as soon as possible. If someone has a step by step solution, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...

Mai
 
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Hi there!

I'm new to the forums. I am expecting our first child in July, and due to complications, have been admitted to the hospital here in NYC for the duration of my pregnancy...yikes!!

Anywhowhat, I am a writer, and rely on my stunningly gorgeous intel mac to work. For some reason, it's impossible to connect to any wireless networks here at the hospital, even though there are dozens of them that pop up when I turn on my mac. None of them connect. In the interim, my husband called netzero and set up a dial-up connection (I seriously forgot how incredibly slow dial-up is - yikes!).

Soooo, the question is, can anyone suggest how I would set myself up for broadband wireless? Should I bring my airport base station from home to the hospital? Another patient has a pc, and got a verizon wireless card. She has verizon cell service,and called them up and they set her up and she now has broadband wireless. The thing is, she had to get an external wireless card - isn't mine built in? I'm sorry, I'm so incredibly confused, but would like to get set up as soon as possible. If someone has a step by step solution, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...

Mai

First, Congratulations on having a baby!

I could not tell you why you are not able to connect to the wireless network in the hospital, but its probably secure, and not a internet gateway just a way for the hospital to share information amongst themselves. The wireless card you are speaking of that the other patient has is a external wireless card that allows her to connect to cell towers, it is not the same kind of wireless technology that your computer has built in. You can contact Verizon or your wireless carrier, to see if they have an option like that for your macbook, but normally it requires a pc slot that the macbook does not have, they may have a usb version.

IF you want to use the hospitals network, ask a nurse to send in somebody who knows about the computers in the hospital and ask them if you can use your computer on their network for internet access.
 
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Yeah, what he said ^ ^. Very complete answer. Our hospital also does not offer patient access except in the library on hospital computers. It's a security thing.

And congrats & good luck with your baby!!
 
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Thanks!!!

Lisa and Powerbook G4, thanks so much for your responses! I really appreciate it...worst case scenario, I'll continue to use dial-up. At least it gets me online - I think I'd lose my mind if I didn't have my mac.

Thanks again.:girl:
 
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Not that this helps as such, but I thought I'd chime in since I had a similar type of experience not too long ago.

My wife was in the hospital (in Philly) for about a month, and you are correct that having a Macbook was a sanity-saver for her, even if it only was able to play DVDs or do iTunes. Fortunately, however, in the room that she was in was adjacent to a college dorm across the street which is probably where her Macbook was able to connect to an unsecured wireless. The signal wasn't all that great (3 bars or so on the Airport Menubar indicator) but the bandwidth was sufficient such that we could do iChat AV video conferencing as well as the standard web/email/IM stuff.

As for wireless broadband (cell phone) I'm pretty sure that there is a USB solution that you'll find to access your own internet. Though I would think that in NYC you'd be able to find an unsecured one to glom onto. I know that Macbooks are pretty tenacious in sniffing out wireless connections. There were parts of the hospital you could get a signal, and parts where it was completely shielded. Before my wife was moved from one part of the hospital that couldn't get the signal to another room where she could, I'd go down to the parking structure where I could get a signal and connect. So I'd be down in the corner there checking email and surfing the net!
 
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If you do want to look at the cell-phone wireless broadband (like your roommate's Verizon card) then you'd need an ExpressCard adapter and a MacBook Pro (the regular MacBook does not have an ExpressCard slot.) Verizon sells a compatible card with the model number "V640." Other carriers may have other cards...but that's an expensive option (you'll need a new or expanded service contract)
 
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Walkerj and technologist, thanks so much for your suggestions. I will look into those as well, and let everyone know how this turns out. You have no idea how much I appreciate the advice.
 

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