Bought ipad 2 for grandma, need setup help

[puncho]

So, we bought our grandma an ipad 2 for facetime, and she recently moved to a nursing home. The nursing home hasn't installed wifi on all the floors...they have it on the 2nd floor and she lives on the 6th so the wifi signal is weak/non-existent (I haven't been there to confirm). I'm going in a month and was hoping to get it set up so she start facetiming again.

So, are there any options to boost the wifi signal so it can reach the 6th floor without accessing the modem/router? It doesn't matter if it has to be hooked up to the ipad permanently.

Also, is there an easy way we can upload pics via iCloud/app/wtvr so that she can see a slideshow? Thanks.

 

[nickn]

I don't know of anything that would help you without the support of the nursing home. If you had a laptop, you could try a 3rd party high gain antenna, but of course Apple wont allow anything like that for the iPad.

 

[BanterClaus]

Okay to extend the range of the wifi network you are going to have to use some sort of WiFi repeater. Theres an about article on them here http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/internetworking/g/bldef_repeater.htm I know little about them so I can't really advise you on any.

You could also use some sort of 3G (or, if you're in the US, 4G) router if connecting to the homes network is going to cause too many issues. They are relatively cheap and you can just buy some data plan or dongle from a mobile provider and then the router can receive the internet through 3G/4G and route it to the iPad over WiFi.

For photo-sharing why not create your grandma a dropbox account and create a shared folder where you can upload images to? Just a suggestion.

Hope I was of some help

 

[Chairman.Jobbie]

You can buy a signal extender something like this http://www.whathifi.com/news/netgear-wifi-extender-boosts-the-range-of-your-network

This would involve connecting the Wi-Fi router to an extender plug in the electrical socket via an ethernet cable. The signal would then travel through the electrical wiring network and an extender plugged in your Grandma's room would give out the Wi-Fi in her room for the iPad.

 

[Chairman.Jobbie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiH2usgXXk&feature=related

This is the kinda of thing im talking about. As long as the nursing home will allow you add this on to the modem/router and all electric sockets are connected it should work.

As poster below says... Maybe in such a big building it might not be feasible. Worth a try?

Update : Changed vid. This explains better.

 

[nickn]

A wireless repeater might not be feasible here. Not to be rude, but if you have to ask this question, you might have difficulty setting up a repeater. You have to set the repeater up with the exact settings of the nursing home network, or it will not work. If they have anything advanced enabled such as WPA Enterprise, or required VPN support, then a consumer can pretty much forget about it. If not, it might work, but again you would need all of the settings from the host network. You must have, at a minimum, the access point you are repeating's SSID, MAC address, password and security settings if applicable, and IP settings.
As for the power outlet thing, I'm not sure that would work in a building of the size described. They are mostly for in home use only.

 

[puncho]

Thanks for the replies so far, will need to look into it further after work.

I have no problems setting it up but I want it to be as easy as possible in case for some reason it has to be set up again and I'm not there to do it.

I may just end up getting another ipad with 3g/4g capabilities. Does anyone know if 3g works well enough for facetime? This is in Ottawa, Canada. Thanks!

 

[neutrino23]

If money is no object you could set up a mobile hotspot like this.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/mobile-hotspots-1.shtml

I'm not promoting Verizon. It is one example. This is easy but not cheap.

You could have a conversation with the IT person or whoever set up the WiFi. They probably didn't think through the whole issue of access for the whole building. There might be a way to run an ethernet cable to the sixth floor where they could add a cheap WiFi extender. It could be the existing router is pretty old and needs updating anyway. Things are changing really quickly in this area. If someone bought this router five or six years ago they could get much better performance with new hardware.

Anyway, the worst that will happen is they'll refuse to help. On the plus side they might solve this for you.

 

[Chairman.Jobbie]

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/03/new-ipad-does-not-allow-facetime-over-4g-lte.html

"The Verge reports that the new iPad doesn't support FaceTime over 4G LTE.

It doesn't come as a surprise, as the FaceTime feature, which is currently available on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 doesn't work over 3G, so we didn't expect the third generation iPad to allow FaceTime over the faster 4G LTE networks."

I don't think facetime works over 3g/4g....

 

[AppleDApp]

Thanks for the replies so far, will need to look into it further after work.

I have no problems setting it up but I want it to be as easy as possible in case for some reason it has to be set up again and I'm not there to do it.

I may just end up getting another ipad with 3g/4g capabilities. Does anyone know if 3g works well enough for facetime? This is in Ottawa, Canada. Thanks!

FaceTime dose not support calls over cellular networks. You'll have to use skype or another video calling app that does.

Cheers from Ottawa.