My mother in law lives in an assisted living facility and currently pays Verizon about $40/month for a land line. She's kind of locked into this. She does not have internet service. However, my cable company's public WiFi (Cablevision/Optimum) has a hot spot that is strong and accessible from within her apartment. I can log into this with my ID/PW.
I recently transferred my personal land line to Google Voice by first transferring it to prepaid cell phone, they to GV. I was thinking of doing the same for her.
I have an OBi200 connected to my router. I want to buy her something like the OBI200 with the OBiWiFi dongle, but will I be able to configure the WiFi to connect to the public WiFi hot spot with my ID/PW? Can I plug my laptop directly into the OBi200 to configure it? Will the OBiWiFi definitely be able to talk to the public wifi hotspot?
Thanks
Hi Mike:
Short answer: don't do it.
Longer answer: there are too many potential issues with this, that can cause confusion, anxiety and/or stress in an elderly person. The WiFi access point may be clogged with other people's traffic, resulting in voice drop-outs, distortion, or hang-ups. Google Voice cannot call 911, and you'd have to add that, and periodically test it. Google Voice's features, such as voicemail, are potentially too complicated for her.
A better solution is to simply port her land line to a prepaid cellular phone service with however many minutes she will need per month, and leave the phone plugged into a charger near her bed. If she has any physical impairments, such as poor vision or hearing, consider getting her a "senior-friendly" cell phone handset, such as the one offered by Consumer Cellular, or the "Snapfon".
In addition to the points made by SteveInWA, the hotspot idea is unlikely to work. An OBi has no way to send ID and password to log in to a hotspot.