Iredell Memorial Hospital offers free Internet access to patients, their families and visitors, and vendors in the main hospital building.

You must use your own laptop computer.  It must have wireless network connectivity that operates on the 802.11b or 802.11g Ethernet standard. 

In order for your computer to connect to the hospital's wireless network: 

• Make sure your battery is fully charged. There may not be a convenient wall plug available for you.
• Make sure your computer is not configured to automatically use a dial-up connection.
• Set your TCP/IP properties to obtain an IP address automatically (DHCP).
• If requested, choose infrastructure mode rather than ad-hoc mode.
• Use the SSID name provided to your computer by the hospital's wireless network.
• Turn encryption (WEP) off.
• Turn off any proxy server settings in Internet Explorer.
• Turn off pop-up blocker in Internet Explorer.

You must have a Username and Password to connect to the Internet.  Once you have your computer properly configured, it will connect to the hospital's wireless network system and you will see a screen that tells you how to get the user name and password.  Any pop-up blockers must be turned off for this screen to come up.

It is your responsibility to make sure that the data on your laptop is kept secure and that you use secure protocols for any sensitive material. We take no responsibility for any information that is compromised by the use of our wireless network. Also, make sure that your computer does not have file sharing active or other users on the network may be able to access your files. In addition, you should use a personal firewall to further protect against someone else on the network accessing your files.

The hospital's guest Internet connection allows you to do almost anything you'd do from your home or the office. You can surf the Web, check your e-mail, connect to your corporate network (be sure to use a secure VPN connection), update your blog, and IM with your friends.  However, since this is a free service shared by many people, you won't be able to download audio or video files, and access to some Internet sites is restricted.

We hope this free Internet service makes your stay at Iredell Memorial more enjoyable.