11-29-2014, 07:42 AM
Connecting with my mother using Facetime
My mother is 93 and lives in Woking, GU22 7XP. My siblings and myself live in Cornwall, North Wales and USA and wish to see and speak to her regularly. Accordingly we decided to use Facetime and bought her an I-PAD and an internet connection, though she is not computer literate and has some restricted sight definition.
At first the experiment worked very well. When we call her via our own I-PAD’s she is able to hear the call tone and accept it. [She is not capable of calling us – or accessing the I-PAD’s icons etc.] All calls were received without a problem.
Unfortunately in the past few months we regularly get the situation where her I-PAD does not receive our call, so we have to call her on her landline [which involves expense, and means we cannot see her]. To ensure it is not her failing to hear, we call again via the I-PAD, whilst she is still on the landline, and this confirms her I-PAD’s lack of response.
Her I-PAD is connected to the power socket all the time, so it is not lack of power. Similarly her Home hub is always on, so she has permanent Wifi in her home, via BT Internet..
So the problem would appear to be:
A fault with her I-PAD, or An intermittent or weak connection to her BT Wifi. Has the BT Wifi in the area somewhat overloaded recently?
We would be grateful for any comments/advice.
Brian Payne
My mother is 93 and lives in Woking, GU22 7XP. My siblings and myself live in Cornwall, North Wales and USA and wish to see and speak to her regularly. Accordingly we decided to use Facetime and bought her an I-PAD and an internet connection, though she is not computer literate and has some restricted sight definition.
At first the experiment worked very well. When we call her via our own I-PAD’s she is able to hear the call tone and accept it. [She is not capable of calling us – or accessing the I-PAD’s icons etc.] All calls were received without a problem.
Unfortunately in the past few months we regularly get the situation where her I-PAD does not receive our call, so we have to call her on her landline [which involves expense, and means we cannot see her]. To ensure it is not her failing to hear, we call again via the I-PAD, whilst she is still on the landline, and this confirms her I-PAD’s lack of response.
Her I-PAD is connected to the power socket all the time, so it is not lack of power. Similarly her Home hub is always on, so she has permanent Wifi in her home, via BT Internet..
So the problem would appear to be:
A fault with her I-PAD, or An intermittent or weak connection to her BT Wifi. Has the BT Wifi in the area somewhat overloaded recently?
We would be grateful for any comments/advice.
Brian Payne