Potomac Hospital

[RugerJoe]

I'm not quite sure where this topic thread belongs, but since the firearm unfriendly businesses discussion is located in this section, I thought I would make a post about Sentara Potomac Hospital. I believe they have a no weapons policy, which is something I don't really have a problem with. I guess I might have a problem with it if I had to be a patient there for 2 months or so, but it is a medical environment so I guess I'm somewhat more sympathetic to a weapons ban for that reason.
What I was very much bothered by is their internet restrictions. I stayed overnight at this hospital in Woodbridge for several nights to keep a patient recovering from surgery company. I spent a lot of my time in the hospital over the course of two weeks and I often brought my laptop to get some work done utilizing their wi-fi system.
One night I attempted to log on to VGOF to check out what was new on the forum, and to my surprise, the web site was blocked by the hospital gateway. I attempted to log on to a few other gun related web sites and quickly realized that any web site dedicated to firearms was blocked. Unfortunately they do a pretty good job of blocking proxy sites as well so there was no getting around it.
Something about that just really rubbed me the wrong way. It is one thing to ask that people respect their wishes to not carry firearms within the hospital, but another thing entirely to censor the web and deny access to firearm related web sites simply because the hospital administration is not gun friendly. I guess I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this while staying in the hospital as a patient or visiting patients there on a long term basis? I've considered writing to the hospital administration and asking them to make changes to their internet restrictions.

[allingeneral]

There is another similar discussion about airports here recently. I didn't realize it, but apparently there are a lot of routers/gateways that are pre-configured with filters to block gun sites (and pr0n sites, and "how to make a bomb" sites, etc).

[stimpy32]

I work in a hospital in Richmond and they also USED to block the guest wi-fi and our secured server. Thankfully enough of us and visitors complained to the administration and they have finally lifted "most" restrictions. You can get onto most sites, except for a dedicated gun shop, like buds gun shop but I can get to some of them.

[Djskrilla]

Turn your home computer into a proxy server for yourself. You can find out how to do it on the net. That way no matter where you are, you can look up anything through your computer at home.

Also a good way to stay secure (moreso than usual) when on public wifi...bad people only see you talking to one IP.