And Dan have told that the amount of data used is not to big. 
I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for almost a decade as a network engineer. Neither HIPAA nor the FDA have such guidelines. FDA 21CFR11 would cover this if it existed. But it doesnāt. There is no confidential data on a guest network and there is no way to get from a guest network to a production network (unless somebody did something really really reallyā¦ outside of common sense). As such, a Glowforge is perfectly usable in such an environment without making any exceptions to existing SOPās.
That said, I fail to see the practical use in a hospital.
How about making personalized name plaques for sick kids?
7 Likes
Hospitals need coasters too. You donāt expect surgeons to put their drinks down on the bare operating table?
8 Likes
Surgical tool organizer.
2 Likes
wooden syringe disposal boxes, wooden ācleanā/ādirtyā bedpan magnets. puzzles for patients (for the boredom), little brooch/pin to keep the back of those gowns closedā¦
3 Likes
The rules are probably more about the device than the means of connecting to the internet. Theyāre probably on the lookout for camera-equipped devices that could possibly be turned on remotely. Or microphones that could be turned on remotely. Or other devices that could potentially compromise patient privacy.
2 Likes
Not a hipaa rule specifically, but since hipaa makes the institution financially liable for any breaches (regardless of harm) IT security ears on the side of caution. We only have guest networks in patient care areas, but my lab has no guest network (because no guests in general and I am in a shared building with other non-hospital labs).
This isnāt a problem for me since my personal devices are fine on the secure wifi and if I was the only user of a glow forge (my actual glow forge is for my house so this is theoretical) would be on my account, but as a shared device no way would it be on my creds (and same reason not my hotspot, plus if someone else was printing and I walked out of the buildingā¦).
My 3D printers are on Ethernet which of course does not have accounts, so thatās fine. Itās not that I couldnāt eventually battle through to get this approved (Iāve done it) but requires CIO level sign off plus your department chair, and a business justification.
Also for folks asking why I need network access rather than āinternet accessā Iām not sure what that means? The only way to get to āthe Internetā is via your network and out your router. At your house your edge router is usually the wifi base station as well. My local network goes out of my building via fiber over to the data center and out our 4gbs internet connection, about 1mi from my lab. Any large network is structured this way.
I think that is more about the distinction between connecting to the hostpital network (where your computer is probably connected) and the guest wifi network.
Since the Glowforge needs to go through the internet no matter what, it is unlike many other devices which demand being on the exact same network as the machine that is sending commands. You just need net access of any kind at all.
1 Like
Our guest network, if I had access to it in the lab, also has one of those unfortunate āI agreeā pages, and it pops up every 24 hours of connectionā¦
1 Like
My hospital had this up until about maybe a month and a half ago, only it wasnāt a per 24 hours basis. Very crappy and short term memory guest wifi access. Itād boot you if the device locked, every 10 or so min just because, or in certain places because of poor coverage. Not sure what they changed but now thereās no āI agreeā windows and devices can maintain connection(usually) even when locked.
But, yeah, not sure how you could get around one of those āI agreeā pages without an interface to agree to it from.
It is possible you could trick your way through with Wireshark and a sniffing of the JSON packets. Figure out what is sent back as the affirmative, and then simulate the same send whenever queried.
But that requires a bit of knowledge, and the good fortune for it to be set up in just the right way.
1 Like
Just have your IT department create a new, hidden SSID thatās open only to the internet and restrict the access to only the Glowforgeās MAC address (unless there are other devices that could benefit from this). This SSID, obviously, wouldnāt have any web portal.
3 Likes
Iām pretty sure there is no such thing as a hidden SSID. Just one that isnāt broadcast yet still trivial to uncover. Add in MAC cloning and thatās just a recipe for disaster.
2 Likes
Itās true that the SSID isnāt, technically, hidden, but simply not broadcast. However, youād have to know the SSID is used only on that specific Glowforge, find that Glowforgeās MAC address, and clone it. Even then, thereād be no ādisasterā. Itās only internet access for goodness sake. If you found it was hijacked for malicious purposes, find some other means (username/password) of securing the SSID.
3 Likes
And youād need whatever the password was for the hidden-ssid networkā¦
1 Like
And back to the issue of needing an interface. 
I am assuming the the GF folks have solved the problem that pretty much every embedded device has in connecting for the first time to a new wireless network. Most of the ones Iāve seen have a mode where they create their own network, which you connect to with whatever app the manufacturer has and then tell it the ssid and password of the network you want it to use.
(With enough fancy code you could even set something like that up to pass the āi agreeā stuff to a phone or tablet on the private temporary network, but I doubt it would be worth the trouble.)
3 Likes
The interface is whatever device you use to setup your Glowforge.