Bandwidth blues

We've got the baandwidth blues! Since we moved to the new apartment we haven't been able to download or upload much of anything. We can check email and slowly access websites. This is a huge disappointment and we are working to rectify it. We actually have two paths to the Internet. The hotel has a wired cable connection in the room ( and supposedly a wifi connection in the lobby- it didn't work for me.) I have a 3G connection thru a sim card in my iPad. I only pay $10 per month for unlimited Internet use which seems like a great deal except it's slow or non existent. But it's better than nothing. Here are some of the things we can't do:
Download New Yorker articles to my ipadi
Upload any pictures from either iPad, camera or phone. This means I can't put any pictures on my blog, much as I want to. Or Tom put any pictures on Facebook.
View pics in emails
Do anything at all with YouTube.
Dowload books to kindle.
needless to say, I have not even tried to get the new iOS 5 or update any of my apps that utilize it.

We have talked to various people about this. There is something called speedy which works off the cable somehow and would need the hotel's approval. Tom talked with the IT guy at his university and he recommended an external modem and a fast connection on a service called aha to create a wireless network. We found a place to buy the modem, but we want to check with aha to see if they can really deliver. As Tom says, the only problem with everything being in the" cloud" is the speed at which you can get it up or down. It will cost $40 per month which is about what we would pay at home.
I know I sound whiny, but I can put up with a lot of the hassles of living in a third world country ( and there are plenty) as long as I am connected.
Tomorrow I will go to the education USA office which has the " speedy" service and see how it works with my gadgets.
Also we will move to a better apartment in the building tomorrow or Wed., so we don't want to set up anything here.
Anne