News BT and FON launch largest Wi-Fi community

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/10/04/bt_and_fon_launch_largest_wi-fi_community/1

BT and FON have partnered up to help build the largest Wi-Fi community in the world but they need you to take part in order to make it grow.

 

I signed up to FON when they gave away the free routers. It's a good service only no one comes up my street looking for a broadband connection.

 

Likewise, living in the country, there's no one round to share my connection

 

i would consider if it had like 200m range....

 

until I get a laptop, I really could care less.....but it sounds neat.....

 

I've been with Fon now for about 2 years or so, which is almost from the start.

Currently running as a bill and i'm _actually_ getting paying users! although not many or much.

The idea is great, I just need to move near to a cafe/coffee shop/pub and see how it goes then....

 

Is this on the State's side or just a European thing?
It sounds really cool. Over here there's alot of issues with people using other people's connections and the legality of it.
(My belief is that if you don't lock your router, its like someone watching your TV cause you have the blinds open.)
It would be nice to see something like this that does away with all that kind of stuff.
If its fast and secure then I say that it should be implemented with full force.
On the money side, what does it pay? About the same as putting banner ads on a website?
At anyrate, if the price was similar to typical broadband with comparable speeds, I'm all for this!

 

I also signed up for the free router... I also managed to brick it while attempting to flash it to Linksys firmware. Oh well, I got a sticker and an ethernet cable out of it.

 

lol, just buy linksys next time. they last for damn near ever, and since 802.11n was recently ratified (was surprised it didn't make bit-tech) the first final rev wireless-n hardware will be out soon

 

Was it the Linksys router that they shipped free that you bricked? if so in most cases they can be unbricked without resorting to soldering a jtag to the router.

 

If you have FON, and someone downloads either lots of stuff (causing you to go over you bandwidth allowance) or illegal stuff, what happens then? I would guess you had to pay for the bandwidth, but how would you argue that it was someone else using your connections for pirating?

Also, for those of us that live in the middle of nowhere (me when i am at home) this just basically gives free wireless broadband in loads of locations doesn't it? I can't really see someone parking on our drive just to use the internet!

 

The way I understand the law in the UK is that the owner of the access point is ultimately responsible for what happens on it.

From speaking to an ex-colleague (SysAd at an UK ISP) when he had to deal with the relevant Police department that deals with Internet crimes (I forget the actual name of it) they stated that having an open wireless network and claiming that 'someone else' used the access point to break the law is not an excuse in the eyes of the law, It is your access point and your responsibility.

This seems to have stemmed from issues where peado's would leave their wifi open so that when a knock on the door came from the law sicko would claim no knowledge and state that someone else must have done it as their wifi was not secure.

As far as I'm aware with Fon users must register when accessing the service, while this info can be faked, it at least gives you something to provide to the law in the event of someone breaking the law via your net connection.



Sorry if the above is not very coherent, i'm on night shifts this week and not getting enough sleep

 

FON? I wonder what this stands for. Well, most of us in IT already know it to stand for Fiber Optic Network. But it isn't. Is it?

 

I believe it stands for Free Open Network