FON WiFi Community

[WinkingPig]

Right,

FON is a global movement trying to make the biggest WiFi network possible.

You start by purchasing a FON WiFi Access Point, at the moment they are €5 + P&P, you take delivery within 2-3weeks normally unless there is a back log, you then hook this upto your network, using an ethernet cable, it should set up automatically.

The FON Access Point you just purchased is fully secured, it works by stopping WiFi users seeing the LAN, and vice-versa, so no hacking or intercepting of data can take place.

FON then register your location on the global FON map, so then other users can see where your FON HotSpot is.

Now comes the tricky part, as you're now a part of a community, outsiders can connect to your FON HotSpot for free, and use your internet, basically it's just a HotSpot you'd find in MacDonalds or similar.

You can do the same, find a HotSpot on FON's map, and you can access it for free, as in you can drive to, and pull up outside someone's house that has a FON WiFi Access Point based there, a simple login to their HotSpot gets you free access.

Now FON HotSpots are not limited to houses, some businesses have them setup for customers that travel to their premises.

Now i have summed it up the best i could, as it's rather complicated to explain it, but more information can be found by visiting their website.

http://en.fon.com/

I am a member of FON and have a WiFi access point setup here, so if you wanted to know more about what can and cant be done with FON, then please reply to this post and i'll try and fill you in on specific questions.

Chris

 

[Rush]

How many

Thanks Chris... how many members in Minorca and Majorca

 

[crazylegs]

Hmmmmmm Interesting.....I'm gonna have to think about this one....leaving my network wide open to other users is a bit disconcerting...

 

[WinkingPig]

Well their aiming to become global, but so far they are present in the following places.

http://maps.fon.com/

 

[WinkingPig]

To the shock of myself, i live in a rather well, IT neglected area, full of pikeys, who probably don't know how to use a PC, but the other day, someone connected to my FON HotSpot, couldn't see them though so no idea where they parked or whether it was someone in a house.

But they were browsing sites via the HotSpot. The security has been thought out properly, basically there is a hard coded firewall built into it that stops ethernet from seeing wifi and vice versa, if you already have wifi in your house, then you'd still use the same access point, the FON HotSpot is just for FON users, once you join the community your given access to the online control panel where you can track, who, where, for how long, how much bandwidth a certain person has used on your hotspot.

It is an Open HotSpot however, so no WEP, WPA or other security is present, it's all done by a logging in system, so if you connect to a FON HotSpot, and open Internet Explorer, it wont show you internet, it'll just redirect you to the FON Login Portal, where you type in your username and password, and if accepted, it lets you browse the internet.

So only FON members that have already share internet can make use of other people's WiFi Access Points.