In October 2007, the BT Home Hub software got an update, and a new service, called the “wi-fi community” service, was added. This is also known as BT Fon, and is a service that lets other people use your Hub to access BT’s network, in return for you being able to access other people’s broadband connections. If adopted widely, this could mean that people’s hubs become public access points, offering free wireless Internet access to BT Fon users.
As we cover in Show 20, and from what we’re seeing in our Home Hub forum, many aren’t happy with the idea of having their hubs turned into hotspots for other surfers, but others like the idea of an extended network of free access points.
Fon… Good or bad? Comments please
November 15th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
If I had 8Meg I would not mind sharing 500k with others, but as I have only 2.5Meg at best it represents a considerable share of my bandwidth. Also the range of my hub is so short I doubt if my signal would reach the road - it doesn’t reach the back garden! Maybe if I had a ground floor flat in London and on 8meg it might make sense, except I already have free Openzone minutes as part of the Option 1 contract.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I’ve just opted in, as I have 8 Mbit on a first floor apartment in Manchester city centre, I think I’ll make a valuable hotspot. I feel privileged to be able to share my bandwidth this way. If I really need all my bandwidth, my traffic will get priority anyway.
I’m also looking forward to surfing unlimited minutes (I’m on option 3) when I’m out and about, especially on mobile devices such as the iPod Touch I’m planning to get.
My only concern is how secure these “Separate channels” really are.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:38 am
I have option three. There would be no piont in me using WON service as i’m in a old sandstone house and signal wouldn’t panatrate that far. But whats more worring is what others download from myline. What if its illegal P2P or some Obsean illegal porn? who gets done for it?? nope it think i’ll stay secure. Tho the idea is sound, maybe when were all using N1-mimo or above
February 17th, 2008 at 2:39 am
FON :S geez my english is bad. and im from the UK :)
February 20th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I opted in to Fon because it is such a wonderful concept sharing WiFi without lots of extra kit littering the world - it is a worldwide intiative and BT have entered into a partnership with the Spanish originators - I trust them to work out the security first.
Regarding Mad commanders point above: Since the guest downloads never get to my machine I do not see how I could be held responsible for them - I hope and trust the trace would not link to my machine.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:25 am
If you connect to your own BTOpenzone Hotspot that FON creates you will see that the IP and DNS details used are different to those used on your own broadband connection. If someone does do something illegal it will be on that IP & DNS combination. As you have to login to use FON and you can see minutes used there is obviously a means of tracing who has logged in and where.
Whilst no network is totally secure I wouldn’t worry too much. If someone wants to illegally piggyback your connection there are other methods.
Try driving around a typical residential area with a network scanner running on a PDA and you will see numerous completely open networks, at least FON offers some protection.
March 15th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
More discussion at http://www.filesaveas.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1193217522
April 19th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Re security, it is 100% safe. Everything goes through a separate channel. The only thing that is shared is the phone line. The broadband and the wireless are completely separate.
Anyway, I love FON!
It doesn’t take the full 1/2 meg if you only have 2.5meg. It dynamically adjusts the allowance so that you have priority.
This is the way forward for wireless broadband. Forget 4G and HSPDA. When the BT 21st Century Network comes online, they’ll be able to up its speed as well and make it far faster than these.
The benefits gained for the loss of up to half a meg are great.
Free openzone (normally £1 per 10mins) AND free connection to all other FON users (only available if you sign up).
At the end of the day, if for some strange reason you don’t like the idea. Don’t sign up. BT aren’t forcing you to after all!