Comments on: Why do some Foneros disconnect their Fonera WiFi router?

By: Chinarut

Chinarut — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 22:05:35 +0000

I’m speaking as someone who considers myself tech-saavy, someone who has been following the FON community for quite some time, globetrotted to get a sense of what’s out there and someone who is making a choice to join the FON community and help expand the network. Thanks for the comments, not being able to configure the FON router for advanced networking was something I wasn’t aware of in particular.

I was just ready to buy a FON and put items in my cart and thought I’d do some research on a Fontena and stumbled across the My FON blog – which attempts to present pros and cons.

I got a link to this blog entry and concerned about my personal experience walking around Tokyo – I was using my ole skool iPhone WiFi to sniff FON hotspots and found a few but it never really worked in the end.

I am concerned about one the comments above in regards to Livedoor – I could never get a livedoor hotspot to work.

I did this over the course of 3 months – I was really excited before I got there and now it’s tapered off a bit.

Did I miss something?

I also wasn’t getting a response in regards to how to get the Panasonic Skype WiFi FON combo.

I’m sure you’re busy Martin, but not getting responses when more than one person is asking is well…seems a bit insulting but I’m not holding you personally to it at the moment and giving you the benefit of the doubt!

I’m going to let this simmer for at least another day. I didn’t expect to be surprised by additional shipping costs and suppose I didn’t read the fine print!

By: Wong Chi Chung

Wong Chi Chung — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:51:07 +0000

None of the choices provided are what Foneros want.

Two real reasons are
1. The Fonera generates great heat and it is not stable.
2. The “official” Fonera firmware does not provide sufficent basic management functions such as MAC cloning. The official firmware update is not aggressive enough towards it and people think that the R&D department are abandoning the product/service.

By: Martin Varsavsky

Martin Varsavsky — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:47:52 +0000

I am surprised that customers put up with that system in Belgium Paul, I guess they have no choice.

By: Paul RODTS

Paul RODTS — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:27:28 +0000

In Belgium we are limited in download and upload bytes / month. In my case only 2GB a month. From the moment I use up 80 % of my capacity, my provider Telenet, will ask regularly if I want more MB’s. Of course I will have to pay extra for it…This question is asked by Telenet on a normal unsecured page…So anybody who is at that moment connected to my Fon-router, can order extra MB’s on my account. If I complain at Telenet, they tell me I can’t share for legal reasons…But I keep the Fon-router open,…I am a romantic person… Maybe FON can convince Telenet to more flexibility ? Because this is the main reason in Flanders why people disconnect their Fon-router…

By: fon amigo

fon amigo — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:48:02 +0000

@ Jean-Baptiste Lévêque :
You should look about your firewall or allowed MAC adress in your routeur / adsl modem (“box” as named in France).
In my home, Fonera is plugged on Neuf Box and immediatly it’s OK to use. Don’t forget after several days or weeks with FONera unplugged, your ID are suspended. Plugging on your fonera, you’ll be able to use it after some days.
/
@Jean-Baptiste Lévêque, regarde peut-être la config de ta box. Chez moi je suis en NB4, ça a marché de suite (après quelques minutes).
Peut-être as-tu activé un filtrage MAC ?
J’avais laissé ma FONéra débranchée plusieurs semaines (pour ne pas dire des mois) et mes droits ont été coupés; en la remettant en service, 3-4 jours après tout a re-fonctionné.
Je te l’accorde, le support ne répond guère…
/
According to you, customer support seems not available a lot :-/

By: fon amigo

fon amigo — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:35:28 +0000

@ Martin Varsavsky: in my home, the fonera and “Neuf Wifi FON” are on the same channel…
Maybe i’m in wrong configuration, i’ll look about that on sunday (in fact, i’m ok, it is’nt a good thing to have several hotspot on the same channel).
/
@ FathomsDown: ok with you. FON is a superb idea but, after monthes, people forget they are members of a pervasive network and very good idea. Maybe the FON newsletter isn’t good support (i dont’t care about the home page of Simpson customer…)
Maybe FON should tell more about friendship like Neuf Cegetel or other partners… and I suggest, as made by Neuf Cegetel in France, a mobile phone available on wifi ( “Neuf Mobile Twin” : it’s a marvelous GSM/Wifi phone FON compliant for free calls).
/
Maybe if FON customers have a wifi-phone for around 30 €, allowed on all fonera in the world for free calls by SIP (only if their fonera is powered on), they will let their fonera plugged
/
I’m sorry for my approxymative english, i’m a french man with scolar level in english language.

By: Jean-Baptiste Lévêque

Jean-Baptiste Lévêque — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:24:18 +0000

Why not use it?
- the device doesn’t work : since I have it here, I can’t see any wireless network, I can’t access the configuration page either
- poor support
- proprietary software prevents from faster bugfixes and upgrades

By: Martin Varsavsky

Martin Varsavsky — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:54:33 +0000

Fonamigo,

The neuf box and the fonera normally does not send wifi over the same channel.

By: Luís de Lisboa

Luís de Lisboa — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:08:59 +0000

Martin,

I feel that FathomsDown got exactly to the point! I asked myself why I wasn’t compelled as much as before to care for my public FON signal. The feelings were diffuse – but since I read it in the above comment, I instantly recognized what it was…

“People stop feeling that they are part of a community.”
FON is lagging behind in terms of people’s involvment.

I know this comment doesn’t provide much clue as to which actions must be undertaken, but at least part of FON’s challenge is now in equation.

By: FathomsDown

FathomsDown — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:14:19 +0000

Hi Martin,

I think you are missing the biggest point here, people stop feeling that they are part of a community.

One of the biggest challenges that I see with Fon is that people joning believing there to be a great community spirit but, with poorly maintained boards, closed firmware, poor customer support and no real way to “get involved” beyond plugging in and running your Fonera, no wonder people wonder off. Its a bit like gathering a crowd together to do something great and then not telling them what to do!

Also, I think another issue may be that WiFi enabled routers are so cheap and easily available, the Fonera doesn’t meet the need of being a WiFi spot its self (how many wireless spots do you need in your home?). If a waterproof housing, PoE and suitable antennas were available then the Foneras would be more welcome as a specific spot device to share the signal and make some money. At the moment the idea of “wifi spot first, sharing second” seems a little misguided.

I think Fon is a great idea (I run three spots myself) but the Internet changes rapidly and Fon’s message seems to be getting a little left behind.