2007 24
The Secret Is In The Fontennas….
Published by MartinVarsavsky.net in Fon with No Comments
Many people talk about meshing and meshing can be a solution in some cases, but at FON we opted instead for designing our own antennas that we call the Fontennas. These are the specs.
La Fontenna is being designed to help FONeros extend their WiFi signal reach to localized areas around their house or flat and still have very good signal at home. The first Fontenna to be launch this month will be the Fontenna Panel. Panel antennas are ideal to be placed on windows or outdoor walls facing the street.
The Fontenna is also designed to improve, in a lower degree, the WiFi coverage on the area located at the back of the device (inside the home). The Fontenna is weather proof so it can be installed both indoor and outdoor with the proper fixation. It comes with double side stickers to be fixed to flat surfaces as glass or metal and also a couple of screws and a mounting plate so you can fix it to a wood or brick wall.
This is the first of a series of Fontennas that will help us see more traffic on our Foneras. We will now be able to get nice connections from the street, even if we live in a four storey building (range may vary depending on many environmental variables). Other Fontennas will follow as the Omni Fontenna that will be more useful for ground floor homes or other specific scenarios. Here’s a detail of the specs on this first Fontenna Panel:
Frequency Range: 2400Mhz to 2500Mhz
Antenna gain: 7~8dBi
VSWR: 2.0 : 1 MAX
Polarization: Linear, vertical
Impedance: 50 ohms
Temperature: -10 to +55 Celsius
Connector: R/P SMA PLUG
Cable length: 3 mts Low Loose cable
Now people walking down the street will be able to “feel” our Fonera presence with their WiFi gadgets and FON coverage will improve big time. The Fun has just started!!
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No Comments
freechelmi on March 26, 2007 ·
Hi Martin , I did not understand Why your antennas were in contradiction with Meshing ?
What do you mean by meshing then ?
You could with any kind of antenna …
BTW : do these antennas could stick to a windows ( with a sucker for example) like these :
infinitaus on March 26, 2007 ·
Instrested to know when it will be launched, where to order them and what the price will be (free?). When is it expected to launch other fontennas?
Erik on March 26, 2007 ·
Hi Martin I really like the idea with the antenna. How far is the range for the antenna?
Thanks
Martín Varsavsky on March 26, 2007 ·
infinitaus,
the fontennas will be free to linuses and bills who have shown ability to connect others they will also be free to foneros who are strategically placed (for example Foneros who are accross Starbucks or high traffic areas) otherwise they will probably cost $15, we are looking at it in
detail, $15 would include shipping
Martín Varsavsky on March 26, 2007 ·
freechelmi,
its not a contradiction with meshing but in many cases meshing and antennas accomplish the same objective which is to increase the range
of a wifi signal, and in most cases after carefully studying meshing vs antennas we have opted for antennas.
Jordi (FON) on March 26, 2007 ·
Hi Erik,
you can easily get to 250mts. As you know range depends a lot on the environment, things like electric wires on the street, other 2.4Ghz
signals, shape of the street, etc… all affects the actual reach of any WiFi signal.
Jordi
freechelmi on March 26, 2007 ·
OK , thanks martin. 15$ is really a bargain, I could not find an outdoor one for less than 25 $ .
Jordi (FON) on March 26, 2007 ·
Hi Freechelmi,
meshing is not in contradiction with antennas, probably the opposite is more accurate, the better the antenna the more chances you have
there is another AP in range. We just think now is not yet the right moment for Fon to go meshing but we are constantly researching best meshing solutions to be ready when Foneros need them.
Jordi
freechelmi on March 26, 2007 ·
jordi : you are joking , mesh solutions are up and runing for several years now .
You meant : ” we did not found the right business if foneras could mesh together “.
Innonvation and investors are not always good friends
steven on March 27, 2007 ·
could you define numbers/limitations/dates on “who have shown ability to connect others”…
Numbers : if 1 neighbour who is also a linus has once connected for 5 minutes on my linus fon hotspot… does this qualify for 1 free fontenna?
limitations : does it require 1 sold daypass to qualify?
dates : is the offer limited to “the previous year” or “from today when the offer is presented on the website onward”
Martín Varsavsky on March 27, 2007 ·
Steven,
thanks for your interest we will disclose the details when we launch the Fontennas.
Jordi (FON) on March 27, 2007 ·
Freechelmi, you are absolutely right meshing is out there for several years,
I myself was indirectly involved on one of the first beautiful meshing
experiences by Tropos, but please keep in mind that Fon is a very peculiar
network. Fon is a worldwide community generated network with over a hundred
thousands hotspots constantly connecting, the meshing network on this
network should be implemented in a different way than municipal WiFi and the
results and performance also carefully studied before such a huge
deployment. If Fon went meshing right now we would be the biggest mesh on
earth, and you also know scalability is something of great importance in
meshing, we need to offer the adequate solution for Fon network when it
really makes a difference to Foneros, not just to say… hey we do meshing
and we are the fist mesh networks in the planet! We want to make sure when
we go meshing is because the worldwide Fon community will be directly
benefit of this transformation. We may as well start meshing for some
particular projects that will take advantage of this technology. Meshing
aside, what is clear now is that almost EVERY Fonero will love to have a
more powerful antenna, and this we wanted to do first.
Jordi
Martín Varsavsky on March 27, 2007 ·
freechelmi,
FON is based on a premise in which you share wifi at home and you roam the world for free, pls help us understand how you envision meshing “meshed” with FON.
Ohashi on March 28, 2007 ·
I read this news on the Japanese blog, and tried to find the original. I hope FON coverage will expand more in Japan. Thank you
Euronerd on March 28, 2007 ·
@Jordi
I would opt for decentralized meshing for now, some neighbouring Foneros meshing could improve connectivity, bandwidth and mobility, very interesting in more commercial environments like (large) city-centers.
I’m amazed you call FON a worldwide network and derive scaling problems for meshing from this view. Although the centralized administration and DNS that FON implements bind all AP’s together, the actual datatraffic is to my knowledge not over a physically separate FON network, nor over a VPN(like) setup.
Please explain why local meshing would not be a profitable possibility for FON ?
Jordi (FON) on March 28, 2007 ·
Jos, I agree with you a decentralized meshing for large city centers with very dense number of interconnected Foneras may be the right point to start. The primary reason why we believe most Foneros will not take advantage of meshing right now is because most Foneras do not have the minimum of Foneras at range that can make meshing a big difference, this means hop efficiency and power optimization are two of the critical elements we need to play with. Keep in mind that we are a community generated network, so we do not force the spots to be in any specific location and we support Foneros in any location they want to place their APs, so when deciding the method and technology to use for meshing we need to adapt to the network as it randomly generates, the opposite to traditional meshing deployments where you first study the area and then deploy accordingly to the compiled data. You are correct; we do not centralize datatraffic.
Jordi
Roberto on March 30, 2007 ·
This is GREAT news for Foneros. I brought into Brazil 25 Foneras from last trip to Europe (thanks to Jan Karel in Result Netherlands).
These are now in Sao Paulo and Rio (most active) waiting for this type of help to increase coverage and traffic. We want to help FON to arrive in Brazil! We can do it sooner than later!
Saludos
Roberto
Jonathan on April 1, 2007 ·
What do these repeaters use, OpenWRT?
Thomas Kenyon on April 8, 2007 ·
Dammit, you’ve just reminded me that I was going to make an external Fonera with a fitted antenna (to cover the caravan park next door).
NexusMarit on April 9, 2007 ·
I´m getting quite confusing.
If the point of this Fontennas is to improve the WIFI coverage in a certain area it doesnt make sense give it for free only to those who already “have shown ability to connect others”, insted I think it would be better give it to peaple who have “geographic” problems.
I mean, for instance, I live in the 15th level of a flat, or behind a hill is more difficult for others to connect to my Fonera and (perhaps) in fact anyone could, so the Fontenna would be specially useful for me… isnt it?
I think you should consider that kind of signal problems too. 😀
Florin IVAN on April 23, 2007 ·
The repeater in future La Fonera Firmware will be welcome, personal i working on this to put more La Fonera Routers from one internet share, i’m interested on FONtenna too, my windows and place where i leave are on main street and is on 8th floor but the building is on very high place on my city 🙂 (see almost entire city from my window lol)
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tiberiofonero on March 26, 2007 ·
I’have 3foneras in each of my room. In tha spanish blog you said it will be send free for all linus and bills. Where to order them?
thanks