Nom nom on my fon!

Author: William

19 Dec

So. I got a Fon box (thanks to Dazzy ). It’s pretty freakin awesome, basically, I plug in their little router to my ADSL modem and then it shares my WiFi connection out to anyone. It might seem stupid, you pay money to let people use your WiFi, but it isn’t. Why? Well, here’s the awesome part. By sharing your WiFi connection, you open up the ability to use other people’s WiFi connections in other places. For example, if you travel a lot, you might know that some hotels like to charge you stupid amounts to use their WiFi (one hotel in London that I stayed at earlier this year charge Â£15 per day for internet access). With Fon, yes, you have to share your own connection, but you can use other people’s connections! How freaking awesome is that?

It’s a great service if you travel a lot, as long as there’s a hotspot near where you travel too. Plus, you also have the option to earn money off it, because for every person that purchases a day’s access from you, Fon keep (not sure how much it is exactly) some of the money, and you get to keep some too. Clever, huh?

You can see all the hotspots in the world here.

Another upside - if you don’t yet have WiFi, the Fon box creates an additional private (and unrestricted [as in no speed limit]) WiFi network for you, so you basically get two SSIDs - one public, one private. Of course, this now means I have three SSIDs as I already have a WiFi router.

Filed under: Life

9 Responses for "Nom nom on my fon!"

iwantanimac December 20th, 2007 at 6:18 am 1
Now THAT is sweet. I need to get me that.
Dazzy December 22nd, 2007 at 1:54 pm 2
I still have some if you want one
Steven Crothers December 31st, 2007 at 9:23 am 3
Wow, what a useful device actually. There’s a few people who live around me with one I may pick one up and use it with my laptop in my car when I’m out.
William December 31st, 2007 at 9:40 am 4
You only need the device to share your connection - if you’re picking up other people’s connections, you just need any old 802.11b/g wireless card.
Steven Crothers January 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am 5
Yea that’s what I meant correct me if I’m wrong but if I share my internet that gives me “Free” access to others as well? Or do I still pay, because the “Share For All” approach seems to be a really wicked idea.
William January 1st, 2008 at 3:26 am 6
Yeah, as long as your internet is being shared, you can use any other hotspot. Including mine.
Crothers January 6th, 2008 at 1:37 am 7
Yea I really want one now, I’m probably going to get one. Simply because I use my laptop in my car, and the areas I hang out at have a Fon near them. So its a win/win for me
Peppery January 24th, 2008 at 11:20 am 8
I went to buy one of these but they don’t sell them in New Zealand. Darn

The problem I see with these is what if some sicko pervert comes and downloads kiddie pr0n or something like hundreds of movies on my Fonbox and the cops come knocking at my door? —I guess that Fon would have the transaction details but still :\
William January 24th, 2008 at 1:51 pm 9
Yeah, that is one downside of it. However, you can combine it with OpenDNS, which has adult content filtering, and it should do a pretty good job of keeping the naughties out.