Wireless Router £18.36 delivered *conditions* (merged)

rowantoad

Fon are offering a Wireless Router for £18.36 delivered
http://en.fon.com/

The router is configured so that it makes your connection into a wireless hotspot. This means that people in your area can share you connection, but safely (I would hope).

You get to use other fon hotspots for free or you can get a cut of the money made out of non fon users using your connection. Could be interesting if you are in a town?

The router's probably only worth about £35 delivered, you are then possibly sharing your bandwidth but could be interesting to some.

I'm still reading the site, what do you think?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5116960.stm

scottgreenwood

Interesting!

According to the site:

1. If your a fon you can roam around and use any fon router
2. If your a bill you can take 50% of the revenues

The meaning?

1. I would seriously avoid this!
2. Only exceptions are:

a: You have a housefull of teenagers and this will help you cover the costs of the phone bill
b: You create a wifi hotspot in you buisness - a pub or a cafe, and then use the revenue from this to pay for line and profit!
c: You dont use much internet but live in a flat block where you could persuade neighbours to pay a proportion of your line rental for internet access

Finally: You can sell the laptop card for about £10 on ebay

Or.. buy one of these for 39.99 http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007SQG4O/kelkoocpc-cs-wireless-21/ref%3Dnosim/203-1658408-9799963 (a router an laptop card), then

NickC_4

I've had a look at this and am thinking about it.

You can choose to be a "Linus" and allow others to access your WiFi for free, which will allow you to access others for free.

Or you can be a "Bill" and earn money when other users access your connection. But if you roam, you will need to pay to access another FON WiFi point.

If a Linus uses a Bill's connection, Bill gets no money.

One thing to watch out for is your ISPs T&Cs. Telewest state:

You are responsible for the use of the services and also for the use by anyone who has access to the
services. You must not use the services or knowingly or otherwise allow any other person to use the
services to allow more than one (1) PC at any time to access any hi-speed internet service which isprovided to your premises by way of wireless equipment.

If we believe that any of the services are being used in any of these ways we are entitled to disconnectany or all of the services without giving notice to you. Prior to restoring the service (which shall be at our absolute discretion) we may require an assurance from you in a form that we deem acceptable that there will be no further breach of the agreement.

So, create a public WiFi and you might be disconnected! :eek:

Nick.

seth

The units ship with their own firmware. This is likely a modified version of Linux popular on this type of Linksys. On the stock models you can add your own Asterix server etc..

So remember this is NOT the same as a unit from a store it has special software on it. If they release this under the GPL then you can get the source and see what it does.

Does anyone have links other than the BBC story. Backedby Google and Skype?! Hmm...

How does the 5Euro become £18?

Kilty_2

€45 penalty if you dont register the router when it arrives - ~£32.

I'd avoid.

tommyj_2

This is a great idea, and one which should be embraced. I honestly think this is the way forward if there is ever to be a proper nationwide wireless network.

andreboyle

If you live anywhere near me, and no I'm not going to say where, then you can use my internet access which I keep wide open for all to enjoy. I figure I use my bandiwdth sparingly at the moment and I don't mind passers by having a pop for free.

I've setup a DMZ (Which is a secured network) which people joinj with the wireless access, this stops them seeing my home PCs and servers and getting access to my data. If they abuse it I will stop the free access.

It's nice to be nice sometimes, one of my neighbours has had access to my network for the past year or there abouts and it's worked fine.

Before anyone says, I'm on an unlimited package which allows me to run my own servers and share the connection to whomever the heck I feel so long as I'm not charging for access.

payless

Register from UK .. price is in Euro E5 + E18 shipping = E23

payless

great idea, but IMHO not worth it if you are just after a cheap wireless router

Derek_Duval

Great idea, I'm just wondering where you stand with your isp, as you're selling your bandwidth on, so it could be seen as a business.

rdwarr

Derek_Duval wrote:

Great idea, I'm just wondering where you stand with your isp, as you're selling your bandwidth on, so it could be seen as a business.

See NickC's post above. You are probably not allowed to do this.

Many Broadband users have an allowance of xGB per month. Even "unlimited" deals are often subject to an "acceptable use" policy. Imagine if you suddenly had loads of new users downloading movies over your connection :eek: