Any Foneros out there?

gjchester

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Mine is saying that the Fon service is active. Also the router is showing in the Fon website along with the non-working Fonera+

As an ExFonero (had one of the first Lynksys flashed routers then two fonero's, but left due to the fact for a long time the answer to how do I get a new router was "Join BT..." which is hard when our home service is from Virgin due to poor ADSL lines) has FON made any comments yet on how they will deal with the proposed new laws on IP use.

I recall the problem that in some countries (Germany comes to mind) that the hotspot owner is liable for anything that a user does. Fon were asked (on the long defunct boards) how they would handle this, given you could log in with a relatively anonymous Gmail or Hotmail account.

Is there any word how they will handle the proposed UK Laws, where the ISP would happily point back to you as the "isp" ie hosting the device, and it would be down to you to say who was on it.

What makes it worse is Fon now use Facebook Connect, so while connections may be limited and the risk of anyone coming back to you is very small, if it happens, the chances of you getting the "real" logon details from Fon, who then get them from Facebook is vanishingly small.

Fon's answer was always " We will work with the authorities if this happened" which was never exactly encouraging

I still think the service is a good idea, but I left as the options were join BT or pay for the service, which what a little galling as I'd bought both the Linksys and the Fonero's in the past, and the lack of support for the non BT users once they signed up BT to the scheme.

kwikbreaks

The BT based system will have no issues for the reasons I outlined - traceable IP which is not the same as the Fonero's.

Richard_T_

Not sure if this will show up, but the main page of my fon router is showing as

Status

Internet
Connection established
Fon service
Online

You are one step away from free access to millions of Fon Spots worldwide! Please register your Fonera now.

Register Now

As for faffing around with the antenna, I was looking into the possibility of modifying it to accept an external antenna this would be a simple process as i beleive the connector inside is something called a ufl conector, so a UFL - SMA lead would do the trick with the main fonera circuit board housed in a separate enclosure.

There is however the option to turn the transmit power of the fonera down within the system settings/router UI, settings > Wifi > TX power 100%, 90%, 80% etc down to 10%

The ip thing certainly warrants an answer from support, previously when connected to the fon side on the old fonera+ ip websites showed a different IP address and the provider as Fon - now it shows my own IP and my own ISP.

kwikbreaks

OK so does this email refer to the Fonera+ I had which stopped working last month or the one they've just sent me? I suspect the former given the new one doesn't link up to BT.

Hello Fon member,

Since the launch of Fon in 2006 our mission has been to cover the world with WiFi, offering access and connectivity to a global network. Today we have over 13 million hotspots worldwide and we’re still growing. This past year we launched some great innovations including: the new social Fonera with Facebook login; the Gramofon, a WiFi device that turns your speakers into a WiFi music player; and our new solution for enterprises, Fon WiFi for Business.

For Fon to keep growing and innovating, we need to discontinue our service in some older devices, including your BT Fonera. From December 9th 2014, we will be deactivating the Fon service on these small amount of devices that are still in use. However you can still use it as a WiFi router since the private signal will be working as it did until now.

In order to enjoy the Fon benefits and make the most of our ever-growing network of WiFi hotspots please subscribe to BT, our partner in the UK, to get the latest BT router fully compatible with Fon. You can also buy our latest Fonera - with the same sharing feature as your old device and also a new social layer with Facebook login. Use “**removed for forum post**” as a promo code in the Fon Shop to get a 40% discount!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by clicking here.

Regards,

The Fon Team

Gloomendoom

kwikbreaks wrote: »

OK so does this email refer to the Fonera+ I had which stopped working last month or the one they've just sent me? I suspect the former given the new one doesn't link up to BT.

I just got that too. I would have thought the old one.

As a side note, the new one seems very flaky. It regularly loses the internet and won't let me access it via the control panel. I have to resort to switching it off and on.

kwikbreaks

My old Fonera+ used to screw up fairly regularly. I put it on a timeswitch that turned it off and on every day to make sure it was acting as a Fon device and I remained an active Fonero. As I rarely used it myself I would easily have missed a long period offline.

My new one seems to stay connected. I am currently just checking the My Fon website every few days and haven't seen any problem with it.

Did anybody bother querying the use of their IP on the Fon hotspot? I'm guessing it's working as designed.

Richard_T_

I tried to get somewhere with support, but they havent replied for the last few days, i think they have it down as an isolated case.

the email support is at [EMAIL="support@fon.zendesk.com"]support@fon.zendesk.com[/EMAIL] it may be helpful for anyone else with the issue to get in touch and raise it with fon - also the home page/overview of my router still says register now - even though its registered, firmware version is 4.1.1.5

Me:

Up until recently I had a fully functioning La Fonera+ in the UK, however something changed with your network ( botched firmware update?) and my fonera+ ceased working.
I have since purchased a new fonera ( small white round one )
When users connected to the fon part of the wifi they were given a unique IP address, which identitifed itself ( using ip search websites ) as belonging to Fon.
this meant that they were completely separate from my own ( static) ip address and as such it was secure, as the IP address was for that user on the fon network and not my self.
However with the new fonera, fon users are given my own IP address when logging in, which is trackable and traceable to me, in other words should a fon user do anything illegal whilst logged into my fonera
the IP address that would be attached to that activity would point straight back at me.
This is how it appears to be at the moment
theres a discussion about this issue here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5105399

Fon Support:

Thanks for using Fon!
As you know, due to changes in our system, one of our oldest Foneras, the Fonera 2201C-UK, is no longer compatible with the Fon network. This means that attempts to log in to the public signal of these Foneras will fail.
For the owner of the Fonera 2201C-UK the result is that logging in into the User zone is currently not possible.
If you wants we can remove your older Foneras from your account.

Your new Fonera's public signal is given the same IP from your private signal?

Kind regards,
Renato
Fon Customer Care

Me:

-you said this: Your new Fonera's public signal is given the same IP from your private signal?
my answer is Yes, that appears to be the case.
Before if logged into the public part of the fonera a separate IP address was given to the computer/device on the public side of the network
Now when logged into the public side the same IP address is given as the private side, this is shown via sites such as whats my ip address
http://whatismyipaddress.com/ previously the public side was kept separate from the private side, this means that should anyone connect to the public part of my Fonera they will have the same static IP address that is linked to my own private Internet connection, and therefore anything that happens on that connection will be attributed to my own account such as illegal downloads or music films, and worse.
Im not the only one with these issues see here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5105399
[/qoute]
Fon support

Renato (Fon Support)
Nov 28 10:35
Hi

It is very strange , we tried to reproduce this issue with no success . Could you please restore the factory settings in your Fonera. See how to do it at https://support.fon.com/hc/en-us/articles/200390842-How-do-I-restore-the-factory-settings-on-my-Fonera-
Kind regards,
Renato
Fon Customer Care

Fonera re-set as advised, the public side is still using my own IP address.
If i visit whats my ip address whilst logged onto my own private wifi signal ( or even on a p.c connected by a cable ) it gives me the ip address associated with my ISP account, and traces it back to my ISP

If i log into the fon side, coming from my fonera which brings up the fon/facebook log in page and then enter my password / username for fon and repeat the ip address look up, it uses my own IP address as given to my own private internet connection.
To rule out a computer error, If i log into another nearby fon spot, then i get a completely different IP address.
previously the old fonera+ was giving users connected to the fon part a different IP address as in the ip address that identifies a user/connection on the internet such as 80.229.X.X ( as opposed to the internal IP address given to a device such as 192.168.10.X)
I believe this was a secure ‘tunnel’ through a foneros own private internet connection that isolated them form any activity carried out over fon.

and thats where it lies at the moment.

kwikbreaks

I don't think you are likely to get anywhere with them It's clear that the things are operating as intended. It may well be that the Spanish ones still tunnel through the Spanish teleco partner.

The ones they supplied us may even be the ones scheduled to stop working on the 9th December. As Fon support seem to be a complete shambles I'll just leave mine as it is now and see what happens later in the month.

In the meantime I have emailed support with this...

Member #nnnnnn

Please remove the no longer supported Fon router with MAC ********** from my account.

That router stopped working last month yet your recent email says old routers will not stop working until December 9th. Please confirm that the replacement router I bought recently with MAC ********* is not the type you are withdrawing support for.

In addition I can confirm that with that router the Public Fon hotspot is using my internet connection public IP and as reported by another customer who was told you could not reproduce that behaviour.

Regards

gjchester

For what its worth I just go the 50% off offer and the fact they are removing the revenue sharing mode email.

My device has been off the fon network at least 3 years and reflashed to work as a repeater, so who knows where the data is coming from.

Richard_T_

What device did/do you have and how did you turn it into a repeater?

As for the ones that will stop working, Fon did give me the model number of the affected routers and this matches that on the bottom of the la fonera+

As for the IP address issue, I will try and get a response with a shorter message ( similar to the one you have posted