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Fonera 2 To Launch With Extended Functionality
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Apr 06, 2009 06:13 PM
from the real-community-sharing dept.
from the real-community-sharing dept.
The next installment in the Fonera router family is set to make its debut in a couple of weeks, and the additions to the hardware are relatively impressive. Promising full support for networked storage, automatic downloads, sharing of a USB 3G connection, and a few other perks in addition to the normal range of functionality found in the Fonera routers this package packs quite a punch. "Like the original Fonera and Fonera+ routers, the principals of this hippie-love-in-styled product still apply. You buy the router and hook it up to your internet connection as normal. The trick is that the router shares a part of your bandwidth on a public-facing connection. Other Fon owners can log in and use this public network for free. In turn, you — as a Fonera owner — can travel the world and use other Fon hotspots. It's a neat idea and everybody wins, except the money-grabbing telcos."
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A real hippie-love-in-styled product (Score:3, Insightful)
Would have a hotspot open to all.
Not just the evil consumers that evilly used their evil money to buy the evil Fonera.
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Well.. in many places it is illegal to use an open accesspoint without permission.
Re:A real hippie-love-in-styled product (Score:5, Interesting)
Just wait... pretty soon it'll be illegal to provide an open accesspoint.
Because, you know, terrorists (or even child pornographers!) might use it.
The sad thing is, I'd be actually scared to put one of these up. People wardrive around my neighborhood all the time during the day... what if one of them was transmitting kiddie porn? Would I be legally liable? Even if I wasn't legally liable, would the potenital inconvenience of the legal issues outweigh the benefits of this product?
What if I live in Australia -- would I have to retain logs of all the traffic? And when will Americans be required to do the same?
Parent
Re:A real hippie-love-in-styled product (Score:5, Funny)
*gets booked on kiddie porn/terrorism charges and shived in jail*
Parent
For the lazy... (Score:2)
RFC 3514 is the evil bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFC_3514 [wikipedia.org]
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Which is exactly why I lock down my customers wireless routers using WPA. Because all it takes is for some perv to download kiddie pron on your line and it is YOUR life that is going to be screwed. So what if you are innocent? The question is how many years and how much in lawyer's fees would it take to get you out from under that cloud. So while a "share and share alike" idea might sound okay in theory, with the totally insane witch hunt we have going on when it comes to kiddie pron it simply isn't worth t
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the totally insane witch hunt we have going on when it comes to kiddie pron
Have you ever seen kiddie porn?
Usenet makes it all too simple, and let me tell you: it's not busty blonde 17 year olds "this close" to 18, and it's really, really disgusting.
Re:A real hippie-love-in-styled product (Score:5, Insightful)
the totally insane witch hunt we have going on when it comes to kiddie pron
Have you ever seen kiddie porn?
Usenet makes it all too simple, and let me tell you: it's not busty blonde 17 year olds "this close" to 18, and it's really, really disgusting.
Dude... How does the horribleness of those pictures in any way/shape/or form justify putting tens to hundreds of thousands of innocent people through trials and basically branded as guilty pedophiles for life, only to discover they really were innocent and let go?
Those peoples lives are ruined forever. Friends and associates lost, families torn apart, carriers ruined... All because the accusations make front page news for weeks, and the retraction and court outcome is 2 lines in small print somewhere towards the bottom of page E-10...
That is the witch hunt of which the GP speaks.
And No, I don't buy your excuse for why that is OK to do to people, simply because the pictures are really really disgusting.
If ANYTHING, that reason of yours should be EXACTLY why this madness needs to stop, so the real criminals taking the pictures and doing the child abuse might get caught, instead of given a week to get away while someone else is "investigated"
You truly are a sick person to prefer innocent peoples lives are ruined instead of the real criminals caught
Parent
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Google 'operation ore'. From wikipedia: "Operation Ore was a British police operation that commenced in 1999, following information from USA law enforcement, and it intended to prosecute thousands of users of websites reportedly featuring child pornography. In the United Kingdom, it has led to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned, 879 investigations underway, 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations (although the de
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No, it's 14 year olds sending cellphone pictures unclothed to each other. It's Lolita, and it's a little boy whose mother took a picture of him when he happened to put his penis though a chain link fence and winds up arrested because the photo developer became freaked out. It's Traci Lords, doing adult films when she was 16 and making a bundle at it.
Is there absolutely disgusting porn involving abused children? Absolutely. Is anything classified legally as child porn automatically worth the furor and bother
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More wifi openspots= more safety for all? (Score:2, Interesting)
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The problem with your theory is this: You assume that the cops, the prosecutors, and the judge are all going to be perfectly logical and reasonable about this, which has frankly become the Red Scare of the 21st century. You know what they say about assuming, right?
The fact is the line stops at YOUR house. it is your door they will kick in, your computers they will take and possibly never give back, it is your name that will be in the papers the next morning, and it is YOUR ass that better have the money for
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It's been already illegal in Italy for quite a while. Yes, in its most pure form i.e. not if you have an open access point and somebody does something evil, no. You are breaking the law just by having an open access point (with internet access), even if nobody ever connects to it.
But... (Score:2)
communism...it works in theory! (Score:3, Interesting)
can travel the world and use other Fon hotspots
You're going to have to.
Can anyone tell me how this affects/is affected by the new data retention laws coming out? The "open wi-fi" defense? Stuff like that?
Re:communism...it works in theory! (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
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Why, oh why... (Score:5, Insightful)
It does this all without a computer, so once you have it set up you can take your laptop out on the road and look forward to a new episode of Criminal Minds when you get home.
Why must people continuously tout the ability of these devices to aid in copyright infringement? Before you stop reading here, consider this: I'm posting this from an Ubuntu laptop. I publish all my software under the GPL and BSD licenses. I publish 99% of my other content under Creative Commons attribution-only licenses. So I'm doing my part to make the IP scene a nicer place.
All that said, it's ridiculous how many people would scream bloody murder over a GPL violation, while they're downloading someone else's content without the publisher's permission. This is beyond dumb, and it's precisely the reason BitTorrent is so poorly regarded by many publishers and ISPs. Yeah, I actually use it to download ISOs and other legal stuff, but to specifically encourage people to use it in ways that defy the law is idiocy.
People can't demand that their own rights be respected while they trample on those of others.
Re:Why, oh why... (Score:4, Informative)
All that said, it's ridiculous how many people would scream bloody murder over a GPL violation, while they're downloading someone else's content without the publisher's permission.
Two problems with this line of reasoning: 1) They may not be--and most likely aren't--the same people most of the time; Slashdot isn't some sort of group mind; and 2) Most GPL violations are carried out by organizations which otherwise vocally support copyrights, patents, and the like; even if one does not support these concepts oneself, it is still legitimate to judge others' actions by their own rules.
One final thought: The GPL was created in opposition to existing copyright law; its purpose is to take advantage of copyright schemes endorsed by others and so unwisely formulated into law to create a sort of "walled garden" where copyright, to a greater or lesser extent, does not apply. It is thus perfectly consistent to be both anti-copyright and pro-GPL, to the extend that copyright does exist in the law.
Parent
Re:Why, oh why... (Score:4, Insightful)
Without copyright laws, the GPL would be unenforcible. The BSD style licenses are the anti-copyright licenses. GPL uses copyright laws to have some interesting restrictions, but definitely does depend on copyright laws.
However, the length of copyright protection is something else, and for most GPL software infinity+ years is longer than that version will be useful.
Parent
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Without copyright laws, the GPL would be unenforcible.
Without copyright laws, the GPL would be unnecessary. Without copyright laws, everything would be even more lax than BSD (which I believe still requires you to attribute your code). The purpose of the GPL is to acknowledge that because of copyright laws, a BSD style license is frequently a one way street - businesses use and enhance the software without giving anything back to the community, all the while they are able to sue if their changes to the code see unauthorized distribution. That is to say, bus
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"In a world with no copyright, you may be able to copy the binary around at will but would no longer have guaranteed access to the source code in the first place, one of the key principles of free software."
Laws (and contracts) are not Justice, but a means to down Justice into Real World. As such, without the laws and the mentality of copy rights, while not guaranteed to gain access to source code, your chances of not having it would be more or less the same than being suffocated by all your oxigen going o
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i just think the audacity of the narrator and the hypocrisy in what he's showcasing are hilarious. He was saying he doesn't support piracy in the video, but then turns around, right on the show, showing people how he could download pirated material.
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Because it's LEGAL where Fon is (Score:3, Informative)
Fon is from Spain. And is Spain, downloading movies/music from p2p for your personal use was established to be COMPLETELLY LEGAL.
Better ask why do you have such and such legal situation at your place...
Seems to Me (Score:4, Interesting)
Fon is against the TOS of most ISPs.
Fon is illegal in many areas.
Fon isn't as nice as just running a free hotspot.
Most Fon users signed up back in the day just for the free router, which they promptly flashed with DD-WRT.
Most new Fon users will be attracted to the "Make money with Fon!" option, and WiFi WON'T be free to the masses, but only to other Fon users.
There's a reason Fon never got of the ground, and that's the simple fact that truly free WiFi is easy to come by, especially in areas likely to harbor Fon users.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends.
Last I checked, you had two options, a "Bill", and a "Linus" (you can guess who they're named after). Bills get paid a portion of the paid-wifi fees from people using their access. Linuses don't. However, if a Bill uses another AP on the fon network, they have to pay. Linuses don't. So it's gets paid and pay, or free and free, and you can only change your choic
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Seems you haven't checked for a long time, Bills don't pay anymore for using For network. The status can be changed 2 times a year AFAI remember.
Fon - A Good Idea I've Never Been Able To Use (Score:5, Informative)
I think the concept of Fon is excellent. But not all that useful in practice.
I live in a fairly populated area, and there are ~7 Fon routers within a five mile radius of where I live (Go to http://maps.fon.com/ [fon.com] to check around where you live). But every single one of those hotspots is in a residential area. Which is (I think) why I've never actually seen a Fon hotspot when I've been looking for WiFi. And, in the 6 months or so that I've ran a Fon hotspot out of my home, I've had zero outside connections.
I think the key to success for Fon would be to target businesses where people are typically looking for WiFi. Coffee Shops, Hotels and the like. The way it is now, I'd have to camp out on someone's Cul-de-sac to find a Fon hotspot.
Re:Fon - A Good Idea I've Never Been Able To Use (Score:5, Funny)
The way it is now, I'd have to camp out on someone's Cul-de-sac to find a Fon hotspot.
I was wondering why that van was always parked outside my house. Now I guess I know.
Parent
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Since you have one, maybe you can explain...
How does this differ from me just keeping my access point unencrypted and available to the public? Is the only difference that Foneras get dots put on a online map somewhere?
Dumb idea (Score:2)
It was a pretty good idea in the 'day' but in the modern era of bandwidth caps on most broadband accounts it is dumb. You are opening yourself up to an unlimited commitment to provide access to Fon users for the dubious benefit of being able to use the other access points.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure they exists, but why not per-IP password protection, with bandwidth limitations.
Yours / Unlimited / %Password%
Friendly Neighbour / 5mb/512kb / WhozYerNabor
Public / 1mb/256kb / *
Or a limited amount of free/public ones, like 5, that all share the same allotment of 2mb/368kb or something, seems ridiculous to me why anyone would "sign up" for this, when any router can toss out free IP's if you let it, I dont see what good an account will do unless it's only for accountability which can't really exists
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You can set bandwith cap for public WiFi in control panel of Fonera. Without checking I believe the lowest option is 128 kbps.
Jasager (Score:2)
Promising full support for networked storage, automatic downloads, sharing of a USB 3G connection, and a few other perks in addition to the normal range of functionality found in the Fonera routers this package packs quite a punch.
But will it fit inside a pineapple?
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That's a pretty fruity idea.
Maybe, but it wasn't mine [hak5.org].
ISP ToS (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't speak for anyone else, but it's against my ISP's Terms of Service to provide others with access to my internet connection.
Even if I just left my access point open, I'd be in violation.
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The real concern in my opinion is the responsibility you are taking allowing a complete stranger to utilize your connection.
I live in the United States. I've been using my home internet connection to run a Tor exit node for... three? six? months now. I have yet to hear an official complaint from anyone.
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Legal responsiblity (Score:3, Interesting)
Unregulated open WIFI? (Score:2)
Is illegal in some areas, soon most all.
Cant risk people having anonymous access to the net can we?
Legal ramifications? (Score:2)
The best use of a FON is dd-wrt (Score:3, Informative)
Now with unlimited HSDPA 3G plans being available here (I've been using one with my iPhone 3G), it's much easier to get Internet connection with your mobile phone. Previously, I've been using an old version PdaNet on my iPhone to do it. But with the 3.0 beta firmware (I'm an iPhone developer so I can get beta firmware from Apple) now I can just tether via USB. If you've got an unlimited 3G plan like me and some other 3G phone (like a Nokia), you can even do the tethering without fiddling with jailbreaking or beta firmware.
So, the only use of a FON left is to use it as a regular wifi router at home. But even for that, it's terribly insufficient - it doesn't have uPnP, DMZ or DDNS clients. So again, the only useful thing you can do with it, is to jailbreak it and install dd-wrt (or some other free router firmware) into it, so at least you get basic things like DMZ and uPnP.
Open-mesh is much better (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't really like the fonera scheme. The only reason i even know such thing exists, is because someone brought me a device with the fon sticker on it and i started researching how to remove their customized openwrt with either true openwrt or dd-wrt, which i did successfully, and the device became a regular wifi ap.
Fonera is not even a mesh, its plain regular wifi access, for which you have to have an account with them (centralized), by means of paying a fee, or sharing your wifi. Terrible.
The hardware they use is good, strong and compact, atheros based iirc. These are the same used in the much better open-mesh [open-mesh.com] project, which is what meraki could have been before it corrupted itself into oblivion.
Open-mesh lets you mess with the hardware all you want, does not force you to authenticate to third parties, does not forbid you from modifying/installing your own software. Its the opposite of Fonera and Meraki, in the spirit of the Free Software they run things with; they just provide you the tools (hardware and software) to roll your own wifi mesh and do with it whatever you want, no third parties involved.