BT Home Hub and BT Fon
In October 2007, the BT Home Hub software got an update, and a new service, called the “wi-fi community” service, was added. This is also known as BT Fon, and is a service that lets other people use your Hub to access BT’s network, in return for you being able to access other people’s broadband connections. If adopted widely, this could mean that people’s hubs become public access points, offering free wireless Internet access to BT Fon users.
As we cover in Show 20, and from what we’re seeing in our Home Hub forum, many aren’t happy with the idea of having their hubs turned into hotspots for other surfers, but others like the idea of an extended network of free access points.
More on BT Fon at www.filesaveas.com/btfon.html
Fon… Good or bad? Comments please
If I had 8Meg I would not mind sharing 500k with others, but as I have only 2.5Meg at best it represents a considerable share of my bandwidth. Also the range of my hub is so short I doubt if my signal would reach the road – it doesn’t reach the back garden! Maybe if I had a ground floor flat in London and on 8meg it might make sense, except I already have free Openzone minutes as part of the Option 1 contract.
I’ve just opted in, as I have 8 Mbit on a first floor apartment in Manchester city centre, I think I’ll make a valuable hotspot. I feel privileged to be able to share my bandwidth this way. If I really need all my bandwidth, my traffic will get priority anyway.
I’m also looking forward to surfing unlimited minutes (I’m on option 3) when I’m out and about, especially on mobile devices such as the iPod Touch I’m planning to get.
My only concern is how secure these “Separate channels” really are.
I have option three. There would be no piont in me using WON service as i’m in a old sandstone house and signal wouldn’t panatrate that far. But whats more worring is what others download from myline. What if its illegal P2P or some Obsean illegal porn? who gets done for it?? nope it think i’ll stay secure. Tho the idea is sound, maybe when were all using N1-mimo or above
FON :S geez my english is bad. and im from the UK :)
I opted in to Fon because it is such a wonderful concept sharing WiFi without lots of extra kit littering the world – it is a worldwide intiative and BT have entered into a partnership with the Spanish originators – I trust them to work out the security first.
Regarding Mad commanders point above: Since the guest downloads never get to my machine I do not see how I could be held responsible for them – I hope and trust the trace would not link to my machine.
If you connect to your own BTOpenzone Hotspot that FON creates you will see that the IP and DNS details used are different to those used on your own broadband connection. If someone does do something illegal it will be on that IP & DNS combination. As you have to login to use FON and you can see minutes used there is obviously a means of tracing who has logged in and where.
Whilst no network is totally secure I wouldn’t worry too much. If someone wants to illegally piggyback your connection there are other methods.
Try driving around a typical residential area with a network scanner running on a PDA and you will see numerous completely open networks, at least FON offers some protection.
More discussion at http://www.filesaveas.co.uk/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1193217522
Re security, it is 100% safe. Everything goes through a separate channel. The only thing that is shared is the phone line. The broadband and the wireless are completely separate.
Anyway, I love FON!
It doesn’t take the full 1/2 meg if you only have 2.5meg. It dynamically adjusts the allowance so that you have priority.
This is the way forward for wireless broadband. Forget 4G and HSPDA. When the BT 21st Century Network comes online, they’ll be able to up its speed as well and make it far faster than these.
The benefits gained for the loss of up to half a meg are great.
Free openzone (normally £1 per 10mins) AND free connection to all other FON users (only available if you sign up).
At the end of the day, if for some strange reason you don’t like the idea. Don’t sign up. BT aren’t forcing you to after all!
Thought the BT Fon was a good idea until my side of the router slowed to the point of stopping… Just checked the hub firmware and it is still on 6.2.6.e… Roll on H!
if i only use wired at home could i not just sign up then disable the wireless on my router to have free openzone and fon elsewhere but not give anything back?
not that i would but (if i dont use it) physically disabling the wireless antenna would be all win.
I registered for FON 3 months ago and it’s no use to me at all. Everywhere I’ve been in the UK I’ve been unable to connect to a hub. My own hub, in the centre of Bristol, is often so busy with other users that my own downloading slows to almost a standstill. I’m leaving FON – I recently signed up with Vodafone for Mobile Broadband at £15 per month. More expense, sadly, but at least it’s reliable and very fast, which is more than can be said for FON.
I am pleased to join in and found it very useful in London earlier this week using an iTouch to get around the city and stay in contact with email. Very impressed and hope it grows
I am lead to believe that shared or not, the traffic to and from your hub is your responsibility, therefore you probably would be liable if somebody else used your connection to do illicit things. It does sound very dicey to me.
I really like the idea. Does anyone know if an old BT home hub can be made into a fon device ? For those on other ISPs Otherwise one can always buy the standalone from fon.com I guess !
When somebody star using my BT Hub by FON my speed automaticly drop from 4M on 1.2M. And I can’t play any on-line games for lost connections with servers.
I can not possible until the apple company ipad is out in britain, i’ve come across a few online reviews through Us customers also it appears brilliant. I’ve come across some awesome add-ons ^ nearby also! apple ipad PWNS!