BT & FON are annoying me (Yes, yet more WiFi)

I didn't know BT where doing this but they seem to have teamed up with FON (www.fon.com) to open up their users broadband routers into hotspots (I'll tell you the reason I discovered they were doing this in a sec). I took a bit of a better look into it and on the surface things look GOOD!

Basically the premise is that the routers have 2 networks: a public one and a private one. The private one acts as a normal secured network would do whilst the public one acts as an Internet only access hotspot for other FON users (security - according to them - seems to be OK).

I kinda like this idea, any BT Broadband user (or FON user) can now open themselves up as a hotspot to let other Foneros (the silly name FON gives its users) surf the net as they pass. In fact I just checked it out on the BT site and it seems there are over 10 hotspots within a couple of miles of home - a trend which seems to be mirrored across the country. The really nice thing that FON offers is global surfing: with the same free hotspots service across the globe (well most of the EU and US anyway) - for travelers (something I will be doing in the next few years) and the like it could be a handy service.

As far as I can tell there are 2 ways to get access to this cool global network:

• Get BT broadband and use their home hub router
• Buy a FON Fonera (or Fonera+) wireless router

I probably would go with the second one - for freedom. The Fonera+ goes for £39 which is a decent price for the specs and reviews of it seem to be positive. It even seems to update automatically, a great feature I would love to see in all routers!

One of the suggestions I did like was the Skype phone they also do: theoretically meaning you can keep your Skype going anywhere with a hotspot (in practice I guess I wouldn't trail around with it like a mobile but it could mean it is possible to take your phone on holiday etc.), no more need for a landline! The drawback is the phone costs £109 at the moment.

So all in all it seems a brilliant idea: everyone within the FON community can share and share alike.

With all of that said I have 3 major gripes, the last of which is just me being really bitchy ;)

(Yay a list!)

1. First off they claim the Fonera router is all custom built / coded. Excellent. It occurs to me that they could have then changed the way the hotspots work. Currently you can just connect straight off and have to enter user details to continue. To me a better way would be to implement a new security system: where each Fonero has their own private key, they then connect to the hotspots using this key (the same as a private WEP key for example) and voila. This would mean I could easily get my new phone (that N81 I was going on about before) to use these spots. Not only would this make things cleaner all round it provides some important levels of encryption/security for everyone using the system!
2. Bandwidth uses: what happens if people abuse your hotspots by streaming crap loads of content and destroying your bandwidth allowance - I can see it happening. I?m not sure if there is some cap or setting to stop this (I haven't dug around enough) but if there isn't it is a big concern.
3. Why oh why is the whole WiFi standard so crap.. my Laptop keeps trying to connect to the nice BT/FON hotspot near me (which is how I found out about this) rather than my local router; I assume because it requires no passkey to get access, or whatever. As a result whenever I try to load a new web page it keeps loading the BT openzone login page. Grrrr. Implementing my first point would soon sort this out! Yes I know I could spend a little time stopping it from connecting but most users wont be able to and as more spots appear it would quickly become and annoying chore.
   

It does seem like a good idea: especially considering my comments from yesterday, about needing more hotspots, and that it takes the craze of web2.0/user generated content to the next level. I'm definitely going to look into it and maybe invest in a Fonera+.

Skegvegas

Welcome to my new blog, lets hope I keep this one up a bit more.

Todays post comes live from SKEG-VEGAS: aka Skegness (on the East Coast). What a wonderfully dead place; lots of old people and tired looking shops. I'm stuck here because my brother's playing in some jazz orchestra tonight and my support is apparently essential, not totally sure whether it's going to be decent music but we shall see.

Anyway slightly more interesting is the new phone I got today (O2 love me again and so I got me an upgrade); a Nokia N81 8GB.

The first thing that impressed me is the amount of onboard memory, 8GB. When I got my last phone (A Motorola RAZR) 18 months ago it came with a 512MB upgraded memory: which at the time was really advanced. However I've been trying to work out what I might use it for, and the answer is very little. It does have an inbuilt music player - but I also have an 8GB Ipod (which I prefer for music), so just photos then? How many photo's can I fit on 8GB.. (it's a 2MP camera) ..I'd imagine quite a few; but then I hardly take photo's.

However all may not be lost. The N81 also has WiFi connectivity: which means when Im at home and in public WiFi spots I can browse and check emails (or blog!) for free. This is definitely my favourite feature so far because it means that I can avoid lots of expensive bandwidth bills when I fancy grabbing my emails, my university has free WiFi so that will work out really cheap!

I especially like the idea of picking up my emails 24/7 because it seems an obsession of mine at the moment. 8GB of memory means I can store all my emails and other data on the go really easily. Plus the phone has a PDF reader (admittedly a crappy Adobe one) so I can open documents and what not as well (lecture notes on your phone ftw!). Im hoping the phone's memory will double as a "pen drive" too because that cuts down on something else I need to have in my pocket!

So a big thumbs up so far for this phone: I usually don't like Nokia's that much but it is such a huge improvement on my current phone (an old old old one that used to be my dads) that I can forgive it. I don't have a good run with phones (the RAZR lasted 10 months at most) but this feels a bit more rugged.

Going back slightly to WiFi on phones: this is an interesting subject. At the moment it is limited use - likely most people wont be able to use it in work etc. or have many public access points round about. Really only home use (which kinda defeats the object) is viable at the moment. But, what about a couple of years down the line when the governments plans of public WiFi all over the country may actually happen? At that point it becomes an amazingly useful feature; especially as you can browse / email for free on something you usually have with you 24/7. What about calendar syncing (easily done over the net) to give you instant updates - you could probably get a dentists appointment online and add it to your calendar in no time, all for free.

This is all very well and good but will phone manufacturers carry on bundling WiFi not phones? The N81 proves it is easily possible but will the network providers want it? They must make quite a bit of dosh from web access on phones, so if people can do it for free all the time it is a massive loss of revenue.

Just a thought :D