The BBC website was carrying a story about community/commercial based wi-fi system being pioneered by a Spanish company called FON http://en.fon.com/.
Looking up their website I see they already have two community sharers in Lawrie Park Road & Crystal Palace Park Road. Are either of these amongst our readers and able to recommend FON to other Sydenhamites?
The offer is to share your existing broadband with a wifi router for just 5 euros. Looks genuine but I'm not so sure about the business plan ...
Admin
FON WiFi in Sydenham
legal risk though
Saw the same link myself. I'm a wireless/bband user myself and have wrestled with the decision to leave it wide open or not.
My PCs are reasonably secured, that's not the issue - it's about the accountability of actions.
Currently, uk legislation and ISP customer contracts have in the small print words to the effect of:
1. the connection is for your use only [ within reason, family okay etc ]
2. any illegal actions performed using your connection are associated with you [ the person who entered the agreement with the ISP ]
Which has the end result that if some naughty badger decides to use my generously open access point to do something naughty - it's my fault and I have the burden of guilt.
So, instead of leaving it open, I've shared the keys with my neighbours, and added their MACs to the filter lists.. not as open as I'd like, but until I can be indemnified against prosecution - I'm not leaving it open,
but... I _do_ love the idea, internet anywhere, anytime. [ well, not whilst driving my car of course ]
DaveT
ps. I'm sure if it became a popular enough idea, then the govt would suggest that ID cards would solve the problems.
My PCs are reasonably secured, that's not the issue - it's about the accountability of actions.
Currently, uk legislation and ISP customer contracts have in the small print words to the effect of:
1. the connection is for your use only [ within reason, family okay etc ]
2. any illegal actions performed using your connection are associated with you [ the person who entered the agreement with the ISP ]
Which has the end result that if some naughty badger decides to use my generously open access point to do something naughty - it's my fault and I have the burden of guilt.
So, instead of leaving it open, I've shared the keys with my neighbours, and added their MACs to the filter lists.. not as open as I'd like, but until I can be indemnified against prosecution - I'm not leaving it open,
but... I _do_ love the idea, internet anywhere, anytime. [ well, not whilst driving my car of course ]
DaveT
ps. I'm sure if it became a popular enough idea, then the govt would suggest that ID cards would solve the problems.
Well there may be third SE26 FON WiFi access point within the month.
I have walked between my home and the High Street with my IPAQ and the log has been overfilled with open Access Points. Wide open - you can connect and do almost anything.
With FON you do get authenticated - there is a log and so on just like BT Zone, T-Zone etc. For an abuser it is easier and less risky *not* to use FON. So it is not totally correct to view a FON as an open AP, more a guarded AP but not quite a secure AP.
Re your ISP. These T&Cs generally arise from when ISPs were offering unlimited connections - they wanted to avoid people sharing the connection fee and doubling/tripling the traffic (for which the ISP pays BT) and pushing them into loss.
These days ISPs are rapidly moving towards metered traffic so it is in their interest to get more traffic through your AP.
Of course the ISP will pass down the line responsibility for traffic through your connection. There is a vigorous debate in the FON forums about this. I'm prepared to take the risk for now but if you live next door to a well known terrorist or peadophile FON may not be a good idea
Admin
I have walked between my home and the High Street with my IPAQ and the log has been overfilled with open Access Points. Wide open - you can connect and do almost anything.
With FON you do get authenticated - there is a log and so on just like BT Zone, T-Zone etc. For an abuser it is easier and less risky *not* to use FON. So it is not totally correct to view a FON as an open AP, more a guarded AP but not quite a secure AP.
Re your ISP. These T&Cs generally arise from when ISPs were offering unlimited connections - they wanted to avoid people sharing the connection fee and doubling/tripling the traffic (for which the ISP pays BT) and pushing them into loss.
These days ISPs are rapidly moving towards metered traffic so it is in their interest to get more traffic through your AP.
Of course the ISP will pass down the line responsibility for traffic through your connection. There is a vigorous debate in the FON forums about this. I'm prepared to take the risk for now but if you live next door to a well known terrorist or peadophile FON may not be a good idea
Admin
Surely this kind of thing makes sense in communites. If you know/trust your neighbours then grouping together to spread the cost is a great idea. But then surely you would have to impose self limits. One person file sharing can cripple even a fast broadband connection making the whole thing seem redundant, not to mention the legality of it.