Does anybody on here use fon (http://en.fon.com/). You can get a cheap wifi router, which you allow people to connect to. And then you get access to all other fon users wifi connections for free. Useful if you do a lot of travelling. Anybody got any experience with it?
It looks like a US Based Service. They are "hoping" to establish the service in Europe. Here is an article from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5116960.stm Encouraging companies and home to open up their networks to provide free acess to the man in the street is going to take some doing. Many ISP's (icluding mine) already implement monthly bandwidth limits, so I won't be opening up my system any time soon for that reason alone. The only one I have heard of in the UK is The Cloud: http://www.thecloud.net/ It's not "free" though.....
From reading the website, it looks global. There are a couple of people registered in barnsley, but the nearest open connection is in wakefield. It is a really good idea, assuming enough people take it up. I just wondered if anybody had used it or heard good/bad things about it. You can get a wireless router for €5 (+€10 shipping), but you have to keep your wireless connection available 24/7 for at least a year. I can't see it making much difference for most people, I doubt if even 1 person would connect to mine at home. But if you do a lot of travelling, the free wifi around the world could be good.
I think you'd be surprised about people connecting to your home network (not neccesarily with any malice). I took my laptop into the garden a few weeks ago to test out the wireless signal. There were four wireless networks within range - two of which were totally unsecured. I'm always amazed by the number of people who try to connect to my office network. The major problem though, is that ISP's are likely to view you offering such a service as a breach of contract. You would also come under severe scrutiny if anyone using your connection to committ a criminal activity.
