fontastic.org - FON and free WiFi blog » 2007

FON Meraki mesh-up coming? March 22, 2007

In his blog, Martin Varsavski recently mentioned Meraki and the possibilities of FON to add on more mesh technology. I raised the question last year already why FON has not built in meshing features before. Martin states that he thinks ISPs would be in favour of FON's "one to one" concept (you subscribe to internet at home and can use it on the road) vs. a mesh network where it would be more likely that ones internet is shared with more non-paying users. While I think this could be true (ISPs may think that) it doesn't make very much sense because with meshing you would just reach more Foneros but to surf for free you would still need to be a Fonero (either Linus or Bill in which case it's not free then). So meshing doesn't open a WiFi network to more "free" users (free as in beer) but just to more paying or sharing members. I don't see a problem in that. Once an ISP has bought FON's concept, meshing just makes more sense because it spreads it faster, right? Anyways, it seems that FON is going to implement meshing features in upcoming routers or even firmware updates (see comments in Martin's post).

Last week one of our close friends of Fontastic.org was spotted in a Fontastic T-Shirt during a conference held on Second Life. The conference "Second Life as a business platform" took place on Novatierra island (see here) and at the Faculty of Information Technology of the UPM in Madrid. I guess we are the first FON blog on Second Life, then, no?

Just a quick note: FON.com now features a "What's new" section. That's all - have a great day (and keep warm if you're also trying to survive NYC winter).

Linksys router only $19 on FON.com

Details on FON Liberator by Accton March 2, 2007

According to Mike Puchol of tech.am, this might be the new FON Liberator. As Martin Varsavsky announced earlier last year, the FON Liberator will feature a USB port to attach harddrives and be able to download files withouth the need of a computer connected and be able to access those files remotely. It appears that the Accton MR3203A does exactly this. It has a build in FTP server and Bit Torrent client (featuring FTP and HTTP downloads). Just like the La Fonera, the router has two SSIDs, one public (FON) and one private. Unlike the La Fonera the new Liberator seems to have a LAN passthrough.