I was recently in the market for a wireless router, and I came across what appeared to be a wonderful deal online. On the popular forum, Anything4Free, a user was offering to sell his wireless router for only $15. Supposedly it was brand new, and never used. I immediately contacted him, we arranged for payment to be sent, and I received the router in the mail a week later. It was a FON router, a brand I was not familiar with. However, after using it for several years, I have to say I am very impressed with it. FON is a company that basically runs a shared wireless network system, and was founded in 2005. It was founded in Spain, by Martín Varsavsky, and has branch offices in the United States, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan. FON has received some big backing from large corporations, including Google.
Anyone can become a member of FON, by simply accessing their website and signing up. However, they must first purchase a FON router (called the ‘Fonera’) before they can use the FON service for free. When installing, the user is given the option to allow other FON users to access their router for free as well, or to charge. If they select the ‘charge’ option, they will not be able to access other users wireless FON networks without paying. However, if they allow other FON users to access their wireless network, they are allowed to use others networks with similar settings for free. For non-FON users, access to a FON network is not free, and this benefits the FON network owner. This is because every time a non-FON user pays to use an owners FON network, half of the fee is sent to the owners FON account, and the half goes to FON. The owners may cash out accumulated funds once their accounts reach $30 in earnings. FON access is reportedly cheaper than other ‘pay to access’ offers at many popular locations, making FON quite attractive.
I found that the Wireless FON router was very easy to setup. It let me have one secured, password protected private network for my own access, and one open network for those looking for internet access. The unsecured network is the one that others have to pay to access. My laptop(s) had no problems getting online using the FON network. However, I found that I had to be careful when setting up my overall internet access. This took a little tinkering with, but if I figured out that if I plugged in my FON router before the main DSL box, FON would encounter errors, even after the DSL was connected. That was the only problem I routinely found with the Fonera.
Overall, I am very happy with the router provided by FON. The plethora of FON hotspots across the world, and the ease of setup really have made FON a enjoyable choice. The Fonera may not be the most powerful wireless router, nor the most fancy, but it certainly gets the job done, and open up an array of opportunities for wireless internet access.
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