Deprecated FON Boards !

I have set up two WLANs at our house, both from common DSL routers with integrated WLAN, which can also be used as simple access point to connect ethernet and wifi like a bridge. They're not routers except between DSL and the local network, if used. One of them has the DSL connection and the other not. Both run their own WLAN on different channels with different SSIDs. Both WLANs are connected to the in-house ethernet. A TCP connection can be made from any to any network, be it cable or wireless.

Then came La Fonera. It is successfully registered and runs two other WLANs. The "public" network without encryption, and the "private" network, with WPA2 encryption. It runs on a different channel with a different SSID than the other two WLANs. So now I have 3 wireless networks, all connected to the local ethernat cable.

But here's the difference: When I connect my notebook to the Fonera private network, I can happily access the internet, which is routed through the the local ethernet, the DSL router, out to my provider. But I cannot connect to any local machine in my cable network. And no other local computer can connect to the notebook in the private WLAN. That network is secured like I'd expect it for the public net, but not the private.

La Fonera's network configuration is set like this:
* Public -> Private: Deny
* Public -> WAN: Deny (why is this denied?!)
* Private -> WAN: Allow
(These are the defaults.)

I interpret those names as:
* Public is the public WLAN, i.e. FON_FREE_INTERNET
* Private is the private WLAN, i.e. my SSID and WPA2 encryption
* WAN is the ethernet port on the Fonera, i.e. my local network that connects to other computers and the DSL router

With this scheme, WAN = LAN+Internet, which is not what I expect for a regular WLAN AP. There should be a distinction between LAN and Internet, so I could setup this: (all arrows mean "Accept" here)
* Public -> Internet
* Private -> LAN, Internet
* LAN -> Private

Can I use La Fonera as a WLAN AP like any other AP or is it something special that I should better not use for my private reasons? I can't even use Windows File Sharing like this. My notebook can access the internet, but not my own local network... It only sees half of the world.

No.

Well, maybe...

You have discovered one of the most common reasons that people stopped using their La Foneras, even if they got them for free.

Fon seems like the perfect thing for many budget-minded people who want to expand their wired network with wifi. Unfortunately, La Foneras insist on NAT subnetting the public and private wifi networks, and though we've been begging for it for 3 years, they will not give us "bridge mode" to turn the private wifi channel into an AP for the upstream network. It only looks like an AP.

If you have a La Fonera 1.x (FON2100, FON2200) which has no LAN jack, you should visit FreeWLAN.info to install their software plugin, which quickly and painlessly enhances those models of La Fonera with all of the features which Fon denies us.

(Internet)_(Modem]--[Switch and other PCs]--[La Fonera 1.x with FreeWLAN
[ = WAN and uplink jacks, ] = LAN jacks

If you have a La Fonera Plus or 2.0 (FON2201, FON2202) then you will need to place it FIRST on your LAN, after the modem, and connect all of your other wired and wireless gear through La Fonera's one LAN jack. You might need to buy a network switch or get creative in how you string your gear together. You may experience less than optimal bandwidth since La Fonera cannot quite get up to 10Mbit due to slow processor. If your Internet service is 8Mbit or less, you probably won't have to worry about it, though.

(Internet)_(Modem]--[La Fonera +/2]--[Switch]--[PCs]
[ = WAN and uplink jacks, ] = LAN jacks

A bit of technical info you may like to know: both of La Fonera's wifi networks are broadcast on the same wifi channel; this is normal since they share the same transceiver. La Fonera has much greater strength and sensitivity when set to channel 06, per FCC tests. You probably want to set La Fonera to this channel manually, in it's onboard admin page, and then set your other wifi routers to 01 and 11 respectively. Never use any wifi channel other than 1, 6, and 11.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

I have a Fonera 1.0 with a single ethernet connector. Christmas sell-out.

I've looked at the FreeWLAN website and it looks promising, though not very mature. Maybe I'll just give it a try. I don't see what that fonfan account thing should be good for. Their maps aren't nearly as complete as maps.fon.com.

I don't understand your ASCII art. Do you mean that with the add-on I can use the Fonera like a regular WLAN bridge and connect from my private WLAN to my private LAN, and the public (open) WLAN is still secured so that they cannot access my local computers? The FreeWLAN website says that bridging is possible with their add-on, but only with certain limitations that are not further described. What does that mean?

Their webpage is kind of cheesey, but the firmware addon is very solid. The enhanced onboard admin pages are completely straightforward.
Hint: Fon routers which have been unplugged for 3 years DO NOT appear on fonfan's maps.
Yes, with FreeWLAN.info aboard your La Fonera 1.x, you can plug it into the same switch with your other PCs and wifi APs, and treat the private Fon SSID as another AP attached to your LAN. The public Fon hotspot will still be NAT subnetted, and behind additional firewalls that prevent guests from accessing any LAN IP addresses.

I'm not sure what limitations are present when using FreeWLAN. I've been able to browse the web, stream music and make Internet phone calls with it. Perhaps those words are left over from when FreeWLAN was less mature? Join their board and i'm sure someone will explain.

Alright. After I had done something wrong at the first try, it seems to work after the second try. I could access the new router web interface and manage some of the extended features. One of them is bridging, which does work now. I can finally connect from my private WLAN to the LAN. There's only one problem: I cannot connect to the router itself anymore. Web admin interface doesn't respond. SSH and Ping won't work, too. The router is now working better, but it's dead itself... Problem reported to freewlan.info forum.

With FreeWLAN.info aboard your La Fonera, you now have a fallback IP address so that you can regain control of it. It's 169.254.255.1 I believe. You'll need to temporarily reconfigure your PC's Ethernet adapter for an IP in the 169.254.255.* range, and connect La Fonera directly to your PC with a cable.

So having wasted hours trying to get it to work and the having studied all this I now understand that it is impossible to use the Fon in the simplest of ways to connect 2 notebooks to my LAN and share files but more importantly the printer attached to my desktop computer.

Sorry guys but you just lost me.

The FreeWLan ap looks good but installing it looks like a nightmare. I would first have to downgrade the version of the firmware in my Fon.

I am now retired but have worked in the computer industry for years first as a programer and then as a support manager. I am no idiot so if it all looks too hard to me it is certainly too hard for the average person out there.

Frankly for a small outlay I can buy a simple WLAN router and save myself all the headaches.

File and device sharing in a private LAN/WLAN is a fairly basic requirement and if Fon can not do this I need an alternative.

Wake up Fon and support this basic requirement. If FreeWLan can do it so can Fon and it can be included as standard.

Bye bye Fon

Gambalunga: First of all, thank you for your comments. Please understand that this forum is not a place where Fon places much of it's attention. You are speaking to other Foneros here, who feel just as helpless and frustrated as you do about the poor feature set of the proprietary routers. Send your comments to info@fon.com and you'll reach a trash can a little closer to Fon than this one.

I guess the definition of "nightmare" is subjective... Honestly, downgrading your router's firmware typically takes TWO MINUTES and no tools besides a ball-point pen. Then, upgrading to FreeWLAN takes a couple minutes; to set La Fonera to a valid fixed IP address on your LAN, to configure FreeWLAN's DNS server, then save and reboot. Leave the router alone for 10 mins or so, and it's done! I earnestly hope you will give it another try.

The Fonero Community consists of many brilliant and talented people, and is independant of Fon's dictum. We've found an extrordinary number of squirrely ways to work around Fon's deliberate technological barriers. While I can't promise that you'll achieve the degree of convienience and customization that you desire (and certainly deserve!) with your La Fonera, I can promise you that you will have lots of fun tinkering with it. If you make a new breakthrough, you could even be our new Fon Hero(TM).

True. Installing FreeWLAN is not that complicated, once you follow all the steps. I missed the reboot and was wondering why it wasn't installing the Addons. The second try then brought success. I think it could be made a little easier with pictures: Show the Fonera and indicate pressing the reset button. Then show a screenshot of a browser, with URL and form input to type. This way, it could look a lot easier, which it actually is, too. Is some FreeWLAN docs writer reading here?

Ciao guys. Thanks for the replies. If I can find the time I will continue with experiments but for the moment, like so many others, I have installed a low cost WLAN router and resolved my problem.

I have written to Fon with a modified version of my first post as quoted below.

Thanks again for the advice. As I say in my email to Fon I very much like the concept. I hope they take notice of the feed back and change something.

Bye for now.

La Foneras do support device and file sharing, but the devices must all be inside La Fonera's NAT subnet together. Linksys routers did not have this problem because they had enough LAN jacks for most people. The one LAN jack added to LF+ and LF2 are not going to be sufficient for most people.

The most accurate observation to make about La Foneras in this aspect is that they make a poor choice for *expanding* an existing LAN to facilitate wifi.
The fairest complaint to make about Fon in this aspect is that they did a very poor job of making this clear. Even today, they've just added "has one Ethernet port" to the spec list in the Shop, which hasn't always been mentioned. The obvious solution to this problem, bridge mode added to the firmware, is denied to us because it might cut into sales of the La Fonera +.

Actually it would be enough for me in my home network. I had not realised this was a possibility or I would have ordered La Fonera + ( or 2). My La Fonera actually came bundled with an SMC WiFi Skype phone. The phone itself is not of great use outside the office because of the lack of open WiFi hotspots with open internet access. I live in Italy and with the system that seems to be most common here (and have also attempted to connect in hotels in other parts of the world) I suspect you need a computer to register and log in. I have not pursued this further because I have not travelled with a computer but it does seem to make the WiFi phone somewhat useless for a traveller.


This policy would seem very short sighted because the success of Fon depends on the wide deployment of the La Fonera otherwise it becomes just another rather limited WLAN router in a very competitive field.

consider La Fonera as the "base station" for your skype phone;
whereas your skype phone is like a "dect phone";

only it can connect to at least 100.000 base stations in the world;
and you can easily& cheaply buy other foneras to place them at work; at home; at family
if you travel you could take with you a secondary fonera and ask if you can connect it to their internet infrastructure
even resell it to the owner of that hotel if he likes the device
Panasonic has even such a skype phone & travel router... I believe Apple has also such an airport express and they only allow voip over wifi on their iphone

Hi AustinTX,

I've tried this process (http://trac.freewlan.info/wiki/Document ... stallation) , as well as the Foneraplus unlocking2 at http://www.fonboard.nl/wiki/HowTo_Foneraplus_unlocking2 and neither of them seem to work.

I have a FON2201 with Firmware Version: 1.1.0 r2
Ive tried with a WinXP and Ubuntu Linux machine connected directly to the LAN port on the FON and followed all the steps with required reboots and ballpoint pens but no success - I can't ssh into the FON.

Can you tell me if any method of hacking the FON is available for my hardware type (2201) and firmware version 1.1.0 r2?

I don't mind trying and trying but after a while its a bit much.

Thanks,
Hadyn

Well, you can purchase some parts at Radio Shack and build a TTL cable to connect to the router's internal terminals, the way it's done at the factory... but that's a bit harder.
http://elfonblog.fondoo.net/?p=99

Hadyn: La Fonera routers have their own onboard admin web pages, in addition to the "remote admin" pages at http://www.fon.com...
First of all, are you able to access the onboard pages?
http://192.168.10.1

do you have a FON2201A or a FON2201C ?
the latter seems to have been spotted in the UK with BT FON firmware