FON Boards

I have seen some codes which require to change OS of the router in order to make Wireless repeater, which is against FON warranty or sth so an idea struk me in another sleepless night.

Because i'm illiterate in scripting and programming i turn to comunity and FON with a question:
Is it possible to develop an application witch will route WiFi received signal through USB WiFi dongle to LaFonera 2.0n, which will then transmit the same signal and act as repeater???

It is possible to connect 3G dongle to LaFonera 2.0n ...so why not WiFi dongle?
Is hardware capable enough?
I suppose software as linux based should offer this kind of routing capabilities am i right?

As i said i'm illiterate...so bear with me if i asked some wrong questions However i would very much appreciate some answers (good or bad) to this topic

I'll also like the WiFi dongle idea as internet connection. (back?)
It will give the possibility (with a 5 m cable) To transmit on another place as where i receive a good internet signal.
e.g. Receive outdoor, Transmit indoor or other side of the house.

This is a nice request, but it is not a trivial one.

In the case of modems, and 3G devices, the device contains all of it's own support for connecting to the Internet feed. There is a relatively simple establishment of the data stream, then an exchange of credentials with the client, then from there it's just a virtual Ethernet or serial connection. These sorts of things are relatively similar, or even standardized.

Wifi adapters prefer to exchange raw data with a customized driver running on the PC. They're not modem-like in the way they behave (yet). Fon would have to assemble drivers for all the different USB wifi adapters available throughout the world, *and* they would have to build some sort of equivalent to the microsoft zero config utility that lets you choose an AP, exchange credentials, store a connection profile, and monitor statistics. This is a bigger job than customizing open-source firmware, and you can see how far behind Fon is on that task alone!

Is this so??
Aldo I did not do any instigation I think it is not that difficult.
It is already possible to make this connection with the internal WiFi of the fonera.
choose an AP, is already in there
exchange credentials, Encryption e.g. is already in there
store a connection profile, is already in there
and monitor statistics, not necessary bud fon status will do.
Maybe they have to limit to one (1) tipe of WiFi chip, no problem not all UMTS sticks work do they.
And I do seem to remember it has been in one of the early fon firmware versions before they did the trick with the internal chip. But maybe I am wrong here to.
But then, I am not able to make this work, no, no.

All Foneras "do the trick" with the wifi chip. Two SSIDs are created on one transciever by signalling "sleep" for one SSID, then "waking" the other SSID, then signalling "sleep" again, and waking the first up once more. This works most of the time, but there are still too many popular wifi adapters which go bezerk with La Fonera as a result.

Implimenting Quasi-Relay Mode (QRM), or something equivalent, in order to use the wifi transciever to *get* an Internet feed as well as *provide* one to additional clients, pushes the envelope much farther. Efforts to get this working on La Fonera 2g involves shutting off an existing SSID, presumably for stability purposes. Now, we know Fon has abandoned the Fonero Community, and LF2n even permits you to disable the public SSID, but these devices simply don't perform well enough to do all of the work by themselves. It's best to have a transciever dedicated to the backhaul, and a separate one dedicated to the clients.

Oeps, I think I have not been very clear in what I like.

>It's best to have a transceiver dedicated to the backhaul, and a separate one dedicated to the clients.

This is exactly what I like.
Just a external USB transceiver for only the internet connection.
Let the current Fonero firmware do what it is doing now,
serve the clients.
Just like the UMTS stick, is providing the internet part of the connection.
A repeater like already possible, but with USB transceiver for the internet part and a 5 meter usb extension cable.

But first things first. Get it stable.
On the other hand I do not see the need for all this up and down -loaders.
It will NEVER compete with a 4 Ghz desktop processor, and that is what most people seem to expect.

I think it would be nice to have a product which was a wifi adapter, but had an Ethernet jack instead of a USB jack. It would have a web-based AP scanner and chooser at a fixed IP address, and would bridge the Ethernet jack to the upstream network when a connection was established. In fact, it would look quite a bit like La Fonera 1, and it would be nice if someone wrote such a single-purpose replacement firmware for it.

That's correct, I have a friend who did JUST THAT: he reused a Fonera 1 with some alternative firmware to work as a bridge (you don't need much, just iwconfig and iptables). He was stuck at WEP (bad...) I don't know precisely why. Back then when there were only a few computers with wifi (notebooks) there were a couple of such "ethernet wifi adapters", those had the advantage of not needing drivers (unlike wifi, pcmcia, etc) but you needed ethernet on the computer and also power.

Is there a tutorial for this? I totally have a use for this in adding wifi to my old Laserjet's print server and making it wireless too. I'd also like to see how well it does in connecting to distant APs using a parabolic reflector. I have a couple of dongle-type wifi adapters, but they just don't seem to have the power that I might find in such a repurposed router.

FreeWLAN's QRM mode turns LF1 into a relay while preserving the Fon hotspot, but unfortunately they simply turned the Ethernet port off instead of bridging it to the upstream network. Can't make a wireless print server that way.

I also have a little multi-WAN aggregation project in mind... tie together a bunch of my neighbor's wifi signals into one fast one for myself.

try batman-advanced...
it works on L2

Hello,
I did this trick several times with different routers.
Look for a cheap Accesspoint that can work as an AP Client.
Last time I used a TP-LINK TL-WA501G. Cost me only € 29,-
http://www.alternate.nl/html/product/Ne ... ess+Points
Fonera is to expensive and to much trouble to use for this purpose.
Works like a charm only disadvantage is, 2 units use 2 times as much power. (I' am Dutch)

harness the power of the SUN

But i've already got several promise-free LF1 to hack at my pleasure... I just need the wares to make them useful.

Skynet: silly Belgian, the Dutch have *wind*!

>I just need make them useful.
:= Just send them over to me. (for free, I'll repeat I' am Dutch)

>Skynet: silly Belgian, the Dutch have *wind*!
:=Not if they live 6 months in Spain for the winter.

Electric on campsite is € 0.40 for 1 Kwh.
Fonera ~ 10 W. USB hub ~5 W = 15 W * 24 h /1000 * 0.40 = ~0.15 a day.
Dinner at the chinees restaurant = 4,75
1 month of fonera == 1 dinner.

To get back on topic:
>Is it possible to develop an application witch will route WiFi received signal through USB >WiFi dongle to LaFonera 2.0n, which will then transmit the same signal and act as >repeater???

I still like this idea. (mostly on 2g for me)
Using the WiFi stick as a WAN connection and the Forera as AP,
will also give more bandwidth and the possibility to place the stick on a point where there is a good reception of the uplink signal.
And I think most of the firmware is already in the fonera, so who is able to make this work?