FON Boards

Do you think that the bridge is really necessary for the Fonera 2.0 (g&n)? Do you think also that this feature must be a priority for programmers?

From years the foneros ask at Fon this feature...
I think that a survey is useful to understand how many foneros want the bridge.
If you want it, you take part in this survey.

I hope that Fon feels and understands our needs.


For more information:
The wiki contains information on bridge: http://wiki.fon.com/wiki/Bridge

Yes

And WDS would be nice, too.

Oh hells, yes!
And an onboard VPN server to protect the public wifi users.

Of cause the Fonera as a bridge neccesary! Many people already have a wired net and want an access point.
That is the most important function of all!

I can't recommend a Fonera to somebode without possibillity to use as a bridge!

i have now moved away after 3 yrs from fon, they are useless and do not listern to their customers. I now have a nice AP / router that supports bridging from Edimax..

But they DID listen to their customers who happened to ask for exactly what Fon intended to do anyway.

Did they? Or did they just pretend to so?

Let's think about that... there was the guy who didn't like Linksys routers and wondered if Fon would sell their own brand of merchandise... there was the other guy who was freaked out by LF's easy hackability and wanted Fon to lock them down better... and there was the one who proposed giving Fon an even larger share of his hotspot profits... and I believe there were a whole bunch of guys who wanted Fon to make our hotspot landing pages more uniform and to push that "custom" message stuff further out of sight... OH, and the guys who thought it would be fantastic if Fon forced everyone in UK to be Linus in order to appease BT... And we've ALL been telling CEO Martin Varsavsky that he works too hard, and should take a vacation flying around the world, and that he can just let Fon pay for it by stopping occasionally to give 20-min presentations. Those guys had some good ideas! Too bad they never posted more than once or twice. As you recall, Fon responded positively to these suggestions almost immediately!

I updated the first post

I notice people are again mistaken :

there are *2* features...
* Wireless Repeater (which exists in the fonera 2.0g)
* Network Bridge (eg no 192.168.10.x NAT )

The repeater part is difficult... Ralink chipset is not "opensourced" and "new"... not much is known of it's Adhoc/Client support

the network bridge is being worked on by monnosido?

More info about it on :http://wiki.fon.com/wiki/Bridge

do test it extensively...and add your feedback!
also check if the AP (free&myplace) still work!

I'm testing the Monossido's script from some days and I found some problems:

• the public signal doesn't work properly (I get the error: no gateway)
  
• the clients (in LAN and in wifi) sometimes have trouble getting their IP automatically (especially with new clients and after many hours that the Fonera is on)

I conducted the tests in my Fonera 2.0n.
There anyone who can solve these problems?

I feel really uncomfortable when someone says there exists an unstable non-Fon hack for something, and that therefore, La Fonera x can indeed do that.

Does that pale with the default firmware?

I agree.
From my point of view generally La Foneras cannot do Bridging and Reapeating, because it's not out of the box working in the common firmware.
This is my opinion: You doubtless failed as a router provider if your customers have to do a tricky hack which isn't easy for a normal user to get a common feature which is easy to use for a normal user.
Additionally using the same appoach I claim that La Fonera 2.0 series doesn't have practiable webcam and 3G support because only some exceptions works (you have to use a only few possible hardware and sometimes additionally have to manually add and configure 3rdparty software...) - this again makes it inoperative&unreliable for normal users.

And all of this is independent from the fact that a very skilled user can realize amazing thing with this hardware on command line level.
I already often communicated toward FON that I have a different conception about good professional product and software development.
For purposes relating my profession I cannot (and do not) live with such similar to fast&dirty way of development and introducing of products.

Regards, Kyros

To be fair Kyros, we supplied the FreeWLAN solution to everyone we could, even though that was a "hack" to add features which Fon was unwilling to supply despite the urgent need... Back then, Fon would have loved to claim those features as standard abilities on LF1!

Since Fon has a blood bond with Fonosferatu, who do most of these new feature hacks now, they've begun to suggest that Foneras DO INDEED have those features now... always blurring the line between what is, and what could-be under a long chain of specific circumstances.

I commend Fon for permitting Fonosferatu to develop bridge and MAC cloning. It's something Fon has prevented from happening for the last 4 router models. Unfortunately, I see the next move in this game: at some future point, Fon will bluntly claim that these two features are indeed standard, but they will avoid admitting that it's only, as usual, in the very latest hardware version, and that they have no intentions of adding it to the rest of their merchandise.

Folks like Iurgi have always whined about having "so little time".... these last THREE YEARS The assumption is that they are saying "yes, certainly I will add this feature if I can!" However, time shows that it is just his way of saying "Get lost".

the folks at Senoa/Genius teamed up with dd-wrt...hmm didn't fon do that 5 years ago with the "fon advanced" firmware on the linksys?

I think Martin Varsavsky's developers are doing mainly other things.
Perhaps meanwhile sometimes they are allowed to continue La Fonera development in their spare time.
Compare their output to what in the past Francofon, FreeWLAN or other community devs (Levine, Dema, Ponte...) realized in their leisure time...

Regards, Kyros

hi,

I tried the bridge script from monossido with my Fonera 2.0n (FW 2.3.0.0 DEV)
http://wiki.fon.com/wiki/Bridge

The second command:
/etc/init.d/bridge start

brings the Fonera to hang and SSH connection gets lost after 15 seconds.
But also the webinterface and 192.168.10.1 are no longer avail & replying.

Is this script not working anymore with the latest Fonera Firmware revisions?

Thanks,
Wolfgang

I have your same Fonera (2.0n with FW 2.3.0.0 DEV).
I configured the Fonera with a static IP (eg 192.168.1.20) and I log into his control panel with this IP (even from port 80).

you have to understand what a bridge is...
you ask FON to disable it's "router" capabilities...
so it will use your current internet router as dhcp...
192.168.10.1 will thus seize to exist... your fonera has turned into a regular switch...

I believe the wiki states to define a working "ip" adres in your network...so it still listens on an ip that is properly routed/accepted by your internet modem.

The script certainly needs improvements...
But the original script writer allready states it should be done by FON...
but they ignored this request now for more than a year... the idea seems to get a NO from FON.
that's why we hope this petition and a wiki could gather info about it...
-> CURRENTLY ONLY 12 PEOPLE WANT A BRIDGE!!! THAT's NOT ENOUGH ...also I have seen no one request it on twitter!

perhaps someone could look at trac.freewlan.info to see how it was done there?
back then "brctl" didn't exist yet... as far as I know...