Deprecated FON Boards !

using dhcp fills in the ip of the fon router... (both myplace & fon_ap)
fon router relays to fon dns...
they'll be using the fon dns to replace the regular ads by Google Adsense ...
that's how malware on your pc does thesame... (now that's where all those popups & popunders come from

Ok I understood... I am not in Static IP, I am in the default (DHCP) mode... But I don't want to use the static IP mode as it does not feed my needs as mobile user...

it seems to be the only way to change dns...
on a windows dns/ip are seperately configurable
on a Fonera it's not

If you set your laptop's DNS server manually, to one of your choice, be warned that you may not be able to reach Fon's hotspot login page at some future time. The IP given on the internet could be directed to an error message, while the IP given by their private DNS server would go to another IP which works within their walled garden.

Exactly, that is why I changed to the dns of opendns.com only because I was forced to...
In fact such changes are not a problem for geeks like us, but if I try to convince my wife using the fonera, knowing she will need to setup manually the dns to retrieve her emails she will just tell me that she don't give a s(biip) about the fonera...
And really, fon by not giving a s(biip) about this huge basic problem of dns doesn't help.

One could still use OpenDNS or their ISP DNS, and set up Fon's sneaky alternate IP addresses in your HOSTS file.

Can you explain how to do that?

Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file

In Windows XP the hosts file is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Just add new entries by writing an IP-address in a new row and thereafter the corresponding domain(s), e.g.:


To clear Windows' DNS cash, which is necessary in order your changes to take effect, run

The idea is that you could set up your ISP's DNS manually in your PC's TCP/IP config... which would mean that if Fon changed the valid IP of say, login.fon.com to something else within their walled garden, you could add a correcting entry to your HOSTS file for selected domains so that you could still get on.

Before:
After:

But anyway you'll need to know these IP addresses... So what if they have changed and that neither your ISP's DNS nor the PC's TCP/IP config have them??.... I think there is only one solution: that Fon do its job of having DNS that works... That should not be so difficult...

DNS issues have been resolved. Please let me know if you continue to experience them.

Oh good. I expect they've been locked down somehow so we have no hope of overriding them.

That's why you can setup OpenDNS in your router and it will hand out the OpenDNS IP's via DHCP automagically.

-david ulevitch (from OpenDNS)

ps: I'm just here to answer questions and help out... not trying to sell you on OpenDNS... most of you are doing a better job of that than I can do anyways...

If you need those IP addresses, just log onto your public hotspot with DNS set to automatic... resolve login.fon.com and any others which Fon fiddles with and make a note of them (i'm sure someone will also post them publicly)... edit your HOSTS file to override those particular domains, manually change DNS servers back to your local ISP's... and surf happily.

ticket : 070420-000071

yes yesterday I had issues at one FON location when gathering with a few people... we were connected with 4 devices on that fon hotspot...

ISP -> (cable) -> wifi/WPACablemodem -> PC
-> FONERA -> Laptop(acer)
-> Laptop(toshiba)
-> PDA (HP)
-> Nokia (E70)
we all could login... one bought his daypass;
one had a friend account;
2 were linusses
we all could surf...
after 30 minutes...problems started... "page could not be found"
even fon.com couldn't get resolved...

pinging succeeded.. the wifi connection was 100% allright... we still could connect & get a ip from the fonera...

but we assumed the Dhcp relay server on the fonera has crashed...
after 2 hours the fonera went in reboot mode from it's own and the dhcp services got restarted ...

offcoarse this was a bad "commercial"...
Our spindoctors would mention there is currently a huge Microsoft DNS botnetwork active which will only by fixed by microsoft in may and will require 130 patches.... But we technical guys know that the fonera is not using Microsoft.... the isp modem is not using microsoft and the ISP is not using microsoft.... also the pc located directly on the ISP modem and the Wifi WPA connection of the ISP modem did not have dns issues...
The fonera was still correctly connected to the isp modem...


Ipconfig /flushdns didn't work
I didn't note down alternative dns ip's nor do i have a hosts file ready with most of my surfed experience ...

we were all connected to the FON_AP so i'm not sure if, when I alter my DNS it would still be "taken" by the fonera?


an Isp has a status page showing if eg their DNS services, WEB services and NEWSservers are running (big brother, nagios, Zab...) the Fonera just gives a page 401 ...

If the fonera has an IP issue we could get the famous "4 scenario problem" page.... couldn't something like that be created as well for DNS issues? (with a nice reboot this fonera button

I've finally have to resort to this as well...
on fon_ap i couldn't surf anymore... I've also configured to static opendns ip's ...they point to the wan ip of the fonera..