FON Boards

In FON President Martin Varsavsky's own blog, he announces plans to design a custom router made especially for FON.

http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/fon/la-fonera.html

By interpreting the pictures posted, it appears that they are intended to be mounted outside, and would have meshing ability and possibly connect to tower-based internet services, or perhaps boost cell phone signals.



I love a good brainstorm. Below are some of my ideas that become possible with ubiquitous, custom hardware as this will be.

(I do not represent FON, and I am not making an official product or feature announcement. I am an enthusiastic Fonero who would like to launch a discussion about recent official FON announcements.)

Cons:
-Many people would be unwilling to attach bright orange hockey pucks to the outsides of their beautiful suburban homes, nor may their Neighborhood Associations allow it
-Apparently built without LAN port
-Being a proprietary hardware solution, would not be upgradable.

Pros:
-Could be built POE ("Power Over Ethernet") ready
-If internet connection is entirely via mesh, router could be installed stand-alone and solar-powered
-Could be designed to intelligently chain themselves together in order to reach remote areas
-Potential for subsidy from utilities and government by providing data aquisition services:
> built-in microphone for detection of gunfire to alert police
> built-in thermometor for tracking weather statistics
> built-in ethernet, USB or serial connection for electric/gas/water meter data uploads
> webcam could be attached for residential or police security
-Attractive to ISPs as ready-made for citywide installations; FON providing plug-and-play equipment, software, authentication and billing services for its municipal roll-out
-Still as attractive as ever for small businesses desiring a simple plug-and-play solution to give their customers wifi service.

From the looks, this is the 'blue box' that Brainslayer's company BlueLine makes (see http://www.blueline-ag.de/html/antenne.html). He announced this product awhile back in the dd-wrt forum ( http://forum.bsr-clan.de/ftopic5066.html ). Its basically the same linksys wrt54gl/s mips board that is inside todays linksys 'fon routers', just enclosed in a waterproof box with a panel antenna. The device is powered over Ethernet, the antenna gain is 14dbi. It has a network port. The only thing that looks different is the orange plastic for the casing.
I'd also tend to think that panel antennae's with their characteristic wouldn't be too good for what fon's is trying to do, but the antenna could always be replaced by a omni-version.
Brainslayer has been hinting at some new biz related to FON for awhile, this could be it.

Maybe this one too? A little more discreet than the "orange hockey puck" above. For people who live in condo's etc where mounting a router outside may not be allowed - Rumor has it this nano will attach to your window by a suction cup.

They could save some money with that nano by just making it like a little walkie-talkie with a fixed antenna. The whole thing is so small, it really doesn't need an adjustible antenna. I could see putting a tiny little POE router inside a bird feeder, mailbox, lamppost or anything else that would ordinarilly be found in the yard.

I've read articles about the future of wireless networking where tiny devices will mesh themselves together, and be so cheap that they will be mixed into concrete and poured out as sidewalks, walls, etc., and basically be found everywhere.

I like your birdfeeder or mailbox idea!

Then you'll like Asus's new, walkie-talkie sized OPEN-SOURCE travel router!

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/03/28/review_asus_wl-350g_pocket_router/

some how I think we orginal foneros shoul have one of those orange puck deals or that little white thing.

I'll DEFINETLY pass on the stripped down and proprietary garish orange puck. Also, one has to wonder why FON wants to have its own wifi hardware made. It could be done as a windows/mac program that takes over as DHCP server for a given LAN/WLAN network and thus provide compatability with ANY brand and model of AP. It would even be possible to just build a little black box that can be plugged between the WAN of *any* brand or model of wifi router or AP and the cable/dsl modem in order to provide an external DHCP server and captive login portal.

Many messages on the boards emphasize on the lack of accuracy of FON maps.

Would it be economically faisable to include a basic GPS chipset in La Fonera, so it will automatically push back its actual position to FON maps, at no human cost ?

I don't know how much it truely costs to make GPS devices, but the price of finished products suggests that the market for them will keep the price too high to add into the El Cheapo router.

A typical GPS module goes for around $20 in bulk, while the raw chipset and RF components can cost some $6 to $8 for 1 million units.

The problem is that GPS doesn't work indoors, so unless your router is outside, or you put an antenna outside, it will not work.

Cheers,

Mother

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http://tech.am

Hi,


Well, is it too expensive, in regards with the announced $15-$20 street price for the routeur ?


Of course, your are right.

I should have made my statement clearer. In my mind, the small shape and weight of La Fonera make it perfect to put along a window.



Don't you think it should be delivered with some suction cup attached to it ? So, it would be easily placed in front of any outdoor area, where:

> the best radio signal coverage is achieved;
> the strongest signal from GPS satellites is received.

Just my 2 pennies.

Indeed early versions of this router did have a suction cup in the design. I haven't seen the most recent versions but I'll keep my eyes open! The gps is a great idea, I'll pass it along.

Do these "pods" look and sound familiar to anyone?
http://www.accsense.com/s_system.html

These work on 2.4GHz Zigbee (IEEE802.15.4), so mesh networking is natively supported. I have some Zigbee modules that I got given as samples, but haven't really had the time to test them.

The design though does ring a bell or two

Cheers,

Mother

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http://tech.am

I like the Linksys not the "El Cheapo" Router.

Here is another interesting piece of hardware. I looks like exactly what fon has been promising, except that it really exists, really works, and is actually for sale!

http://www.meraki.net/mini.html