Pure Digital Thought

If you don’t regularly read Slashdot.org, then you may not have heard about Fon. Fon is run by a company who’s idea is to propagate wireless networks around the world and make a large wireless network. They are backed by Google and Skype who have both invested in Fon. Fon is looking to accomplish this goal by having users download their special firmware for Linksys or Buffalo wireless routers or by purchasing a router from them for the special price of $5.
Why would you do this? Well, you get special privileges for setting up a Fon Social Router, as they call it. You can setup a Fon router in one of two different ways, as a Linus or as a Bill. If you setup a Linus router, others get to use you internet connection and you get free wireless access to any Fon router in the world. If you setup a Bill router, others use your internet access and you get 1/2 of the revenue generated by the router. See, Fon usually charges others who want to use the router $2 per day. So, a Bill router would generate $1 for each “daily pass” that is purchased.

I think this is a really neat idea so I dropped $5 into the bucket to get one of their Fon routers. From what I read on their support forums, the Fon router can piggie-back on your current wireless router. The Fon firmware has some special firewall rules that only allow Fon users to get to the internet and not your internal network which protects the machines sitting on your primary router. I’d say check it out and get a Fon Social Router for yourself. As the network expands, more and more free wireless networks will be available to those than setup a Linus router.