We all know how much it costs to get wireless installed at home. There are cheap routers which do the work, but if one wants reliability the best way to go is Linksys, a $60 dollar or more investment, depending on the features.
There is a better, more affordable way. Have you heard of the Fon Movement?
Fon Movement, or also known as Movimiento Fon, is the largest WiFi (wireless) community in the world. It is quite simple idea but a really good one: you share your WiFi at home but in return you get to use the free WiFi wherever you find other Fonero’s Access Point, and there are many.
Now, for about $15 USD (including S&H), you get a nice little wireless router. It is white, pretty, compact, and just beautiful. All you have to do is connect it to your cable or dsl modem, network hub, or other wireless router and you are on.
What makes this great is that if you do not already have a wireless router, now you got one for a really good price. It is important that your other piece of equipment which provides you with internet has an Ethernet port, i.e. a network cable connection. If you have a USB based adsl/cable modem you are out of luck; Fon works only with Ethernet port Based devices.
Once it is plugged in to both power and internet source (via included network cable) you are ready to go. Your new little wireless router is now sending two wireless signals – a secured one (for your personal home use) , and a public one – so other Foneros and aliens can get access.
There is a nice and self explanatory Installation Guide included which will take you through the whole 5 minute installation process. Once it is all set up, anyone can log in to the public part and gain internet access.
Now this is where it gets even more interesting. Once you set up you router you get to choose what type of user you are: Linus (as in Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux), or Bill (as in Bill Gates, the richest man in US/World(?)).
As Linus, you offer free internet access to all other Foneros. If an alien stops by, i.e. anyone other than a Fonero user (say your neighbor), he/she can use the internet through your public wireless hot-spot, after paying $3 USD – which in Linus case goes directly to the Fon Movement.
As Bill, you offer free internet access to all other Foneros as well, but if an alien logs on, you get 50% of all income – $1.50 per paying user.
The catch with being Bill is that when you go traveling around, other Fonero Access Points are not free for you, but rather you’ll have to pay as well, whereas Linus – you get free access but no profit. You can also change from Linus to Bill, but only twice per year.
Once you decide to share your internet connection, you can limit how much bandwidth of your
connection is given to the WiFi users as well – so do not worry about too many people logging on and sucking up all of your bandwidth. La Fonera is very configurable (easy and through the web).
So, I hope my experience with La Fonera shines some light on you and gives you a good idea on how to save money on a nice wireless router for your home/business and get a free access to an ever-growing WiFi community in thousands of locations all over the world.
On the other hand, if you do not need a free access all over the world, and especially if you are around a crowded downtown area with a lot of cafés and such – you can offer a very affordable WiFi access (compared to T-mobile HotSpot, etc.), make some money, and be a part of something really great.
To find a Fonero near you, check out their map at: http://maps.fon.com
To get more info about what’s FON: http://en.fon.com/info/whats_fon.php
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