Wi - fi

[johnycarper]

I have a gite that is about 50 mtrs away from the house and want to give wi-fi access to our guests next year,I have no idea how to do this and if I can do this at all.Any advice would be greatly appreciated but please in a simple term as i am not great at this sort of thing,

Thanks,

John

[Chiefluvvie]

Hi - really simple if your gites are only 50m away - ours are at least 150m away and we use a FONERA SIMPL together with a FONTENNA ( a directional booster ariel). They work simply and brilliantly - no issues at all after 2 years of use. Easy to set-up - plug & play! Link here : http://corp.fon.com/en/products/simpl/  The whole lot currently costs 48€ including delivery. Easily linked to your Neufbox / Livebox - cable supplied. (I'm assuming you already have ADSL internet access in your home!) You have the option of providing free or charged (shared revenue with FON) internet access for your guests. Importantly you can also set up seperate log-ons for your gite to get around any Hadopi issues! BT subscribers in the UK and SFR subscribers in France can log-on to any FON-SPOT free of charge using their existing ID's. Simple, effective, cheap and not a rip-off! Loads more info and support on their site. Chiefluvvie

[Clair]

[quote user="Chiefluvvie"]we use a FONERA SIMPL together with a FONTENNA ( a directional booster ariel).

You have the option of providing free or charged (shared revenue with FON) internet access for your guests. [/quote]

Chiefluvvie, this set-up looks really interesting.

Can you clarify the "free or charged" access?

Having looked at the website, I see there's an option to offer 1h of free access every day, which would suit those guests simply wanting to simply check their emails.

I don't understand how the charged access works. How would a guest pay? Would he register a bank/credit card?

How do you use yours?

[Chiefluvvie]

Hi Clair - no problems - I'll explain.

Once you have the equipment and set up your account on FON.com you will be able to access your 'FON SPOT STAUS' (amongst other things). The website explains the set-up really easily.

I give completely free and unlimited access to all my gite guests.

Via your 'FON SPOT STATUS' you select 'more' and then 'Friends and Family' where you can allocate up to 5 separate users (e.g. in this case 5 gites maybe?) - giving them each a username and password. I simply use the names of each gite as the username and password - easy in case a paper trail is needed! Strangely, this facility is not available for UK , Portugal and Russia based FONSPOTS!

If anyone else happens to be passing close to my FONSPOT (simply my own wireless hotspot) they too can connect to it either by using their existing partner (e.g. BT / SFR ect) free access logins (there are others - see the site) or if not, any other users can pay after their 1 hour / day free access expires. The FONSPOT can also be accessed by Skype Wifi.

Essentially absolutely anyone can access your FONSPOT (but never your neufbox / livebox etc - it's a completely separate signal) and have at least 1hr free wifi per day. To pay for continued access the user simply connects to FON_FREE_INTERNET (via PC / mobile etc) and opens their browser. They'll be presented with a log-on and payment page. You receive 50% of anything paid for via your FONSPOT.

In return for you providing this facility - as a FON member, you have free access to FONSPOTS throughout the US and Europe.

Hope this helps - happy to help with any more questions - as you can tell I'm a complete convert! Gites de France tried to point me in the direction of a wifi company that wanted to charge me around 30€ per month for a similar service!! Rip-off....

Chiefluvvie

[Clair]

Thanks for the explanation, Chiefluvvie. That makes more sense now.

I have to say it sounds just right for the gite, and although I don't doubt your word for a minute, I'll have a longer look at the website to read for myself FON's own words in regards to potential HADOPI infringement.

SFR also have a hotspot facility on their boxes, though I've never seen much point in making it live here in the back of beyond.

FON would allow access to all, as opposed to the SFR hotspot allowing only SFR clients, so that would make more sense for a one-off expense.

Edit: Silly me! no expense at all, as FON is already integrated in my Neufbox... All have to do is turn it on! [:D]

Next question: I wonder if the Fontenna booster is compatible with my Neufbox, or if it works only with a Fonera...? [geek]

[Chiefluvvie]

Actually Clair - not quite right.... you can open up your SFR Neufbox to all FON users as well - not just SFR Clients. You will then also be transmitting an 'SFR Wifi FON' signal / hotspot. Just go into your admin panel and then Hotspot / Configuration. After all - SFR are a FON partner.

The beauty for me of the FONERA + FONTENNA set-up is that I'm providing a password secure wifi hotspot just for my gite guests and am effectively 'pointing' a directional wifi ariel at the gites. No wring - dead simple..... and I love simple!

Chiefluvvie

[sid]

I like this idea. At the moment I'm supplying a LAN connection by use of CPL boxes (using the electricity mains plugs), but I think this new system would be better for those wanting to connect their iphones etc rather than just laptops. Iphone users don't get a good signal here where we are and they usually have to come and sit outside my study to pick up a wi-fi connection.

Definitely worth looking at! Thanks.

[AnOther]

Sorry but I'm unconvinced that FON as operated by chiefluvvie i.e. "giving them each a username and password" is, or can, be in any way immune from potential HADOPI issues. Since those accounts are created and administered by chiefluvvie herself it follows that it would be impossible for her to demonstrably blame a 3rd party for illegal activity as she could equally have created and used them for her own purposes.

In addition, regardless of how many guests are connected be that by ethernet, WiFi, or FON, the routers IP address will remain the same so ultimately it's still all down to the account holder having to prove it wasn't him or her, clearly a near impossibility.

At least with the relatively new Orange Partagé WiFi sharing system a traceable login is required although even that ultimately still boils down to the routers IP address and I see nothing in the Livebox to facilitate or log individual user activity.

I fear chiefluvvie's confidence may be misplaced.

EDIT: I read also that the Orange Partagé specifically precludes P2P

[Clair]

I started looking around for more info and have found this comment about FON and HADOPI (translated by google for the forum).

HERE (translation)

Note the following refers to activating the SFR hotspot on a SFR Neufbox and not to a FON router as used by cheifluvvie:

There have been several articles stating that, when the SFR hotspot is activated, both the hotspot (public/open connection) and the private connection use the same IP address.

As HADOPI specifically relies on the IP add to determine who is infringing copyright, it would appear activating the SFR hotspot could open a can of worms.

The onus would be on the box owner to request a list of activity from SFR, who say they can differentiate between the private (box owner's) activity and hotspot activity.

Article (translation)

Discussion (translation)

[AnOther]

It's all very unsatisfactory and talk of identifying users by their MAC address is futile as they can be spoofed but in any case there is nothing to say that you, the A/C holder, do not have a secret machine for illegal downloading specifically to try and put the blame on someone else !

Much the same applies to the FON system.

Blocking P2P traffic doesn't really help as it's the choice of the amateur and most material is available elsewhere by direct download which even on 1mb is doable. Fortunately, being an ill conceived and amateur operation, HADOPI seems to only be wholly focused on P2P traffic leaving the more sophisticated downloader virtually immune.

[johnycarper]

Thanks for all the replies but I am now confused as what to do,I have an orange live box and just want to give fisherman in our gite the chance to use their lap tops etc. What is the simplest and safest way for me to do this without having to go into passwords and everything else mentioned previously.

Sorry to be thick but i am not into this high tech stuff at all.

John

[Théière]

You shouldn't have to worry JC we are talking anglers and they can only just out think a fish [:P][;-)]

[Chiefluvvie]

Incredible! A simple solution turns into a can of worms for the OP fuelled by paranoia about Hadopi - let's do try and get a grip shall we.....

The FONERA / FONTENNA set-up could not be more simple - take it or leave it, makes no difference to me.

I do hope they don't send me to the Bastille - I don't believe it has wifi access!

Chiefluvvie

[Quillan]

I agree with Chiefluvvie and she is happy with what she has. I also agree that there is a lot of paranoia about it.

I think the point that some are making is that at the end of the day Orange, or whoever, don't know who is on the other side of your router to them nor what they are using, Therefore in a 'public' setup in which you allow other people to use your internal network and your router then really it's down to you. One can only put in place some form of limited protection and there are always ways of getting round protection systems from the simple to more advanced.

The only way I can see that you can limit and identify who is doing what is to give out fixed IP address's then when your link slows down go and have a look at what they are doing. MAC addresses, well yes you can 'forge' them but for the average user it is a bit beyond them. Possibly the most important thing to remember is people are staying with you for a holiday, they have not come to use your network to download shed loads of stuff.

Personally I have gone the other way, we have two WiFi networks. The Orange WiFi is for our own personal use and the other is for the guests and does not have any security on it. Seeing as we use the computer quite a bit we can spot when the network and Internet slows quickly and can block the offending device via the Orange LiveBox if required. Having said that, we have, touch wood, never had a problem and have not, to the best of my knowledge, been 'abused'.

[AnOther]

Once again chiefluvvie turns a discussion into a rant !

The instruments in your cockpit give you the information you need in order to fly your plane safely and efficiently so you of all people you should understand that full and unbiased information is crucial in the decision making process.

However unlikely it is to happen if you really believe that your FON system somehow makes you immune from accusation of illegal downloading and a HADOPI letter then you really are deluding yourself.

If there is any paranoia it is in the misguided minds of those who conceived HADOPI which is almost wholly ineffective and can never even hope to succeed in it's supposed mission in any measurable or meaningful way yet while it does exist the risk to the incautious or the ignorant remains.

[Quillan]

[quote user="AnOther"]

If there is any paranoia it is in the misguided minds of those who conceived HADOPI which is almost wholly ineffective and can never even hope to succeed in it's supposed mission in any measurable or meaningful way yet while it does exist the risk to the incautious or the ignorant remains.

[/quote]

I seem to remember that the only people who have been caught so far were actually government workers in, I believe, the 'Department of Media and Culture' or whatever it is called which at the time I thought rather ironic. What actually happened to them I have no idea but it was reported in the press last year. They were able to work out who it was because in a big institution (or business) the IP address's, even if you use a DHCP server, are recorded against the device that has used it and of course they have network traffic management running all the time. It would be interesting to know who got fined for this because obviously the department concerned had a router and that is all the 'outside world' would see (you can't see IP address's starting with 192.168 from 'outside' the router) or were they able to legally pass the fine on to the individuals concerned. I seem to remember that in the public domain a few people got letters a while back (just after the law came in to effect) but I have not personally read or heard about anyone getting fined or their Internet access revoked although I may well have missed something somewhere.