Welcome to Motorhomefacts, we are a thriving motorhome community (Largest in Europe). Why Not JOIN NOW and get instant access to more of the website. It costs nothing to join and only takes a few minutes. We have 200,000 different people visiting our site monthly and this amount of motorhomers in one place guarantees a fast response to any questions you may have. We also have unique facilities not found elsewhere such as our Online Logbook, stopover tracker, Motorhome directory with Ebay type feedback and the largest repository of motorhome campsites reviews found anywhere
Just back from 18 nights away during which we spent one night in Belgium, a couple down the Mosel, and the rest in France (Colmar, Provence and points in between).
Last time we were in France (May of this year), I was having absolutely no luck picking up open wi fi points with my Faculty-X long range antenna - loads of wi fi points (sometimes in excess of 50), though none of them open. By far the majority of them were SFR, which were open, but you still need a username / password in order to be able proceed past the welcome screen.
So when I returned to the UK I thought about FON. I liked the idea that, for a smallish initial outlay you could get this extra box that you plug into your existing home router, and which then becomes a FON hotspot. In return for creating a FON hot spot you then get a username and password, which enables you to connect to other FON hotspots, including those from 'partner' networks such as BT Openzone.
I checked their FON Partner list and, sure enough, it contains SFR. Groovy, I thought.
I ordered my FON box.
It didn't arrive before I left for my holiday, so I contacted tech support.
Don't worry, they said, we have given you a load of credits so you will be able to FON whilst you are away. Groovy, I thought.
Before I went I confirmed that I was able to log into a BT Openzone box in a house about half a mile away across a field from home. Groovy, I thought.
So, I get to Belgium. Loads of wi fi points, NO open ones. None, Geen.
So, I get to Germany. Loads of wi fi points. NO open ones. None, Keiner.
So, I get to France. Loads of wi fi points, SOME Open SFR ones (Oh! Frabjous day...). However - None (aucun) will let me log in using my FON Credentials.
I grumbled at FON tech support, who said:
"You can connect to the signals that feature FON on their name (Neuf_WiFi_FON or SFR_WiFi_FON) and you have to select "Fonero" on the login options."
Now I'm feeling a bit miffed. NONE (aucun, keiner, geen) of the SFR sites I could reach included FON in their name, or Fonero in the Loin Options.
What gives?
For example, I was on a campsite at Pont d'Ain, and could pick up in excess of 30 wi fi points, including 5 SFR sites, none of which had the FON option.
So, using the campsite wi fi I thought I'd check the FON site - they have a facility where you can stick in an address and it'll show you nearby FON sites. The resulting map is below. As you can see, it reckons there are several FON hotspots fairly close to where I was camped yet all I could see were plain old SFR ones.
My question is this: Are FON misleading people into believing that there are more FON spots than there actually are, by listing ALL of the hotspots for all partners (SFR, in this case), whereas the reality is that you can't actually use them?
If the Fon hotspots on the map you show are similar to the majoroty in the UK, they will be just the box you have ordered or a Fon router. Not anything witch booster aerials outside. So you cannot expect to login from a great distance, even with your Wifi adapter.
With a Faculty-X adapter I could just about use a FON point on a CL that was maybe 50 yards away in a farm house (clear line of sight). So, maybe that is the situation you had, none of the points on the map are that close, and it does seem to be in a build up area.
I agree with the original poster 100%. I had high hopes for FON but could not find a single live one in France or (so far) in Germany. I had very good location addresses and I find it hard to believe than none were active.
Would love to hear from anyone who have positive FON experiences who can give any advice!
...none of the points on the map are that close, and it does seem to be in a build up area.
I suppose that's the logical conclusion, though the town across the river was on a fairly steep slope so I would have expected to get a line of sight to the spot across the river.
Belgium will soon join the list of FON supportive operators...
instead of only 800 active (on 10mio inhabitants.... whereas maps.fon.com will tell you there are 2000 ... in the last 6 years)... 2012 will start with active fon signal on most if not all bboxes of Belgacom...
France is indeed an issue...3 mio french have joined SFR_WIFI_PUBLIC
and only 100.000 have joined FON..
You should go to Portugal 450.000 joined... which is one in 8 homes...
and UK with more than 1 million ...
Japan also has a million people... but there seems to be a "japanese" issue
We spent 3 months earlier this year in Spain and Portugal and didn't find a single FON hotspot.
One of the problems is that a lot (by no means all) of hotspots are private individuals who "donate" a little of their bandwidth to FON in return for being able to use the FON network whilst travelling. This is what we did and we left our router switched on whilst away to comply with the FOn requirements.
However if individuals are in the habit of turning off their router when not using it, that hotspot is unusable.
Because most domestic routers are fairly low powered you're unlikley to pick them up unless you're almost on top of them even with a long range aerial.
Most of this type of hotspot are likely to be in residential areas - so probably not be on a typical motorhomer's route.
For all the above reasons I left the Fon network as it's a great idea in principle but flawed in practice.
Hi,
We had the same experience in Spain and Portugal - zilch
but did connect to just one in France while parked at the free aire at Loches, using our long range antenna and found plenty of SFR Neuf hotspots so it's a bit of a fon-con
Steve
______________________________________________________________ Steve & Sheila
Read about our 2011 tour to Spain and Portugal
at
www.motorhomeandaway.com
Now back in the UK, I am seeing rather more BT FON access points than I remember seeing before and these I can log into no problem with my FON credentials so I'll leave my FON box plugged in for now.
Maybe as @skynetbbs suggests (above) more and more carrier-supplied routers are starting to be delivered with a FON SSID pre-enabled in the same way that BT have been quietly doing so with Openzone for a number of years.
I only discovered that they were doing this a couple of years ago; My in-laws live in a fairly remote area and, before they got broadband I couldn't pick up any access points when we went to visit.
They then put in BT Broadband and Lo and Behold! two SSIDs appeared - one of which was a BT Openzone of a suspiciously similar strength to their 'private' one. They certainly hadn't turned the Openzone bit on (I doubt they'd know how to) - they just got the router out of the box and plugged it in....
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
UK
