WiFi | Yelotofu

FON Free WiFi

I'm sure you will agree this is nothing new but I've been intrigued by the FON Free WiFi service for quite some time, just never got round to sharing my thoughts.

With the recent horror stories about wireless mobile subscribers racking up thousands of dollars in mobile data charges I thought I'd finally blog a bit about FON.

Martin Varsavsky founded FON on February 2006 in Madrid, Spain. FON’s mission is to stimulate the growth of WiFi around the world by creating a global Community of “Foneros”. FON is the largest WiFi community and recently reached 1 million members this September.

FON's goal is to provide Free WiFi access everywhere. To do this they had the idea that to receive you must first give — plant a small mustard seed and receive 10, 20 and 100 folds.

When I first heard about FON, the concept of opening my WiFi to public was a bit scary. For starters you're asking for trouble because it involves sharing on an unencrypted channel, leaving you vulnerable to malicous attacks. However, I later discovered to share a connection with FON you need their Fonero router. This router has two APs built-in, one for personal use (encrypted via WPA) and the other open to public (unencrypted). It was instant buy-in for me after that.

The potential for FON is huge, especially in a small city like Hong Kong. WiFi mobility is a key step towards the evolution of the Internet. To move from stationary workstations to mobile on-the-go always-on access the public needs affordable, available and reliable access with good coverage. FON might just have the right sort of ecosystem to provide for Hong Kong.

30th Sep 2008 | Comments (3)

Unsecured WiFi

Free WiFi is everywhere now. Most coffee shops in central London have one; you can even get it at McDonald's in Regent street. But next time you're accessing free and open WiFi aka unsecured WiFi; STOP and think for a second. Consider the following:

Do you have anything in your shared / network folders that might be sensitive, e.g. work documents, family photos, username/passwords? If the answer is yes then move that data into a secure folder before connecting. Once you are connected you are under the same LAN network as everyone else in the coffee shop so all shared stuff will be available to everyone
Are you receiving email via SSL? No? Then don't open your email client because all communication to and from your email server will be open to hackers who do not have to do much hacking as all communication is sent in plain-text.
Don't use web based email if it does not support https for the same reason above. Most web based email services don't support https with the exception of Gmail.

I'm sure there are other security holes but these are the three that came to mind. Sorry for scaremongering. Real as the threat may be I'm sure the chances of getting hacked in a coffee shop is pretty low!

20th May 2008 | Comments (0)

Hong Kong soon a “Wi-Fi city”

The Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Henry Tang, announced his 2007-08 Budget last week. He stated that due to Hong Kong's economic growth and excess revenue amounted from previous years the Government is adding measures to give back to its people, one of which is to invest HK$210 million (GBP 13.8 million) to provide free Wi-Fi access in public libraries, parks and government venues. There are about 1,000 free hotspots in HK currently and it's estimated that with this new investment it will increase to about 3,000!** On top of this Hong Kong has no shortage of premium serviced and non-government hotspots such as those you get at Starbucks and Pacific Coffee. Additionally PCCW launched its free Wi-Fi service at Chek Lap Kok Airport a.k.a. Hong Kong Int. Airport earlier this year with 100% coverage of the terminal.Soon, a Wi-Fi hotspot will never be more than a short walk away, Work from home would soon mean Work from Anywhere to me!

Time to find a comfy hotspot! Hotspot hunting here I come!

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