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Wireless

New Fon routers with LAN and USB ports, but not by Fon

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I got a tip today that Fon is looking at launching a new router with a LAN port, apart from the WAN port found in the current Fonera (they seem to privately admit not having a LAN passthrough was a rather big mistake).

With the current Fonera, you cannot access devices on the wired side of the network (such as a SAN drive or printer) from the wireless side, be it using the public or private SSID, you are effectively NATted from your own network. A LAN port would solve this the same way as it is done in higher quality devices such as the Linksys WRT54 series.

Fon Liberator?

What really surprised me was to see that these routers have already been shown by Accton, the OEM that manufactures the Fonera on their website for a few weeks. Check out these links, datasheets in PDF available, for a white-label Fonera, a Fonera with LAN passthrough, and what looks to be the Fon Liberator, having a USB port and BitTorrent client built-in! Martin Varsavsky recently put the release date of the Liberator back a few months, originally scheduled for Christmas 2006, citing technical difficulties.

Now, either Accton wants to score a goal taking advantage of the publicity offered by Fon, or Fon didn’t pay an exclusivity fee for the design of these routers, or both. One million routers by 2010 is nothing by asian manufacturer standards, but they do allow buyers to secure exclusive designs. Copies could still be found, but not as prominently and by the same manufacturer making their own.

I wasn’t sure that Accton was the designer behind the Fonera, and gave Fon the benefit of the doubt of actually having developed something themselves in the electronics field, but now it seems clear that Accton is the designer of the hardware platfom, so there wasn’t that much development by Fon after all (the firmware was created by the hackers behind DD-WRT and OpenWRT).

We’re go for launch!

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I haven’t blogged much the last few days, basically because I’ve been working 23 hour days, getting ready to launch Whisher (the 24th hour was spent going to get coffee). Some of you have noticed that we put a countdown clock at whisher.com, which shows the time left until we finally go live. I’ve refrained from talking too much about the project here, as in the past it has drawn some heat, apart the fact that we have been keeping it in stealth mode (or as much as possible!).

The official launch of Whisher is during DEMO 2007, the launch event for new startups, or companies that want to launch new products and services. The idea of DEMO is to give a level playing field to 60 companies to present their new products, regardless of how much money they have. Google would have exactly the same counter at the demonstrator pavillion as an angel-funded startup. No special signs or certain types of swag are allowed either. During the event, you are given a 6-minute slot on the presentation stage, where you will perform a live demonstration of your product. Again, canned demos, flash or PowerPoint slides are not allowed – it has to be live. This puts quite a bit of pressure on you, but also ensures that everything presented at DEMO is true, not a future maybe product.

So, if you come to DEMO, see you there, if not, I’ll keep you updated – also, the crew of Wireless Is Fun is doing a live coverage of the launch – thanks guys!

The Fonera, hacked to run OpenWRT

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It was only a matter of time until the developers of open-source firmware OpenWRT and DD-WRT managed to port the OS to the Fonera, which is based on an Atheros chipset. As described in this thread of the DD-WRT forums, there is a firmware package available for download, which can be flashed onto the Fonera, thus replacing FON’s original firmware and functionality. I think it will be a matter of time until we see reflashed Foneras on eBay, just like we saw Linksys once upon a time.

The hack is not for the faint-hearted, and so you risk bricking your router if the flashing fails – there is still a way to de-brick using the serial port, but in any case, don’t try this at home unless you know what you are doing. We are on the cutting edge of the development, which eventually trickles down into easier-to-follow HOWTOs and step-by-step guides.

Verizon to kill the mobile internet

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Not much point to .mobi domains in the realms of Verizon, it seems – the New York Times reports that starting 2007, ads will be placed on sites that are accessed using their mobile phones. The Verizon Wireless release claims that certain types of ads and video clips will not be allowed, as they may not be compatible with the limited browsers found in the phones, but this is not very encouraging – meaning that they will allow video clips. Will this not hugely increase the amount of data used during browsing? I believe Verizon offers all-you-can-eat data plans, but if you are not using one of those, you could feel the pain. In any case, having to wade through a mobile website rendered on a tiny screen is hard enough as it is, with some devices not being able to cope with the amount of processing required, resulting in a very slow and frustrating experience. Add videos, which require much higher resources to be played back, and you have a recipe for disaster.

How not to install a WiFi antenna

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Leaving aside regulatory issues that may turn this particular setup into an illegal operation, I will better not describe the quality of the installation to be polite. Check out this picture:

wifi antenna

Spotted the problem yet? Radio antennas are affected by any element that is present around them, even non-metallic elements, such as the ground. In this particular case, kanijo, a Fonero, has attempted to provide more “range” to his FON hotspot, which is in itself commendable, however, the means may not result in the desired end.

You can see that the vertical omni antenna, a carefully tuned radiating element, has been strapped to a metallic pole, which also runs a coaxial cable into a TV antenna right on top. The router is inside a sealed plastic box, with power and Ethernet going into it from below. There is no way that this antenna is radiating correctly, as the pole that supports it is probably grounded (if it has been installed according to regulations), and even if it is not, it is inducing an imbalance into the tuned element, causing a large amount of RF to be attenuated. The user reports good results with it, which are most likely due to good luck.

The second problem with this type of setup is that vertical antennas don’t emit downwards, and thus will provide very limited coverage to users below the antenna. There is some downwards bleed of course, but it will only reach lower users that are some distance away from the antenna.

Recommendations for these sort of setups: install the antenna right at the top of its own pole, and ground the pole. If you have no choice but to use an existing pole, get a T arm fitting and mount the antenna at least 1 meter (3 feet) away from the pole. A perfect example of such as setup, in this case with two supports as the antenna is rather large and care for wind load is needed, is this (credit to Roger Halstead):

Check out Roger’s page, it is a very good read if you are interested in radio installations.

Why the Apple iPhone may not fail

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Reading an article in The Register by Bill Ray, he thinks the Apple iPhone will fail, actually, fail badly. I somewhat doubt his conclusions.

The main argument to support his analysis is that since network operators have to like the phone, then Apple has to do a good job convincing them. Remember the ROKR? It was rather a failure due to the fact it could only be loaded with iTunes music over cable, and thus mobile operators were left out of attractive data chargers levied when buying music directly from the phone. There was even speculation that Apple allowed it to launch on purpose, to protect their audio player market.
Where Bill goes wrong in my opinion is that the handset market is heavily controlled in the US, but not in Europe – go to any shop in the latter and you will have a very large variety of handsets to buy unsubsidized. Why? Because a lot of people value the ability to switch operators as they see fit, without having to enter into contracts involving their soul. In the US, there isn’t a culture of operator hopping, but rather of staying with one just to get a phone $50 or $100 cheaper.

One thing I have never understood is why people get themselves tied into a two year contract for a $50 saving. If they worked out how much they could save by moving operators taking advantage of special offers, they may think twice.

There is a very large number of paths Apple could follow, first, they have a nice distribution network with excellent shops placed in key areas, second, they have a large and loyal crowd of followers, who would probably not mind paying an unsubsidized device, and third, there are already a number of MVNOs and fixed-line operators that are willing to take a bite from the large networks. As for the subsidy, I wonder…are iPods subsidized by anyone? Apple costumers are used to pay for quality, and in my view, the iPhone will be no different.