Impressive WiFi coverage

[TimberWolf]

At least in England: Fon - Find Fon Hotspots Worldwide

I'm tempted to ditch Virgin and go BT.

Become a 'fonero' or 'BTfonero'

Another alternative is to get involved with Spanish company Fon, which is trying to turn the world into one giant hotspot through wireless connection sharing. The idea's simple, you buy a special wireless router (£33) which splits your connection in two; one secure part for you, and one open part for other members of the Fon community, who in exchange offer you use of the open part of their own wireless networks, wherever they are in the world.

BT internet users needn't buy the Fon router at all, since BT's done a deal with the company allowing users to securely split their connections and become 'foneros' too, which gives the Fon community impressive overall coverage (see coverage maps). BT total broadband customers that sign up for the scheme now also get totally free access to BT's widespread 'OpenZone' hotspots, which usually costs up to £6/hour.
Free Wireless Internet: UK hotspots & cheap 3G mobile web ...

[TheFaQQer]

You don't need to ditch Virgin, though - you just need to buy the FON router.

I thought about it a while back - I think someone near my in-laws has one that I could then plug into.

That said, the latest 2600 has some interesting information on hacking access to paid for hotspots

[SimonMac]

I am a member of this and its not as good as it looks, a lot of the advertised coverage relies on BTFon which is not included if you share your WiFi only if you are a BT Customer

[Paddy]

I am a member of this and its not as good as it looks, a lot of the advertised coverage relies on BTFon which is not included if you share your WiFi only if you are a BT Customer

Not much fon then

[TheFaQQer]

I'd be a little concerned about potential legal issues if someone downloads illegal material through my WiFi, which I think is why I didn't consider it much further.

I know the homepage says that they take the heat

Everyone who logs on to a Fon WiFi signal must be registered with Fon and must accept Fon's usage terms and conditions. We adhere to local and national internet access requirements, so if anyone tries to do anything illegal with your internet connection, we block them.

but how do you stop someone who is using a VPN to do something illegal? Or does FON stop you connecting to a VPN? What about TOR (I don't know how that works at all, but I've heard about it somewhere)?

[Paddy]

At least in England: Fon - Find Fon Hotspots Worldwide

I'm tempted to ditch Virgin and go BT.

Just looking at my local area I can confirm that the information on coverage is a load of bollocks

[TimberWolf]

Just looking at my local area I can confirm that the information on coverage is a load of bollocks

Have you tried standing right outside someone's front door to get reception? Retail or larger establishments might be a better bet.

[TimberWolf]

I am a member of this and its not as good as it looks, a lot of the advertised coverage relies on BTFon which is not included if you share your WiFi only if you are a BT Customer

Have you got Fon or BT broadband?

[AtW]

It was tulip quality last time I tried (a year ago).

[Joeman]

Ive got FON and ive used other people's FON spots a few times, but im not a fan on public WIFI as you never really know if its a legit hotspot or some scammer running a router with the same SSID.
As for legal issues about someone doing something dodgy on your FON - surely its the perfect get-out clause! your WIFI is open to the public so no court in the land could ever say without reasonable doubt that it was you doing the dodgy stuff, and therefore no conviction could ever stick.. worth running a FON spot just for that reason