BT Fon Wi-Fi

An email I received this morning told me about "BT Fon" Wi-Fi . Is this a
widely-used service I was unaware of?

"BT is now the UK's largest Wi-Fi supplier with over One Million
locations. We have hit our goal of building a million-strong Wi-Fi hotspot
network, and we couldn't have done it without you. As a BT Broadband customer
you can now access over one million of our public wireless hotspots.

If you weren't aware, your BT Total Broadband service gives you free wireless
minutes to access the BT Fon network across the UK."

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

On 26/02/2010 07:25, Terry Pinnell wrote:
> An email I received this morning told me about "BT Fon" Wi-Fi . Is this a
> widely-used service I was unaware of?
>

If I were a cynic, I'd say most of their customers were intentionally
kept in the dark about it.

Your wireless router is broadcasting two SSIDs, one for use of the
general unwashed who may use your broadband connection for nefarious
purposes. It's not clear if you may or may not have legal liability for
traffic on the public SSID.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON

Search back in this group. It's been discussed.

--
Adrian C

"Adrian C" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 26/02/2010 07:25, Terry Pinnell wrote:
>> An email I received this morning told me about "BT Fon" Wi-Fi . Is this a
>> widely-used service I was unaware of?
>>
>
> If I were a cynic, I'd say most of their customers were intentionally kept in the dark about it.
>
> Your wireless router is broadcasting two SSIDs, one for use of the general unwashed who may use your broadband connection for
> nefarious purposes. It's not clear if you may or may not have legal liability for traffic on the public SSID.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
>
> Search back in this group. It's been discussed.

Quite so, "And we couldn't have done it without you", that's their disclaimer is it?
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:59:27 +0000
Subject: Generosity of BT home hub owners
From: Gaius <bin@127.0.0.1>



--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

(E-Mail Removed)d (Paul Cummins) considered Fri, 26 Feb 2010
11:06 +0000 (GMT Standard Time) the perfect time to write:

>In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)d (Adrian C) wrote:
>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
>>
>> Search back in this group. It's been discussed.
>
>My Neighbour has this - is there an easy way of killing it, since BT refuse to?

Change the router.

"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:-(E-Mail Removed).. .
> "Phil W Lee" <phil(at)lee-family(dot)me(dot)uk> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> (E-Mail Removed)d (Paul Cummins) considered Fri, 26 Feb 2010
>> 11:06 +0000 (GMT Standard Time) the perfect time to write:
>>
>>>In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)d (Adrian C) wrote:
>>>
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
>>>>
>>>> Search back in this group. It's been discussed.
>>>
>>>My Neighbour has this - is there an easy way of killing it, since BT refuse to?
>>
>> Change the router.
>
> No need it can easily be disabled within the router options.
>
> Peter Crosland

And can be re-enabled without warning by BT, according to what I have heard.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"Ian Cummings" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In message <hm92kc$ika$(E-Mail Removed)>, Graham. <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>>"Peter Crosland" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:-(E-Mail Removed).. .
>>> "Phil W Lee" <phil(at)lee-family(dot)me(dot)uk> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>>> (E-Mail Removed)d (Paul Cummins) considered Fri, 26 Feb 2010
>>>> 11:06 +0000 (GMT Standard Time) the perfect time to write:
>>>>>In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)d (Adrian C) wrote:
>
>>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Search back in this group. It's been discussed.
>
>>>>>My Neighbour has this - is there an easy way of killing it, since BT refuse to?
>
> Refuse to ? You can opt-out yourself at http://www.bt.com/btfon
>
>>>> Change the router.
>
>>> No need it can easily be disabled within the router options.
>
>>And can be re-enabled without warning by BT, according to what I have heard.
>
> Of course - that's exactly the sort of thing that TR-069 is intended for.
>
> There have been reports of it being activated unexpectedly, but BT have publicly stated that this was an error and shouldn't have
> happened.
>
> I think the biggest issue is that for some time now they've been opting-in new accounts by default - but people don't read and/or
> understand exactly what they've signed up for.

The OPs email is a case in point.
I assume he had no idea that "And we couldn't have done it without you"
really meant "Thank you for for hosting a public access point for us"

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Peter Crosland wrote:
> "Phil W Lee" <phil(at)lee-family(dot)me(dot)uk> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> (E-Mail Removed)d (Paul Cummins) considered Fri, 26 Feb 2010
>> 11:06 +0000 (GMT Standard Time) the perfect time to write:
>>
>>> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)d
>>> (Adrian C) wrote:
>>>
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
>>>>
>>>> Search back in this group. It's been discussed.
>>>
>>> My Neighbour has this - is there an easy way of killing it, since BT
>>> refuse to?
>>
>> Change the router.
>
> No need it can easily be disabled within the router options.
>
> Peter Crosland

Really? Are you sure? When i last checked it was necessary to go to a bt
webpage, sign in and disable the service from their end.

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:09:52 +0000, Ian Cummings wrote:

> I think the biggest issue is that for some time now they've been
> opting-in new accounts by default - but people don't read and/or
> understand exactly what they've signed up for.

I get the feeling that the people whining about it don't understand it
either.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
16:46:54 up 11 days, 21:38, 5 users, load average: 0.05, 0.04, 0.00
DIMENSION-CONTROLLING FORT DOH HAS NOW BEEN DEMOLISHED,
AND TIME STARTED FLOWING REVERSELY

Phil W Lee wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed)d (Paul Cummins) considered Fri, 26 Feb 2010
> 11:06 +0000 (GMT Standard Time) the perfect time to write:
>
>> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)d (Adrian C) wrote:
>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
>>>
>>> Search back in this group. It's been discussed.
>> My Neighbour has this - is there an easy way of killing it, since BT refuse to?
>
> Change the router.

This would be a violation of the T&C that you signed up for!

alexd <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:09:52 +0000, Ian Cummings wrote:
>
> I get the feeling that the people whining about it don't understand it
> either.

Yes, I don't really see what the problem is. Unless you live right next to
King's Cross or something, the number of FON users on any particular network
is likely to be fairly low.

Theo