cdrum

I finally got around to setting up my FON router.  I was given one free by a fellow Beijing Linux User Group member, on the condition I blog about it.  Well, a year later is, well, late, but better than never, eh?

I motivated myself to do this as I’ll be traveling to Hong Kong and Singapore for Chinese New Year (leaving tomorrow!), and I’d like to be able to have a few more free WIFI options, in case my then selected coffee shop only offers for-pay WIFI access.  That, and I want to procrastinate my studying for an exam I’ll be taking in Hong Kong next week.  Hooking up network routers is much more fun than studying, no?

As I already have a Netgear WRG614 wireless router, I decided to take advantage of the fact the La Fonera+ has two segregated networks (public and private), I used it to authenticate to my ISP using PPPoE, and connected my Netgear router to the LAN port of the La Fonera+.  That way, my netgear router, which handles some wired and all primary wireless through my house is segregated from the “public” wireless network the Fon creates.

Do I really need to keep using my Netgear?  Hmm, good question… But I may want to upgrade to a N wireless router in the future, in which case, I would keep my current configuration.

Any way, I’m off tomorrow, and I’ll be sure to post back to see how it works.  Last time I was in Hong Kong, I was disapointed to see how many WIfi spots around the city were not free.  Now that I have the Fon active, I hope I can be pleasently surprised this time.

Well, sort of.

I’ve got an S60 mobile phone (the Nokia N82). This application, JoikuSpot, when installed on my S60 device, creates a WIFI Hotspot which shares the GPRS connection. I can then connect to this hotspot using my iPod Touch while, oh, sitting in Beijing traffic!

This solves the only real complaint I had with the iPod Touch (no bluetooth for internet connection sharing).

Rocking!

Buy Data!

Those of you in China, be sure to buy a data plan from China Mobile or China Unicom! Otherwise you’ll be surprised with a rather large bill at the end of the month (or your employer will be surprised, which ever the case may be).

I have the 100RMB a month for 800 MB of data. I’ll monitor this to see how it goes. I hope this is enough…

Some Initial Concerns

As this is “beta”, there are some deficiencies worth mentioning. First, the hotspot it creates doesn’t have any security yet. Yikes! Joiku, the software maker, states future versions will add security. Let’s hope this becomes a reality sooner rather than later. Second, I am curious what the battery consumption on my N82 will be after a 30 minute cab ride. I’ll report back if I notice any excessive consumption. What’s probably more of a concern is me hitting, and then bypassing my monthly limit of 800Megs.

GigaOm suggested not to use this application unless you had a nice 3G service for your phone. But in actuality, now that China Mobile has Edge, the speeds are acceptable, at least for the time being.

Here are some screenshots I created from my S60 device:

It was a very small download and quick install. It automatically placed the icon in the Applications folder.

After running the application, it first asks whether you want to share your connection. When you select “yes” it will ask what connection to share. For me, I shared the “CMNET” connection (note, this is only valid for China Mobile).

Now, you can see the Wifi Hotspot is connected and available for your device(s) to access.

After selecting the JaikuSpot Wifi hotspot on my iPod Touch, I can began accessing Websites. On the phone, it shows you how much data is being sent in both directions.

You can also see what devices are connected – a useful feature, at least until security is added to the app.