Use of FON hotspot requires people to identify themselves and it is that person i.e. the one doing the downloading that is liable.

The FON system operates as a tunnel, so any torrent IP tracing will see the FON IP not your home IP address, and then down to FON to figure out who was using the WiFi at that time.

If you just run an open Wi-Fi of your own with no tracking of people, then yes that will show as your IP and you'd be liable, or explaining why it was not you to a civil court, or criminal if really bad stuff went on.

Data allowances are a different issue, if you buy a FON from their website then it will come out of the allowance if your ISP has one - simple.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Use of FON hotspot requires people to identify themselves and it is that person i.e. the one doing the downloading that is liable.

The FON system operates as a tunnel, so any torrent IP tracing will see the FON IP not your home IP address, and then down to FON to figure out who was using the WiFi at that time.

If you just run an open Wi-Fi of your own with no tracking of people, then yes that will show as your IP and you'd be liable, or explaining why it was not you to a civil court, or criminal if really bad stuff went on.

Data allowances are a different issue, if you buy a FON from their website then it will come out of the allowance if your ISP has one - simple.

Simple is best!!

I obtained a FON router over 10 years ago when they were giving them out free. I have mine upstairs, connected via Home plugs, to my Sky router downstairs giving me two private WiFi networks for my concrete walled house. The public "Fon" network I can set the bandwidth for and the Fon web interface lets me see who has connected to my public network. Any non-Fon affiliate user of my network has to pay for the WiFi and I receive a percentage of that payment - to date I have received the princely sum of £0.44!

Free WiFi for me throughout the world, via Fon affiliates, and payment for non-affiliate users to use my WiFi- best of both worlds!

Edited by deleted (Tue 12-Aug-14 12:29:44)

I can confirm that( after logging onto my own fon hotspot connected to my router thats connected to plusnet that a separate IP address is used to that of the main plusnet connection.
You also need to use your username/password to log in and that+the fon IP address will tie you or any other user to that internet activity should they try filesharing.
If your speeds not great you can also throttle users connecting to your fon spot down to 512 ( or maybe even 215)

Fon is not open, people logging in need a username/password or some other information that ties the session to them with a separate IP, see the post by Mr Saffron.

In short, its a little box that just sits there, and from that you can then access any other fon hotspot worldwide, as stated above, however the payment system for other people using your fon spot no longer functions in the UK

You can still access BTFON without being with BT. I am with Virgin Media but I run a FON hotspot using a very cheap FON Simpl access point. This gives me access to BTFON hotspots on my Androids and iPad and also lets me access FON hotspots world-wide.
Find more info here

You can get a FON app for you android in Google Play.

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-Aug-14 08:22:37)

All FON traffic is linked to a named person. Any use of your hotspot is easily traceable. Also I have spoken to Virgin Media. They have no issues with me using bandwidth this way.
Unless you live in a busy retail area or very dense residential you won't get many users anyway. This does not affect your access to FON and BTFON spots.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful.

In reply to a post by roughbeast:

All FON traffic is linked to a named person. Any use of your hotspot is easily traceable.

If FON works in the same way as BT Wifi where the connection is tunnelled to a server which assigns a different IP address from your own external IP address and logs the connection and user details, possibly using BT's servers (they are FON's UK partner), my qualms are much reduced as it will not be me that is fingered for any illegal activity. Does anybody know if this is the case?

Otherwise FON traffic is surely just sent out using your external IP address. NAT makes everything inside of it look the same.
Your ISP will identify you when asked "who was on IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx at <time> on <date>?", even though FON are keeping usage records somewhere, e.g. on the FON device itself or lobbed to a FON server.

This raises questions like:
Where and for how long are the usage records kept?
Who can request access and how?
Would they convince a court that it was not me but somebody using FON?
Would the police check before breaking through my door and impounding my kit?

I find this extract from FON's FAQ Are Foneras secure? too reassuring:
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.
The blocking part partially unbelievable. Yes, they might honour blocking access to blacklisted sites and not allow traffic to certain ports, but blocking anything illegal means that they have found the solution to a problem which so many are desperately seeking and not finding. Why are they not rich?

FON boxes DO use a tunnel for traffic

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

FON boxes DO use a tunnel for traffic

Excellent! I will shut up about this, and may have another go at buying one.

Don't think the police would ever turn up unless it was a criminal matter. I would expect most illegal downloads are civil matters.