BTOpenzone Without BTFON?

Today I received an Email from BTBroadband informing me that:

"Your broadband comes with free access to BT FON and BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots. So you can get online for free when you�re out and about.

"Now we�ve made it easier for you to connect to BT FON and BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots with a new free mobile app for iPod Touch, iPhone and Android devices".

I'd never heard of BTFON but I was under the impression that you had to pay (about £5) to access BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots.

As I often want to connect to BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots with my iPod touch when I'm out and about, I downloaded the app but it doesn't show up in the iPod after syncing (although it's there in iTunes and everything's been updated).

Googling BTFON, I discovered that it's some mad system that allows anyone signed up to the scheme to use your HomeHub as a wireless hotspot whenever they feel like it.

There are posts on community.bt.com complaining about how the drain on bandwidth slows one's connection (to say nothing of the fact that anonymous users could be downloading anything from child pornography to terror manuals for which the account holder would presumably be held responsible).

So my question is this: Can I register to use BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots for free without opting into the BTFON scheme?

The Email helpfully suggests that:

"If you need any help with your BT FON app or setting up your BT Wi-Fi, please visit the BT store on the first floor of the Birmingham Bullring. We�re outside Costa, in front of Selfridges".

But rather than travelling 100 miles I'm hoping someone here can set me straight.

Thanks in advance.

So my question is this: Can I register to use BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots for free without opting into the BTFON scheme?

No.
http://www.btfon.com/support/faqs#point02

Googling BTFON, I discovered that it's some mad system that allows anyone signed up to the scheme to use your HomeHub as a wireless hotspot whenever they feel like it.

Not quite right - you can only use wi-fi bandwidth from hubs linked to FON - it can be switched on or off. The incentive for it being switched on is free use of wi-fi for the owner when roaming, and I believe the bandwidth involved is limited, dependant on the total amount available on the line.

You must have a Home Hub at your house and have opted in to BT FON to be able to use the hotspots as you have to log onto them using your BT account details. The bandwidth on your own Hub prioritises the owner of the Hub. When you are out and about with your laptop or i phone you can use any BT home hub within range provided the owner has opted in without effecting the owners bandwidth. The owner of the hub can not be held responsible for any outside use due to the log on method above, there are currently about 1,500,000 hotspots and growing.
I use this method of connecting when I'm at my parents, it's a lot quicker than any mobile dongle I have used.

FON users have to sign on, and its a different wireless link to your normal one, so FON can track people and trace them if the police come a knocking, in other words any illegal activity does not show up as your BT Total IP address

Further to my last, you do have to be a BT Broadband customer with your own HomeHub to use BT FON and on Option 1 and Option 2 you have limited minutes per month, up to 500 I think. On Option 3 you have unlimited minutes per month. It is worth mentioning that any new BT Total Broadband customers are automatically opted in to BT FON but you have the option to opt out.
I have never noticed a drop in performance from someone else logging on through my HomeHub, if indeed anyone ever has ( I live in a small village down a Cul de Sac) so it's not that likely. In my case the benefits, for me, are great.
I have tested the system by logging off from my HomeHub and logging back onto a close neighbours and the performance is no different. At least I know if anything went wrong with my Hub I can at least connect using a neighbours, I did the other night after a power cut had knocked my hub out of quilter. I admit I was a bit sceptical at first but opted in a few months back and for me it's brilliant.

Many thanks for all the replies correcting my hasty and alarmist assumptions.

I doubt if it's worth my while though. I only ever want to look up the price of a book on Amazon really.

Is there a downside? Is it easy to opt out if I decide to give it a try?

yes very,

infact i ony opt in when i know im going to be away from home travelling so i opt in get my free wifi whislt away then come home and opt out, all done via your routers controll pannell with links to the fon website takes upto 24hs to activate deactivate

Right, thanks.

When you're opted in is a portion of your bandwidth reserved/unavailable, regardless of whether or not anyone is using it at the time?

And is there an easy way to see whether or not any unknown devices are connected to your HomeHub?

As I say, for me, there are only pluses. I am stuck with BT where I live (not that I am complaining) as it's good and BT FON seems to be working very well. You can opt out at any time and not be disadvantaged for doing so. It costs nothing to opt in and you can use anyone else's Hub, where ever you are, the more people that opt in the better the service becomes.
I live in a small village with 715 residential users, most are on BT and I can connect wirelessly with my laptop virtually anywhere in the village, more importantly I can connect from friends and families houses as long as someone close by is on BT. Even on a weak signal I can get full use of Google Earth, I have tried doing that using a mobile dongle and it's worse than dial up.
I must admit I haven't read any reports of peoples speed dropping when others sign in using their Hub and in a large town or city it may be a problem (I haven't tried that yet) but will. My wife has an i phone and it connects quicker using BT FON than it does using 3G when away from the house. If the Police come knocking to arrest me for downloading something I shouldn't (not that I do) I may change my mind but I honestly don't think that can happen.

As far as I'm aware your bandwidth is yours and should not be effected by someone using your Hub, it will cut them off before strangling you. As far as knowing if an unknown device is connected via your Hub, the Hub Manager software tells you every device that is connected but it would have to be running in the background for you to know. To my knowledge it doesn't flash a warning saying someone has signed on using your Hub, I would have to test that and report back.

Many thanks for all this detailed information.

I'm not paranoid, it's just that I live in a shared block of flats with loads of laptop-packing Japanese students.

I can imagine them all logging on to my HomeHub to watch piano-playing cats on YouTube all night long.

Only a portion of the available bandwidth is ever handed over, and if there is no-one logged on then this is not reserved.

The amount assigned I don't know, but it will always be smaller than what you as the hub user has access to.

My business hub has never had another user logged on to it but I have used plenty on my travels.

In my case the hub is located in a near fully screened environment and only a couple of place here can actually see it - solid copper roof above and other shielding. It then connects via a managed switch to three other WAPs - which are fully visible but protected.

The cost of an additional WAP to achieve this is a lot less than it would have cost me to pay for Openzone access!

http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_...

and

http://www.btfon.com/support/faqs

both mention 512Kbps

You won't see many piano playing kittens on that.

Thanks again for all the info.

I decided to give it a try and opted in. A couple of hours later I was sitting in a cafe in the city centre that has a BT Openzone hotspot.

When I tried to connect to it in the normal way with my iPod I just got the BTOpenzone login page and could go no further, although I was logged into BTFON with the iPod app. I wasn't sure what username and password I needed to enter for Openzone and I didn't have my BTBroadband password to hand (although it was preconfigured in the BTFON app I couldn't see it).

So I used the BTFON app to search for a hotspot and it connected after a while. I surfed Amazon for a minute or two, then the signal became too weak to use. After that, I just got a: "Please move to an area of greater connectibility", message whenever I tried to connect with BTFON.

So my question is this: When I try to find a hotspot with BTFON is it equally likely to connect to a HomeHub or a BTOpenzone hotspot? Is there a way to connect to BTOpenzone for free (it's £6.00 an hour in Cafe Nero). Will I need to enter BTOpenzone login details every time I log on, or should the BTFON app which already has these details take care of all this.

I'm a little puzzled as to why the app didn't automatically log me into the cafe's BTOpenzone hotspot as - at £6.00 an hour - this was presumably the strongest signal in the area?

Sorry I'm not familiar with i pods and i phones, still stuck in the 20th century when it comes to phones. All I know is using a laptop it scans for "available wireless networks" and lists all the ones you are in range of whether it is BT FON or BT Openzone, gives you the signal strength and you choose which one you connect via, when you click on connect it takes you to a log on page where you enter your BT account details and your password and then you can launch a browser.
Maybe someone else can help with the i pod and i phone apps as I'm still a dinosaur when it comes to them

I use Openzone every day it is a fantastic bundled service. Anyone is more than welcome to use my hub's hotspot.

Don't have a fancy iphone but I log in with my aging BT2Go phone or laptop with my primary email address and password and never had a problem.

Most of the hotspots have a 'click here' if you are bt broadband customer on the landing page somewhere.

Initially I was only opted in and broadcasting an Openzone hotspot from my hub and I manually added Fon later so I am not sure if you have to have both, but if you use one you might as well use both.

Edited by deleted (Wed 08-Sep-10 19:04:42)

Does anyone using the FON logging into your hub use your monthly allowance? I do not use my computer a great deal but after being with BT for only a few weeks I had an email from them warning me I had use 7gigs of my 10gig allowance, I wondered if someone had connected to my hub and did some large downloads???

Anyone using the open services DOES NOT use your allowance.

On my BT Infinity service (just recently installed) It appears that FON users get 10Meg down and 250kbps upload available to them. Bit more speedy than 512kbps

Telcon,
I've been using Fon successfully on my iPhone for 2+ years.
I use it by:
1) Ensuring the phone connects to the Fon wireless (Setting ->WiFi-> Connect to one labelled Fon)/ or BTOpenzone (in UK) if Fon not displayed

2) Opening up the Safari browser - it will take you to a logon page

3) Log on as a BT Totalbroadband user using your Broadband id and password.

I haven't used the app yet but the above has worked well for me in the UK, Italy, France and Spain on both iPhone and iPad.

The only confusion is that overseas BT Openzone areas (e.g. in airport etc) often don't give Fon access.

To make the whole procedure easier a wifi 'sniffer' app is also worth buying (<£1).

Happy surfing
jawdrops