La Fonera 2.0 emerges for developers, encourages USB-related shenanigans

La Fonera fans, it's finally time to celebrate. Iteration 2.0, which is fittingly dubbed the Liberator, is at long last ready for shipment... to developers, at least. The La Fonera 2.0 box will certainly look familiar to owners of the first, with just 1,000 of these being prepped for consumers in France, Germany and Spain. The intention here is for devs to start toying around and "programming their own applications for other Foneros out there." More specifically, the creators are hoping that more USB functionality will be worked in so we'll eventually have Fonera WiFi boxes that play nice with USB hard drives, printers, scanners, webcams and all manners of cooling devices. It's available now (for a limited time, obviously) for €39.95 ($53) if you're up to the challenge. Oh, and if you design an application sweet enough for the Fonera 2.0, you'll be reimbursed the purchase price -- not bad, eh?

[Via WiFi Romania]

[brandon @ Oct 11th 2008 5:19PM]

This is the shit!!! I have been wanting something like this forever (open WiFi), too bad hardly anyone in my city has it set up.

[Information Central @ Oct 11th 2008 5:34PM]

What is it?

[kyle allen @ Oct 11th 2008 5:52PM]

heres a link that tells you all about it http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/11/la-fonera-2-0-emerges-for-developers-encourages-usb-related-she/

[Information Central @ Oct 12th 2008 2:05PM]

Was that link back to this page supposed to be funny?

[Information Central @ Oct 12th 2008 4:54PM]

How about a useful response:

"La Fonera is a wireless access point given away for free by FON under the condition that you connect it and allow other users to use it."

Engadget, if your idea is to be the primary source of gadget info, your readers shouldn't have to open another browser tab and search the web for crucial information that's missing from every article. Seriously, is one sentence too hard?

[kyle allen @ Oct 12th 2008 3:37PM]

it was indeed, i thought it was one of those people who looks at the pictures but doesent read, but alas.... FAIL

[kyle allen @ Oct 11th 2008 5:35PM]

"usb related" is my favorite variety of shenanigans!!

[jason @ Oct 11th 2008 5:37PM]

them giving away those routers 2 years ago was such win. i love them for it. got 4 free routers! wooo...


i wish they did it again though :(

[biff @ Oct 11th 2008 5:49PM]

I didn't understand a word you just said.

[jason @ Oct 11th 2008 5:55PM]

2 years ago, la fonera gave away 1 million free routers, all you had to do was give your address.

[Andrew @ Oct 11th 2008 5:51PM]

Actually that's *not* the first generation of Fon routers. At first they handed out Linksys 54G routers (w/ modified firmware). They handed them out for 10 Euros, and then I got a free upgrade to the next generation (current one).

[takemetoyourtoaster @ Oct 11th 2008 5:57PM]

if you like the deal of giving away free wifi and getting free wifi from others, you can instead just make a account on the website without buying a router ;) if you live there, many a person according to their maps online live in the NY area so you might want to look out for that, also, making apps for an open source router could open up a world of hacking abilities, no? also you might want to go take a deeper look at the evil possibilities of this,

http://www.h-i-r.net/2008/10/jasager-lives-muahahaha.html watch the video on revision three also, it gives an in depth explination about this, it could be used for pure evilness

[WIFI Romania @ Oct 11th 2008 6:42PM]

too bad FON cares so much about their hardware and leaves community behind.

[Sam @ Oct 11th 2008 7:21PM]

I liked it better last time.

Cost $53 less

[PJMDS @ Oct 11th 2008 8:44PM]

Just want to show you my project with La Fonera:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EcvhBuRi20U
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ljKhwnctXGg
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C2xR-tVpJNs

With the new La Fonera 2.0 I can put one USB camera and control the car from anywhere because the
car is already connected to the internet by wireless ;)

best regards to all

[Sam Zebian @ Oct 11th 2008 8:57PM]

I got 2 of these routers free, the 1st gen (not linksys). I gave one to my friend and kept one. We both would have used them all the time, but they used your ethernet jack up.
So for desktop users with NICs and no Wifi built in, the thing was useless.

I'm glad they've fixed it now.

[mubix @ Oct 11th 2008 9:13PM]

Link to said shenanigans - http://www.digininja.org/jasager/ - Jasager is a project that turns a Fon into a Penetration Tester's tool. It makes your Fon a MITM (Man in the Middle) between you and your AP. The trick is, you wont even know.

Some background - http://www.room362.com/archives/233-Jasager-Past-Present-and-Future.html
How to get it installed - http://www.darrenkitchen.net/jasager-step-by-step-unlocking-install-guide

[AustinTX @ Oct 11th 2008 10:26PM]

This is an splendid way to make Fon's volunteer fan base bankroll both the beta testing phase and the firmware development. WTF has Fon been doing in the 16 months since June 4th 2007, when Engadget first reported the La Fonera 2/Liberator!!
http://elfonblog.fondoo.net/?p=122

[Hdgmansur Revcjhawking @ Oct 11th 2008 10:28PM]

Wouldn't this put you at risk as well?

[MrMac @ Oct 11th 2008 10:41PM]

In other (and better) news, check out my new avatar!

Oh yea, John Kerry paid me to say "stop global warming".

[MrMac @ Oct 11th 2008 10:46PM]

Oh poo, I guess it hasn't updated. That just ruined the entire point of that post. Well, I did get paid to say stop global warming.

Incase you all are anxiously awaiting to see my avatar, here it is compliments of tinypic!

http://i34.tinypic.com/59ske8.jpg

[iansilv @ Oct 11th 2008 11:00PM]

Fonera is just confusing-

Are chimichangas able to connect to enchiladas? Or is it tacos? What about Pedros and Juans? How do you get alien mexicans to work with liberated Burritos?

Sorry, but that's my take on the whole thing. You want fonera to work? make it iphone compatible so you don't have to input your login info every time you hit a lafonera hot spot, and I will buy!

[MrMac @ Oct 11th 2008 11:10PM]

I'm absolutely amazed that no matter what the article is, someone finds a way to put the word iPhone in their comment. I'm simply stunned.

THIS IS A WIRELESS THING (at least I think it is) IS IT NECESSARY TO ASK IF IT WORKS WITH THE IPHONE? I'm sure they have perfectly fine tech support.

[Doug @ Oct 12th 2008 5:16AM]

I have one of the FREE ones.. I never figured out how to use the damn thing.. I got it set up.. The signal strength was.. BLEH... at best.. I still don't know how to use it.. haha LAN ftw. :-/

[Doug @ Oct 12th 2008 5:19AM]

Maybe I should stick it in my Parents Restaurant.. haha. FREE WIFI! lolz

[Kendall @ Dec 2nd 2008 9:35AM]

If you'd like to get rid of the one you can't figure out how to use, I give you an address where you can send it to get rid of it. ;) secondhand, ftw!

[Bratislav Metulsky @ Oct 12th 2008 9:24PM]

The USB-functionality may lead to a higher portion of active FON hotspots (remember that >50% of hotspots are out of service, as people quickly learn that running a Fonera is just a waste of energy), however the short range of FON hotspots ending at people's garden fence will leave FON useless. And with Martin Varsavsky's announcement of higher rates for "Aliens'" hotspot usage, while a day of prepaid 3G-access is cheaper in major European markets already today, FON's days are counted.

[Macca @ Dec 9th 2008 8:32AM]

Hmmmmm.