"FON is the largest WiFi community in the world. Community members, known as 'Foneros', share some of their home Internet connection and in return gain access to free Wifi worldwide."
The device that is used to provide the connectivity is the La Fonera (a.k.a. FON), a single Ethernet Port Wireless router with a standard range between 10-50 meters depending on the environment.
The
FON is a relatively simple and inexpensive router, built on the AR531x/231x Atheros WiSoC (Wireless System-on-a-Chip), a platform for which the OpenWRT project recently added a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), i.e. the OpenWRT firmware can be deployed on the FON. In short, the FON has all the attributes required to be added to digital playground.
Where to buy a La Fonera
The Fonera web site and store is available in several languages and the store accepts all kinds of currencies and ships worldwide. Check them out at https://www.fon.com/ or buy it from Amazon.com.
La Fonera (2100) Hardware
- CPU: Atheros AR531X_COBRA - MIPS 4KEc V6.4 - 183.50 MHz
- RAM: Hynix hy57v281620etp-h - 16 MB
- Flash: ST(84) H - 25P64V6P - MYS 636 - 8 MB
- Ethernet: (1x) Altima AC101 (10/100 Mbit/s) [Auto-MDI(X)]
- Wireless: IEEE 802.11b / 802.11g (up to 54 Mbps)
- Serial Port exposed on PCB J2
- Antenna Connector: RP-SMA Connector (Reverse SMA)
- Antenna Omni-Directional detachable antenna (2dBi)
- Powersupply Input: 100-240V ~ 50-60 Hz 0.3A. Output: 5V DC, 2.0A Output
- Power Consumption: 4 Watt
The 2200 model has a somewhat resigned PCB, seems to consume less power and has the serial port exposed on J1.
The La Fonera+ has two ethernet ports on the back, the La Fonera 2.0 adds two Ethernet Port and a USB 2.0 port. More details on the 2.0 model will be added here, as soon as it arrives.
Putting the OpenWRT firmware on the La Fonera
The Fonera is certainly not he cheapest nor the most capable WIFI router. However, it is one of the most affordable WIFI routers that can run OpenWrt, a Linux distribution for embedded devices. OpenWrt opens the Fonera to a whole universe of
packages, including SFTP servers, Java Runtime Environments, or bit torrent clients, to name just a few.
Installing OpenWrt is not for the faint-of-heart, but has already been documented many times and I will just point to what I found the most helpful or detailed recipes.
Pre-Requisites (OS X Releated)
- TFTP Server for OS X.
TFTP is a simple protocol used to transfer files, and therefore was named the Trivial File Transfer Protocol or TFTP.
- Ethernet Cable, to connect the FON to your Mac.
Flashing the La Fonera with OpenWRT
The different FON versions and localization may require slightly different approaches. However, the goal is the same, getting SSH on the FON. Here is the outline:
- To get to RedBoot (the bootloader) over telnet, the RedBoot Config needs to be re-configured.
- Since the FON firmware does not enable telnet or ssh out of the box, a cross-site scripting hack to start ssh needs to be performed.
- The FON kernel does not allow you to overwrite RedBoot Config. Therefore, an older 'signed' version of the FON's kernel that includes a flashing utility that does allow overwriting the RedBoot Config partition needs to be deployed.
- Reboot into the modified kernel and overwrite the RedBoot Config partition again.
Detailed flashing instructions
What's next..
Coming up: More about RedBoot and more importantly Building a customized OpenWRT distribution yourself.
