自從 Martin Varsavsky 上月中宣佈開始在歐洲與美國販售 La Fonera 後，我就一值在等台灣的銷售消息，但是 FON Taiwan 從六月很熱烈的辦了一系列推廣後，居然就這樣沉默了幾個月。FON 官方英文網頁中長達一個月才生出一篇 Sharing is FON . . . And here’s more to share，下方的討論抗議著 FON 宣揚分享的概念，因為 FON 除了把基本的商務模式公開之外，其餘的消息則非常不開放，無論是開發、求才或者最新動態。最新的消息通常來自 FON 的員工或是 Martin Varsavsky 的義大利文版 blog，FON Taiwan 更離譜的長達幾個月沒有消息。他們總是說 FON.com 正在已經驚人的速度成長，來不及告訴大家正在發生的事情。不過連遠在歐美的朋友都拿到 Fonera，位在與製造商同一塊土地的人卻還沒拿到。我還以為台灣人應該是最快公開開箱照的人呢。
One of French blogger got his La Fonera yesterday, and he did the thing that we geeks always want to do. Open the case and study the components on the board. I planned to do that for a long time, unfortunately I still can not get one at Taiwan. Even the device is builded at Taiwan and manufactured at China (maybe). His blog entry talked about installation and pictures of the hardware.
shadeone also referred to my blog entry “Hacking Fonera“, that’s my experience on hacking FON firmware. (Hey, Stephane. I cannot read French either, but Babel Fish does. 😉 ) In the end of the entry, shadeone mentioned about FON.com is using private/public key validation for firmware, only a firmware with correct key can be installed. You can only install 3rd party firmware by serial console.
The forum are talking about backdoor issue. Some users complained about FON.com upgrade the firmware in slience, and make their router not functionly until they reboot the router. The “Terms and Conditions of Use of FON Services” do address FON will notify users of any updates to the FON Software whenever there is a new available version, but seems the router will pull the new software without notification. Last month, I talked to Jordi Vallejo, he told me the router will log traffic for legal reason. The both “Terms and Conditions of Use of FON Services” and “Privacy and Data Protection Policy” documents did not address about that, but the T&Cs do mention about “users agree and accept with share your personal data with third parties” (Section 12.2)
12.2. In order to provide our services, we will need to share your personal data
with third parties. You agree and accept that, in order to be able to provide FON
Services, the data you provide to FON can be shared between companies of
FON´s Group and with contractors that are specifically hired by FON to provide
services to us and to our users within the scope of the Privacy and Data
Protection Policy as published in the FON Website.
Furthermore, I can not get the latest source tree of firmware, those things make me scare. Because I have no idea if FON.com or someone will do anthing evil with the fireware. :-/