MWEB FON router annoyance!

Good Day Venomous,

Let me try and clear up some of the mis-conceptions for you.

The FON service is a great initiative and has lots of benefits for the MWEB client base.

Venomous said:
Do you understand the Ts and Cs, and the implications for you, should you invest in one of these, in their current format?
Click to expand...

Venomous said:
They already have, as stated before some of their clients are being called, and told to use it or else, while having the Ts and Cs shoved up their noses.
Click to expand...

We have made contact with some of our client base not using the routers and also found that some were using the routers. The system was not reflecting this though.

Remember, that we are still improving on the service and will perfect it moving forward. Integrating a 3rd party system which the FON service runs through will take time to perfect.

Venomous said:
Which is sad and ironic. Many tech savy people (some myBBers even) have signed for these things.

Parts of the Ts and Cs as I understand them:
A portion of your bandwidth is allocated to a free wifi service.
you have no control over this, as it is preset and -selected.
You may not change that to qualify for the priv of the R199 price tag.
Imagine a head doctor gets one and someone hacks their system via this FON thing.... Who will be in schyte and probably lose their med license, at the leaat.
What will mweb say? Perhaps "sorry, your system security is your concern, not ours"? Yet their Ts and Cs created the cave.

Bandwidth:
Is mweb not the ISP with strict DL policies?
Soooo if you have one of these, and I park my car outside your place. Then I start DLing the internet. Who's "threshhold will be reached? Who will not have internet for the rest of the month? After all, you did agree to share your net with the world...

Router settings
There are some that have tried to change various settings. Some have suceeded with what they wanted changed, others have failed. Some of the blocked settings are settings we can change on any other router.

There are more things wrong with this, but such is only my opinion. Each of you need to make your own choice.
Click to expand...

The FON traffic is not prioritised over the home traffic, instead it works the other way around. If there is available capacity on the line, the FON user connecting will then be able to utilise what is available.

The FON traffic is also tunneled directly to our network and is not included in the Home users data used. We are able to distinguish between the FON and home user traffic.

Clients connecting to the FON wifi hotspot, will not be able to access the router or the home users network due to the tunneling of the traffic.

We are continually working on firmware upgrades to ensure that the usability of the router improves and will continue to do so.
 
Venomous said:
I seem to recall that people are not allowed to change DNS settings. Or I recall there being such threads here.

To me that should be a problem in any home with young children.
Search the term fairy tales and see what I mean. Even innocent searches can result in some scary results. and DNS settings is still the best protection method.

But on a further note: You say I am wrong...
If you have a 2meg line, it means the line cannot perform faster than 2 megs but probably a little less, realistically.
Where and how will the FON part get its bandwidth/data that it shares with whomever else?
Two MEG remains 2 MEG, and cannot become 3 or 4 MEG.

And the security risks alone is bad, yet you ignore that. joe soap has enough issues with people stealing their banking details in other means, never mind potentially handing it out willingly.
Click to expand...

The FON part only downloads at full speed if your main side is inactive. And that doesn't count against your data allocation. It is two seperate networks. And you get it for free, so it is not like you have to take it.

The only thing I would want is the ability to use another account for short time periods. Uncapped and steam gaming isn't working that well for me and bridge mode also has it's issues.

If you don't want to use it like they state you can just return it. It's a free router if you use it, if you don't why not just give it back (Unless it isn't working properly etc)?
 
MWEB Guy said:
Good Day Dudes,

I have tried making contact with you via telephone and could not reach you.

We have emailed you regarding your query and provided you some feedback as well.

We have tested with alternate ISP details in the router and have not picked up any real difference when connecting.

The downside, the FON signal will not be transmitted and if not transmitted for long enough. Our systems will identify this on our side.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I did receive an email at 9:20am and will respond with the details requested. I also received a missed call at 9:29am while on the phone to MTN.

I look forward to receiving the extender and testing the system. As mentioned in the OP I was happily waiting patiently but took a little offence to the latest call which came across as a little threatening even when I had explained my situation on numerous occasions previously.

As an aside, I am afraid of the database MWEB must have on all users as I see you seem to have connected online forum names, to twitter usernames, to email addresses and cell numbers.... there is no such thing as anonymity here... ha ha :D
 
Venomous said:
Which is sad and ironic. Many tech savy people (some myBBers even) have signed for these things.

Parts of the Ts and Cs as I understand them:
A portion of your bandwidth is allocated to a free wifi service.
you have no control over this, as it is preset and -selected.
You may not change that to qualify for the priv of the R199 price tag.
Imagine a head doctor gets one and someone hacks their system via this FON thing.... Who will be in schyte and probably lose their med license, at the leaat.
What will mweb say? Perhaps "sorry, your system security is your concern, not ours"? Yet their Ts and Cs created the cave.

Bandwidth:
Is mweb not the ISP with strict DL policies?
Soooo if you have one of these, and I park my car outside your place. Then I start DLing the internet. Who's "threshhold will be reached? Who will not have internet for the rest of the month? After all, you did agree to share your net with the world...

Router settings
There are some that have tried to change various settings. Some have suceeded with what they wanted changed, others have failed. Some of the blocked settings are settings we can change on any other router.

There are more things wrong with this, but such is only my opinion. Each of you need to make your own choice.
Click to expand...

The FON Router opens up a separate PPPoE connection which is completely independent from your own bandwidth.

Therefore it doesn't count towards your own accounts usage and also only uses excess bandwidth on your line.

This is especially applicable where you have a 4MB line installed up are only using a 2MB account for instance.
 
Venomous said:
I seem to recall that people are not allowed to change DNS settings. Or I recall there being such threads here.

To me that should be a problem in any home with young children.
Search the term fairy tales and see what I mean. Even innocent searches can result in some scary results. and DNS settings is still the best protection method.

But on a further note: You say I am wrong...
If you have a 2meg line, it means the line cannot perform faster than 2 megs but probably a little less, realistically.
Where and how will the FON part get its bandwidth/data that it shares with whomever else?
Two MEG remains 2 MEG, and cannot become 3 or 4 MEG.

And the security risks alone is bad, yet you ignore that. joe soap has enough issues with people stealing their banking details in other means, never mind potentially handing it out willingly.
Click to expand...

You are allowed to change DNS settings but they don't exactly change as expected.

There is always the option to change DNS on each device there by solving your problem of parenting properly.


Mweb as looking at changing this with a future DNS update, so they are listening to their clients in this regard but these things take time.

*****

What security risks are you on about? Your own network is a private network and the FON part of it is completely independent and operates like any other public hotspot system.
 
SauRoNZA said:
You are allowed to change DNS settings but they don't exactly change as expected.

There is always the option to change DNS on each device there by solving your problem of parenting properly.


Mweb as looking at changing this with a future DNS update, so they are listening to their clients in this regard but these things take time.

*****

What security risks are you on about? Your own network is a private network and the FON part of it is completely independent and operates like any other public hotspot system.
Click to expand...
bwhahahahaha
you are funny. on the device bwhaha

My one client has a 15 year old son. It just so happens that the son is a sex addict.
Do you really believe the son would not try remove those settings???

The client's router access is only known to him, the father.

This FON router will not work there.

Or ar other clients where there are preset IPs, due to equipment requirements..
 
Venomous said:
bwhahahahaha
you are funny. on the device bwhaha

My one client has a 15 year old son. It just so happens that the son is a sex addict.
Do you really believe the son would not try remove those settings???

The client's router access is only known to him, the father.

This FON router will not work there.

Or ar other clients where there are preset IPs, due to equipment requirements..
Click to expand...

Put administrator account on the device then with a limited account for the son that can't make changes.

If DNS is your only limitation on the device then you are buggered anyway.

****

But the FON router is aimed at basic end users and certainly won't work for everyone.

It's meant to be a plug and play device. The fact that they allow access to it at all is surprising.
 
MWEB Guy said:
Good Day Venomous,

Let me try and clear up some of the mis-conceptions for you.

We have made contact with some of our client base not using the routers and also found that some were using the routers.
Click to expand...

Add...

And some were selling them on Gumtree for ~R300.
fonned by mweb.jpg
 
Just one question - who will take the rap if illegal content* is accessed via the FON part?





*Illegal content = any (or a combination) of the following :

1. Accessing kiddie porn
2. Uploading a torrent file
3. Minor accessing porn
4. Bomb threat via VoIP (or the such)
5. Illegally accessing a web site/server/defacing (hacking)
 
Last edited:
The_Librarian said:
Just one question - who will take the rap if illegal content* is accessed via the FON part?





*Illegal content = any (or a combination) of the following :

1. Accessing kiddie porn
2. Uploading a torrent file
3. Minor accessing porn
4. Bomb threat via VoIP (or the such)
5. Illegally accessing a web site/server/defacing (hacking)
Click to expand...

Same scenario as that happening on any public wifi network one would assume? What happens there?
 
Just ordered one of these, how do I go about cancelling the order as I don't need this grief in my life.
 
Aaaaarrrrrgggg, after cancelling my order mweb decided to go ahead and send me the damn thing anyway, it can stay in it's nice shiny packaging until someone decides to come and fetch it!:mad:
 
I'm in the same boat and it feels like I've hit an iceberg. As an existing customer, I inquired about the FREE Router and Range Extender and was told that I would receive BOTH in 5 days. 17 days later and to my dismay I received just the Router.

After phoning MWEB and inquiring about my promised Range Extender I was told that I had already received the Range Extender and had signed for the package. MWEB Guy followed up on my problem and I spoke to a Salesmen who told me that they were out of stock and I would receive my router in 2 weeks.

Its been more than 2 weeks and I have no sign of my Range Extender. To make matters worse when I call to inquire about the Range Extender, I got told that I had already received it and was promptly asked WHY I was not using it and that I HAD to connect the FON Router by the 14 April. I tried to explain that I would prefer connecting both the Router and Range Extender simultaneously and was told yet again that I already had the darn Range Extender.

I'm at a point where I feel like telling the next Salesmen to shove it and migrating to another ISP. What amazes me is that people who have ordered their Router and Range Extender BEFORE me have received theirs on time!
 
I had my FON router delivered a few months ago, but haven't bother using it till today because I had a working Asus router.

Unpacked, plugged everything in... switched it on 1 min later it goes off... and i can't switch it on anymore, seems like its busted.:wtf:

I couldn't believe it.
 
So what exactly are the the implications of not using the Fon Router? I can tell you, I have mine setup with a custom SSID, @MWEBFON used to work but it's no longer visible.

Not exactly my fault is it? @MWEBGuy perhaps you can shed some light on this? I also got the please connect your Fon Router by the 9th etc.

I got the Range Extender, it's useless, cannot get it to work so it's pretty much just stuck in a drawer at the moment. WPS setup as per instructions does not work at all.
 
undefined said:
So what exactly are the the implications of not using the Fon Router? I can tell you, I have mine setup with a custom SSID, @MWEBFON used to work but it's no longer visible.

Not exactly my fault is it? @MWEBGuy perhaps you can shed some light on this? I also got the please connect your Fon Router by the 9th etc.

I got the Range Extender, it's useless, cannot get it to work so it's pretty much just stuck in a drawer at the moment. WPS setup as per instructions does not work at all.
Click to expand...

As soon as you change the SSID and/or password the range extender no longer works, reset the router to default and it works right away.
 
undefined said:
Well that's pretty stupid! I don't my home network to be MWEB_XXXX :/
Click to expand...

I agree, it's a really solid and good router, just some small things missing here and there, since they can remote update the firmware I wonder if fixes or updates are being worked on.
 
Still awaiting my repeater - I am unable to use this to MWEB's advantage until the repeater is received - as the router by itself simply does not reach that far outside of my offices.
So, until the repeater is in my hands, ready to be installed (I have been waiting) - simply won't plug it in.
Funny SMS you guys !! Funny...
 
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