I’m not as bullish as some on the idea of sharing my broadband so I can share someone else’s connectivity while I’m traveling. It looks like Glenn isn’t either, but we have different takes on why.
First many of the the terms of service agreements outright prohibit the act of “sharing” your bandwidth.
Second when I travel I want consistency, which is what I get from T-Mobile, iBahn, Guest-Tek, Wayport and Orange. The availability of those services impacts where I stay.
Third, I’m a believer in you get what you pay for, and free means you can’t complain about bad service because you didn’t pay for it. I mean, imagine this.
You pull up to the house of a FON or Whisher user who is doing a huge file upload and you want to make a VOIP call…and the call is very important. The call sounds like crap..who do you complain to?
Game over.
If I were to install a FON router, I wouldn’t use it’s “internal” network port. Instead, I would install both the FON router and the router for my internal network behind a third router that has QoS.
I would then configure the QoS on the third router to always prefer prioritize traffic from the non-FON router.
I agree with your concerns and that’s why one of your assumptions must be clarified.
You don’t pay when accessing Whisher registered WiFis, while you do it on FON hotspots.
On the other hand WiFi sharing is just one of the features of Whisher. All of the others (instant presence information, file exchange, IM and local services) are attractive anyway whether you are on shared WiFis or any other kind of hotspots, including the paid ones from T-Mobile, Boingo, etc.
Regards,