BT Openzone - how does it work?

Tunney

Tunney

Tunney

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Joined
11 Oct 2004
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London
To cut a long story short, BT really botched my BT Infintiy order and left me with no home Internet connection for a week.

As an interim solution to my lack of Internet, they suggested connecting to BT Openzone. I was skeptical that there would be a hotspot within range of my flat but, lo and behold, my PC found two BT Openzone access points to connect to. It was slow and a bit flakey but it did work.

So, my is question - where are these access points located? Has BT rigged up every lamppost in the country with an access point? Or are they leeching bandwidth off everyone with a BT Home Hub?
 
Tunney said:
To cut a long story short, BT really botched my BT Infintiy order and left me with no home Internet connection for a week.

As an interim solution to my lack of Internet, they suggested connecting to BT Openzone. I was skeptical that there would be a hotspot within range of my flat but, lo and behold, my PC found two BT Openzone access points to connect to. It was slow and a bit flakey but it did work.

So, my is question - where are these access points located? Has BT rigged up every lamppost in the country with an access point? Or are they leeching bandwidth off everyone with a BT Home Hub?
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Openzone works by customers allowing there router's to work as a hotspot i believe
 
there are also dedicated openzone hotspots in public places but yes. random peoples broadbands.

not sure why one would want to donate bandwidth to randoms, dont think there are any incentives from what i rememeber
 
This thread has just reminded me about BT Fon, and that my HH3 has it automatically enabled by default.

I have just opted out of allowing BT Fon to use my bandwidth, call me tight but my bandwidth is precious as it is. :)
 
I think the only benefit of enabling BT Fon is that you get to use the BT Fon hotspots everywhere. Not great, line rental discount would be better!
 
KIA said:
It should be opt-in, not opt-out. BT Openzone WiFi could be abused by anyone. One doesn't need to be a BT customer to use it.

http://dnstunnel.de/
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If it was opt-in, people just wouldn't use it and the service would be pointless. You don't really know how useful it is until you are trying to find a secondary connection because yours has gone off line, or if you're on holiday / visiting a Hotel / away on business.
 
Cool, that's how I assumed it worked. I can't see it using up a great deal of people's bandwidth. I noticed it slowed down considerably during evenings so I'm guessing that it prioritises the owner's traffic.
 
I have BTOpenzone enabled on my router. I have never had an issue by doing so and it is a neighbourly thing which costs nothing and has benefited others.


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LizardKing said:
Unfortunately that loophole was closed ages ago by many captive portal providers.
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Not by BT. I use it on a regular basis when I am in need of free internets. ;)

ci_newman said:
If it was opt-in, people just wouldn't use it and the service would be pointless. You don't really know how useful it is until you are trying to find a secondary connection because yours has gone off line, or if you're on holiday / visiting a Hotel / away on business.
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Customers should be asked upfront and made aware of the dangers. I wonder how many would reconsider.
 
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