FON login script

Stroller stroller at stellar.eclipse.co.uk
Wed Aug 27 03:29:36 CEST 2008


On 26 Aug 2008, at 12:55, Yorick Moko wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 1:48 PM, Fredrik Wendt <fredrik at wendt.se>  
> wrote:
>> ...
>> I've failed to find a way to login to my La Fonera wifi router. wget
>> doesn't support httpS and python is lacking httplib. I guess I could
>> make it work with WPA but that won't help me at work where I need to
>> login to a similar network. ...
>
> I log in to my la fonera+ (WPA2 encryption) with mofi
> works withouth problems or having to make a wpa_sup file...

This doesn't help if you want to log into a FON access point away  
from home.

For anyone who doesn't use FON, the idea is that you use one of their  
routers at home, share your broadband with other "fonneras" and in  
return you can use FON access points elsewhere. FON make their money  
by also allowing purchased subscriptions, for €5 per day or so. When  
one uses one's home AP one can indeed access using WPA, but the FON  
hardware offer two "virtual APs" (see madwifi) and at a remote or  
"public" FON access point one connects to the unencrypted wifi  
network and must enter one's FON username & password in an https  
webpage (or buy credits from FON via PayPal, also https encrypted).

So automation of FON logon may best be achieved using, as Fredrik  
observes, https scripting.

Fredrik has also said, Yorick, that your suggestion doesn't help him  
at work where he has to log on in a similar manner.

Best suggestions I can think of are to see if there's an https- 
enabled (SSL-enabled?) version of curl in the repositories or perhaps  
a Perl library? Alternatively compile wget or Python httplib yourself  
using OpenEmbedded.

I mentioned before, in a much-ignored post, how impressed I was with  
the Nokia N95's ability to wake the WLAN / GPRS and check for email  
if networks were available. Presumably later distros will be able to  
connect automatically to the 'net when a browser is opened - it would  
be great if FON were accommodated in this mechanism, although I won't  
be holding my breath.

Stroller.





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