fonosfera

New release of the Firefox add-on for the Fonera 2.0 !

If you didn’t give it a try yet, that’s the right time to do so. Download the add-on from the fonosfera repository. If needed the manual is on FON Wiki.

Changelog:
– Fix incorrect refreshed informations of the download manager window on Mac OS.
– Disable account settings when there is no connexion to the Fonera (and not just when the plugin is disabled).
– Code cleanups.

Just a day after the Fiesta Firefox 3.5 organized by Mozilla and FON in Madrid, Javier is releasing a new version of his add-on (v.0.0.14).

Fonera Downloader is a Firefox add-on which allows you to monitor and add downloads to your Fonera.

Major changes include:

• New interface for the download manager, similar to Firefox’s native one
• Better integration with Megaupload and Rapidshare accounts
• Works with transmission torrent client
• Offline mode so it can be easily disabled when not connected to your Fonera
• Support for Firefox 3.5
• Bugfixes

Usage and installation instructions are available on FON Wiki.

Hi all,

This time we’ve done things very fast! huh?

We got a lot possitive feedback and some bugs that we considered worth fixing soon. So here you go. We released RC5 for your delight.

Enjoy it! Here’s the Changelog:

• DHCP issues fixed: some users had no DNS on DHCP mode.
• WAN access control on the firewall is fixed.
• FONSpot always enabled by default.
• Transmission is now accessible from WAN.
• Samba on Windows accepts all filesizes and allows you to create folders properly (thanks for the hint deco!)

Additionally we updated the webcam plugin: now it allows WAN access!!! ;)

Web upgrade – enduser: 20090713_FON2202_2.2.6.0_rc5_USER

Web upgrade – developer: 20090713_FON2202_2.2.6.0_rc5_DEV

Hello all!

after a veeeeeery long time, we’re happy to announce a new Release Candidate: 2.2.6.0 RC4! Yes, we know the 3 comes after the 2 and not the 4, but RC3 was an internal release :P

Why did it take us so long to make a new release? Phew… LOTS OF CHANGES!!! Really, L O T S. And we hope this is going to be all for the good.

This is not a stable release or better said, not an official release, just a Release Candidate, but we think it’s much more stable and usable than previous versions. We’re closer and closer to the perfect device! LOL

Ok, no more boring info, here’s the Changelog:

• Upload service queuing: if you plug a disk with media to upload to different services (YouTube, Flickr, Picasa or Facebook) they will now be queued and uploaded serially and not in parallel (which caused the fonera to run out of memmory and crash).
• Applications know when another upload is in progress: if you’re uploading videos to Youtube and there are queued pictures for Flickr, the Flickr page will tell you: “Waiting for YouTube to finish the upload”. How about that? ;)
• Send files from samba and they will be uploaded to your applications. No need to unplug and replug the disk! More and more user friendly every time :P
• Prorgess bars for uploaders: so you konw when it’s gonna be finished. It also helps show that the fonera is working on something ;)
• Save configuration from flash to flash: no need to reconfigure all the settings again! Well, WPA password will be lost and the plugins you installed too… sorry. We’re working on it. But it’s already good progress, isn’t it? (this feature only works on web upgrade)
• Save and restore configuration: what’s this? well, some users like to have backups of their configuration. Now you can download it from the fonera and upload it again if you want to restore safe values… It’s not very tested yet, test it and let us know if it works fine!
• Better memmory management (processes stopped if unnecessary, less services running by default etc): ok ok, this is not a feature but an enhancement, but it’s important!
• More image and video types supported. every application is aware of what it can upload. They even check filesizes depending on the service. If a picture is too big for Picasa it will tell you ;)
• Videos are now supported on picasa and flickr too!
• Classic youtube accounts should work now: those without the @gmail.com – it’s not valid to have a gmail.com like account and just ommit it in the user field! Please, someone test it…
• Additional info on the dashboard: shows uptime, shows release candidate number…
• Disable FONSpot: yes… you can now disable the FON service. Why, you wonder. Well, we want to build the biggest wireless community in the world, but well, everybody is free to do whatever they want with their fonera, they payed for it after all. So, you don’t want to share? don’t share… but you are evil! mwahahahaha!
• And much more…

And let me finish with the most awaited the most critisized, the most conflictive, the most difficult bug we ever had… (NO IT IS NOT BRIDGING! LOL)… TORRENTS!!!

We removed the unworkable (thanks unworkable folks, it was a good try but didn’t fit our needs) and it’s been replaced with… TRANSMISSION! Transmission is the best torrent client out there and it’s opensource! It works really well and it’s been veeeery smooth to integrate in the fonera.

Thanks to pablo and john form FON and Charles from transmission and others, we have our first Transmission plugin for you guys to enjoy! It’s still the first version, we are already working on some improvements that will come in the future, but for now, it’s usable.

Don’t abuse… the Fonera 2.0 is still a limited device in memory and CPU. Please follow this recommendations:

• We suggest to limit download speed to 150KB/s-200KB/s for stability and responssiveness of the interface. This is the values we set by default, we know it’s not very high, but it’s kind of stable.
• Also, sometimes the interface seems to be freezed… it’s not common but sometimes it takes up to 30min to give a response, still it’s working in the background. If Transmission has proved something is that it’s very stable and very reliable, so just be patient. Really, be patient. Especially when starting or connecting while it’s been downloading for a long while.
• Do not add many torrents. Transmission right now does not support queueing. All torrents you upload to it will be added for parallel download and this kills la fonera. Well, it doesn’t kill it, just makes it totally unresponssive. IMPORTANT: adding torrents and pausing them does ALSO freeze the fonera, Transmission uses these files in background for something.
• Also, be aware that it does NOT work with NTFS so… windows users, use FAT32, linux users… you don’t need advice ;)
• DO NOT use it with a pendrive. The fonera uses the pendrive as RAM memmory (swap) and pendrives are too slow for that plus they deteriorate faster.
• DO NOT remove the disk before “shutting down torrent” from the fonera web UI. This is very important or you will have to uninstall and reinstall transmission. To extract a disk, you need to reboot (sotfware reboot) the fonera if you ran transmission first. This is a bug that will be fixed soon.

We are already trying to work with the Transmission guys to improve these problems, so stay tuned and ready for improvements in the future. Still, this is something already usable :P
I don’t want to extend on the incredible opportunities Transmission is bringing to the fonera (bandwidth control, seeding, access from other devices – Android, iPhone, Firefox plugins). You will get to know them by yourselves :)

I also want to thank the small betatesting team we’ve built. They are in great extent responsible of many of the improvements you see now and will see in the future. A big applause for them.
Ok, I think this has been the longes release candidate post I ever wrote so now I shut up.

Web upgrade: 20090708_FON2202_2.2.6.0_rc4.tar.gz

Web upgrade – developer mode: 20090708_FON2202_2.2.6.0_rc4_DEV.tar.gz
Console upgrade: 20090708_FON2202_2.2.6.0_rc4.image – md5sum f53f98adeeac9b9b5426d8a53cbd9db3