Spanish company FON, which spreads Wi-Fi with inexpensive routers that its community members can use to share Internet connections, this week will start selling its new La Fonera 2.0 router in Europe for €49.95 (though it has yet to appear in the FON online store). No idea what it'll cost in the U.S. (or the U.K. where it's delayed), but it should be available here next month according to the FON Blog.

What's the big deal, besides the nice price? FON is loading the router with firmware that supports plug-ins. One of them is based on OpenWRT to provide mesh networking; that's the same software used in the OLPC X1 laptops to make a mesh for the kids.

Mesh nodes together can share one Internet connection, in theory. The router software will work as a printer server, download torrents or files from MegaUpload or RapidShare, and upload video and pictures to YouTube, Facebook, Picasa, and Flickr. That up-and-down traffic happens from a USB storage device plugged directly into the router without requiring a computer at all.

Naturally, it's touted as a "green" feature, since you don't have to leave your PC on all night. It will even support a Webcam, no PC needed. Fonera 2 will work with Internet connections via Ethernet or a 3G USB dongle; it uses 802.11g, not 11n to connect to Wi-Fi devices.