New ruling by FCC limits modification

[System Error Message]

There are apps and software to confirm this though. Wifi analyser for android is a good example.

 

[RMerlin]

See the parts where a few of us have said that the FCC rules won't preclude alt firmware. The radios themselves in every single implementation I have seen have their OWN firmware, which is separate from the kernel firmware and is almost always ROM only.

Broadcom's driver is the one deciding which region to support, and it's software-changeable.

This is been done in a lot of routers for, at least 7 or 8 years based on some of the older 11n Netgear routers I've probed. I don't think the FCC rule change is going to make any difference really. All you'll see is more stuff controlled by the radio firmware. Example, most of the routers I have bought/gotten in the last 2 years, have not allowed you to change the region selection. A number of the older routers did and those allowed selection of channels 12-14 for example. I'd bet a lot that the newer routers, if you load Alt firmware on them, if you try to use channel 12-14 on them, it'll probably just set the channel to 11 as the radio firmware in the US shipping version won't allow channels 12-14.

That's incorrect. You can change the router's region, which will allow the wireless driver to enable channels 12-13, for instance. There's plenty of users already doing it. That's why the new FCC rules dictate that manufacturers must take steps to prevent an end-user from changing a router's intended region.

Asus's solution since last year has been for the firmware to use the region stored in the bootloader rather than in nvram. But that won't stop a developer from making his firmware ignore the bootloader content, and use a different region, unless the closed-source driver starts also going straight for the bootloader value. AFAIK, that's not the case yet with Broadcom.

 

[stevech]

perhaps the new FCC rules are related to a conspiracy of governments wanting backdoors to your routers so you must use stock firmware .

Perhaps not!

 

[sfx2000]

That's incorrect. You can change the router's region, which will allow the wireless driver to enable channels 12-13, for instance. There's plenty of users already doing it. That's why the new FCC rules dictate that manufacturers must take steps to prevent an end-user from changing a router's intended region.

Asus's solution since last year has been for the firmware to use the region stored in the bootloader rather than in nvram. But that won't stop a developer from making his firmware ignore the bootloader content, and use a different region, unless the closed-source driver starts also going straight for the bootloader value. AFAIK, that's not the case yet with Broadcom.

I suppose - worst case is a signed bootloader - then all is moot, eh?

And this affects more than just the US market - Canada and Mexico pretty much save-as/copy-paste the FCC stuff when/where applicable...

 

[System Error Message]

perhaps they could do what mikrotik does instead. Sell wired routers and instead of integrated wifi just provide the antennas and mini PCIe.

 

[RMerlin]

I suppose - worst case is a signed bootloader - then all is moot, eh?

Signed bootloader means game over for me, Shibby or the OpenWRT devs. Maybe if I'm very, very lucky, I might try to convince Asus to sign my releases (considering I have a rather good relationship with them), but it would be quite unlikely to happen. Brainslayer might still get a "market" with all those older, inexpensive routers he supports, or with his deals with manufacturers like Buffalo.

That's why (as I explained last year when I brought up this issue) I thread very, very carefully with my firmware, refusing to provide ANY support on bypassing the router's region or power output limitations. I know how to bypass them, I even know how to permanently change a router's region (I had to do it with my own AC56 which had a pre-release, test CFE on it and was set to a special test region). But I ain't sharing one bit of that knowledge. Because I'm hoping that if we all play responsively, then the FCC won't have any cause to FORCE manifacturers to take stronger actions than what they are already taking (and which they have to document when filing for a device application with the FCC - I even have a copy of such a form).

 

[stevech]

interesting to compare this WiFi ignorance-of and knowingly violating the FCC regulations, with Citizens' Band radio of way back. That band was ruined by fools that bought 100's of watt amplifiers. Recall that it's 27MHz. In the right sunspot season, that upteen hundred watt amp caused a signal to be heard loud and clear (AM, narrowband) all around the US. Of course fool couldn't hear 99.9% of the people he was jamming.

Soon, the FCC gave up on 27MHz and let it spiral down. Eventually, it was so unpleasant to use (and all the unlicensed cussing users), that it dried up and morphed into a mostly truckers band, unmanaged by the FCC.

The difference in WiFi today is that using the prohibited channels in the US creates risk of interference to aviation radar services. Not a laughing matter.

 

[azazel1024]

Broadcom's driver is the one deciding which region to support, and it's software-changeable.



That's incorrect. You can change the router's region, which will allow the wireless driver to enable channels 12-13, for instance. There's plenty of users already doing it. That's why the new FCC rules dictate that manufacturers must take steps to prevent an end-user from changing a router's intended region.

Asus's solution since last year has been for the firmware to use the region stored in the bootloader rather than in nvram. But that won't stop a developer from making his firmware ignore the bootloader content, and use a different region, unless the closed-source driver starts also going straight for the bootloader value. AFAIK, that's not the case yet with Broadcom.

I know some allow that. I'll grant in a lot of cases it is the driver determining it and the firmware simply has the region locked based on what firmware you are loading on to it. At least the last couple of years, several manufacturers have had the region selection disabled on their routers (at least for US). It would be pretty trivial to have the channel availability limited within the radio firmware. Just use WORM memory for the radios and it would be incredibly easy to simply load up the appropriate firmware for the radios at the factory depending on the market country. Or just separate ROM chips. I doubt the expense would even be measured in nickels per router. Since most radios are already using ROM to store their firmware...

 

[stevech]

IIRC, Cisco's WiFi access points locked down the region well. For many years.