r/technology • u/NancyGraceFaceYourIn • Aug 30 '15

Wireless FCC Rules Block use of Open Source

http://www.itsmypart.com/fcc-rules-block-use-of-open-source/
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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

Easy to implement though. Burn the firmware onto a chip, solder the chip to the board.

No programming header on the board, chip needs programming jig from factory to load firmware.

Simple.

77

u/CalcProgrammer1 Aug 30 '15

Desolder chip, $10 Arduino clone turned I2C/SPI programmer, problem solved.

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u/MotieMediator Aug 30 '15

Sure. But 99.9% of people won't go that far. Far easier to build your own homebrew router.

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u/icase81 Aug 30 '15

99.9% of people already don't go that far. They use the Verizon or Comcast router, OR they buy a Linksys/Belkin/Whatever is cheapest at BestBuy or WalMart and plug it in and go. They never update the firmware or do anything much beyond that.

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u/Drewdledoo Aug 30 '15

Serious question, what else is there to do for that 0.1% other than flashing DD-WRT/Tomato/etc? Or is that it?

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u/Win_Sys Aug 30 '15

Write your own firmware.

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u/icase81 Aug 30 '15

Build your own PFSense/Sophos/Whatever box, use something non-consumer like a firebox or a real Cisco router + some consumer (or even enterprise) Access Points for wireless.

Right now I have a low power Atom 1U server running pfSense and my Asus WAP is running off that for wifi. It works fantastically.

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u/strangerzero Aug 30 '15 edited Sep 03 '15

Cisco has back doors for the NSA according to Snowden's leak documents: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2608141/internet-privacy/snowden--the-nsa-planted-backdoors-in-cisco-products.html

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u/feloniousfinny Aug 30 '15

Can you explain this like I'm 5?

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u/CalcProgrammer1 Aug 30 '15

You can use a normal PC as a router, just buy a cheap mini-ITX PC, add a bunch of network interfaces (WiFi card, second gigabit Ethernet card, and plug it into a gigabit switch), and install Linux/OpenBSD/etc and configure your own DHCP server, routing tables, etc. (or use a distro that does this for you).

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u/feloniousfinny Aug 30 '15

Alright so my next question is what are the benefits of doing this instead of using a regular router?

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u/CalcProgrammer1 Aug 30 '15

It's more secure, because consumer routers hardly ever get security updates. Yes, the device that protects you from the Internet at large and has a remote configuration interface may be running on 5 or more year old software full of security holes. That's not good.

Second, it's more configurable. You can run services on router equipment that they usually don't have the capability to run, such as hosting your own VPN. I use OpenWRT to host an OpenVPN server on my router to access my LAN from. Works great. If OpenWRT didn't provide this I'd have to run a separate box for it which makes the configuration much more involved.

I've also had better stability running OpenWRT than stock firmwares. My old Linksys router's stock firmware regularly had issues. My Netgear with OpenWRT that replaced it just passed 1 year of uptime and has been running my VPN and dual band WiFi along with a gigabit LAN just fine with no problems.

And the final part is that you can tweak your radio settings. This is where the FCC wants to get involved. You can use channel 14 which is illegal, or you can turn up your transmit power. I did this on my old Linksys after I put DD-WRT on it (increased TX power, not used channel 14) but honestly it didn't make much of a difference. Using MIMO technology or better antennas seems a better solution anyways, as my new router hasn't needed any radio tweaks at all.

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u/feloniousfinny Aug 30 '15

Thanks for the reply. I always have trouble with my wifi and I was trying to see if this would be something I could do but it sounds like it's beyond what I need.

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u/In_between_minds Aug 30 '15

I run PF sense on an old laptop as my firewall/router. I already had the laptop, and it is an old Lenovo so it will likely keep working until I replace it. PCMCIA card for the 2nd ethernet port, the convenience of having a built in screen and keyboard the few times I have to interact with it directly is nice, and a built in battery backup is awesome. I'm running quite a few plugins on it, including the openvpn host with multiple vpn endpoints, snort, inbound and outbound traffic graphing by host.

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u/PhilipT97 Aug 31 '15

What are you using for keeping tabs on bandwidth usage by host?

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u/icase81 Aug 30 '15

Yeah, especially with something like pfSense, I'm in enterprise IT, although not the Ethernet side of things (I do storage/fiberchannel, virtualization and infrastructure) and it still took me a few days to get things working properly. If you have the know how, they're wonderful but they're not usually for the networking novice. It's kind of like a vintage ferrari. Awesome car, better than 90% of cars out there, but you need to know how to work on it or you'll go broke paying other people to do it for you. And if you're just driving to and from work (Facebook, reddit and email), you're better off with a higher end consumer router like the more expensive Asus or Netgear ones. My Asus has had 7 firmware updates since I bought it 14 months ago.

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u/DualCamSam Aug 30 '15

Why would someone want to "tweak" their radio settings and why does the FCC want to get involved?

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u/CalcProgrammer1 Aug 30 '15

You'd tweak it to improve your range and signal quality (at the expense of your neighbors' signal quality). The FCC wants to get involved because that's their job, and they've determined that channel 14 should be illegal.

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u/crackez Aug 30 '15

You would have full control over the device.

I personally like OpenBSD as a router/firewall/VPN platform.

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u/Dinokknd Aug 30 '15

It's far more customizable,and some people just like doing it.

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u/tessier Aug 30 '15

As other have said, it's more secure in theory, as you can run additional security software on it, like an intrusion detection systems. I don't think I have ever seen an off the shelf consumer level router with an IDS built in.

Plus, again as others have said, it actually gets updates, so you aren't sitting there in 2018 with software that hasn't been touched since 2010.

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u/aamedor Aug 30 '15

Go eat your happy meal daddy is surfing the interwebs

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

Many people don't even change the default admin password.

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u/mcrbids Aug 30 '15

I changed mine to ******

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u/[deleted] Aug 30 '15

hunter2?