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FCC Rule Cuts Bandwidth For 72-Mile 802.11b
sonamchauhan writes "This Computerworld article reported a 72-mile 802.11b wireless link (discussed in
this Slashdot story). Now a Computerworld followup story is reporting the link power has been reduced by 75% to comply with FCC regulations for the 2.4-GHz band -- reducing the link's throughput from 1 Mbps to 300 Kbps. The owner is reported saying that: "any violation of the power limits was unintentional and resulted from the fact that the personnel working [on it] primarily have expertise in computers and not radio technology.""
That is a very poor analogy since in the vast majority of the US mainland it is perfectly legal to carry a gun.
And which proves that banning guns also brings down crime rates.
There are around 2 million people in prison in the US (on a population of around 265 million).
Compare this to for instance to the Netherlands with 16 million people and only around 40.000 people in prison and it's very easy to see that due to the fact that it is legal to carry a gun in the US also means that there is more crime and thus more people in prison.
It so simple...
I used to work for an ISP that was over-amplifying their 802.11b signal as a matter of course. We regularly got a usable range of 10 miles. Breaking the rules is the ONLY way to get wireless stuff to work over any kind of real distance. There's so much interference on those frequencies, that being the most powerful signal is the only way to make it work. Of course, that means you screw everybody else up, until they amplify the shit out of their signal, too. Which means you have to amplify your signal even more....rinse, repeat. The FCC screwed up on the 2.4GHz licensing. Free-to-all means "doesn't work right for anybody".