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Explaining WLAN Chips' Poor Linux Support

Posted by timothy on from the holding-the-reins dept.

morcheeba writes "Kernel Traffic is reporting (mirror mirror list) that 'Some WLAN Chip Specs Secret To Protect Military Communications.' While this is stretching it a bit -- these radios are generally limited to a narrow frequency range and few modulation types -- software can cause illegal radio operation, especially when the laws vary by country. Is Linux support for 802.11g and Centrino chipsets going to be delayed by manufacturers afraid of FCC harassment? An interesting discussion on the future of Openness in radio chipsets." Interesting comments from Alan Cox in here about just how flexible some of these chips are.

3 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Things to do with software radio by Dark+Coder · · Score: 4, Funny


    1. Listen to a baby cry over your neighbors' baby monitor.
    2. Neighbor humping a lover in front of their baby monitor
    3. Transmitting "Hey, that's my wife; I'm going to blow your balls off!"
    4. Watch them scatter

  2. Re:eh by drunk_as_in_beer · · Score: 2, Funny

    And anyone that thinks linksys NAT appliances are secure is nuts.

    My Linksys NAT is totally secure. In fact I dare you to try and crack it. To help you out, I've got portforwarded ports 22 and 21 to OpenSSH and pureftpd running on a Linux box. The IP address for it is 192.168.1.1. Good luck, I look forward to seeing your pathetic failed attempts in my SNMP logs.

    --
    --Drunk as in Beer
  3. Oooo by Cyno · · Score: 2, Funny

    I like the thought of suing companies for trespassing on my private property with their private radio transmissions.

    I want to the FCC to made all radio signals private property so I can sue every radio station, police station, local TV, my neighbor and her noisy telephone, etc.

    Hey, maybe we can declare all audio and electromagnetic transmissions private property so if you say something that offends me I can sue you, if it trespasses into my ear.

    I think we should make a set of laws so everyone can sue everyone else. Then just sit back and watch the people line up outside the courthouse. Maybe we could make our legal system a profitable marketplace where you can purchase a new law to help you sue for more money, at a fair price, of course. :)