Ask Slashdot: How Can You Avoid Routers With Locked Firmware?

thejynxed writes: Awhile ago the FCC in the USA implemented a rule that required manufacturers to restrict end-users from tampering with the radio outputs on wi-fi routers. It was predicted that manufacturers would take the lazy way out by locking down the firmware/bootloaders of the routers entirely instead of partitioning off access to the radio transmit power and channel ranges. This has apparently proven to be the case, as even now routers that were previously marketed as "Open Source Ready" or "DD-WRT Compatible" are coming with locked firmware.

In my case, having noticed this trend, I purchased three routers from Belkin, Buffalo, and Netgear in Canada, the UK, and Germany respectively, instead of the USA, and the results: All three routers had locked firmware/bootloaders, with no downgrade rights and no way to install Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, etc. It seems the FCC rule is an example of the wide-reaching effect of US law on the products sold in other nations, etc. So, does anyone know a good source of unlocked routers or other technical information on how to bypass this ridiculous outcome of FCC over-reach and manufacturer laziness?
The FCC later specified that they were not trying to block Open Source firmware modifications -- so leave your best suggestions in the comments. How can you avoid routers with locked firmware?

Comments

Roll your own

[Zarhan]

http://elinux.org/RPI-Wireless...

Pretty much only way to be sure.

Beyond that, you go with the same approach as when getting a PC to use with Linux - try to verify each individual component and whether it works or not.

Solution: Don't buy those brands anymore...

[Zurkeyon3733]

PLENTY of "make your own" options out there these days... Easy options even. Newegg has an ITX mainboard with a built in AES-NI CPU for Hardware accelerated encryption, for 56$... Add a dell Broadcom SFF 4 Port Gig NIC and some RAM, and whola! Whatever router config you need is just a download away!

Re:Get a cheap PC that 10 years old, add PFSense

[eastlight_jim]

Whilst your electric might be free, running a 100-200W PC instead of 6W router is a little overkill for most people. The best solution, of course, is to be allowed to put new firmware on your existing router ;-)

Some routers aren't "locked" particularly well...

[AC-x]

Some routers aren't "locked" particularly well, for example I have a WR841N v11 here which had supposedly FCC locked firmware, but it was relatively simple to install open firmware on it using the TFTP firmware recovery procedure

Re:Get a cheap PC that 10 years old, add PFSense

[arglebargle_xiv]

If you're going to go that way, get an Alix APU, which is x86 without all the bloat and heat of a standard PC. It's designed for use as routers/firewalls/whatever, and runs pfSense out of the box. Also, unlike a Pi, it's actually properly designed, with real ethernet NICs, proper power conditioning, proper flash storage that doesn't shit itself every time there's a power glitch, and so on. I've got older Alix hardware that's been running for close to ten years without being touched, and that I have no expectation of needing maintenance for many more years to come.

Re:Sod locked firmware

[Zontar The Mindless]

Or maybe you need to learn the difference between "route" and "root"?

Re:Get a cheap PC that 10 years old, add PFSense

[TheRaven64]

Power here costs about £1/W/year. If you're expecting to keep your router for 2 years, it's worth spending up to £20 to reduce the power consumption by 10W. A typical old desktop will draw around 60W, an embedded router board will draw around 6W. That works out at a saving of £108 over two years, which is about the total cost of the embedded router board (PC-Engines or Soekris). After three years, even if you got the old PC for free, it's still more expensive. I used a PC-Engines WRAP board as my home router for around 5 years before needing to upgrade.

Re:Get a cheap PC that 10 years old, add PFSense

[PhunkySchtuff]

Two orders of magnitude actually.
24 hours × 365 days × 100 Watts = 876,000 Watt-hours = 876 kW/h
876 kW/h at $0.12c per kW/h is $105.12 per year.

Think about your annual power bill - if it cost $1,000 to run a 100W globe for a year, we'd all be sitting around in the dark.
In a house with, say, 10 light globes running them each for 8 hours per day, your power bill for lighting alone would be over $3,000

Re:Get a cheap PC that 10 years old, add PFSense

[TheRaven64]

You can't do arithmetic: 24 * 365 * 100 = 876000. 24 * 365 * 100 / 1000 = 876. Your 87600 is neither of these numbers and I have no idea how you calculated it. The rough rule of thumb is $1/W/year, with your price estimate it's $1.0512, which is close enough. With 18 cents/kWh, it's $1.5768, but for most of the US $1-2 is the right ballpark. For Germany, it's $3. That doesn't actually detract too much from your main point. You're paying $300/year for power for the 100W machine. A 6W machine that costs $200 will save you over $90 in the first year.

Re:Get a cheap PC that 10 years old, add PFSense

[Gaygirlie]

All the four USB-ports share bandwidth, so no. A single USB 2.0-port has a 480Mbps bandwidth, not counting for the losses of the USB-protocol and whatnot, and since all the ports share bandwidth it'd make no difference whether you used a single gigabit ethernet USB-adapter or 4. Also, don't forget that the 10/100 Ethernet-port on the RPi also shares bandwidth with those USB-ports!

Re:FCC: The inept Paper Tiger....

[StatureOfLiberty]

The FCC either farms out the enforcement (Amateur Radio is farmed out to the ARRL) or simply makes no enforcement action at all.

ARRL has no enforcement power. It does have an Official Observer program. These operators do look for improper operation and can document this behavior. They do send out notices of improper operation to ham operators (amateur radio is usually called ham radio). There are no teeth behind this notice. An important part of their role is sending out notices when hams operate particularly well.

Documentation of improper operating can end up being forwarded to the FCC in hopes that they will act on it. It is only the FCC that has actual enforcement power. Many submissions never get acted upon. The ones that seem to get immediate action are if you interfere with another licensed service (interfering with police, emergency medical, aviation, commercial broadcast).

Lack of enforcement by the FCC is a problem. Many field offices have been closed down. Lack of funding is definitely making the problem worse.

ARRL is a great organization. They do provide great training materials for proper operation. They do a lot of lobbying for the Amateur Radio Service. They work to protect the service from band encroachment. They watch for well intentioned but poorly worded legislation that impacts the service. For example: North Carolina has been considering legislation (SB 393) that would ban use of almost any electronic communication device in a vehicle. ARRL is organizing operators in the state to ask their representatives to amend the verbiage to exclude amateur radio. Mobile operation is an important part of the amateur radio service. Banning it would make much of the value that the amateur radio service provides impossible. In addition, amateur radio mobile operation has a stellar safety record.

ARRL cannot enforce, but it can educate and work to influence.