FCC Says It's Legal To Hack Your Router

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The Federal Communications Commission wants to assure everyone that it is legal to hack your own router...for the most part.

In a blog post entitled Clearing the Air on Wi-Fi Software Updates, Julius Knapp from the FCC tries to clear up any misunderstandings that may exist. He says that the aim is not to stop people from modifying their routers completely, but to stop them from modifying them in ways that would render them illegal -- such as increasing their power beyond a certain level.
 
It's one of the benefits of having DD-WRT in that you can boost the router signal. But after installing DD-WRT on my DIR-615 that they prevent me from boosting the TX Power past 19.
 
DukenukemX said:
It's one of the benefits of having DD-WRT in that you can boost the router signal. But after installing DD-WRT on my DIR-615 that they prevent me from boosting the TX Power past 19.
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All N and up routers have a hardware "lock". Even if you hacked your wrt build to goto 300db, it still would stop at 19 or whatever. It is impossible to change since its a fuse bit inside of the controller.

There are alot of sneaky things you can do. The fcc limit is 30db, so if you find a router with a 28db amplifier and a dinky 1db antenna, you can then just mount a 12-18db sucker on there and piss off the neighbors.
 
nightanole said:
All N and up routers have a hardware "lock". Even if you hacked your wrt build to goto 300db, it still would stop at 19 or whatever. It is impossible to change since its a fuse bit inside of the controller.

There are alot of sneaky things you can do. The fcc limit is 30db, so if you find a router with a 28db amplifier and a dinky 1db antenna, you can then just mount a 12-18db sucker on there and piss off the neighbors.
Click to expand...

So just installing a better antenna will boost the signal? Now that's an idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LstNouEdDP4
 
locsplitter said:
Why would I do this?

-Router noob.
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Gives you updated router firmware plus far more features than what comes with the router. There's also Open-WRT which is what I use in my home TP-Link router. Works pretty good too.
 
Steve said:
The Federal Communications Commission wants to assure everyone that it is legal to hack your own router...for the most part.

In a blog post entitled Clearing the Air on Wi-Fi Software Updates, Julius Knapp from the FCC tries to clear up any misunderstandings that may exist. He says that the aim is not to stop people from modifying their routers completely, but to stop them from modifying them in ways that would render them illegal -- such as increasing their power beyond a certain level.
Click to expand...

problem is regardless of what the FCC "intends" manufactures will use it as an excuse to make it impossible to reflash their routers
 
The limit is actually 4W or 36dB for point to multipoint communications for total power output. The max for an amplifer is 1W or 30dB as stated. You'd only see products anywhere near that as a single antenna.

You'd be hard pressed to find a device sold that has more than say 20dB output from it's amplifiers (100mW) What most people don't realize is that it's a cumulative sum of all antenna chains. So if you have 3 antennas take the manufacturers crazy marketing spec number and divide that by 3. Then take that number and take off the dB gain from the antennas. (Standard antennas are 3dB)

So a 100mW amp (20dB) + 9dB omni = 29dB (800mW) x 3 = 2.4W or somewhere around 34dB. If you put 12dBs on it you could go over, but at the same token I'm not sure you can find a device with 3 100mW amps in it either.



@locsplitter: You really don't want to. Adding amplification to your signal on the router end is generally useless because it is already a lot more powerful than the client side. What you really want is more sensitivity on the receive side of your AP. Better devices like Cisco can communicate with weaker signals well into the -90dB range where SOHO could fall off before -85dB.

Here is some quick math done by digikey: http://www.digi.com/technology/rf-articles/receiver-sensitivity

You can get 2x range simply by having a device that is capable of picking up weaker signals. Your transmit speeds are also directly affected by receive sensitivity which is why devices that can go lower while blocking out noise are able to hold faster speeds for a larger range.
 
FLECOM said:
problem is regardless of what the FCC "intends" manufactures will use it as an excuse to make it impossible to reflash their routers
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Just because something is legal doesn't mean the manufacturers are forced to make it easy or even design their products to allow it to happen. Its just not illegal to do it.
 
MrTroy03 said:
Just because something is legal doesn't mean the manufacturers are forced to make it easy or even design their products to allow it to happen. Its just not illegal to do it.
Click to expand...

did you read my post at all?
 
Interesting, they embraced open source from the start?


 
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DukenukemX said:
It's one of the benefits of having DD-WRT in that you can boost the router signal. But after installing DD-WRT on my DIR-615 that they prevent me from boosting the TX Power past 19.
Click to expand...

They also don't want you flashing to a European/Korean model that had extra channels. If you could utilize channel 13/14 like they do, you'd get outside the crowded spectrum if there's a lot of AP's in your area.

A lot of routers already have protection against doing that trick.
 
bman212121 said:
@locsplitter: You really don't want to. Adding amplification to your signal on the router end is generally useless because it is already a lot more powerful than the client side. What you really want is more sensitivity on the receive side of your AP. Better devices like Cisco can communicate with weaker signals well into the -90dB range where SOHO could fall off before -85dB.

Here is some quick math done by digikey: http://www.digi.com/technology/rf-articles/receiver-sensitivity

You can get 2x range simply by having a device that is capable of picking up weaker signals. Your transmit speeds are also directly affected by receive sensitivity which is why devices that can go lower while blocking out noise are able to hold faster speeds for a larger range.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. I have a few older devices that can't get speed worth crap at some areas of my house (the areas they're used). It's easier just to add another AP.

Put simply, communication is a two-way street. I can use a megaphone to yell commands to you from across a football field, but it's not going to do me any good when you try to yell back without one.
 
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