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TP-Link blocks open-source router firmware to comply with new FCC rules (pcworld.com)
2 points by pawn on March 17, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


Can anyone explain to me the danger of how open source routers are going to mess with airports? Are we assuming they're sneaking in to airport buildings and getting access to the router, or a remote attack that's somehow less likely than with closed-source firmware?


The open source firmware has a setting for frequencies that overlap with the frequencies used by weather radar. Preventing such interference is one of the main roles of the FCC. I guess it isn't extraordinary for the FCC to ask hardware makers to make changes to make it more difficult for end users to misuse the hardware.

There are multiple previous discussions of TP link locking their routers in the last few weeks.

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=tp%20link&sort=byDate&prefix&p...




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