Re: [Cerowrt-devel] [Battlemesh] New wifi products now already with locked firmware

Re: [Cerowrt-devel] [Battlemesh] New wifi products now already with locked firmware

[Dave Taht]

On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 10:21 AM, Ben West <ben@gowasabi.net> wrote:
> This is the thread start on the PRPL Foundation listserv discussing the
> appearance of wifi routers that now have locked stock firmware that
> prohibits flashing alternate firmware.  Yes, before the FCC's proposed
> rulemaking even gets approved!
> http://lists.prplfoundation.org/pipermail/fcc/2015-September/000339.html
>
> This thread began at prompt of an Ars Technica writer, who just published
> this story:
>
> FCC: Open source router software is still legal—under certain conditions
> Locking out OpenWRT and DD-WRT is the easiest way to comply with new FCC
> rules
> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/09/fcc-open-source-router-software-is-still-legal-under-certain-conditions/
>
> These are the specific products mentioned in the thread where locked
> firmware was encountered:
> Rosewill RNX-N300RTv2
> TP-Link TL-WR841N v8.2
> Netgear WNDR4300

It would be extremely useful to know A) what code and versions (dates)
were in the related GPL drop of this code (if there was one), and B)
if anyone had managed to already unlock these firmwares somehow...

in the context of the cerowrt letter. Can someone poke into this (very
late here... zzzzzz....)

> Some of these products were observed to not have locked firmware previously,
> even for the same hardware revision.
>
> The TL-WR841N, for example, appears on the list of hardware potentially
> supported by Commotion, which evidently may change very soon.
> https://wiki.commotionwireless.net/doku.php/development_resources/router/hardware_compatibility_list
>
> --
> Ben West
> ben@gowasabi.net
>
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> Battlemesh@ml.ninux.org
> http://ml.ninux.org/mailman/listinfo/battlemesh
>



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Dave Täht
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