[ale] Throwing in the towel

James P. Kinney III jkinney at localnetsolutions.com
Sat Mar 24 09:34:42 EDT 2007


On Sat, 2007-03-24 at 09:18 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> Barlow, Jim D wrote:

> > This is true because the notebook vendors sell the notebook with minipci
> > slot.   They need to get the notebook/radio/antennae combination
> > certified in each country / geography in which they want to sell the
> > product.   They cannot allow customers to swap out elements per those
> > certifications, and the "closed" software modules are there as well as
> > vendors cannot allow an end user to change the radio parameters around
> > frequency and power envelope per those certifications.  Taking a look at
> > the spectrum for 802.11 abgn is a real eye opener as to why this is.
> > 
> > Open swappable radios are the domain of the Amateur Radio bands.
> 
> So you're saying the antennae varies from one laptop to the other? 
> That's the only difference I see in an internal minipci card and an 
> external pcmcia card.  I understand the issue of antenna length when it 
> comes to the old cb radios as well as the even older military radios, so 
> you're saying it's the same thing with wifi?  I find it hard to believe 
> when you can find all kinds of hand crafted mods to extend range for 
> various wifi devices.
> 
> I don't think this is the whole picture, as they could make the system 
> smart enough to recognize a supported card.  My hp laptop will not 
> accept anything minipci except the hp card.  So I was told by hp.
> 
There is a secondary piece to this that involves military spectrum. For
some brain damaged reason only known to policy wonks, 802.11g has a
precariously close proximity to a military spectrum used for secure
communication. So close that it is possible, according to some makers,
that tweaking the radio card specs will allow access to that restricted
spectrum. This argument has been used to prevent access to data needed
to create open source drivers for 802.11g devices. I suspect that the
ability to control the broadcast frequency has been improved since the
initial cards were made. But the control devices on the laptops (BIOS,
etc) are not being updated for "security" reason - i.e. many older cards
that could be software hacked for nefarious purposes are still out
there.

The ability to passively capture and store the encrypted, frequency
hopping military communications has terrifying implications for the
powers that be. Being able to do that while apparently sipping a latte
and reading the newspaper online is not something "they" want to have
happen.

Not that companies such as HP would ever _deliberately_ force their
customers into only buying upgrades from HP. Just look at their
pro-customer policies concerning ink and toner cartridges. Surely they
are nicer than Lexmark?

-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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