The US claims foreign-made routers pose national security risks.
In December, the Federal Communications Commission banned all future drones made in foreign countries from being imported into the United States, unless or until their maker gets an exemption. Now, the FCC has done the exact same for consumer networking gear, citing “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and to the safety and security of U.S. persons.”
If you already have a Wi-Fi or wired router, you can keep on using it — and companies that have already gotten FCC radio authorization for a specific foreign-made product can continue to import that product.
But since the vast majority — if not all — consumer routers are manufactured outside the United States, the vast majority of future consumer routers are now banned. By adding all foreign-made consumer routers to its Covered List, the FCC is saying it will no longer authorize their radios, which de facto bans new devices from import into the country.
It’s always projection. This means the dark empire is weaponizing commercial drones and wifi routers and everything else. They don’t want anyone to do to them, what they will now do to you.
United on Spying on our Asses.
Wait, it talks about FCC radio authorization. However that doesn’t make it a router, just an access point. Quite a few routers (thinking the Pro-sumer Uniquiti UXG models) don’t even have radios and aren’t wireless so there’s no radio they can withhold certification on. This could affect AIOs but all you’d have to do is separate your router from your AP.
Definitely sounds like a quickly thrown out, half baked shakedown (bribe) measure with something they could control (radio authorization) and just targeted routers since that’s a common place they are.
Many people will soon find joy in slapping a 4-port NIC into an old PC and learning nftables, BIND9 and kea.
It’s nftables little Bobby Tables’ brother?
I will find joy in learning about all of these things now.
Thank you!
They COULD just regulate these things…
Nooooooo! The free market hates regulation.
But, loves… banning? Wait, that can’t be right…
Ah yes, more security holes incoming. Gotta love maglomania (not sure if that is the correct word?)
magalomania. 😀
Let me guess, Don Jr. conveniently started a router company yesterday?
until their maker gets an exemption
Ah, yes, how to ask for a bribe 101.
At least this bans isreali routers
They will get an exemption, if they don’t have it already.
Here’s a list of all the commercially available US made routers below
<null>
Good hunting !
Its probably to force people to use ISP routers which imo are compromised from the gecko
From the … gecko? From the get-go. Boneappletea in the wild, or autocorrect gone wrong?
I fucking hate my xfinity router. their excuse of a “settings” panel can ONLY be accessed from their app 🤮, and just marvel at the plethora of options you can configure:
SSID
Password
xfinitywifi Hotspot ON/OFF
“Safe” Browsing ON/OFF
this is madness compared to my previous att router, which while still a shitty ISP router, at least had enough settings to create a proper self-hosting environment. I feel this is being done to kill self-hosting.
You don’t have to use their hardware. In fact, you can save the monthly equipment rental fee by purchasing and setting up your own. I’ve been using Xfinity with my own cable modem and router for years.
I’m aware, but this post is saying that it won’t be possible for much longer
Still possible. You just may not be able to buy new hardware.
if it doesn’t get scalped to shit… we see what’s happening with RAM right now…
okay, buy a new router now with your desired options and protect your neck? i get that it may not be cost effective but your options here are shit both ways.
But 15 minutes could save you 15% on your car insurance!
I was going to correct you then I saw your username and I’m fucking amused.
As you were.
Yeah that was my question. The US can manufacture routers now???
We can make wafers here, and we can absolutely do final assembly using wave solder machines (worked for a couple of companies in Austin doing either) but it’s the crucial step between that we don’t do. The US doesn’t really make electrical components, not at that scale anyway. We don’t even spend the money on pick and place machines, and even if we do final board assembly here it’s sub-par at best. I’m arguing with my boss every day that I’m not a damn machine, I can’t make perfect solder joints every time.
It’s not about that. It’s about existing manufacturers getting “approval”. That approval likely means it’s got a Palantir backdoor pre installed.
They can still be made outside the US as long as they are approved. That’s all this is about.
Provided they are made with rolled steel and have a big-ass two-stroke diesel attached, I am entirely sure that routers are within the abilities of the US’s high-tech industrial base.
Can you power a router with Clean Coal™?
I mean, if the article is correctly-assessing the situation, and you’re correct that there aren’t any, I’d expect them to show up pretty quickly. Might cost more.
So… can I still flash custom firmware like OPNsense and Openwrt on them? Cause I literally just posted about hardware decision a few days ago 😭
Edit: It seems the article and actual FCC document will leave previous router models alone, but anything newer is cooked… Even the US brands like Cisco aren’t actually manufactured here because we fucking outsource evrything. I hate this government.
You can just buy one of those SBCs with two RJ45 ports that can be used as routers, i doubt that those will be banned.
Or just a PCIe nic in an old desktop
Everyone who is even remotely technically able and even slightly concerned about privacy needs to learn how to BYO router
Sounds… like a bit of a pain in the ass.
So, I imagine we’re talking about a linux micro-pc with perhaps 1 or 2 additional pcix networking cards?
If you want a dedicated device, sure. Image it with OPNSense and it’ll basically just work.
You can also take any desktop you already have, fire up an OPNSense VM, pcie passthrough your WAN NIC + WiFi card, bridge to a separate LAN NIC, go through the setup, and there’s your router.
Alright, well I appreciate the direction there, that’s really helpful.
You can also take any desktop you already have, fire up an OPNSense VM, pcie passthrough your WAN NIC + WiFi card, bridge to a separate LAN NIC, go through the setup, and there’s your router.
Although, I gotta be honest, for someone who doesn’t regularly use Linux, that does sound like a lot of potential issues getting this working.
It is possible (and now probably encouraged) to run router software on an old PC. You can also slot in a PCIE nic or connect it too a hardware switch and AP for more flexibility and control.
This won’t stop your ISP from spying on you, but it will stop your American router manufacturer from spying on you.
Don’t forget to add age verification to the operating system!
looks dubious
I mean, I don’t disagree that there are security risks posed by random consumer broadband routers. It is definitely the case that unmaintained — not intentionally shipped with malware — routers have been a real security problem in the past. My own view is that the current set of conventions, which often has very poor or no security on devices on the LAN and thus relies on the router to keep bad stuff out, is a very real part of that problem, but sure, having a secure router is part of that.
However.
I’d say that the majority of the threats that a router poses are also posed by any device on the LAN that can call out to the Internet. Like, you aren’t doing a lot to secure devices on the LAN if you ban routers and then I can still go buy random gadget from wherever that can get on the WiFi or wired Ethernet network and phone home, take instructions from home, and can talk to other devices on the LAN. I mean, are you also going to ban, say, smart televisions? Ethernet-connected security cameras? I mean, poorly-secured network-connected cameras have posed very real threats in places like Ukraine, where military intelligence has actively exploited them to get information about an area come conflict.
And I just don’t think that we’re going to commit to locking that down.
The idea is to stamp some that install doge palantir vibe coded back door to the propaganda control machine then they’re “made in the us” and then you just have to come up with a good excuse. But the excuse department is kind of busy, so wysiwyg
They did a first pass on banning security cameras many years ago. It was maybe the test bed, I can definitely see that one getting revisited. They only banned two major manufacturers that had kinda already been caught as a major security concern.
It’s why you don’t see hikvision or dahua anymore where they used to be major players.
