Hallo!
Until recently I was able to fix the default OpenWrt builds (i.e. enable all wireless channels) by replacing the regulatory.bin file. Since that no longer works (because of https://dev.openwrt.org/changeset/31954/), is there any other way for 'the rest of the world' to enable proper channel support besides recompiling?

And why is OpenWRT so bent on following FCC rules anyway? Are there any servers/developers in the North American domain?

The FCC doesn't set the limits for your country, that is done by the telecomm authorities in your country.
If you want to break their rules that fine with me but don't ask the openwrt developers for help in breaking them.
If they make it possible then the heat will be on them and not on you.

(Last edited by JonnyM on 2 Jun 2012, 05:10)

I'm not trying to break any rules. 13 channels are available in my country and even if I set my wireless domain accourdingly in OpenWRT it still follows FCC rules, which are more restrictive, so that setting is useless. To me, there simply is no obvious way to enable all channels that are available in my country. Hence my question. And all this kinda sucks, because in my area lower channels are crowded and I get 35Mbps instead if 150Mbps.

Me too! I live in Spain and the legal channels are 1-13.
There are a lot of networks in the channels 1, 6, and 11. So I have a dirty signal that does not work at its best.. but in the channel 13 it performs much better. And since few builds the crda fix no longer works.
Setting the country to ES breaks all wireless, until it is set back to US.

What the hell is that way of thinking? Everybody breaking regulations and doing radiowave terrorism? The world is NOT just USA!

In DD-WRT , also in the stock firmware, you can choose the country. Do they have the FBI on the door? No!

So asking a dev for some help to change the regulation to match our country is "breaking rules"? Absolutely NOT!.

Maybe today I can't sleep thinking that I'm gonna die, as maybe someone is using the channel 14 in my country, which is not allowed.

That's so U.S.

In Europe, the best approach (in order to suppress the overlap between channels and minimize interference the optimal channels to be used in access points near or adjacent)  should be 1, 7 and 13, but unfortunately... Oh, and expect about a 30% WiFi access speed drop.

(Last edited by mim on 18 Jul 2012, 11:49)

check this out
so that's why.

And sadly this won't change because vendors (especially of consumer-devices) have no problems with this, and don't care if there are problems with aftermarked firmware  They sell their routers as one piece (hardware+software) which will comply with the law. hardware and software of embedded devices aren't perceived separatly, and aren't certified separatly.
If you are hacking or tampering your router and you are breaking the law it's your choice (not the vendors fault).
But sadly in this logic installing openwrt or other aftermarked-firmware means tampering the certified configuration. So the only legal fallback-option is the regulatory-domain stored in the eeprom of the wifi-card (or caldata- or art-partition for integrated wifi-chips).

On older atheros-cards it was able to change the regulatory-domain in the eeprom of the card, I did this years ago on my wgt-634u. I guess this should be possible with the art-partion, too. But I never saw someone doing this (probably I'm just looking in the wrong forums). But even if you change the regulatory-domain probably the CTL (Conformity Test Limits) will still restrict you. check this thread for more info.

So the main problem is that most vendors don't care about the regulatory-domain stored in hardware because they don't need to bother with it.
Openwrt has to!  So there are options, but you won't find it in a precompiled openwrt-image. And that the regulatory.bin is now build into mac80211 seems to have other reasons and not to make your life miserable. So maybe it's just time, that you compile an image yourself

(Last edited by eleon216 on 18 Jul 2012, 14:00)