openwrt: what routers just plain ***work***?

[Peter]

> What I've read suggests that making the list you want is extremely
> difficult because manufacturers quietly and sometimes frequently
> change the chips in their routers - often without bothering to change
> the router name or even part or version number.  Thus we have lists

Correct, but that should be illegal because the FCC or equivalent RFI compliance
ID applies to the initial revision only and any hardware change voids it. Trust
me, I know this. In other words:

1) A FCC ID must uniquely identify one type of equipment, including any possible
hardware mods (jumpers, wires, connectors etc) defined at certification time.

2) ANY other hardware configuration voids the FCC ID and may additionally
subject the manufacturer to massive fines if the device radiates RFI and
disturbs something else (such as flight traffic control, DME or nav beacons).

So the answer is, yes, they to silently change chips and software revisions, but
they do it offshore and hope to get away with it by passing liability on to
other parties. The small software glitch or hardware 'improvement' (manufacturer
originated, of the kind he'd forget to mention by the time revision B is
shipped) in a 802.11 wireless router that turns it into an inadvertent 2.4GHz
cordless phone jammer and prevents a life-saving 911 call is *very* small.

Since the bad guys already have handheld jammers (one can buy them over the
internet apparently), and amateurs are usually up to good things in small
numbers, and won't try to jam anything out of malice (it is hard enough to make
the quipment work as is), that leaves manufacturers who 'forget' to re-certify
their new hardware, with their potentially buggy firmware in them, as the most
likely culprits in case of trouble.

Peter


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