Quote Originally Posted by gowator
The problem is the FCC rule that says 'the user must not be able to change the power level' which unfortunately means not open sourcing the driver and needing closed source firmware....

its really a unhappy coincidence and obviously not meant to do this but the effect is to hold back wlan detection....and proper config and leave developers almost guessing....

several of the manufactuerers want to release the drivetr specs but can't
In reality, all they need to do is build in a low-level firmware that limits the power to the regulation 100mw. Make this firmware closed source, if they wish. But they could build a higher level interface firmware that is openspec, which would permit opensource drivers for the chips. It's not impossible, the rules don't lock them into this.

And, I will have you note, some users ARE permitted to increase the output power of such devices. FCC Part 97 (Amateur Radio) users have shared-spectrum allocation, and as such, can use up to (I believe) 100 W, not that any chipset would be able to put that out.

Also, I noticed that my wireless card (through ndisdriver) limits itself to 20mw... what crap.