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.

  • pHr34kY@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Many people will soon find joy in slapping a 4-port NIC into an old PC and learning nftables, BIND9 and kea.

    • Malfeasant@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      You don’t even need all that, if you’re just doing wifi routing, one wired nic and one wifi card will do, if you want wired routing too, just one more nic will do, then use a dumb switch to get the multiple ports.