1. Making something illegal doesn`t make it practical or enforceable Now that you know the meaning of these MCMC and SIRIM labels, should you think twice before clicking “Add to Cart” on that super cheap Wi-Fi modem on Aliexpress that promises 194GB/s? I have never heard of it. There is a huge industry where car control units are renewed or replaced, and if it is illegal, it has never been enforced because many large companies openly advertise and sell their services. Notes: The FCC explicitly cites DD-WRT as unacceptable modified firmware. They also suggest that the hardware needs a methodology to lock the device based on location. The prosecutor`s office is entering a gray area that has so far been largely avoided by federal law enforcement. Modified modems and detailed hacking tutorials have long been available on the Internet, with much of piracy aimed at “discovering” modems in order to get higher speeds than those offered by providers. Hacking is effective because, unlike old-fashioned phone service, where the phone company controls each line independently, cable modem systems hang an entire neighborhood from a common backbone on the ground. To charge customers and set individual bandwidth limits, they rely on their ability to track and control modems connected to their network.
Customizable modems can also have legitimate uses. But despite his public disclaimer, Swingler knew exactly why people were buying his pirated modems, according to the FBI, which put an informant on Swingler last June. “The modem steals the Internet,” he reportedly said during an online chat with the snitch. He described his business as a “modem modification where you can get free cable internet.” Over the years, MCMC has tried to get people to use only SIRIM-certified devices in Malaysia, whether it`s Wi-Fi modems or cordless phones with RFID boom doors you see in mid-range residential neighborhoods. The main reason is that, because each country has its own frequencies for certain devices, and if you get something cheap from a Chinese ecommerce website, the frequencies that device uses to work can conflict with the devices here. According to the FBI, Swingler began modem modding after retiring from a career as a botnet manager — fleets of hacked computers used to steal consumer information and launch denial-of-service attacks. I`m just saying NO. It is NOT intended for this purpose.
These modems are 100% legal to sell, it is a Stock Motorola Diagnostic Shelled firmware. That`s why they can be sold on eBay, because we, as modders, are NOT doing ANYTHING illegal if we just update the firmware to access the shell. But additional rules will not solve the problem: it is already illegal to intentionally or unintentionally interfere with these services. Additional rules that make it more difficult/impossible to install different firmware do nothing to achieve this goal. All it does is add additional rules and more compliance checks, all of which are silently ignored by those who want to do what they want. I understand that “Hack it anyway” is a motto here, and for good reason. But making it illegal and forcing companies to lock down these things is a horrible, horrible thing. “If you decide to use one of these modems to get free internet, then you are committing theft of the service and we take no responsibility for what may happen to you if you are caught,” the site warns in its FAQ. The author of Hacking the Cable Modem: What Cable Companies Don`t Want You to Know, known as DerEngel, says he knows cablehack.net. Last year, the DerEngels website authorized the custom cable modem firmware called Sigma for a flat fee of $150.
“They used to steal it,” he says. I realize that the FCC doesn`t want modding devices that reach illegal power levels to be more trivial than they already are (given that most routers target omnidirectional coverage, even a simple directional antenna can suffice, let alone RF amplifiers and the like); But what I don`t understand is why it is necessary to control all software and not just the output power. I agree. Doing something illegal won`t stop people from doing it anyway. “It`s 100% legal,” he boasted. “What the end user is doing is stealing services. That is not my problem. “I think it`s morally reprehensible and probably illegal,” DerEngel says. “There`s a grey area there, but stealing services is a crime no matter where you are.” As cablehack.net, DerEngel`s website sells pre-modified modems loaded with Sigma, allowing users to reconfigure the modem through an on-board web interface.