Comment by Reventlov
4 years ago
WiFi has always been developed on being retro-compatible. The good side is you can use something from 2003 with AP from today (let's ditch the 5MHz and 10MHz bandwidth), the downside is you have a big stack of technical debt in most of the chipset out there, which might be why this kind of things happens.
Not having any access to the firmware source (thanks FCC) does not help at all.
Why is it the FCC's fault specifically? The FCC doesn't regulate Intellectual Property. They regulate radios. Are you implying its within the FCC's power to say radio firmware must be open source?
They require that users can't use restricted frequency ranges or raise the power level. The easiest and cheapest way for manufacturers to comply is to lock down firmwares. And since they didn't also require open firmwares that's the effective outcome in many cases.