It's not getting enough attention that the Trump administration has banned the sale of ALL WiFi routers made outside of the US. It's one of the first steps required to control Americans' use of the Internet, to spy on what you're doing online, to suppress information they don't want you to see and to even turn off the Internet at their discretion.

This is looking increasingly like a trap.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/trump-fcc-prohibits-import-and-sale-of-new-wi-fi-routers-made-outside-us/

FCC imposes sweeping ban on foreign-made routers, affecting all new models

Trump admin to decide which router makers get exemptions from FCC import ban.

Ars Technica

@VeroniqueB99

old models still work..

openwrt.. the "linux" of router operating systems..

plan ahead while they still let you.

https://openwrt.org/

[OpenWrt Wiki] Welcome to the OpenWrt Project

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 Will/can openwrt eliminate any hdware spy that Gov could require?

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

provided the "spy" is software based, not hardware based. If it's hardware based, then all you can do it is not use the device. Find some other device, if one exists. I'm sure that as the situation develops more info about hardware will begin to come to the fore in the news as public consciousness shifts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_backdoor

Hardware backdoor - Wikipedia

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 That's what I thought, it's been years since I used DD-WRT. I suspect it's a whole new software by now. Getting to old for all the changes, part of the reason I won't own a cellphone. I just don't like the idea of a leash . . . 8*)

Peace

Thanks.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

yeah DD-WRT days were a long time ago. Install is as easy as uploading an image via the web interface in the stock firmware then reboot. Done. Updates for complicated setups can be complicated, but for basic wifi router it's as simple as it gets. A few clicks, reboot, done..

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

way less fuckery than with cell phones. I run lineageOS on all my phones. I put up with the pain and the fuckery for the first 3 (motorolas). Now I just get pixel phones and have zero fuckery because the bootloaders are trivial to unlock, and designed to be unlocked. Motorolas- almost trivial.. and like a honda civic or toyota camry, great bang for the buck. same is true of pixel phones. good value for the $$$

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 I started out with TeleType, when they put computers in that tiny little box, computers that were far more complex that the 8080-86's I just sort of gave up. . . 8*)

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

yeah I was at that point in the 2000's when social media was being born. All seemed like a waste of time to me. Still does, but that was one of those forks in the road of tech where it seemed like a lot of wheels were being re-invented needlessly and resources wasted, and fuckery abounding. Ditto with early smart phones. But both matured, eventually. Still, those transitions are painful. Old wisdom gets forgotten. Perhaps it was always thus.

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99

I was happy with Archie before we got HTML. That and the news groups. When everyone had their own corner of the Net. I have to laugh there hasn't been anything new since the 70's it all just been refinements of old tech. I got back into the media because of our current administration, couldn't stand the thought of him after the first run. Folks just fucked themselves. Sad. Biden/Harris had set it up so we would have the economy of the 60's. Peace

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99
I have to laugh there hasn't been anything new since the 70's it all just been refinements of old tech.

I'm laughing right along with you.. and have been for 30+ years. Nothing new under the sun. Young kids talk like they invented everything.

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 Or the idiots with their big ideas, Amazon = = Remember the Last Whole Earth Catalogue? Even the FaceBook folks we had The Well, BBS's all over the country. I ran one that the first page said something like Hack this Board. I had kids all over trying to do so, some ended up with good jobs and Intel groups and others ended up in jail. Guess I succeeded. 8*)

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

Remember the Last Whole Earth Catalogue?

indeed I do.. Even got a copy of one around here somewhere.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

simpler times..

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 Lord I hated capt'n crunch. Rice Crispies. War Games? A song from the 60's that we need to pay attention too.

https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBO0fydIaUA

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (Pete Seeger)

YouTube

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 Yeah I know that one too. One that describes me in part is.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWijx_AgPiA

Fortunate Son

Creedence Clearwater Revival

YouTube Music
@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 I think we see much the same thing. It's what brought me into this silly social media, not this one but a past couple. Simply to make a few think. . .

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

Don't set your hopes too high. IQ's in here are not as high as they might seem.

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99

I put the same credence in IQ as I do in the Ouija Board.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

well then let's say.. educational levels, then.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

A lot of hate and irrationality in here, too. Maybe more than the reasonable or intelligent people. Just sayin'.

I've been banned more times than I can easily remember and it's only been a little over a year.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

you correct someone in here that says something that is factually incorrect and you get a fire hose torrent of hate directed at you.

It's not the same world as the old days. People have thin skins, delicate egos, fragile thought bubbles, and a xenophobic mentality towards new thoughts, ideas, even to plain facts. Same people who laugh at MAGA and Qanon.

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 So far
I haven't seen much to that degree. I have seen where people are not paying attention to what is really happening. Like they have their own fish to fry, can't talk to that other. . .
@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 Good on you. I left when they(the ominous they) wanted more selfies of me to prove I wasn't a bot after I'd been there 8 or so years . . . Sorta leaving me to think of facial recognition stuff . .

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

that hateful message arrived about 8 mins ago. The trick is they send you a hate message, then delete it so you see it for an instant if you are looking, but because it's been deleted, there is no trace of it on the sever logs. I've had death threats, been told that I am in league with Epstein, that I am a pedophile.. the outrageous hyperbole knows no bounds in here, to say nothing of the hatred.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

wanted more selfies of me to prove I wasn't a bot after I'd been there 8 or so years

yeah fuck that jazz. the fedi has serious design flaws, and at the moment the inmates are running the asylum. I'm a free speech absolutist.. you are free to say whatever, be it true or lies, and I am free to mute or block you, quietly. There should be no banning online.. just good block & filter tools. That was the ethos in the old days. It's been washed away in the flood of woke.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

just get a phone that's well supported by lineage os. android that's been de-googled, and is absent all the google fuckery ain't that bad to use. more free space internally with the google cruft gone and better battery life because the phones not constantly doing shit behind your back you are unaware of and might not approve of. Also- data lines to google are stripped out of the OS. You can put them back if you wish, but by default they aren't there.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

even older pixels are still quite good hardware. no need to buy the current generation for $1000+ pixels are so ahead of the curve you can get one 3-4 gens older than current and still have a very modern phone whose hardware will last you a long long time before becoming obsolete.

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

any hdware spy that Gov could require?

although the way this is worded, your precise meaning is a little unclear.

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 You got just what I was asking. . . Again Thanks

@A_Minion @VeroniqueB99

security down to the components on the board itself is such a deep rabbit hole to dive down. I mean how trustworthy or truly impartial are the chi-coms, in the end? They've been making all our shit for 40+ years now. How do we know they haven't backdoored the shit out of things they sell down at the component level? Some things you just can't know with any certainty in this world, sadly.

@Felis_Catus_Domesticus @VeroniqueB99 The only folks I have any trust in are the Linux/open software folks. I suspected that it would be a simple install at this point, I started with Linux in the mid 90's, often any more I'm making things way to complicated . . . 8*)

@VeroniqueB99

UK is already there.
Internet Connectable devices have had to be compliant to a (hackable by government level) standard for a few years.

@VeroniqueB99
Brendan Carr just keeps chugging Trump"s mushroom.
@VeroniqueB99
At some point his next presser should have the question of " How do Trump's balls taste?" asked.
🤔😐
@VeroniqueB99 Trump wants to control internet the same way China does including putting spyware on home routers.
@VeroniqueB99 That's banning *all* routers. There ain't and won't be any American made router in the foreseeable future.

@VeroniqueB99

Hm. I have never used the stock software on any of my routers. Does it really matter where the hardware was made?

@lemgandi @VeroniqueB99

Yup. If you control the hw, you can embed malware within firmware (efi for example), which will survive a reinstall or just have your own minimal secondary system like intel management engine (but less bloated).

@VeroniqueB99

This is looking increasingly like a trap.

Or a sales pitch for Starlink and v creepy musk makes more Billions.

@VeroniqueB99

This stuff has me worried

@VeroniqueB99 yeah. It isn't.

I posted it a while back and was surprised it didn't travel like a helium post did.

Fortunately, I am not limited by Trump at present.
Unfortunately, many I care about are.

But they would not leave Meta despite my warnings over years so...

I cannot help them. 😐

@VeroniqueB99 Spying (on everyone) is achieved >>10 years ago.
@VeroniqueB99 how many routers are made in the US?
@VeroniqueB99 It goes along with the ID requirements, closing Android and compromising the markets for RAM, storage and compute.
@VeroniqueB99 I would second that the recent meta court cases are another step towards that smwe goal

@VeroniqueB99
The US NSA has always been spying on online activity--there are words that flag conversations etc....
All Canadian internet runs north-south through the US, often when we are accessing websites, even within our own city it jumps to and fro, and that's one of the reasons why we outside your borders need digital sovereignty.

And they can spy on your wifi even if you use non-US made products

https://nationtalk.ca/story/researchers-map-the-internets-boomerang-routes-where-data-transfers-between-canadians-move-through-the-us-increasing-exposure-to-state-surveillance

@VeroniqueB99 For those unaware, a PC can be used for routing. But PC's have had their own spyware chip since about 2010 (IME). A better solution is a fast Rasp. Pi (No spychip).

@shwell @VeroniqueB99 agree.

The instructions are out there (this is an older variant)

Use Raspberry Pi 3 As Router : 10 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables https://www.instructables.com/Use-Raspberry-Pi-3-As-Router/

Use Raspberry Pi 3 As Router

Use Raspberry Pi 3 As Router: According to Wikipedia, a router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. If we tear-down a wireless router, we will probably find an application specific processor that handles data packets and an RF segment tha…

Instructables
@BrianAllbee @VeroniqueB99 Thanks very much. I note the US aren't touching WAP's for now which is my solution.
@shwell PCs with IMEI? 🤔 Are you using the wrong acronym or just one of the tinfoil hat folks? Hoping the first and you can correct it 😁
@kDelta Oops, IME. I suggest you begin to learn from tin foil hat types.
@shwell Oh I’m using Linux, have no “WhatsApp” people keep asking me for. No Gmail accounts. I’m with you on that front! 😁👍
@kDelta I've gone to Linux on Pi to avoid IME for my DD. Although I have a steam PC (Linux).
@VeroniqueB99 Brendan Carr needs his ass paddled on live television.

@VeroniqueB99

Cuz it is indeed…

The time to resist is now, because tomorrow its might be too late…