WiFi technical question w.r.t. channels > 11. Also, DD-WRT fun and games.

Daedalus

Okay, so I recently bought a Buffalo WHR-G125 and reflashed it with DD-WRT. It works great; much better than stock firmware, and the G125 cost me a good $20 less than a Linksys WRT54GL.

I was browsing through the options and I noticed that I can now select channels 12 through 14 for wireless access.

Now, I know goddamn well that, being in America, I'm "not supposed to" use those. My question is, what are those upper channels reserved for, and what are the consequences for using them? I don't want to interfere with airport radar or something, but on the other hand, if it's just sitting there empty, and the fines are a slap on the wrist, it'd be nice to get out of all the interference from other local networks, Bluetooth, etc.

Daedalus

Also, while I'm on the subject, is there any way at all to run a secure wireless network (as in, not relying on fucking WEP) and still use my DS online?

taliosfalcon

afaik you can't use 12-14 anyway, because while your router can now use them all your NICs would also require custom firmware to be able to use those channels along with the router, which just doesn't exist for most NICs at this point.

Daedalus

taliosfalcon wrote: »

afaik you can't use 12-14 anyway, because while your router can now use them all your NICs would also require custom firmware to be able to use those channels along with the router, which just doesn't exist for most NICs at this point.

Well, shit. Okay, then. I'm not exactly going to go out and start importing WiFi cards from France or whatever.

But now I'm curious: what is that part of the spectrum reserved for?

And my second question still stands.