[Angstrom-devel] hostap, prism2.5 and channel12 & 13 in europe

[Stanislav Brabec]

Paul M wrote:
> On 21/09/2007, Stanislav Brabec <utx at penguin.cz> wrote:
> > Yes, configuration is in the PDA section of the card firmware in its
> > flash memory (at least for most Prism 2.5 cards).
> 
> ah, thanks. It's a Zonet ZCF1100 "Mercury" card if that helps.

National regulations records are firmware specific, not hardware
specific, so it should be common for all cards using the same firmware.

> > It will not help. You have to modify PDA record of your card. It might
> > be possible to do by the card flashing tools. PDA record contains
> > important firmware configuration - transmit limits, channel range, MAC,
> > calibration values etc.
> 
> Ok, thanks for that...

> I've had a google and can't find too much about how to download the
> PDA from this particular card. Any pointer to a how-to would be
> gratefully received.

prism2_srec -D / prism2_srec -P

These values should be valid for Europe:
; PDR 0×0103 data len=12 Regulatory Domain List
7 0103
0001 0030 0000 0000 0000 0000
; PDR 0×0104 data len=2 Allowed Channel Set/Active Channel List
2 0104
1fff

Note that I never did it. Read documentation carefully and make a safe
backup of your PDA and CIS. There is practically no way to get the
correct values, if you make mistake. Records are not only
model-specific, but also piece-specific.

> > Be very careful - you may easily infringe local regulation law in your
> > county or make card unusable by flashing invalid values there. Never
> > flash values from another card: download it, modify only values you
> > exactly need to change, flash it back.
> 
> I'll bear that in mind; I know that 1-13 are legal in UK, but I shall
> be careful when I go to the USA next week where 12 & 13 are not
> FCC-legal!

It's part of the forthcoming design of "international" design. If their
firmware is not configured to conform particular local regulations, then
they start to listen the traffic until it will become sure, that it
knows the correct values. It's not only problem of allowed channels, but
also allowed transmit power, radar detection etc.

-- 
Stanislav Brabec
http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/zaurus