no RAM, no hard drives, no GPUs, no drones, and no routers.
Freedom hits different now that like six people own 50% of everything.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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I was about to argue "couldn't people just buy a Raspberry Pi and put OpenWRT or OpnSense on it?" before realizing Raspberry Pis are also seeing price increases.
Holy fuck, what the fuck are we gonna do now?!
There's a billion 2nd hand old laptops and stuff everywhere
exclusions apply: i've been building my own router out of second hand parts for the last 15 years and the pickin's are very slim rn.
we'll reach levels of grass touching previously thought impossible
Hard to get secret backdoors on producers outside the US?
OpenWRT goes brrrt
Basically yep.
great were getting black market routers now?
Grab an old machine with a few PCI slots and install Linux and a few network cards.
...I am not that technically advanced. My attempts at even installing linux on any device has broken 1 computer and 2 usb sticks so far while being unsuccessful.
can probably get something for $20 down at the used hardware store
You can run routing software on any linux machine with multiple nics. It isn't really a magic appliance. I suppose what they really mean aren't routers per se, but wifi transmitters?
No they mean routers.
And running your own router with its own OS is allowed.
Buying a prefab router from Shenzhen chock full of foreign malware is not.
Only locally produced malware is now allowed in prefab routers!
Folks definitely should be picking up learning how to setup their own router and wifi hubs, but they wont do it.
Are there any consumer routers made in the US?
Isn't TP Link a US company?
TP-Link is a Chinese technology company that manufactures network equipment and smart home products. The company was established in 1996 in Shenzhen.
TIL! I assume theres gotta be at least some US manufacturing of routers... I hope... otherwise the US just banned using the internet in effect lol
Ubiquity is a US company, but all their stuff is made in Asia.
Linksys is a US company formerly owned by Cisco, but all their stuff is manufactured in Asia.
Netgear is a US company, but all their stuff is manufactured in Asia.
ASUS is Taiwanese.
I guess the router supplied by your ISP might be exempt?
Itd be weird to be exempt
Its really sounding like the FCC banned all routers and companies can only comply by running their own they install software on manually XD
I don't know. Since we put ours on an alter and started placing burnt offerings of RAM before it, uptime has gotten a lot better.
Appeasing the machine spirit, nice
Same goes for EV's, mobile phones etc. The US is one of the most limited countries in regards to choice.
Nowhere else in the planet you can choose between 30+ flavors of ranch sauce. So, respectfully, shut the fuck up.
Awesome. So which Ubiquiti & Mikrotik routers are “consumer” and which are…“???”… “enterprise”?
I wonder if this will impact access to LoRa devices. I remember seeing videos claiming the US government promoted them as dangerous.
Wonder what this looks like in practice. Select few get to pay to play in the US market through this exemption process?