Free N Router from FCC

The Federal Communications Commission in the US is offering a free N router for those who participate in their broadband connection testing program.

Sign up to Shape the Future of Broadband in America

 

Thanks for the link,,,

Cheers
3Fees

 

Awesome

 

Meh, I signed up, we'll see how this goes!

 

Interesting project.
Thanks for that link!

 

I can't seem to find how long would they conduct the test... Oh 3 years

 

Could you wipe your router and just install ddwrt? Out of curiosity.

 

You are not allowed to tamper with the router they give you during the trial.

However after you complete the trial, you could do what ever with it.

 

And by not allowed... ?

 

Not attempt to reverse engineer or alter the unit ... is pretty clear to me, no offense.
The requirement is pretty simple, keep the router connected to the internet.
The rule of keeping between it between modem and router is poorly written. They should of defined it as the immediate connection after modem. (This is still pretty poorly worded hehe)

This is what they expect you to do.
web <- modem <- survey router <- main router (optional) <- comp a | comp b | routers | switches | ...

The router they give you is the device that records and send the survey data to them, other than that ... it runs like any other router.

If you don't trust them abiding that they are not looking at your actual data stream, just encrypt all your streams before going through it.

 

It's a study that will benefit all internet users in the US and- on top of that- participant gets a router (and a good one) for free so any discussion on how to potentially exploit this for one's own benefit will result in a nice round infraction for fraud discussion.

 

I mean... if you feel you don't trust them - just don't do it. It's not the end of the world if you'll buy yourself a decent 'n' router for $70 or so.

 

so that means we can't put dd-wrt on it...ahhhh man

 

Nice. Thanks for the link.

 

No thank you.

 

If you go about requesting one please state in a post. Really curious how many are interested in this.

Applied for one- Grandma will be the beneficiary.

 

Not everyone is in the usa if they would try that here in canada would get sued for breach of privacy.
Hardware keylogger anyone .. I'm guessing they have a policy to share info with 3th parties as riaa/mpaa.
Most times free is the one ending up costing the most in the end ...

If you want it go for it.

 

Big brother is watching you.

No thanks.

 

Wow. Buncha paranoid people here.

How exactly do we expect the government to make sure we're getting what we paid for with our taxes if they don't check these things? We gave broadband companies a ton of money to get service out to everyone at an acceptable level... don't you think we ought to check our investment?

People's sense of danger and perspective is horrible. We spend billions of dollars and give up all of our freedom to fight terrorists when over ten times as many of us die in car accidents each year than died in the World Trade Center. Same thing here... being afraid of the wrong thing blinds you to the real dangers and wastes your energy while others take advantage of that.

/gets off soapbox

 

*gets on the soapbox*

I'm mostly with Pitabred on this one. The whole idea is for them to be able to see how much data at what speed you download "in the wild" and- to make it scientific- enable them to test speeds with chosen servers when your internet usage is low.
Second thing- it's stated on the website that they prefer people who do not download that much because if the line is always under load they can't make valid measurement between the router and servers they've chosen.
So it's definitely not used to monitor heavy downloaders.

There's nothing wrong about being paranoid. Is it potentially dangerous for your privacy? Yes it is- in the same way that using credit card of flying an airplane is.
Do you have any basis to suspect that it really is a breach of privacy or that they do share data with riaa/mpaa- no you don't.

What they want to monitor is download and upload speeds, latency, website load times & DNS response times. Most of those are monitored by your ISP anyway- ISPs just don't go public with it when it turns out the quality of service is bad

 

One of their requirements they list is that "You are not a heavy downloader". If they were really looking to share information with your listed organizations, they'd just about demand that you be a heavy downloader. Their privacy policy and the applicable laws they apply in conjunction with that are also quite clearly listed in the FAQ section of the site.

As well, this is a private company doing research on behalf of a government agency (the FCC). I guess in Canada, it'd just be a straight government agency doing it.

 

From FAQ's from 1st link

How long will the testing period last?


The initial testing period is scheduled to last three years.

Cheers
3Fees

 

I am in, I think, but I did not ever receive a confirmation email or for that matter any communication back. Did anyone else hear back yet?
Thanks to OP for pointing this out.

 

No confirmation email received also.

 

I guess the fact that I never heard back means I was not selected or the program was abandoned???
The link in the OP is still viable

 

yea when it comes to this government....I honestly don't trust ti anymore....just saying