Routers

[AmpersUK]

Is it true that the EU have stipulated that we must only have low powered routers?

I ask because Amped in the States sell a router four times as powerful and when I contacted Amazon Com they told me they are not allowed to sell it into the EU.

[Cheesemill]

The EU and the WiFi consortium both limit power to 100mW, it's unusual to find a device with a power output greater than this as it can't be WiFi certified.

[AmpersUK]

The one I just ordered from Amazon.co mm in the US to a friend who will bring it back is 600 mW. Might end my problems as all my external AND internal walls are concrete.

[Cheesemill]

Although you're unlikely to get found out it's worth thinking about the fact that running a router above 100mW in the UK is classed as an unlicensed radio transmission, this is a criminal offence which can attract a fine of up to £5000 and/or 2 years in prison.

On another note, just because you increase the power of the transmitter doesn't necessarily mean you'll increase your range, the transmitters in your devices which connect to the router will still be running at the same power so won't be able to transmit data any further.

[warfacegod]

All routers I've seen will automatically regulate power output according to your location regardless of what you set them to.

A direct quote from my ASUS RT-AC66U

Tx Power adjustment Set the capability for transmission power. The maximum value is 200mW and the real transmission power will be dynamically adjusted to meet regional regulations.

I have no idea how a US router will deal with being in the UK. It may stick you with the 100mW limit, if it adjusts output like they're supposed to. Also, 600mW seems very excessive to me. Routers by nature run hot. I've mine set to the default 80mW and it gets a little toasty but not too bad. You run yours at 600mW (assuming it doesn't automatically throttle the output way down), I suspect you'll be seeing some very high temps. It will probably become unstable pretty quickly. Disconnects, random shutdowns, data corruption, high packet loss, etc.