[SML] FCC rules on wifi jamming.

[Dale Farmer]

Active RF jamming has long been illegal in the US except for the 
military and suchlike.   What Marriott did (handwaving  the gory 
technical details) was have their wifi nodes detect other wifi nodes 
that were not in the marriott network, and any wifi devices that were 
connected to these. Marriott nodes then spoofed deauthorization messages 
to the end user wifi devices, which then shut down the connection and 
restarted a new connection authorization process, which the marriott 
wifi nodes detected and did the same thing again.  Repeat ad infinitum.

    Not technically jamming in the traditional sense, more of a denial 
of service attack.    But the FCC folks looked at it, and decided that 
this was, under the intent of the anti-jamming regulations, just another 
form of jamming of a legitimate licensed RF service.

    Building your structure in such a way as to be a faraday cage is 
not, I think, illegal under FCC rules.  But unless you are building a 
bunker, a theater, or other windowless structure, making it RF proof is 
actually pretty difficult, especially against higher frequencies that 
will slip in through cracks and seams.   IF you are building a structure 
where you have some legitimate need to do this, such as classified work 
that requires TEMPEST RF blocking, or a RF leakage test chamber.   
Actually doing this for a theater would open up another can of worms.

   Your insurance provider may hike your premiums if they find out your 
building is a faraday cage.  Your local fire department may also require 
you to install a fire department radio repeater or otherwise open up 
your building to their radio communications. Any patron who suffers 
medical incident on your property who suffers adverse result that could 
possibly be blamed on lack of radio service to the EMTs by a sleazeball 
lawyer will also be interested.

   --Dale

On 1/28/2015 4:35 PM, Chip Wood via Stagecraft wrote:
> As long as they never mention "wi-fi" or "blocking" on any 
> construction document.  Every little cafe, coffee,  and pizza joint 
> has big ads offering free wi-fi, but every business class or higher 
> hotel makes you pay a ridiculous amount for it.    Yet they call 
> themselves full service. Weird?
>
> But this only applies to active RF jamming or "deauthorization?" of 
> personal Wi-Fi hot spots operating on mobile networks right, not 
> construction blocking or Wi-Fi jamming.
>
> Chip 1
>
> On 1/28/2015 1:41 PM, Richard Niederberg via Stagecraft wrote:
>> Dear Dale,
>> If they built their Hotels like Faraday cages, to strengthen the 
>> building from all EMR [Think a real-life version of the fictional 007 
>> 'GoldenEye'], they wouldn't have a problem with the FCC.
>> /s/ Richard
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 12:11 PM, Dale Farmer via Stagecraft 
>> <stagecraft at theatrical.net <mailto:stagecraft at theatrical.net>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>     The FCC released it's ruling on the marriott wifi blocking
>>     matter.    WHat they did was essentially jamming, and anyone else
>>     who tries to do this will get "...substantial monetary penalties."
>>
>>     http://gizmodo.com/the-fcc-fined-marriott-for-600-000-for-blocking-guests-1642154851/1682126231
>>
>>     http://www.fcc.gov/document/warning-wi-fi-blocking-prohibited
>>
>
>
>
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