ah, I understand. Good to know that next time I'm in the US, I will refrain from buying a mac until, of course my visit is permanent lol
On 15 Apr 2010, at 12:33, Dónal Fitzpatrick wrote: > Hi Marie, > > It's not a problem going from Europe to the US, the problem occurs when > travelling the other way. The reason is that the range of channels which, > by law, we're allowed to broadcast on is greater in Europe. So for example, > if you have a router broadcasting on channel 13, a US Mac with a US wireless > card would not pick it up because it is only configured (again by law) to > receive channels 1-11. > > For the hackers among you, there is a fix involving the creation of a > bootable usb-based Linux distro, booting your Mac using this, and using > various tools to rewrite the PROM on the wireless card. All seemed like too > much work to me to be honest so I just changed the configuration on my > router <smile> > > Cheers > > Dónal > > -----Original Message----- > From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > [mailto:macvisionar...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of marie Howarth > Sent: 15 April 2010 12:28 > To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: Non-US people buying a Mac in the US: Warning. > > That's interesting. When my mac came to the US with me, I had no issues of > this. my mac was set up on my friend's network in her home. Hmm, very > interesting. > > On 15 Apr 2010, at 12:20, Dónal Fitzpatrick wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> I intended to post this months ago and forgot. On a trip to the >> States back in January I decided to take advantage of the excellent >> exchange rate and buy a 13" MBP. I saved a fortune I assure you. >> >> However, on returning home I discovered something I wasn't previously >> aware of. The wireless card in the US models is actually configured >> differently from those sold in Europe. The reason is this. FCC >> regulations in the States means that wireless routers only broadcast >> on channels 1-11. In Europe, we can broadcast on channels 1-13. So, >> wireless cards on Mac machines purchased in the US are only set up to > operate on channels 1-11. >> All of my routers were configured to broadcast on channel 13, so my >> nice shiny new machine purchased in the US didn't see any of my routers. >> >> It was a very simple fix to adjust the channels downwards, and all is >> now fine. However if you go to, say a public WIFI area, or are using >> your machine on a network where you can't control the channel on which >> the wireless signal is broadcast, it might, just might, be a problem >> for you to purchase your machine in the US. As an aside, for anyone >> travelling to Europe (or Japan) with a US machine, if you can't pick >> up a wireless signal that others can, this could be a reason. >> >> This may, and probably will, affect only a few people but I pass it on >> for what it's worth. >> >> Cheers >> >> Dónal >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
