Router and WiFi Access Point are different things. There are tons of routers that do not have WiFi.
this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
738 points (97.3% liked)
Technology
84965 readers
3960 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Yes, but 90% of ISP supplied modems around the world are modem + router + WiFi access point with a unified firmware.
You also can't take the antennas off of those and they are required in order to receive internet.
Yes you can use your own router (I have a Unifi cloud gateway ultra myself and one access point in the middle of the house), but that doesn't mean that disabling the WiFi on the ISP web-software bullshit actually disables the WiFi and doesn't just hide the SSID and make it un-connectable and still use it for this kind of thing and identifying nearby devices.
It also doesn't mean that all the routers themselves like my Unifi aren't using the access points to do the exact same thing (or will in the future). The only way you can actually control that is with openwrt or similar.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Hmm. The article appears to conflate multiple things?
One of them is “viewing” the RF spectrum to build up an image. The other is reading the unencrypted beamforming data from a router. That second one depends on people carrying a WiFi-capable piece of electronics with them doesn’t it? There has to be something for the beam to focus on, some sort of beacon signal.
Although I guess all it really needs is for the person to step between the router and a device connected to the router; that should enable analysis of the disruption patterns.
I don't think a person has to carry anything. The tracking is based on measuring the interference a moving person (or a dog) creates between the router and a connected device like a range extender or a networked printer.
DOUBT
This information is several years old...
Would carrying around some sort of Wifi disruptor help against this? It would likely have to be a passive persistent effect, not something like an EMP (but those we can reserve for particularly annoying snoopers).
I mentioned this in a another reply, but you just need a microwave oven basically :)
Super now I just need to find one of these in portable form factor. And a good battery.
I'm not sure about wifi but cell jamming has been heavily criminalized and tracked
We are already being so criminalized for existing, so what?
wifi jamming would be much more localized and would affect far fewer people than a cell jammer
load more comments
(1 replies)
What's stopping me from building my own router?
Nothing. Get a mini pc with 2 or more ethernet ports and install openwrt or opnsense or maybe others I haven't tried, get a standalone wifi AP so if you ever want to upgrade anything you can do it separately, get a network switch to connect additional wired computers or wifi APs.
Then get in all the homelab groups and find the coolest stuff you also want and start making the home network made by you and for you.
If you already have a wifi router that can be flashed with custom firmware you can also use that to start out and use it as a wifi access point for a more powerful pc router later
Knowing how.
All routers are just Linux computers managing slightly better than average network cards. (Home routers, obviously. Beefy carrier hardware is different).
A basic setup is essentially installing Linux and then running a handful of commands for packet forwarding. The figuring out how to do it without wifi crashing will take longer because that software is wonky.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I was watching a video the other day that was showing WiFi sensing using TOMMY which uses channel state information (CSI) - something this article describes as the previous approach. That was already quite impressive, although not nearly as powerful as this teaser hints at.
~~We'll have to wait for the~~ hang on, the Taipei conference was last year so this is old news. Here's the paper: https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000185756
I mean, I obsessively hardwire all my devices, only my phone uses WiFi.
This just gives me a reason to skip using a WiFi Access Point entirely and just routing my phone through my home network via my Wireguard VPN which I already do for adblocking.
Doesn't help as much if you live in a bunch of cramped apartments and there's a lot of WiFi around you though.
load more comments
(1 replies)