ripoff

[Ali Gilani]

I never fail to be amazed at how companies constant try to rip us off. So, even if the card is centrino certified and is the same make and model, hp is going to force us to only buy the hp branded card? I have been a long time compaq business laptop customer, but if this trend keeps going, i'll be looking for the exit sign.

Please send our request to the product manager for this product about the bios or forward his contact information to me so I can have a "chat" with this genius.

thanks,

Ali

[Philip Doragh]

Have you read the other posts...HP did not do this because it was "fun" or a way to cause churn with our customers, HP was forced to do it to get approval from various regulatory agencies. If you don't believe me, go check the FCC submittal for the nc6000 WLAN devices and see the BIOS lock discussed as a way to make sure that HP is following FCC rules in this regard.

[Thomas Bianco]

you should be aware that Dell, IBM, and Gateway have all had to do this with their offerings.

the FCC regulations are quite archaic, stating that a radio must be certified with the antenna that is to be used with it.

linksys recently went through a very large hassle to certify something like 400 combinations of it's modular antennas on it's newest wireless access point.