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What's your Airport Card Country code?

I live in Brazil, and bought my 17" MBP from Canada in June, and my airport Country Code right now is ZW (Zimbabwe). When i'm at college, it jumps to US. And at home, it changes to ZW. This is a problem as in some countries some frequencies are now allowed. I have the 10.6.1 SL.

It's seems that either I have a faulty Airport Card, or Snow Leopard changes the card locale depending which routers are available for connection.

So, I wanted to know if anyone is seeing somethig weird as I am in the Airport Country Code.

Here's what I see in my info. The problem is that I can't use Wireless N in this country code.

Software Versions:
Menu Extra: 6.0 (600.22)
configd plug-in: 6.0 (600.27)
System Profiler: 6.0 (600.9)
Network Preference: 6.0 (600.22)
AirPort Utility: 5.4.2 (542.23)
IO80211 Family: 3.0 (300.20)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.19)
Locale: FCC
Country Code: ZW
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Wake On Wireless: Supported
Status: Connected

To check this out, it's under

About This Mac/

More Info.../

Airport/

17" 2.88 Ghz MBP 5.2 500GB 5.4K Hitachi, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Sep 30, 2009 6:25 PM

32 replies

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,557 points

Dec 1, 2009 3:24 PM in response to putnik

putnik wrote:
If computers all round the world are passively receiving incorrect country codes, then the router manufacturers or retailers must be guilty of gross negligence in supplying illegal equipment designed for other countries with different wireless regulations.

The problem isn't incredibly widespread, though obviously it seems like it is to those affected by it.

This usually happens when someone buys a router in one country and takes it to another, not thinking of the consequences. This is most often a student buying a router at home and taking it to school in another country or vice-versa, or people who simply moved and never gave it a thought. There may also be a supply of routers for sale on eBay and the like that may not be legal for the country they are being sold in, either.

I'm not saying there's not a bug here, but I'm trying to explain how country code detection currently works.

Many have found that if they connect to a different network say at school or work, they do not experience the issue, which implicates a neighbor with a router.

If the incorrect country code is seen no matter where you connect to a network, then there are other factors at play.

Feb 10, 2010 4:34 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

I have just run across this issue, but the country codes change when I use "Location" from the apple menu.

Set to anything but "Automatic", it chooses to set itself to US wifi channels. This causes me problems, as my router is set to channel 13.

What's your Airport Card Country code?