New Comcast Modem push

HardUp4HardWare

HardUp4HardWare

Supreme [H]ardness
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Got an email the other day about upgrading my cable modem, when I clicked the email it said that by opening the email I am confirming my order for an upgrade kit. Lame.

Anyway, I am just wondering if others are getting these new wifi enabled modems and what if any safety and security measures I should take to make sure Scumcast isn't trying to screw me or monitor me any more than they alrady do.
I believe they are calling these "gateways" not routers. Which I am guessing means they are not as secure as a router.


Thoughts?
 
Get them to put it into bridge mode and use your own gateway/router. Did that day one when they forced me to use this thing.
 
Yes the new Gateways. I have one by Technicolor, and one by SMC. My friend worked at technicolor and got me that one for free. It sucks, and bridge mode doesn't work for shit on it. If you can, GET THE SMC. It will work fine. Usually Tier 1 techs can put it in Bridge mode, but I always request a Tier 2 tech for that.

The wifi works alright on them, but some customers are complaining about the "Xfinity wifi public hotspot" that may be enabled in certain markets so random jerkoffs with an xfinity account can use your wifi bandwidth.
 
THUMPer1 said:
Yes the new Gateways. I have one by Technicolor, and one by SMC. My friend worked at technicolor and got me that one for free. It sucks, and bridge mode doesn't work for shit on it. If you can, GET THE SMC. It will work fine. Usually Tier 1 techs can put it in Bridge mode, but I always request a Tier 2 tech for that.

The wifi works alright on them, but some customers are complaining about the "Xfinity wifi public hotspot" that may be enabled in certain markets so random jerkoffs with an xfinity account can use your wifi bandwidth.
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Wait, so the Xfinity Public Hotspot isn't on its own radio?
 
450 said:
Wait, so the Xfinity Public Hotspot isn't on its own radio?
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No, it should have it's own channel. I may have had diarrhea of the mouth.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/16/technology/security/comcast-wifi-hotspot/

With two separate networks, each antenna has its own data speed cap. Comcast said the private channel provides whatever speed customers already pay to get (most have 25 Megabits per second). The public hotspot channel is given 15 Mbps and allows up to five people to connect at a time.
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Regardless, it's still silly for comcast to do that.
 
The one by Arris works okay and bridge mode actually works reliably. Just be sure they disable wifi & put it in bridge mode, those are separate functions.
 
Comcast is indeed upgrading all of their user equipment. Their primary goal is to get all of the older DOCSIS 2.x equipment off the network and upgraded to DOCSIS 3.0/3.1. This is a good thing, as it's the first step toward them eventually being able to provide gigabit speeds to users.

I agree the public WiFi is bullshit. It is a separate radio, yet I've come across at least 3 that where configured so that the public hotspot was broadcasting on the SAME exact 2.4Ghz channel as the private network
tard.gif


At least if you call and complain, they will disable it for you.
 
Aren't these part of the "Millions of free hotspots" advertisement? Xfinity is basically sharing your Wifi with whoever else wants it.
 
bigdogchris said:
Aren't these part of the "Millions of free hotspots" advertisement? Xfinity is basically sharing your Wifi with whoever else wants it.
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"whoever else wants it" in the sense that they still have to log in with their xfinity account to use it.

If they aren't an xfinity user themselves, they will be out of luck. It's also fairly unlikely that anyone is going to log in with their account and then use the connection for nefarious purposes.

Of course, that still doesn't make it okay IMO. I'd never tolerate Comcast deciding to put a hot spot in my fucking house.
 
bigdogchris said:
Aren't these part of the "Millions of free hotspots" advertisement? Xfinity is basically sharing your Wifi with whoever else wants it.
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It's more annoying because it's using YOUR bandwidth and they aren't very clear about that. As an XFinity customer you should always have the ability to opt out even if it's their gear. You are paying to rent it so that part is irrelevant if that's ever used as an excuse.

With bandwidth caps and Comcast temporarily playing the, "We disabled all bandwidth caps" card it's only a matter of time before they get re-instated and this will directly impact users. Them claiming they can magically detect their Wi-Fi service through your modem and not have it go against your cap, is bullshit. If that was the case then whats to stop people from just sharing each others XFinity Wi-Fi to get unlimited bandwidth, or is that now a hidden service charge? See the whole thing gets murky and trust Comcast not.
 
Liger88 said:
As an XFinity customer you should always have the ability to opt out even if it's their gear.
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You can, just have to call them.

Liger88 said:
If that was the case then whats to stop people from just sharing each others XFinity Wi-Fi to get unlimited bandwidth
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You have to log in with your xfinity account, so it's not like they wouldn't still know exactly who is using what.
 
I got one without wifi built in. I knew I had an old modem so the email wasn't a surprise. It gave me the option to pick one up myself so I went that route. I wouldn't give Comcast super high marks because it's expensive, but I have had good success getting what want from them.
 
Just an FYI ... If you don't want to participate in the "Xfinity WiFi" fun, you may be able to turn it on/off yourself:

1. Log in to your Comcast account as primary user/account.
2. Click "My Account"
3. Click "Users & Preferences"
4. Under "Service Address", click "Manage XFINITY WiFi"
5. Click as appropriate:
- "Enable XFINITY Wifi Home HotSpot" or
- "Disable XFINITY Wifi Home HotSpot"

6. Confirm "XFINITY Wifi" SSID is/isn't broadcasting.

Worked for me ..no call needed.
 
Don't know about the comcast equipment but a router is technically only for internal traffic and a bridge or gateway is the correct phrase for equipment that connects to an external network like your ISP's slam. Ie a router routes traffic where as bridges and gateways are supposed to add a remove headers...
 
Durpity said:
Get them to put it into bridge mode and use your own gateway/router. Did that day one when they forced me to use this thing.
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I second this. The configuration options for the Motorolla cable modem I bought pale in comparison to my wireless router with DDWRT.
 
Just buy your own modem like a Surfboard and you won't have to worry about Comcast accessing it, because they can't!
 
As a soon-to-be Comcast customer, this is very useful information. Will be bringing my modem with me (already made sure its compatible) and opting out of Xfinity Wifi. Thanks all!
 
benzino_86 said:
As a soon-to-be Comcast customer, this is very useful information. Will be bringing my modem with me (already made sure its compatible) and opting out of Xfinity Wifi. Thanks all!
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If you are using your own modem they can't enable the xfinity wifi. Because more than likely you are bringing a modem, not a router-modem combo so it wouldn't have built in wi-fi. Secondly they won't have access to a modem you own to enable any such feature.
 
CamaroZ28 said:
If you are using your own modem they can't enable the xfinity wifi. Because more than likely you are bringing a modem, not a router-modem combo so it wouldn't have built in wi-fi. Secondly they won't have access to a modem you own to enable any such feature.
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Ah yes, correct.
 
Why use their modem anyway? I don't pay rental fees on equipment. A friend got a Technicolor and the thing sucked....the firmware had about half the options your own equipment has, and she had issues hooking up WIRED of all things.
 
450 said:
Actually if thats the case - I wouldn't mind that.

Does the bandwidth cap still apply to the public hotspot? Worst case scenario its like a free 15mbps.
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You can't login on them without your Xfinity Username/Password. I'm speaking from my own personal experience of using it in Memphis. Yours may vary.

So...they know who is connected and how much bandwidth you're using and who is exceeding their CAP.
 
CamaroZ28 said:
Just buy your own modem like a Surfboard and you won't have to worry about Comcast accessing it, because they can't!
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Totally wrong, Comcast and TWC have more access to user purchased cable modems than the owners do. Cable companies can flash end user cable modems with new firmware, reset the modems at will, and push .bin (config) files to them whenever they want.
 
ocellaris said:
Totally wrong, Comcast and TWC have more access to user purchased cable modems than the owners do. Cable companies can flash end user cable modems with new firmware, reset the modems at will, and push .bin (config) files to them whenever they want.
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I'd like to see them "flash" the capability of magically adding hardware to make my plain wired Motorola Surfboard a wifi hotspot.... rofl.
 
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