Best Way To Swap Comcast Modem To Your Own

[SamirD]

Comcast support has went from being one of the better ones of the 5 isps I manage to being at the bottom of the list since they don't even want to connect to you a person. And when you get through to a person, they have to transfer you 3x times to get the answer leaving you wonder if they even know wtf they're talking about.

So I come here because there's probably more knowledge here on Comcast's systems than with any of their support teams.

Here's the setup and what I want to do. I have a comcast xfi modem/router device in bridge mode so it's a straight modem like the modem I was using at our old place. When we moved, it made more sense to set up a second account as we had both places at the same time during the move. The service is the same tier/type. Once the move was done, I disconnected the old service where I had my own modem and not theirs. Now that it's been a few months and we're in the new place without any wiring issues, I want to swap the xfi equipment for my own and return theirs. Sounds like it should be as simple as calling them with my cable mac and let them put mine in and take theirs out, but there's a bunch of little things they told me today that may or may not be lies--that's where your experience helps.

The service at the new place came with a 24mo discount. It took it since I was paying more at the old place for the same speed. This new service also came with the xfi modem/router which I stuck in bridge mode to use as a straight modem with our old setup. What they told me today was the following:

• Changing the modem to my own by calling in will remove my promotional pricing and put in a 1.2TB cap since their device is 'unlimited'.
• Changing the modem to my own by their mf app (I hate apps) will not change my promotional pricing, but put in a 1.2TB cap since their device is 'unlimited'.
• Changing the modem by their walled garden when I plug in my modem will not change my promotional pricing, but put in a 1.2TB cap since their device is 'unlimited'.

Basically I want to swap back to my modem so they can't F with me about it later, but don't want to get F'd in the process, especially if they play some sort of 'unsupported modem' crap and I have to swap back to their modem, which support told me can't be done because the promotion would no longer be valid.

My question is what of this information is actually true or false? Love to hear some experiences.

 

[Zepher]

I would just leave it as is for the rest of the 24 months since if anything does change with the equipment swap, they might not be able to get back the previous options or promotions that changed.

 

[SamirD]

I would just leave it as is for the rest of the 24 months since if anything does change with the equipment swap, they might not be able to get back the previous options or promotions that changed.

That's the risk, but prior to this I didn't have the discounts, but wasn't tied to their equipment leash (which I don't like). My modem is older so I don't want them to say 'oh it's not supported' in another 12 months when it was just working in Sept of 2022 on the other account so they can't F with me that much right now.

 

[Meeho]

I may be missing something, but why not just leave their modem in bridge mode?

 

[SamirD]

I may be missing something, but why not just leave their modem in bridge mode?

Because that's what they want. And you want to be doing the bare minimum of what other people want you to be doing to be free from their agendas. If I had to get my own modem, I would consider that, but I already have a known, working modem I can use. I just don't want to be F'd over by something in their process. Hence I want to hear the nightmare stories.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

I may be missing something, but why not just leave their modem in bridge mode?

Why pay rent on their modem (what is it, like $15/mo now?) when you already own one that's just as good?

 

[philb2]

Why pay rent on their modem (what is it, like $15/mo now?) when you already own one that's just as good?

+1.

 

[philb2]

Related question: I'm thinking (just thinking LOL) of upgrading to Comcast X1. I currently own an ARRIS T25 modem, for data plus VoIP. Can I use this modem if I upgrade. Comcast rep I talked to, how do I say this politely, did not have any information on this question.

 

[SamirD]

Why pay rent on their modem (what is it, like $15/mo now?) when you already own one that's just as good?

Exactly. Although in my situation they're not charging me right now, but that ends with the 'promotion' anyways.

 

[SamirD]

Related question: I'm thinking (just thinking LOL) of upgrading to Comcast X1. I currently own an ARRIS T25 modem, for data plus VoIP. Can I use this modem if I upgrade. Comcast rep I talked to, how do I say this politely, did not have any information on this question.

From what I've researched on the x1, it's a completely different device that you have to switch to (so they can further entrench you so you can't leave easily MWAHAHAHA).

 

[ZeqOBpf6]

If I had to name four ISPs with worse customer service than Comcast to save my daughter's life I wouldn't waste a single moment doing anything but telling her how much I love her.

literally can't even imagine.

 

[Eulogy]

Have you tried just swapping it in by chance? It's low percent chance of working, but, I did have that actually work for me once (in a situation somewhat similar to you, though, about 4 years ago).

 

[Meeho]

Why pay rent on their modem (what is it, like $15/mo now?) when you already own one that's just as good?

You have to pay them extra for being locked in by contract? That doesn't make sense.

 

[toast0]

If I had to name four ISPs with worse customer service than Comcast to save my daughter's life I wouldn't waste a single moment doing anything but telling her how much I love her.

literally can't even imagine.

How many phone companies we got? Att, verizon, centurylink, frontier, the new private equity one that bought half of centurylink's footprint (no personal experience, but private equity running incumbent telco can't be good)

Comcast isn't great, but they're not the phone company.

 

[wizzi01]

Sounds like your promotion has xfi complete. It's the part that has the modem rental and no cap internet.

 

[kyang357]

Looks like if you want unlimited data, you'll have to add $30 (you own your modem, not renting) BUT you might lose your promotional pricing.

My older brother currently has comcast 200/10(?) with an old SB6141, they keep hounding him to *upgrade* his modem, I told him to use it until it dies. No point in getting a super 1gb modem if your plan is 200. It's still working and he has a 1.2tb cap.

Back then it was the garden screen but now they have changed it to APP. Had a friend swap out his modem (3 weeks ago) and I gave him garden screen instructions. That didn't work and he called CSR and was told APP only to provision modem.

 

[Absalom]

I'm still using the even older SB6121 with them. They have over time "gifted" me speeds that far exceed the modem's capabilities but I stopped giving a shit about speeds when they exceeded 100mbps. The only reason I'm still stuck with them is that in my area they are still the best value. I just have to renegotiate their pricing every 5 years or so to maintain said value.

Comcast's stupid game for me is every year or so they find an excuse to raise your bill. They are more blood sucking than lawyers. Their rentable modem to me is yet another tactic for them trying to suck more blood out of you, for what I'd argue is worse value. I'm guessing for some customers the newer modem is a venue to faster speeds (promotions probably sweetening the deal). Sounds like they are now gating acess to those speeds with the hardware. Jokes on them, I don't need more than 100mbps.

I keep expecting them to find some technical excuse to disallow old modems from working. But my modem refuses to die, so I guess they have to deal with me.

What surprises me more is that after 10 years with Comcast the ISP alternatives are even more incompetent. Their competitors could have easily had me jump ship, but they're all greedy bastards around here.

 

[wizzi01]

Looks like if you want unlimited data, you'll have to add $30 (you own your modem, not renting) BUT you might lose your promotional pricing.

My older brother currently has comcast 200/10(?) with an old SB6141, they keep hounding him to *upgrade* his modem, I told him to use it until it dies. No point in getting a super 1gb modem if your plan is 200. It's still working and he has a 1.2tb cap.

Back then it was the garden screen but now they have changed it to APP. Had a friend swap out his modem (3 weeks ago) and I gave him garden screen instructions. That didn't work and he called CSR and was told APP only to provision modem.
View attachment 545109

That's the reason i just rent the Comcast modem. It's about the same price with unlimited as just having unlimited.

 

[TheSlySyl]

I use my own modem with comcast, but I do pay the stupid $30 "fee" to have unlimited. I'm up to 1.4gb download on my SB8200 though through WAN aggregation and I think I paid $90 for the modem 2+ years ago, so it works for me.

I am running a bit more complicated setup than most with AImesh, Adguard Home and Unbound though, and I don't want Comcast fucking with that.

I mainly don't want that useless "XFINITY" Public network to pop up anywhere near my house. Since comcast has been making it nearly impossible to deactivate.
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversa...-public-wifi-hotspot/61e1ebe91483e63d3e53ad9d

 

[wizzi01]

I use my own modem with comcast, but I do pay the stupid $30 "fee" to have unlimited. I'm up to 1.4gb download on my SB8200 though through WAN aggregation and I think I paid $90 for the modem 2+ years ago, so it works for me.

I am running a bit more complicated setup than most with AImesh, Adguard Home and Unbound though, and I don't want Comcast fucking with that.

I mainly don't want that useless "XFINITY" Public network to pop up anywhere near my house. Since comcast has been making it nearly impossible to deactivate.
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversa...-public-wifi-hotspot/61e1ebe91483e63d3e53ad9d

How many of those people have neighbors with xfinity and don't realize it?

 

[TheSlySyl]

I see those Xfinity networks All The Time when I'm just out and about. Neighborhoods, apartments, even at restaurants. Comcast is pretty much the only reasonable internet option in my town.

 

[philb2]

I mainly don't want that useless "XFINITY" Public network to pop up anywhere near my house.

+1. It's only a matter of time before someone hacks Comcast modems to permit communications between your home LAN and the xfinity public network. That will be a big payday for all the hackers out there.

 

[SamirD]

Have you tried just swapping it in by chance? It's low percent chance of working, but, I did have that actually work for me once (in a situation somewhat similar to you, though, about 4 years ago).

I haven't because apparently my promo rate is tied to their equipment and once I take their modem off the account, the promo is gone and can't be put back on...supposedly.

 

[SamirD]

Sounds like your promotion has xfi complete. It's the part that has the modem rental and no cap internet.

You're right--call's it an 'add on'. I'm not worried about the data cap as I didn't have issues with it when it was just 1 vs 1.2 at the old place.

I'd just rather have my old modem back in place since it gets me away from this 'game' of promotions and nonsense.

 

[SamirD]

Looks like if you want unlimited data, you'll have to add $30 (you own your modem, not renting) BUT you might lose your promotional pricing.

My older brother currently has comcast 200/10(?) with an old SB6141, they keep hounding him to *upgrade* his modem, I told him to use it until it dies. No point in getting a super 1gb modem if your plan is 200. It's still working and he has a 1.2tb cap.

Back then it was the garden screen but now they have changed it to APP. Had a friend swap out his modem (3 weeks ago) and I gave him garden screen instructions. That didn't work and he called CSR and was told APP only to provision modem.
View attachment 545109

Thank you! Yep, the rep told me about the unlimited, but I don't need it. The main thing I would be concerned about is losing the promotional rate.

I wonder what would happen if your brother's modem died and he replaced it with another sb6141--would they even allow the mac? That's kinda the scenario I'm in since the sb6190 isn't officially supported anymore. They used to nag me a bit at the old place about an upgrade, but I know I didn't need it so I was planning to use it until it died just as you've recommended to your brother (and which is what I recommend to most people who are considering useless 'upgrades').

I was also told that app was the only way to change the mac, but after I asked why they can't change it, they said that they can, but then it changes the plan promotions. I do somehow recall hitting a type of walled garden though on my initial install since I needed to set their modem to bridge mode, but I could be mistaken too as my memory is just mush these days. Hence why I'm looking for experience such as yours--thank you for sharing it!

 

[SamirD]

I'm still using the even older SB6121 with them. They have over time "gifted" me speeds that far exceed the modem's capabilities but I stopped giving a shit about speeds when they exceeded 100mbps. The only reason I'm still stuck with them is that in my area they are still the best value. I just have to renegotiate their pricing every 5 years or so to maintain said value.

Comcast's stupid game for me is every year or so they find an excuse to raise your bill. They are more blood sucking than lawyers. Their rentable modem to me is yet another tactic for them trying to suck more blood out of you, for what I'd argue is worse value. I'm guessing for some customers the newer modem is a venue to faster speeds (promotions probably sweetening the deal). Sounds like they are now gating acess to those speeds with the hardware. Jokes on them, I don't need more than 100mbps.

I keep expecting them to find some technical excuse to disallow old modems from working. But my modem refuses to die, so I guess they have to deal with me.

What surprises me more is that after 10 years with Comcast the ISP alternatives are even more incompetent. Their competitors could have easily had me jump ship, but they're all greedy bastards around here.

Thank you! What's your method to fix their pricing? I'm sure you have it down to a science by now.

Yeah ISPs everywhere are getting this way, and it's not just ISPs--telephone companies and even others are following the lemmings over the cliff into third world business practices--seriously, this is how 'good' service is in the third-world. We shouldn't have to put up with this at all here in the first world. Meanwhile in Europe they're rolling out 10Gb at reasonable prices...

 

[SamirD]

I use my own modem with comcast, but I do pay the stupid $30 "fee" to have unlimited. I'm up to 1.4gb download on my SB8200 though through WAN aggregation and I think I paid $90 for the modem 2+ years ago, so it works for me.

I am running a bit more complicated setup than most with AImesh, Adguard Home and Unbound though, and I don't want Comcast fucking with that.

I mainly don't want that useless "XFINITY" Public network to pop up anywhere near my house. Since comcast has been making it nearly impossible to deactivate.
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversa...-public-wifi-hotspot/61e1ebe91483e63d3e53ad9d

I too have a more complicated setup than most (IPsec vpn router and more behind it), so I just want a straight modem. If I didn't have the fear of the wife getting mad at me if it didn't work, I should have just put my modem in from day one and avoided this mess to begin with. 20/20 hindsight I guess.

Those damn wifi robbing public hotspot APs (and there's even another one for their 'security' services--so a total of 3x), is exactly why I got my modem in the first place back in Chicagoland. In an apartment complex it was absolutely bonkers with 100APs in the airwaves inside our apartment, many of them the stupid hidden and not so hidden APs on their equipment. Even after getting our own modem because of all the other APs and hotspot APs blasting in the air, we could no longer get our service speeds inside our apartment (we were one of the first in the building so had a blue ocean for a time). The solution? Just doubled the plan so wife would see the old wifi speeds again, hence problem 'fixed'.

That forced airwave robbery really pisses me off since wireless is a shared and not switched medium. Comcast says they don't use your bandwidth and from a certain technical standpoint that is true as it does not use your plan's bandwidth, but for all practical purposes the second you load up all the APs with traffic simultaneously, there is definitely a difference on your own paid connection. But most people in the public are nice and stupid so they get reamed.

 

[SamirD]

How many of those people have neighbors with xfinity and don't realize it?

Since isps typically have a 'territory', probably a lot more than people realize. Dong even wrote about how to hack a Tesla to use the xfinity hotspot network:
https://dongknows.com/tesla-data-usage-and-the-free-xfinitywifi-hotspot/

 

[SamirD]

+1. It's only a matter of time before someone hacks Comcast modems to permit communications between your home LAN and the xfinity public network. That will be a big payday for all the hackers out there.

From what I can tell, they're separate VLANs, and while there are hacks for VLANs, nothing that has a big payoff--yet.

But the way the airwaves are robbed from your own wifi is a real issue. Someone even leeching at the max 25Mb on the hotspot will kill your nas transfer over wifi.

 

[SamirD]

I think I have an alternate solution that I might strongly consider--just downgrade the plan to nearly nothing once the promo is up, put my sb6190 on it and get att fibre as well. Then I'll have the redundant Internet I've gotten used to after going multi-wan decades ago, and I don't have to worry about the modem for the next year or so.

 

[Grentz]

When I moved to my new house and had to get Comcast, I too hated the idea of using their modem. I have always been an own my own equipment and just give me straight internet kind of guy.

That said, I have been using the Xfi deal in bridge mode with their extra wifi disabled and it has been working great for me. It is extremely stable and does pass through a true bridged internet WAN. What I noticed when trying to use my own device was I lost the 'unlimited' (or had to pay MORE than just renting the modem to get it back), had even worse customer support (they blamed my modem for everything) and actually see better speeds with their device which I feel like is a bit suspect of them giving some preferred treatment to their device....

At the end of the day though, it has worked out fine to stick with it and I just don't think about it anymore.

 

[SamirD]

When I moved to my new house and had to get Comcast, I too hated the idea of using their modem. I have always been an own my own equipment and just give me straight internet kind of guy.

That said, I have been using the Xfi deal in bridge mode with their extra wifi disabled and it has been working great for me. It is extremely stable and does pass through a true bridged internet WAN. What I noticed when trying to use my own device was I lost the 'unlimited' (or had to pay MORE than just renting the modem to get it back), had even worse customer support (they blamed my modem for everything) and actually see better speeds with their device which I feel like is a bit suspect of them giving some preferred treatment to their device....

At the end of the day though, it has worked out fine to stick with it and I just don't think about it anymore.

Yeah, that's the boat I'm in right now, but I know if it benefits them then I'm going to lose in the end. I don't need the unlimited data, so that wouldn't be a loss, but the promotional pricing would be, although now that I think about it, I was paying full price at the old place so I guess it wouldn't be too bad to lose the promo pricing.

 

[philb2]

When I moved to my new house and had to get Comcast, I too hated the idea of using their modem. I have always been an own my own equipment and just give me straight internet kind of guy.

That said, I have been using the Xfi deal in bridge mode with their extra wifi disabled and it has been working great for me. It is extremely stable and does pass through a true bridged internet WAN. What I noticed when trying to use my own device was I lost the 'unlimited' (or had to pay MORE than just renting the modem to get it back), had even worse customer support (they blamed my modem for everything) and actually see better speeds with their device which I feel like is a bit suspect of them giving some preferred treatment to their device....

At the end of the day though, it has worked out fine to stick with it and I just don't think about it anymore.

Comcast has you by the short and curlies.

 

[kirbyrj]

The last time I had comcast you definitely had to call them to provision your modem with your account.

In your case though, I probably wouldn't since you lose the promotional pricing and potentially the unlimited data. I know you say you won't hit the cap, but who knows what will happen between now and when the promotional pricing ends?

Either way, that's pretty shitty of Comcast (no surprise there). I never even had them install their modem the last time I had them. I had the installer put mine in to save the rental fee. I'm guessing Comcast is getting wise.

 

[SamirD]

The last time I had comcast you definitely had to call them to provision your modem with your account.

In your case though, I probably wouldn't since you lose the promotional pricing and potentially the unlimited data. I know you say you won't hit the cap, but who knows what will happen between now and when the promotional pricing ends?

Either way, that's pretty shitty of Comcast (no surprise there). I never even had them install their modem the last time I had them. I had the installer put mine in to save the rental fee. I'm guessing Comcast is getting wise.

I'll never hit the cap since it's mainly just rdp data for me. The wife does video calls and whatnot, but that's inside her company vpn, so again probably not my bandwidth for the whole thing.

I should have just put my foot down on getting the exact same service I had before, no promo crap--but at $20/mo less for 24x months, that's $480. Then I can just get att and keep this at some basic $20/mo plan and use my old modem because bandwidth won't matter.