Comcast Sued For Turning Home Wi-Fi Routers Into Public Hotspots

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
You know, we said this would happen back when this was first announced. We are actually kind of surprised it took this long for someone to sue.

Two East Bay residents are suing Comcast for plugging their home’s wireless router into what they call a power-wasting, Internet-clogging, privacy threatening network of public Wi-Fi hotspots. The class-action suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of Toyer Grear and daughter Joycelyn Harris, claims Comcast is “exploiting them for profit” by using their Pittsburg home’s router as part of a nationwide network of public hotspots.
Click to expand...
 
Comcast in a nutshell: "What is ours is ours, and what is yours is also ours. Actually, it was never yours to begin with. Bitch."
 
This is actually causing real world problems at some of my clients... Comcast is claiming that they cannot disable the wifi built in, and our spectrum is already so congested that adding 4 more beacons (one public, one private, in each 2.4 and 5ghz spctrum) at the location caused other WiFi networks to experience issues....

Fuck you Comcast, the only available ISP.
 
ghost6303 said:
This is actually causing real world problems at some of my clients... Comcast is claiming that they cannot disable the wifi built in, and our spectrum is already so congested that adding 4 more beacons (one public, one private, in each 2.4 and 5ghz spctrum) at the location caused other WiFi networks to experience issues....

Fuck you Comcast, the only available ISP.
Click to expand...

They're clearly lying, I had them turn mine off as soon as they sent me their new gigantic monstrosity of a router. Hasn't been on since.
 
ghost6303 said:
This is actually causing real world problems at some of my clients... Comcast is claiming that they cannot disable the wifi built in, and our spectrum is already so congested that adding 4 more beacons (one public, one private, in each 2.4 and 5ghz spctrum) at the location caused other WiFi networks to experience issues....

Fuck you Comcast, the only available ISP.
Click to expand...

You can turn off the private zone at least on the business routers. I did that for one of my clients. Past that build a faraday cage around it. I was thinking of doing it for a few places.
 
So is this on a router that they happily lease to you for a monthly fee too? I think they're at least nice enough to not count it against your quota though... but who knows.
 
Wonder what the legal ramifications of this are? Examples: pirating software, kiddie porn, fraudulent use of the internet, etc.

Screw this crap. If they gave me an option to reduce my bill or guarantee it won't affect my available bandwidth, perhaps I'd give it a consideration (not thinking about the legal questions).
 
steakman1971 said:
Wonder what the legal ramifications of this are? Examples: pirating software, kiddie porn, fraudulent use of the internet, etc.

Screw this crap. If they gave me an option to reduce my bill or guarantee it won't affect my available bandwidth, perhaps I'd give it a consideration (not thinking about the legal questions).
Click to expand...

You have to login with your comcast account once connected to the wifi, so I assume that clears potential legal side up.

When my mom got one of these all in one routers I turned the hotspot feature off but it magically gets turned back on every two or so months and considering I'm the only one who touches the thing I can only assume its Comcast in some way.

At my house I have my own modem so I dont have to deal with this or their leasing bs.
 
They tried to give me one of these when I renewed my service. I promptly returned it to them. I have no need for that crap.
 
ghost6303 said:
This is actually causing real world problems at some of my clients... Comcast is claiming that they cannot disable the wifi built in, and our spectrum is already so congested that adding 4 more beacons (one public, one private, in each 2.4 and 5ghz spctrum) at the location caused other WiFi networks to experience issues....

Fuck you Comcast, the only available ISP.
Click to expand...

from slashdot:

Former comcast employee and Business Class customer here. They tell you that you have to use their modem so they can market VOIP phone service to you once it's installed. You can use any modem you want as long as it supports DOCSIS3. Go buy any DOCSIS3 modem and plug it in, then call them and tell them you want a modem swap.
Click to expand...
 
ChedWick said:
You have to login with your comcast account once connected to the wifi, so I assume that clears potential legal side up.

When my mom got one of these all in one routers I turned the hotspot feature off but it magically gets turned back on every two or so months and considering I'm the only one who touches the thing I can only assume its Comcast in some way.

At my house I have my own modem so I dont have to deal with this or their leasing bs.
Click to expand...

Firmware updates are automatically re-enabling this "feature."

This would explain the 10+ emails I got asking me to upgrade my modem again - which they can kindly kiss my ass since I don't even rent one from them.
 
To be fair, my neighbor has one and one day my wifi wasn't working and it was very helpful to me. It's not like it's completely useless. As long as it doesn't count against your cap it shouldn't make a huge difference...
 
ghost6303 said:
Fuck you Comcast, the only available ISP.
Click to expand...

You must be mistaken. According to their letter to the FCC, the state of competition in the ISP world has never been better!* See p.15 of the shameless PR blurb I mean thoughtful response to the FCC's questions:

" Most consumers have access tomore than one fixed broadband provider, and their choices are growing over time. As of June 2013, 99% of households are located in census tracts with at least two fixed broadband providers (78% in census tracts with at least three), and their choices, including at higher broadband speeds, are growing."

*please note the extreme sarcasm of my reply
 
chenw said:
This is why I NEVER use routers provided by ISPs
Click to expand...

How can you do that if you have phone through comcast as well? I believe the all in one router is a must because there isnt a stand alone unit you can have with just phone. The only way is to not have phone with comcast because then you can have your own modem correct?
 
At least FIOS gives you an ONT so you can plug directly into your router and bypass a modem all together.

You can easily buy a MOCA bridge adapter for all your DVR needs.

I fucking despise Comcast..
 
hockeypro889 said:
To be fair, my neighbor has one and one day my wifi wasn't working and it was very helpful to me. It's not like it's completely useless. As long as it doesn't count against your cap it shouldn't make a huge difference...
Click to expand...

Imagine playing an online game. All of the sudden you get high ping and bad lag - your neighbor decided to download a 2Gb .mkv using your connection. Happy happy joy joy!
 
///AMG said:
How can you do that if you have phone through comcast as well? I believe the all in one router is a must because there isnt a stand alone unit you can have with just phone. The only way is to not have phone with comcast because then you can have your own modem correct?
Click to expand...
3rd party Voip. Vonage being the most commonly known but there are others.
 
B00nie said:
Imagine playing an online game. All of the sudden you get high ping and bad lag - your neighbor decided to download a 2Gb .mkv using your connection. Happy happy joy joy!
Click to expand...

They only want enough to make sure your kids have access to social media whether you like it or not.
 
jpm100 said:
3rd party Voip. Vonage being the most commonly known but there are others.
Click to expand...

And while they claim they don't, there is proof that they do affect 3rd party VOIP providers in some areas via QoS. Not to mention, they do bump your connection to 100/20 in some areas when you triple play.
 
I can't believe they can pull this off. No Comcast here, how does this actually work? Do ALL the modem/routers have the built in hotspots? Do they tell you ahead of time? Is it in the TOS?
 
Gweenz said:
I can't believe they can pull this off. No Comcast here, how does this actually work? Do ALL the modem/routers have the built in hotspots? Do they tell you ahead of time? Is it in the TOS?
Click to expand...

The modems have a builtin wifi router that allows a public connection for other comcast users that are in range.
 
B00nie said:
Imagine playing an online game. All of the sudden you get high ping and bad lag - your neighbor decided to download a 2Gb .mkv using your connection. Happy happy joy joy!
Click to expand...

That's not how it works.

Cable modems have something called service flows. The bandwidth you subscribe to is mapped to its own service flows.

What Comcast does is provision a separate set of service flows on your modem for the hotspot SSID. When you connect to "xfinitywifi" your essentially using the bandwidth of a second, virtual cable modem.

When connecting to "xfinitywifi" you do not assume the public IP of the customer's connection. Your actions do not reflect on the subscriber whose gateway you are connecting to.

There is no more a privacy concern than enabling your own separate, isolated wifi guest network on a separate subnet.
 
Yikes, I had forgotten about this.

So are they doing this to all customers in all markets?

I would have no part of it. This is why I only use 3rd party routers, never what is supplied by the ISP.

What they COULD do is make it optional, and offer a service discount to those who enable it. I still wouldn't, but I am sure many would, and it would achieve their goals of a wifi network.
 
///AMG said:
How can you do that if you have phone through comcast as well? I believe the all in one router is a must because there isnt a stand alone unit you can have with just phone. The only way is to not have phone with comcast because then you can have your own modem correct?
Click to expand...

Well worth it to just do the two way bundle (internet + tv) or just internet service and get the cheapest vonage service if you really need a land line in your house.

Personally since everyone in my household has their own cellphone, I have no need what so ever for a landline, and haven't had one since my dorm room at college almost 15 years ago, and even then, I only very rarely used it.
 
lulz for people who actually lease a comcast modem. /non-issue
 
chenw said:
This is why I NEVER use routers provided by ISPs
Click to expand...

I agree that the practice in question is 100% unacceptable and am happy to see this lawsuit, even though they will fail miserably.

I also 100% agree with you message. I honestly (seriously) cannot understand why people even CONSIDER using ISP-provided equipment (except in cases of business connections where an ISP might actually provide quality gear like Cisco, Juniper, etc.). Why is it that so many people just want to 'not worry about it' when it barely takes any effort to do it correctly (which also saves you a ridiculous $8-or-whatever rental fee)? I honestly don't understand why so many people are so 'hands-off' with so many aspects of their lives.
 
mt2e said:
They use whats called a VLAN to seperate the wifi off.
Click to expand...

Yep. This does make it less bad and is the main reason why I think the lawsuit will fail. But I think they SHOULD win because Comcast should not be able to use ANY - and I mean literally ANY customer resources for profit. It is completely unacceptable for them to use a single milliwatt of my power for their own gain. It is exploitation. They can do this only because they have a government-protected monopoly on the market.
 
dandragonrage said:
Yep. This does make it less bad and is the main reason why I think the lawsuit will fail. But I think they SHOULD win because Comcast should not be able to use ANY - and I mean literally ANY customer resources for profit. It is completely unacceptable for them to use a single milliwatt of my power for their own gain. It is exploitation. They can do this only because they have a government-protected monopoly on the market.
Click to expand...

Coming next.

Compute modules integrated in all set top boxes, to support Comcasts new distributed computing service :p
 
steakman1971 said:
Wonder what the legal ramifications of this are? Examples: pirating software, kiddie porn, fraudulent use of the internet, etc.

Screw this crap. If they gave me an option to reduce my bill or guarantee it won't affect my available bandwidth, perhaps I'd give it a consideration (not thinking about the legal questions).
Click to expand...

I agree. It's would be a good idea, if IP address wasn't considered evidence.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So is this on a router that they happily lease to you for a monthly fee too? I think they're at least nice enough to not count it against your quota though... but who knows.
Click to expand...

I 100% agree with you here. If they're going to use it as a public hotspot (which honestly really comes in handy sometimes) then they shouldn't be charging you the modem rental.

Former comcast employee and Business Class customer here. They tell you that you have to use their modem so they can market VOIP phone service to you once it's installed.
Click to expand...

You can still buy a Arris 822 (i think that's the one) yourself for their voip service and not have to rent theirs. At the ISP I work for now you HAVE to buy (no rentals) their modem for voip.
 
mt2e said:
They use whats called a VLAN to seperate the wifi off.
Click to expand...

I think it's run off a different Docsis channel but i'm not 100% on that. The Wireless congestion is the biggest bitch, especially in packed apartments and condo's that are now double congested.
 
///AMG said:
How can you do that if you have phone through comcast as well? I believe the all in one router is a must because there isnt a stand alone unit you can have with just phone. The only way is to not have phone with comcast because then you can have your own modem correct?
Click to expand...

Call their Gateway services department and tell them you have your own router and they'll turn it off for you. You'll need your own router, but you already knew that [H]!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top