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New Comcast feature
On 11/23/2013 12:59 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 11/23/13, 12:48 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote: On 11/23/2013 12:31 PM, BAR wrote: In article , says... Comcast just enabled a new feature on our home wifi system. You have to have the new, updated equipment and modem/router that is provided by them for it to work. What they do is enable your wifi router to transmit and receive another independent signal. It shows up as "XFINITYWiFi" on your computer available networks list, iPad or cell phone. It is unsecured and doesn't interfere with your existing, secured connection, nor does it slow anything down. Anyone signed onto it is *not* connected to your existing, secured network, so they can't access any file sharing or anything you have set up on your network. It's designed to allow guests, visitors or anyone within receiving range of the signal to access the Internet and email virtually anywhere as long as you are a Comcast customer. It means that once they upgrade everyone, you could drive down the street and access the Internet anywhere there is a home WiFi system provided by Comcast. That's a lot of free "hot spots" in our area since Comcast dominates the cable TV and Internet market in our area. In our case nobody driving on the road will benefit from our house because we are too far from the road for them to get the signal. But in most areas with houses close to the road, you should be able to access the internet everywhere. It can also be used by house guests and visitors as long as they have a Comcast account. When you first connect to it, it doesn't indicate that you have Internet access. Says "local only". But, if you open a browser, it takes you to a Comcast page where you enter your user name (or Comcast email address) and your password. You only have to do this once per device. Once you've done that, you have full access to the Internet. You can also request that this capability be disabled on your modem/router if you don't want it. Personally, I think it's pretty cool and a clever way to make Internet access available to Comcast account holders almost everywhere. Funny, not too long ago it was a big deal to be "stealing" someone else's WiFi connection. Now they are encouraging it. Why would you want to expose your internet connection to anyone and everyone within range. When the government comes to you and says where were you doing illegal operations from your internet connection what are you going to say? That was one of the concerns that I had ... and Greg also raised it as a potential issue. However, it's not a problem or risk. The "second channel" that is broadcast is totally independent of the primary secured, home network channel. It's really a Comcast owned and controlled connection and has nothing to do with your home network. I confirmed, both with Comcast and on my computer that the IP addresses are different. I checked our reported IP address on the primary, secured network, then disconnected from it, connected to the second "XFINITYWiFi" signal and it reported a totally different IP. I think there is a lot of confusion about this, as I was initially when I received the email from Comcast announcing and explaining this new feature/service. Again, people are *not* able to sign onto your home network and it isn't "exposed". The purpose of the Comcast/Xfinity owned and controlled signal is to eventually make your whole area, town and state an Xfinity "hotspot". You can opt out of having your home router having the second channel capability. At first I was inclined to do that because I really didn't understand what it was for but now that I do, I'll leave it. There's no security risk to the regular connection. It is also only accessible to Comcast customers. If you don't have a Comcast account, you can't use it. When my cable modem went teats up, I returned it to Comcast and got a new one that is significantly faster than the old one. I was offered a combo modem/router, seemed decent enough, but it only had a couple of ports for wired connections, and I already had a good wired/wireless router with the G and N bands and more ports for wired connections. I just checked the new one Comcast installed along with the other distribution equipment. It has four Ethernet ports for wired connections. Our house was built in 1997 and was wired with RG6 cable to every room but was not wired for ethernet computer connections. For our use, the wireless works fine, especially with the extender I bought. It's a big house (8,000 square feet) and we really have no need to tear things up to install ethernet cables everywhere. BTW, I also received another email (while typing this post) from Comcast/Xfinity telling us that our service speed had been increased and I should reboot our computers and the modem/router to enable the higher speed. Haven't done that yet. The last time I did a speed test (which was before all the upgrades), it was at about 22Mbps download and about 5.4Mbps upload. It will be interesting to do the test again after I do the reboots. Xfinity claims speeds up to 54MBs download. It also depends on what kind of service you have, apparently. I didn't know what we had until today. It's called the "Performance" package, whatever that is. For our usage, the way it's working right now is plenty fast. I am almost afraid to do the reboots. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone. |
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