COMCAST Info

[Danimal]

Deleted

[Irving]

I always thought my phone lasted longer connected to wifi. Is that not the case?

[trlcavscout]

I always thought my phone lasted longer connected to wifi. Is that not the case?

it will as it's usually not working as hard to maintain a connection similar to batteries in wireless devices like home alarm sensors.


So when you connect to the "xfinitywifi" connection how do you know which gateway you are connecting to? It could be any gateway within reasonable distance or one of the mainline mounted units which are not tied to any account. The speeds on the public wifi are capped and do not cause speed issues with the private side hard wired or wireless unless you are running 802.11n still or really have that much interference on the 802.11ac 5ghz. But with the 150mb service I can still pull 170-180 meg wirelessly with "quality" end user devices. I like having wifi to connect to to save my data usage when out shopping so I am not complaining. I also don't have any more concerns over security using their wifi then I do using anyone else's wifi.

[spongejosh]

1. Log into customer.xfinity.com
2. At the top of the screen click "My Account"
3. Under "My Account" click "My Services"
4. The screen will show you an overview tab with the services you pay for. Locate "Xfinity Internet in the middle of the page and click "Manage" under it.
5. This puts you on the Internet tab. The bottom icon of the 5 shown in the middle of the screen says "Manage your home hotspot" Click that.
6. This page has 2 options, Enable and Disable. Click disable then click the save button at the bottom of the screen. Wait for the page to refresh.

Congratulations! You've just disabled the Xfinity hotspot on your modem.

[Jer]

Three steps towards minimizing your dependence on dealing with Comcast customer service:

1. Buy your own modem (Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 is all you need to know. Buy the cheapest one you can find)
2. Buy your own wireless router
3. Learn to optimize your router including security

[Zman]

^^^ This.

[trlcavscout]

if you don't have phone service buy your own modem and router. Buy a Docsis 3 modem with at least 16 downstream channels and a good 802.11ac router. The speed package you are on will determine your need for down stream channels but as speeds increase the lower end modems will become inadequate sooner. If you are in a house with less wireless interference in the area you can get by with an older router but it's rare to get full wireless speeds on 802.11n anymore. I run 2 Cisco 802.11n AP's (basement and 2nd floor) and it works great but I have very little interference here, the newer neighbor hoods and apartment buildings are more of a challenge. I also have DSL so in reality I could get my full speed on an 802.11b router, but like everyone else with a wife and kids now days we have wireless devices everywhere. I have 12 down on every device everywhere in the house haha!

[Jer]

if you don't have phone service buy your own modem and router. Buy a Docsis 3 modem with at least 16 downstream channels and a good 802.11ac router. The speed package you are on will determine your need for down stream channels but as speeds increase the lower end modems will become inadequate sooner. If you are in a house with less wireless interference in the area you can get by with an older router but it's rare to get full wireless speeds on 802.11n anymore. I run 2 Cisco 802.11n AP's (basement and 2nd floor) and it works great but I have very little interference here, the newer neighbor hoods and apartment buildings are more of a challenge. I also have DSL so in reality I could get my full speed on an 802.11b router, but like everyone else with a wife and kids now days we have wireless devices everywhere. I have 12 down on every device everywhere in the house haha!

At least 16 down channels? Why the hell does anyone need that? A single down channel on DOCSIS 3.0 is capable of 43MBps. The minimum for DOCSIS 3.0 modems is 4 bonded channels up and 4 bonded channels down. 4 bonded channels down are capable of 171.52Mbit/s (152 after overhead) & 4 bonded channels up are capable of 122.88 (108 overhead) so why would anyone need more than that for the foreseeable future? Suggesting 16 as a minimum seems like an especially odd baseline since 16 bonded downstream channels is capable of in excess of 600Mbit/s and ain't nobody getting anywhere near that around these parts anytime soon. Even if someone offered Gig service (keep dreaming) here you would have a modem that isn't capable of the speeds you'd be paying for so you didn't really even future-proof yourself. I've seen 4/4ch modems for around $50 on sale or refub'd. 16 channel down modems are quite a bit more expensive so IMO you're paying for tech you can't use and odds are good you won't be able to use it before the modem craps out. DOCSIS 3.0 (of any variety) can do 152Mbit/s down which will exceed easily any plans available to us around here.

How many people here even have plans that will do that? Most people might have 50MBps and in some rare instances where the network allows some may see just over 100MBps (and assuming people justify the additional price tag). Just over 100Mbit/s is what I have and any DOCSIS 3.0 modem can handle that nearly x2. Don't overpay for bonded channels because those modems are the newer/more expensive and you likely have an option to utilize that many channels before the modem craps out. No need to pay extra. Buy cheap right now and when the almighty ISPs decide to allow us higher speeds (Google Fiber isn't breathing down on them in this area so don't hold your breath anytime soon) worry about upgrading once those modems are cheap and you decide you need the speed. We waited decades for speeds we have now so I wouldn't plan on it skyrocketing anything soon however.

Don't confuse a modem's # of bonded channels with how many simultaneous connections one can have on their network because that's all router stuff, not modem stuff. The modem just brings connection. The channels are about how much of that connection it can bring to the network at once. The router will determine how many clients get to talk to the outside world and how quickly (via Qos roles).

I also wouldn't suggest that the average home owner rush out and buy an AC router for reasons that would require paragraphs more explanation here. Do some digging and pay special attention to all the negatives. IMO they far outweigh the positives and not the least of which is price compared to non-AC router options. Just getting something with multiple radios & both 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz will be more than plenty for most homes since they likely don't even have 5Ghz devices yet unless they recently bought a new smartphone or laptop/tablet. Using two AC AP's in a home setting is just asking for performance/interference trouble. I'm sure you're more adept at handling that than the average user but again, it's risk v reward for most personal networks. In short, I'm sure you know you could get those speeds with a lot less hardware.

When it comes to modems, just buy the cheapest that will get your your speeds right now because it's likely you'll have that speed for a long... long... long time. If by some miracle your ISP offers faster speeds down the roads go buy a lottery ticket and then get a modem capable of that speed because it will likely be so many years down the road that that same modem now can be had for $50.

I'm sure you know a lot of what I said but this was more for the casual reader wondering what modem/router to get to limit the BS they deal with from Comcast.

[Great-Kazoo]

I'm sure you know a lot of what I said but this was more for the casual reader wondering what modem/router to get to limit the BS they deal with from Comcast.

I like probably 1/2 the board had no clue what you or trav posted.

[Jer]

I'm sure you know a lot of what I said but this was more for the casual reader wondering what modem/router to get to limit the BS they deal with from Comcast.

I like probably 1/2 the board had no clue what you or trav posted.

Refer to post #25. That's why I kept it real simple. Buy the cheapest DOCSIS 3.0 modem manufactured by Motorola (theirs are more reliable and will last years w/o issue) and you'll be just fine for years to come and light years ahead of the average Comcast customer.