Funny coincidence. I've just spent the last hour on the phone with Comcast support asking them to disable the "xfinitywifi" my router is broadcasting and when it was all over decided to unwind and read some NH... And see this!<p>For anyone who needs to, call "1-855-845-6834" and ask them to disable the "xfinitywifi" hotspot on your router.<p>This will save you the 4 transfers, giving your info many times, and listening to the upgrade options you don't care about. It may also save you from the $70 support they'll try to charge you (should you choose to agree), and possibly one redirect to a number that no-longer exists (all of which I just went through).<p>GL.
Essentially you have two WiFi networks in your house. What they call your "private WiFi" network and the Xfinity WiFi network. The biggest question I have is - do they both utilize the same publicly facing IP address?<p>This brings up some interesting questions. Consider 6 residents in an apartment building, each with their own Comcast Internet connection. I utilize my private network and the other 5 people for whatever strange reason chose to connect to my Xfinity WiFi connection instead of their own connection. One of them surfs for highly illegal content (take your pick). Whose door are the police going to break down?
As far as security is concerned, I'm much more worried about ISPs providing WiFi routers that uses WEP encryption AS A DEFAULT.<p>For those who don't know, WEP can be hacked in a matter of minutes with no technical knowledge required. There's plenty on scripts on the internet that automates the whole process for you.<p>Do yourself a favour and use WPA2.
This looks like a step toward what is variously called "hotspot 2.0" (Wi-Fi Alliance)[1], "next generation hotspot" (Wireless Broadband Alliance)[2], and "het-net" (4G Americas)[3].<p>The problem is the exponential growth in demand for cellular bandwidth. Its very expensive for the cellular industry to increase capacity by building new towers. So the idea is to get consumers' cellular devices using wifi data connections wherever possible, offloading demand for 3G/4G.<p>This looks like a way for cell phone companies to lease an "xfinity password" from Comcast. Then the cell company can seamlessly offload the data connection of any subscriber near enough to an xfinity hotspot.<p>1. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Alliance" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Alliance</a>
2. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Broadband_Alliance" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Broadband_Alliance</a>
3. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G_Americas" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G_Americas</a>
So does BT (In the UK)
<a href="http://www.btwifi.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://www.btwifi.co.uk/</a><p>It's a good feature. The open wifi is separated from your wifi, and it doesn't use your bandwidth. Plus - If you have BT wifi, you get to use all those hotspots for free.
Title is misleading. I interpret this as they broadcast a separate wifi signal that connects to a different LAN. I don't see anything terribly wrong with this.
I was in the Bay Area a few weeks ago and was able to try out the Xfinity WiFi. It was actually really convenient being able to work from the small coffee shops in Berkeley and in the city. The speeds were awesome too, around 27Mbps down and 10Mbps up. Most places require you to pay for WiFi or the speeds are just throttled way too much (1.5Mbps/0.5Mbps). As long as your own service isn't being hindered by the Xfinity hotspot and your own network isn't vulnerable due to the additional piggybacking, I don't see anything wrong with it.
Does anyone who have this (or any of the other similar systems) know if you the other people go out with your public IP or not?<p>If so, comcast/bt/bezeq has just killed all association between ip and identity (not that there was much to begin with, but there was)
So does Bezeq (in Israel) <a href="http://bezeq.co.il/" rel="nofollow">http://bezeq.co.il/</a><p>They are trying to meet customer demand for wider bandwidth with VDSL, and nearly stopped selling modems; it's all cheapo routers now, loaded with customized firmware complete with DNS spoofing to route you to their "new customer setup" page that seems to always be down. They have to be reset once in a while, when their internals contort into reboot loops.<p>The free hotspot is branded and the name contains a short string unique to your router. It might not be using "your" bandwidth with your ISP, but it is sitting on your uplink which could get stuffed as a result. The hotspot is completely open for anyone to connect, but is limited by the max_client setting which is global to the router and set at 16 clients by default.
I have Comcast, with one of their wireless routers, but I don't see any network named "xfinitywifi." Is it only certain router models? Or only certain areas?
From the "How can visitors connect?" page:<p>> Visitors who are XFINITY Internet subscribers can simply select the XFINITY WiFi network “xfinitywifi” on their device and open a Web browser to get started. They will be able to sign in with their XFINITY email or username and password.<p>So now anyone can create a hotspot named "xfinitywifi" and phish for passwords from folks who doesn't look for an https connection. I hope Comcast does some good training beyond "connect and enter your password."
I've used it, my local network connection was down and I found there was a wireless Comcast hotspot available.<p>I figured that was the case (Comcast wifi piggybacking on someones business/residential connection) but wasn't sure. It's not from me as I'm using my own modem and router.<p>There's a an interactive wi-fi location map on the Comcast page that shows where hotspots are, two are in town so far.
So does Portugal Telecom (in Portugal), at least in its triple-/quad-play services, locally known as MEO and M4O packages. Those who enable this sharing service (called "community hotspot") can also benefit from it.
I believe it started out as a response to the competition giving their clients access to the (global?) Fon WiFi network.