4 ms·

As far as I am aware, it is possible to disable the public 'xfinitywifi' hotspot on all Comcast modems which provide this feature (I had a stint as a TSR relati

As far as I am aware, it is possible to disable the public 'xfinitywifi' hotspot on all Comcast modems which provide this feature (I had a stint as a TSR relatively recently). Further, I believe this is a user-configurable setting on all CC modems. I personally have this feature disabled on my Arris 1682G, and this should be their most common model in most regions.

notyourday 9y ago
Tinfoil makes a great Faraday cage
marklyon 9y ago
I was told I could not disable their hotspot, nor could I set my own DNS servers. Since I kept having connectivity issues due to Comcast’s DNS being flaky, and not wanting to manually configire every client, I bought my own modem and wireless setup.
- Pyxl101 9y ago
  You can disable the hotspot and use your own DNS servers if you want. The ability to disable the hotspot is documented in the public FAQ (Google: "XFINITY WiFi Home Hotspots FAQs"). I've used my own DNS servers before. I have no problem making DNS queries to 8.8.8.8, and in fact I switched my PC to use it one time when Comcast DNS was down.
  - JadeNB 9y ago
    What's the point of giving Google instructions instead of just linking https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/disable-xfinity-wifi-home-hotspot https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/disable-xfinity-wif... ?
- sethrin 9y ago
  As the other person has said, they have a FAQ for disabling the hotspot. I additionally set my modem to bridge mode in order to use a more capable router. It does look like Comcast mandates the use of their DNS whenever possible, and I'm sure that I bothered to configure an alternative because of reliability issues as well.
  - marklyon 9y ago
    The DNS issue was the clincher for me, but I followed their instructions for disabling it and it reappeared when the router was rebooted (not reset). Overall, I’m rather happy with my current setup. I bought the most recent SB modem available at he time, got an Edgerouter and a Unifi AP. Took a few minutes longer to set up than a netgear or whatnot, but was able to use POE to put the AP in a far better location (it’s actually under my sofa instead of the closet where all my wiring goes) and have had a far more reliable and customizable experience.
ascagnel_ 9y ago
That's not enough. Defaults are a powerful thing -- the vast majority of customers won't go through the process to disable it.
dredmorbius 9y ago
Times ... change. It took a moment to realise you didn't terminate and stay resident.
- sethrin 9y ago
  Apologies; I never used DOS enough to retain that acronym.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Apologies, I have ;-)

notyourday 9y ago

Tinfoil makes a great Faraday cage

marklyon 9y ago

I was told I could not disable their hotspot, nor could I set my own DNS servers. Since I kept having connectivity issues due to Comcast’s DNS being flaky, and not wanting to manually configire every client, I bought my own modem and wireless setup.

Pyxl101 9y ago
You can disable the hotspot and use your own DNS servers if you want. The ability to disable the hotspot is documented in the public FAQ (Google: "XFINITY WiFi Home Hotspots FAQs"). I've used my own DNS servers before. I have no problem making DNS queries to 8.8.8.8, and in fact I switched my PC to use it one time when Comcast DNS was down.
- JadeNB 9y ago
  What's the point of giving Google instructions instead of just linking https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/disable-xfinity-wifi-home-hotspot https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/disable-xfinity-wif... ?
sethrin 9y ago
As the other person has said, they have a FAQ for disabling the hotspot. I additionally set my modem to bridge mode in order to use a more capable router. It does look like Comcast mandates the use of their DNS whenever possible, and I'm sure that I bothered to configure an alternative because of reliability issues as well.
- marklyon 9y ago
  The DNS issue was the clincher for me, but I followed their instructions for disabling it and it reappeared when the router was rebooted (not reset). Overall, I’m rather happy with my current setup. I bought the most recent SB modem available at he time, got an Edgerouter and a Unifi AP. Took a few minutes longer to set up than a netgear or whatnot, but was able to use POE to put the AP in a far better location (it’s actually under my sofa instead of the closet where all my wiring goes) and have had a far more reliable and customizable experience.

ascagnel_ 9y ago

That's not enough. Defaults are a powerful thing -- the vast majority of customers won't go through the process to disable it.

dredmorbius 9y ago

Times ... change. It took a moment to realise you didn't terminate and stay resident.

sethrin 9y ago
Apologies; I never used DOS enough to retain that acronym.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  Apologies, I have ;-)