8 ms·

Comcast modem activation bug potentially exposed customers’ private data (2018)

146 points by apsec112 8y ago

jalgos_eminator 8y ago
I tried. The modem didn't work. It was on the approved list. Had a tech come out, he installed a Comcast router and it worked. They waived the rental fee for 6 months. As much as I hate Comcast, I hate not having internet more.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
  It all ends up back as a problem of that monopoly. Here in Australia, while we have our own problems, you could just switch ISP if they're playing shenanigans like that. In America, don't like your ISP? Guess you're living without internet then!
  - yellowapple 8y ago
    Nonsense! America has plenty of options for Internet, and with blazing fast speeds like 54kbps!
    - yellowapple 8y ago
      Yeesh, tough crowd.
  - ruytlm 8y ago
    It always surprises me how the US, as the paragon of the free market, is so comfortable with a lack of meaningful competition. I think it's something like 70% of US households have only one 'choice' for ISP. Then there was the discussion[0] here the other week about blitzscaling, and how it's basically "borrow money to do a land grab for monopoly, then use your money to stifle competitors". Even the lack of preferential[1] voting contributes to a lack of choice - either vote for a major party, or your preference is irrelevant. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19094703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19094703 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
  - 2trill2spill 8y ago
    I forget how lucky we are in Minneapolis compared to the rest of the USA to have 3 ISPs and also have fiber as an option.
    - bdhess 8y ago
      I’ve had multiple broadband choices in every metro area I’ve lived in, too (now on my fourth in the US). Of course, I’ve lived in parts of those metro areas that were densely populated. I.e., where a competitor could reasonably expect to recoup the cost of overbuilding. In less dense areas, the economics would be far worse.
      - woodruffw 8y ago
        Counter anecdote: I live in Manhattan and have only one broadband option: Time Warner, a.k.a. Spectrum. Verizon offers 5/1 "broadband" DSL for twice the price, and the other two regional providers (Optimum, RCN) don't service my neighborhood (which is by no means sparsely populated).
  - peterhunt 8y ago
    I thought your choices in Australia were Telstra or rebranded Telstra?
    - JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
      Not since the NBN came about. Infra is owned by NBNco after they bought out Telstras infra (forced). Before that Telstra owned an ageing, choppy and slow copper network and that was your monopoly unless another ISP decided your area was populated enough to set up something. I admittedly have it much easier living in a metro area, but I have about 80 ISPs to choose from. But my relatives are all over Australia and the majority of them have at least a FTTN network to use now. I still suspect it will be sold back to Telstra and/or privatised and it'll go to hell again, it's already been majorly neutered.
  - cf498 8y ago
    >Here in Australia, while we have our own problems, you could just switch ISP if they're playing shenanigans like that. We have multiple ISPs in Germany too, but unfortunately they are all crooks. Sure, it beats a monopoly, but the problem is far from solved.
  - wyqydsyq 8y ago
    Unfortunately unless you live in a metro area your options in Australia aren't much better. Most rural or country areas and even some suburban zones are only serviced by a single ISP who may decide you don't need internet. I lived in Ipswich for 1.5 years, prior to moving in I signed up for ADSL2 (no NBN available in the area yet) with Telstra as they are the only ISP servicing the area. I was told that the local exchange has no available ports, and that I would need to go on a waiting list to be given a connection. I was periodically getting their "Sorry we can't provide you usable internet yet, how about ADSL1 or some 4G data at rip-off prices?" for that entire time, until I moved out and cancelled the still-pending service.
    - JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
      That's specifically due to Privatisation of Telstra though, which is exactly the monopoly being talked about. NBN was supposed to fix this, not sure if it still will though with the neutering of it.
- airstrike 8y ago
  I guess we can all collectively hate the lack of competition even more
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  Get a new modem before getting rid of your old one. Plug it in, call up Comcast and give them the MAC address, see if it works. If it doesn't work, return the modem to Amazon or wherever and order a new one. If it does work, give Comcast's modem back.
- joecool1029 8y ago
  In the early 2010's we had their piece of shit rented SMC D3G modem for static ip's at our office. We couldn't figure out why the net would stall and we'd get huge packetloss. Dozens of support calls, lots of finger pointing. Years later, it would come out Intel was incompetent at designing modems [1]. (as shown again with the more recent iPhone designs) This rental was required as even the approved modems couldn't be provisioned for statics, later on at other locations we just bought Motorola (now arris) SB6121's since dynamics were all that were needed for those locations and really never had an issue. [1] http://badmodems.com/ http://badmodems.com/
- gothroach 8y ago
  With Comcast Business, they insist on making you rent a router if you have static IPs. It irks me knowing I could be using my own hardware if I gave up my IPs, which I can't see doing.
kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
My cable ISP makes it hard to use your own by refusing to use just any DOCSIS 3 modem and not publishing an approved list. It would be nice if regulatory policy changes would force the industry to accept all standards compliant modems.
Merad 8y ago
I wonder how much longer we'll even have the option to use our own equipment. Late last year I briefly tried AT&T fiber, and it was required to use their hybrid modem/router monstrosity. It didn't even have options to disable the router functionality, the best you could do was turn off its WiFi networks and disable its firewall. Even after setting all of my own passwords on it it was still possible to access settings through my AT&T account online, telling me that the thing is backdoored all to hell. TBH that thing was a big factor in me canceling the service after 5 days (also the service was mediocre and they tried to screw me on pricing).
- judge2020 8y ago
  Apparently its due to ATT using custom authentication: https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Fiber-Equipment/List-of-Compatible-Modems-with-AT-amp-T-Fiber/td-p/5068425 https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Fiber-Equipment/List-of-Compa...
  - rayiner 8y ago
    It’s not custom. It’s a standard 802.1x certificate.
- joecool1029 8y ago
  > I wonder how much longer we'll even have the option to use our own equipment. Comcast already made it very nearly impossible to buy your own ATA for phone. I figured out how to do it. You had to go IN PERSON to a Best Buy with an Xfinity center (there was one about an hour away in my state). There you would pay and place your order. You would have to return in person to pick it up, then setup a provisioning appointment. As far as I could tell, aside from having an insider this was the only way they would allow you to provision your own device. Oh yeah, and if it breaks you're out the cost.
  - strictnein 8y ago
    They list a number of them on their website that you can buy. https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ If you want 1Gbps and phone service, they support one device: Netgear CM1150V If you're ~400Mbps, they support four more devices: ARRIS SBV3202 Netgear C7100V Motorola MT7711 ARRIS SVG248AC
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
judge2020 8y ago
Even if you use an "approved modem", their support will not by any means help you unless you're using the official rented modem+gateway. You end up having to lie about using the rented one they give you (they don't check if you're actually paying for it) to get any actual support.
- joecool1029 8y ago
  Nope. That doesn't even work as they can see the MAC address of the modem on the network. For business class customers it basically means: "fuck you, you caused the problem with your equipment, we will send a tech next day when the problem stops happening and bill you $100 for the visit."
- m-ee 8y ago
  I've got no love for Comcast but I've never had any issues with this. Just yesterday I called about connectivity issues and they agreed to send a tech out, never asked what modem I was using. Setup with my own modem was always surprisingly easy to, just read them the MAC and was all set.
- Wowfunhappy 8y ago
  I have to mention, I've been on the other side of this, albeit with Time Warner. I'd just moved into my first apartment and had bought my own modem. Tech comes, sets up the internet, the internet doesn't work. Tech blames my modem. My response is something to the effect of "give me a break", but ultimately do order a new modem from Amazon, if only so I can show the tech that two different modems both don't work. Turns out, the first modem was defective. The second one worked fine and my internet has been great. I felt kind of crappy for arguing with the tech, when it absolutely was my hardware at fault.
- flukus 8y ago
  Just ask them to tell you the settings, it's way faster than following along with their silly step-by-step walk through anyway.
- jwcooper 8y ago
  I've always had my own modem and I've never had a problem with Comcast/Xfinity not helping me. Maybe I'm the exception. Recently they updated my area to DOCSIS 3 (or 3.1, not sure). My DOCSIS 3.1 Motorola modem (found this out later) has a firmware bug that causes random modem lockups. Comcast went as far as replacing the cable from the telephone pole to my house in the middle of winter (it was ridiculously cold that day), running signal analyzers, and various other things before looking into the modem. Also, Motorola Modem customer service was shockingly good as well. They sent me a free replacement modem while they worked on the firmware updates. Provisioning that temp modem was as simple as using the online provisioning. Now, it would be nice if I didn't have to set annual calendar reminders to call them for when they increase my monthly price by 40%...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
phil_folrida 8y ago
Most users, consumers, on Comcast do not have a choice, next election go out and vote rather than stating the obvious.
- zdragnar 8y ago
  That's strange, I've had cable internet through Comcast at four different houses and have always used my own equipment, didn't rent theirs at all.
Zarath 8y ago
Not sure why you wouldn't. Modem rental costs, what? 5 or 10 bucks a month? Just buy a modem and it pays for itself pretty quickly. I'm honestly surprised that they let you do it.
- baroffoos 8y ago
  ISPs in Australia give the router out for free as long as you agree to a 1 year contract.
  - kilburn 8y ago
    Is there an option to not get their router and thus waive the 1-year clause? Otherwise what you mean is "it is mandatory to lease their router even if you have your own, and you are forced to enter a 1-year minimum contract.".
    - baroffoos 8y ago
      > Is there an option to not get their router and thus waive the 1-year clause? Yes. you also have the option to just pay for the ISP router outright.
      - kilburn 8y ago
        Oh that's nice! I asked because here in Spain they advertise the same, but you cannot opt out of getting the 1-year lock-in in any way.
- tetromino_ 8y ago
  Say rental is $8/month and approved docsis 3.1 modem is $180 to buy outright. Buying doesn't really make sense unless you will be sticking with the same ISP for at least two years. (And in two years, you might take a promo deal and sign up with another ISP; or move to a different apartment building which doesn't allow your current ISP; or your roommate or SO might decide to take care of connectivity; or technology will advance and you would want a different modem anyway.)
mathnmusic 8y ago
One of the biggest lost opportunities for the robustness of the Web has been people not running servers at their homes, even though they do have a connected computer running 24x7 - the Router. It will probably take a Google or Apple to turn routers into standardized platforms with its own "app store", but by then it will be too late.
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Can OpenWRT not run containers? I’d argue that’s be an amazing use case similar to how my Synology NAS has a GUI and cli for running containers. Open source router firmware having the ability to run persistent containers would be a powerful feature (such as an IPFS node).
  - simula67 8y ago
    OpenWRT routers may not have enough power (RAM/CPU) to run complicated server software. Also the router may be running MIPS which is not that well supported by many apps and containerization is not going to solve that problem. Admittedly, it was a few years since I last tested this. These days I try to run any apps on a Raspberry Pi connected to my OpenWrt router
- NDizzle 8y ago
  I've ran servers at home since I had a BBS in the mid 90s. I'm not even sure how many computers I own these days...
- flukus 8y ago
  Many of the most used online services like email and dropbox and maybe even federated social media alternatives amongst others could be well handled by home servers. I suspect they made it hard so they could be something more than dumb pipes, but instead they ceded those opportunities to google and other SaaS providers.
- tdb7893 8y ago
  I know people who are literally rocket scientists (most of them actually work on fighter jets) that have trouble correctly configuring video game servers. In my experience for most people trying to run any sort of server themselves is quite a hassle (I mean my work has a lot of experts whose sole job is to make sure the servers are all running correctly and they still get it wrong sometimes).
paultopia 8y ago
People who write this kind of article grotesquely underestimate how hard these companies make this task. I use centurylink DSL, mainly because the local cable monopolist is mediacom, and I tried mediacom for two weeks of downright insulting lack of service[1], it was the only alternative. This[2] is the information centurylink provides about what modems are compatible with their service. Do I know whether I have ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL, GPON, or whatever the hell any of those other acronyms mean? No. Does it say so on the bill? Who knows, I haven't seen a paper bill for years, no idea when they stopped sending them. I suppose I could dig up some three-year-old piece of paper from a kitchen drawer somewhere that might say which, or that might say the unused landline number they hooked the DSL to so I can maybe try to figure out how to get into some online account (lord knows I've tried to find a username that they'll recognize to get a password reset). Or I could call them, and talk to a minimum wage, probably offshore, customer service person in a call center who might maybe give me accurate information as to which acronym I have. Or I could not look a gift horse in the mouth. Right now, I'm sending someone a not huge amount of money per month, and I actually have residential internet service that kinda works (and when I actually need reasonable speeds I can bring my laptop to the office). Relative to the standard condition of life in our third-world situation in the United States with crooked monopolists charging people for service they don't actually provide, I feel lucky being charged for service I actually do receive. And don't feel particularly inclined to rock the boat on that. I rather suspect a similar calculus is going through the heads of millions of American households. What we need is regulation for the monopolists, not more articles scolding captive consumers about buying their own goddamn modems. [1] This letter sums it all up. http://paul-gowder.com/pgmediacom.pdf http://paul-gowder.com/pgmediacom.pdf Needless to say, after receiving a "this is a lawyer who is clearly insane and extremely angry" letter they sent me my money back. [2] https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-routers/what-modems-are-compatible-with-centurylink.html https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-ro...
- toast0 8y ago
  If you really wanted to buy a modem for CenturyLink, the best thing to ask about technology is the current modem -- it will tell you somewhere. But you'll notice that almost all of the listed modems are customized for CenturyLink, that's what the C in the name means (and presumably the other letters too). That means you're more than likely stuck with whatever customization that you might have liked to get rid of, or features you might like to add. (Like a bridge mode that actually works). Not being able to realistically do better than what equipment you already have, you could probably just buy a new one of the device you already have, but then again, it's hard to predict how long that will be useful. If you move or by some miraculous force, CenturyLink offers an upgraded service, your device may be useless.
salimmadjd 8y ago
Last month we made a decision to buy our own router and not rent from Comcast (Xfinity). Then I started doing the math, and soon realized at the end of the day it might be that much better. 1 - It's unclear which is the best modem/router by doing research. Gives you the maximum speed, etc. 2 - You start reading reviews on Amazon around reliability and you see a lot of comments that basically give you doubt. It falls in two ways: A - the model/router stopped working after a 12-18 months so they had a buy another one. Put it at same price as renting. B - the firmware upgrade path was unclear and it could only be initiated through comcast (in some instances). Making you worry about upgrade support using a third-party product. C - Overall issues with support. Tech support is already a pain, again as above is going to be worse with third-party products. With modem/router price ranging from $100-200. Renting from Comcast at $120/year it means that you always have a de facto warranty. Something goes wrong with the modem/router call comcast they'll send you one or just drive to the local store and get a new one. There is probably some savings if it all goes well. But then again is it worth my time?
- joecool1029 8y ago
  > 1 - It's unclear which is the best modem/router by doing research. Comcast actually has a page for that: https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ > With modem/router price ranging from $100-200. Renting from Comcast at $120/year it means that you always have a de facto warranty. Something goes wrong with the modem/router call comcast they'll send you one or just drive to the local store and get a new one. There is probably some savings if it all goes well. But then again is it worth my time? How often do you actually think modems fail? No seriously, I'd really like to know the numbers. I bet failure rates are well under 1% annually. So what this amounts to is enabling Comcast to sell fraud. It's not a warranty, you're getting a replacement to fix an issue the modem didn't cause. You can't tell me it's much of a time saver when local stores sell modems or you could order same/next day from Amazon.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    > Comcast actually has a page for that That page doesn't give any info other than "sign in", "type in your address" (lol), and "consider paying us rent for hardware, learn more".
cosmie 8y ago
Warning for anyone using a customer owned modem with Comcast: Be sure you keep your receipts and original packaging. I recently canceled service and switched to AT&T Fiber. It was actually an unexpectedly easy process. But when I dropped off my cable box at a Comcast store, they asked me for my modem. The one that I bought myself. The person taking receipt of my equipment was fine when I said I owned my modem, and just "put a note" on my file. ... then I get a collections letter, explicitly related to the "unreturned" modem. Despite having no history of receiving a rental modem, and no monthly surcharge for modem rental on any of my years-long billing history, they refused to budge. I happened to still have the original box with the serial number on it and that combined with a printout of my Amazon order from back then was enough to at least to successfully dispute the debt on my credit reports. But it wasn't enough for Comcast, and I'm sure I'll still have to pay that bill and put down a giant deposit if (when) I move somewhere that forces me back to Comcast.
- xrd 8y ago
  They did something similar to me too. I dropped off the modem, with my two small kids on hand, and forgot to grab a receipt. I figured dropping it off in person would leave no room for doubt. That was not correct. A few months later, I'm getting threatening calls that I need to return the modem. I call them and the rep says "Oh, thanks, we will note that you returned it." So, they just send a collection notice and don't actually keep a record you have returned it inside their own systems.
  - kreitje 8y ago
    In my case, it was the HD receiver. The Comcast guy was surprised I asked for a receipt, and was shocked when I checked the serial number on the modem vs what was on the receipt. They matched, as they should. Then they still tried to ding me for an unreturned equipment and when I called they said 'it takes 2 - 3 months for it to come off your account'. It eventually did fall off, but was insane for hand delivering it to Comcast/Xfinity.
- appleflaxen 8y ago
  they did this to me, too. Comcast truly is the worst company in america.
panorama 8y ago
Recently, Cox had an outage in the city where my parents live. My dad, close to 70, misconstrued the situation and though it was just our modem being slow. He drove to a brick & mortar Cox shop, where a rep promptly sold him on leasing a gateway for $10/mo that would be (and I quote) "25 times faster" than the speeds we were currently getting (roughly peaking at 250 Mbps down). Of course, my Dad, not knowing too much about this stuff, rents the new router. And of course, it doesn't solve the fact that there was an outage in the first place. I tested the new connection and while I could see _rare_ instances of faster peak speeds, for the most part it was not much faster than the old setup when sampled over time. I really hope there comes a day when companies can be held accountable for straight up lying and taking advantage of customers who simply don't have the technical means to know any better. It really, really bothers me when my parents get taken advantage of like this and I know I'm mostly helpless to prevent it without micro-managing my dad's tech purchasing decisions.
- eblanshey 8y ago
  I sometimes think that the _core_ reason companies like this take advantage of people is because people don't usually care enough to do anything about it; in other words, to care enough to help _other_ people out. I envision that in the future there will some kind of easy to use "web of trust" that people will look up before deciding to do business w/ someone. Review sites like Yelp/Facebook are just the start of this concept but I think it could eventually turn into something more robust.
  - andromedavision 8y ago
    care_enough_to_explain_the_weird_underscores?
    - voltagex_ 8y ago
      Older way of showing bold or italics.
      - will_pseudonym 8y ago
strictnein 8y ago
Comcast has a site to help determine what 3rd party modem will work with your Internet package: https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ Sign in, it takes a look at what speed/connection you have and then will recommend a list. Or don't sign in and just specify your address. It'll tell you the speeds available at your location. Select the speed and it'll list out the modems they officially support, including ones with phone support. The ones that everyone I know has is the ARRIS SB8200 or the Motorola MB8600. Both support Docsis 3.0 up to something like 1.4Gbps. They're $150 or so, so you'll break even in a little over a year.
NoblePublius 8y ago
My ISP (Altice/Optimum/Cablevision) makes it very hard to use your own router or modem, despite Federal laws empowering customers to buy their own equipment if they want to. For starters, their techs will not install new service with your equipment; you MUST have their equipment installed, set up your equipment, and then travel to nowhereville to return their equipment. After doing this, I’ve had my modem bricked by Optimum for not having “the latest firmware.” No explanation given beyond that. There is no justifiable reason whatsoever to permit ISPs to rent equipment at all. The only reason they do this is so they can advertise cheaper service prices. Altice/Optimum/Cablevision markets a “$99 per month plus taxes and fees” bundle that actually comes out to $145 per month once you have added the equipment fees and taxes. They should also have to advertise total price. Good thing that the Democrats are fighting so hard for “net neutrality” which would solve this. Oh wait, no it’s wouldn’t. It just makes Netflix slightly cheaper. Great priorities!
- craftyguy 8y ago
  Well, if they are obviously violating a Federal law, then it sounds like lawsuit time. They clearly aren't going to change by themselves. Considering that ISPs insist on being monopolies (in the US), it shouldn't be too hard for any competent law firm to make it into a class action lawsuit.
  - Floegipoky 8y ago
    Why would ISPs violate the laws written by their own lawyers?
  - NoblePublius 8y ago
    They aren’t violating the law as one can still buy. They just make it really really really hard to buy. They should be banned front renting outright.
wnevets 8y ago
I went from having to restart the FiOS router all the time to fix the WiFi to never restarting with the edgerouter/unfi ap. Buying your own hardware cost more up front but over the course of a 2 year contract you're paying over $240 ($10 a month) for something that barely works from Verizon.
tylerjl 8y ago
This is a topic that is near and dear to me - last year I attempted building my own router/firewall on an ARMv8 board (the espressobin) and I've been extremely happy with it as a DIY router solution [1]. While this sort of approach doesn't solve the larger problem of non-technical folks being fleeced by Comcast and other ISPs en masse, maybe with gradually-increasing tech literacy, projects like loading up an espressobin with a pre-imaged SD card for a home router will be a tenable option someday for more people. From a hobbyist perspective, the router has been a dream to work with, and you can do some really weird stuff when the router is a Linux box you're in complete control of (DNS tricks, packet scheduling experiments, et cetera.) I always get a kick out of updating it periodically and seeing the latest mainline kernel loaded up (it's on 4.20.10 at the moment). I've never studied up on home-brewing the modem/DOCSIS 3 aspect, but realistically I don't know how feasible that is in comparison to the relatively more simple DHCP/DNS/firewall parts of a typical home router. [1] https://blog.tjll.net/building-my-perfect-router/ https://blog.tjll.net/building-my-perfect-router/
- fulafel 8y ago
  ARM boards tend to be bad wrt getting timely security patches because they don't run the mainline kernel, and don't run a mainstream Linux distribution with a paid security team. Even relatively well supported ones like Raspbian have this problem. My advice is to rather get a low end x86 device.
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    Marvell are better than most re: upstreaming code.
  - tylerjl 8y ago
    While I've absolutely had this experience with some of my ARM boards (notably, most of my ODroids are stuck on some variant of the 4.14 kernel with vendor patch sets), the essential parts of the espressobin are in mainline, device tree and all. The larger problem of developer/security team time and effort is still there, though. Arch Linux ARM and Armbian are active and well-maintained, but I do find myself running into problems that indicate that the community of active users for this type of hardware is vastly smaller than a traditional architectures.
sliken 8y ago
I switched from Comcast's router to a Ubiquiti Edgerouter 6p. It's fast, easy to configure, flexible, and gets regular security updates. Overkill, but still cheaper than renting a comcast router. Adding QoS really helped as well. In particular I wanted a VLAN/dedicated port for untrusted consumer widgets (TV, Stereo, fitbit, etc).
tryphotography 8y ago
good
m0zg 8y ago
Where I live, we have Frontier FIOS. Frontier FIOS _requires_ you to get their "wifi router" for $10/mo even though, I quote, "you don't have to use it". There's simply no option to not get it with a new subscription, not online, not on the phone. How this is legal, I don't know.
Janeman544 8y ago
Comcast roughly makes $5 profit per customer per month. Questi
andoma 8y ago
I returned Comcast's modem because: 1) I wanted better control of routing (have a bunch of wireguard tunnels). I want all the IOT-crap on a separate network, etc. 2) Whenever there is a transient link connectivity issue on the cable side it seems that the comcast modem tries to "fix" this by rebooting itself which takes a good 5 minutes. I got a Netgear CM700 which is basically just a DOCSIS / Ethernet -bridge (you just get the public IP using DHCP on the ethernet side). The cable modem connects to a homegrown Linux ARM based router and then I use Unifi PRO Access Point from Ubiquity Networks for Wifi. Never looked back since. The Unifi AP have multiple SSID's configured which is separated on different vlans on the way back to the router. The Netgear modem have so far never had a single hick-up from what I can tell (about six months in now). OpenWRT certainly is an option, but unfortunately getting high performance wifi out of it is a bit of a dice roll in my experience. I've tried a few hardware variants but eventually gave up and bought the Unifi PRO instead. Also I'd just rather have separate things that do each thing well.
trumped 8y ago
I'll rent you modems and routers for $8/month.... you'll save at least $5/month.
innocentoldguy 8y ago
I would love to stop renting Comcast's over-priced modem, but those fuckers' gigabit service is extremely unstable in my area and causes both my Arris SB8200 and NetGear CM1000 modems to constantly hang. I have to reboot my modem at least 2 or 3 times a day, no matter which one I use, and sometimes every 20 to 30 minutes. I haven't tried the Motorola MB8600 yet, but I'm kind of weary of dropping another couple hundred dollars on a modem that isn't guaranteed to work. Comcast's router at least stays up for more than a day at a time, but of course I'm only getting 400 to 500 Mbits down on my gigabit service. I'd leave Comcast in a second but the only other option in my area is CenturyLink, with their whopping 20 Mbit speed.
ronlobo 8y ago
We should sue those
purplezooey 8y ago
"Over time, users wind up paying Comcast significantly more money than the modem or router is worth." It's not really the cost, probably for 90% of users, it's more your average soccer mom doesn't want to deal with owning, updating, and maintening networking gear. So the service has some value to people.
girzel 8y ago
I just signed up for a CenturyLink connection in Seattle. CenturyLink feels like they're playing catch-up to Comcast, and thus are sort of on the humble end of the arrogant-to-humble pendulum of monopolies. They are giving me a per-month service that can be cancelled any time, "no price-hikes" (though how can that be possible, am I going to get the same price in perpetuity into the future?), and I clicked the "I will install my own router" option, and there are no extra installation or equipment fees. My Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite is in the mail. We'll see if there's another shoe to drop.
meroes 8y ago
When I worked there we only guaranteed speeds coming off a Comcast router/modem.
dvtrn 8y ago
For the love of God, can the titles remain consistent with the posts?

146 points by apsec112 8y ago

I tried. The modem didn't work. It was on the approved list. Had a tech come out, he installed a Comcast router and it worked. They waived the rental fee for 6 months. As much as I hate Comcast, I hate not having internet more.

deleted 8y ago
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JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
It all ends up back as a problem of that monopoly. Here in Australia, while we have our own problems, you could just switch ISP if they're playing shenanigans like that. In America, don't like your ISP? Guess you're living without internet then!
- yellowapple 8y ago
  Nonsense! America has plenty of options for Internet, and with blazing fast speeds like 54kbps!
  - yellowapple 8y ago
    Yeesh, tough crowd.
- ruytlm 8y ago
  It always surprises me how the US, as the paragon of the free market, is so comfortable with a lack of meaningful competition. I think it's something like 70% of US households have only one 'choice' for ISP. Then there was the discussion[0] here the other week about blitzscaling, and how it's basically "borrow money to do a land grab for monopoly, then use your money to stifle competitors". Even the lack of preferential[1] voting contributes to a lack of choice - either vote for a major party, or your preference is irrelevant. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19094703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19094703 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting
- 2trill2spill 8y ago
  I forget how lucky we are in Minneapolis compared to the rest of the USA to have 3 ISPs and also have fiber as an option.
  - bdhess 8y ago
    I’ve had multiple broadband choices in every metro area I’ve lived in, too (now on my fourth in the US). Of course, I’ve lived in parts of those metro areas that were densely populated. I.e., where a competitor could reasonably expect to recoup the cost of overbuilding. In less dense areas, the economics would be far worse.
    - woodruffw 8y ago
      Counter anecdote: I live in Manhattan and have only one broadband option: Time Warner, a.k.a. Spectrum. Verizon offers 5/1 "broadband" DSL for twice the price, and the other two regional providers (Optimum, RCN) don't service my neighborhood (which is by no means sparsely populated).
- peterhunt 8y ago
  I thought your choices in Australia were Telstra or rebranded Telstra?
  - JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
    Not since the NBN came about. Infra is owned by NBNco after they bought out Telstras infra (forced). Before that Telstra owned an ageing, choppy and slow copper network and that was your monopoly unless another ISP decided your area was populated enough to set up something. I admittedly have it much easier living in a metro area, but I have about 80 ISPs to choose from. But my relatives are all over Australia and the majority of them have at least a FTTN network to use now. I still suspect it will be sold back to Telstra and/or privatised and it'll go to hell again, it's already been majorly neutered.
- cf498 8y ago
  >Here in Australia, while we have our own problems, you could just switch ISP if they're playing shenanigans like that. We have multiple ISPs in Germany too, but unfortunately they are all crooks. Sure, it beats a monopoly, but the problem is far from solved.
- wyqydsyq 8y ago
  Unfortunately unless you live in a metro area your options in Australia aren't much better. Most rural or country areas and even some suburban zones are only serviced by a single ISP who may decide you don't need internet. I lived in Ipswich for 1.5 years, prior to moving in I signed up for ADSL2 (no NBN available in the area yet) with Telstra as they are the only ISP servicing the area. I was told that the local exchange has no available ports, and that I would need to go on a waiting list to be given a connection. I was periodically getting their "Sorry we can't provide you usable internet yet, how about ADSL1 or some 4G data at rip-off prices?" for that entire time, until I moved out and cancelled the still-pending service.
  - JauntyHatAngle 8y ago
    That's specifically due to Privatisation of Telstra though, which is exactly the monopoly being talked about. NBN was supposed to fix this, not sure if it still will though with the neutering of it.
airstrike 8y ago
I guess we can all collectively hate the lack of competition even more
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
Get a new modem before getting rid of your old one. Plug it in, call up Comcast and give them the MAC address, see if it works. If it doesn't work, return the modem to Amazon or wherever and order a new one. If it does work, give Comcast's modem back.
joecool1029 8y ago
In the early 2010's we had their piece of shit rented SMC D3G modem for static ip's at our office. We couldn't figure out why the net would stall and we'd get huge packetloss. Dozens of support calls, lots of finger pointing. Years later, it would come out Intel was incompetent at designing modems [1]. (as shown again with the more recent iPhone designs) This rental was required as even the approved modems couldn't be provisioned for statics, later on at other locations we just bought Motorola (now arris) SB6121's since dynamics were all that were needed for those locations and really never had an issue. [1] http://badmodems.com/ http://badmodems.com/
gothroach 8y ago
With Comcast Business, they insist on making you rent a router if you have static IPs. It irks me knowing I could be using my own hardware if I gave up my IPs, which I can't see doing.

kevin_thibedeau 8y ago

My cable ISP makes it hard to use your own by refusing to use just any DOCSIS 3 modem and not publishing an approved list. It would be nice if regulatory policy changes would force the industry to accept all standards compliant modems.

Merad 8y ago

I wonder how much longer we'll even have the option to use our own equipment. Late last year I briefly tried AT&T fiber, and it was required to use their hybrid modem/router monstrosity. It didn't even have options to disable the router functionality, the best you could do was turn off its WiFi networks and disable its firewall. Even after setting all of my own passwords on it it was still possible to access settings through my AT&T account online, telling me that the thing is backdoored all to hell. TBH that thing was a big factor in me canceling the service after 5 days (also the service was mediocre and they tried to screw me on pricing).

judge2020 8y ago
Apparently its due to ATT using custom authentication: https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Fiber-Equipment/List-of-Compatible-Modems-with-AT-amp-T-Fiber/td-p/5068425 https://forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-Fiber-Equipment/List-of-Compa...
- rayiner 8y ago
  It’s not custom. It’s a standard 802.1x certificate.
joecool1029 8y ago
> I wonder how much longer we'll even have the option to use our own equipment. Comcast already made it very nearly impossible to buy your own ATA for phone. I figured out how to do it. You had to go IN PERSON to a Best Buy with an Xfinity center (there was one about an hour away in my state). There you would pay and place your order. You would have to return in person to pick it up, then setup a provisioning appointment. As far as I could tell, aside from having an insider this was the only way they would allow you to provision your own device. Oh yeah, and if it breaks you're out the cost.
- strictnein 8y ago
  They list a number of them on their website that you can buy. https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ If you want 1Gbps and phone service, they support one device: Netgear CM1150V If you're ~400Mbps, they support four more devices: ARRIS SBV3202 Netgear C7100V Motorola MT7711 ARRIS SVG248AC

deleted 8y ago

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judge2020 8y ago

Even if you use an "approved modem", their support will not by any means help you unless you're using the official rented modem+gateway. You end up having to lie about using the rented one they give you (they don't check if you're actually paying for it) to get any actual support.

joecool1029 8y ago
Nope. That doesn't even work as they can see the MAC address of the modem on the network. For business class customers it basically means: "fuck you, you caused the problem with your equipment, we will send a tech next day when the problem stops happening and bill you $100 for the visit."
m-ee 8y ago
I've got no love for Comcast but I've never had any issues with this. Just yesterday I called about connectivity issues and they agreed to send a tech out, never asked what modem I was using. Setup with my own modem was always surprisingly easy to, just read them the MAC and was all set.
Wowfunhappy 8y ago
I have to mention, I've been on the other side of this, albeit with Time Warner. I'd just moved into my first apartment and had bought my own modem. Tech comes, sets up the internet, the internet doesn't work. Tech blames my modem. My response is something to the effect of "give me a break", but ultimately do order a new modem from Amazon, if only so I can show the tech that two different modems both don't work. Turns out, the first modem was defective. The second one worked fine and my internet has been great. I felt kind of crappy for arguing with the tech, when it absolutely was my hardware at fault.
flukus 8y ago
Just ask them to tell you the settings, it's way faster than following along with their silly step-by-step walk through anyway.
jwcooper 8y ago
I've always had my own modem and I've never had a problem with Comcast/Xfinity not helping me. Maybe I'm the exception. Recently they updated my area to DOCSIS 3 (or 3.1, not sure). My DOCSIS 3.1 Motorola modem (found this out later) has a firmware bug that causes random modem lockups. Comcast went as far as replacing the cable from the telephone pole to my house in the middle of winter (it was ridiculously cold that day), running signal analyzers, and various other things before looking into the modem. Also, Motorola Modem customer service was shockingly good as well. They sent me a free replacement modem while they worked on the firmware updates. Provisioning that temp modem was as simple as using the online provisioning. Now, it would be nice if I didn't have to set annual calendar reminders to call them for when they increase my monthly price by 40%...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

phil_folrida 8y ago

Most users, consumers, on Comcast do not have a choice, next election go out and vote rather than stating the obvious.

zdragnar 8y ago
That's strange, I've had cable internet through Comcast at four different houses and have always used my own equipment, didn't rent theirs at all.

Zarath 8y ago

Not sure why you wouldn't. Modem rental costs, what? 5 or 10 bucks a month? Just buy a modem and it pays for itself pretty quickly. I'm honestly surprised that they let you do it.

baroffoos 8y ago
ISPs in Australia give the router out for free as long as you agree to a 1 year contract.
- kilburn 8y ago
  Is there an option to not get their router and thus waive the 1-year clause? Otherwise what you mean is "it is mandatory to lease their router even if you have your own, and you are forced to enter a 1-year minimum contract.".
  - baroffoos 8y ago
    > Is there an option to not get their router and thus waive the 1-year clause? Yes. you also have the option to just pay for the ISP router outright.
    - kilburn 8y ago
      Oh that's nice! I asked because here in Spain they advertise the same, but you cannot opt out of getting the 1-year lock-in in any way.
tetromino_ 8y ago
Say rental is $8/month and approved docsis 3.1 modem is $180 to buy outright. Buying doesn't really make sense unless you will be sticking with the same ISP for at least two years. (And in two years, you might take a promo deal and sign up with another ISP; or move to a different apartment building which doesn't allow your current ISP; or your roommate or SO might decide to take care of connectivity; or technology will advance and you would want a different modem anyway.)

mathnmusic 8y ago

One of the biggest lost opportunities for the robustness of the Web has been people not running servers at their homes, even though they do have a connected computer running 24x7 - the Router. It will probably take a Google or Apple to turn routers into standardized platforms with its own "app store", but by then it will be too late.

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Can OpenWRT not run containers? I’d argue that’s be an amazing use case similar to how my Synology NAS has a GUI and cli for running containers. Open source router firmware having the ability to run persistent containers would be a powerful feature (such as an IPFS node).
- simula67 8y ago
  OpenWRT routers may not have enough power (RAM/CPU) to run complicated server software. Also the router may be running MIPS which is not that well supported by many apps and containerization is not going to solve that problem. Admittedly, it was a few years since I last tested this. These days I try to run any apps on a Raspberry Pi connected to my OpenWrt router
NDizzle 8y ago
I've ran servers at home since I had a BBS in the mid 90s. I'm not even sure how many computers I own these days...
flukus 8y ago
Many of the most used online services like email and dropbox and maybe even federated social media alternatives amongst others could be well handled by home servers. I suspect they made it hard so they could be something more than dumb pipes, but instead they ceded those opportunities to google and other SaaS providers.
tdb7893 8y ago
I know people who are literally rocket scientists (most of them actually work on fighter jets) that have trouble correctly configuring video game servers. In my experience for most people trying to run any sort of server themselves is quite a hassle (I mean my work has a lot of experts whose sole job is to make sure the servers are all running correctly and they still get it wrong sometimes).

paultopia 8y ago

People who write this kind of article grotesquely underestimate how hard these companies make this task. I use centurylink DSL, mainly because the local cable monopolist is mediacom, and I tried mediacom for two weeks of downright insulting lack of service[1], it was the only alternative. This[2] is the information centurylink provides about what modems are compatible with their service. Do I know whether I have ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL, GPON, or whatever the hell any of those other acronyms mean? No. Does it say so on the bill? Who knows, I haven't seen a paper bill for years, no idea when they stopped sending them. I suppose I could dig up some three-year-old piece of paper from a kitchen drawer somewhere that might say which, or that might say the unused landline number they hooked the DSL to so I can maybe try to figure out how to get into some online account (lord knows I've tried to find a username that they'll recognize to get a password reset). Or I could call them, and talk to a minimum wage, probably offshore, customer service person in a call center who might maybe give me accurate information as to which acronym I have. Or I could not look a gift horse in the mouth. Right now, I'm sending someone a not huge amount of money per month, and I actually have residential internet service that kinda works (and when I actually need reasonable speeds I can bring my laptop to the office). Relative to the standard condition of life in our third-world situation in the United States with crooked monopolists charging people for service they don't actually provide, I feel lucky being charged for service I actually do receive. And don't feel particularly inclined to rock the boat on that. I rather suspect a similar calculus is going through the heads of millions of American households. What we need is regulation for the monopolists, not more articles scolding captive consumers about buying their own goddamn modems. [1] This letter sums it all up. http://paul-gowder.com/pgmediacom.pdf http://paul-gowder.com/pgmediacom.pdf Needless to say, after receiving a "this is a lawyer who is clearly insane and extremely angry" letter they sent me my money back. [2] https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-routers/what-modems-are-compatible-with-centurylink.html https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-ro...

toast0 8y ago
If you really wanted to buy a modem for CenturyLink, the best thing to ask about technology is the current modem -- it will tell you somewhere. But you'll notice that almost all of the listed modems are customized for CenturyLink, that's what the C in the name means (and presumably the other letters too). That means you're more than likely stuck with whatever customization that you might have liked to get rid of, or features you might like to add. (Like a bridge mode that actually works). Not being able to realistically do better than what equipment you already have, you could probably just buy a new one of the device you already have, but then again, it's hard to predict how long that will be useful. If you move or by some miraculous force, CenturyLink offers an upgraded service, your device may be useless.

salimmadjd 8y ago

Last month we made a decision to buy our own router and not rent from Comcast (Xfinity). Then I started doing the math, and soon realized at the end of the day it might be that much better. 1 - It's unclear which is the best modem/router by doing research. Gives you the maximum speed, etc. 2 - You start reading reviews on Amazon around reliability and you see a lot of comments that basically give you doubt. It falls in two ways: A - the model/router stopped working after a 12-18 months so they had a buy another one. Put it at same price as renting. B - the firmware upgrade path was unclear and it could only be initiated through comcast (in some instances). Making you worry about upgrade support using a third-party product. C - Overall issues with support. Tech support is already a pain, again as above is going to be worse with third-party products. With modem/router price ranging from $100-200. Renting from Comcast at $120/year it means that you always have a de facto warranty. Something goes wrong with the modem/router call comcast they'll send you one or just drive to the local store and get a new one. There is probably some savings if it all goes well. But then again is it worth my time?

joecool1029 8y ago
> 1 - It's unclear which is the best modem/router by doing research. Comcast actually has a page for that: https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ > With modem/router price ranging from $100-200. Renting from Comcast at $120/year it means that you always have a de facto warranty. Something goes wrong with the modem/router call comcast they'll send you one or just drive to the local store and get a new one. There is probably some savings if it all goes well. But then again is it worth my time? How often do you actually think modems fail? No seriously, I'd really like to know the numbers. I bet failure rates are well under 1% annually. So what this amounts to is enabling Comcast to sell fraud. It's not a warranty, you're getting a replacement to fix an issue the modem didn't cause. You can't tell me it's much of a time saver when local stores sell modems or you could order same/next day from Amazon.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  > Comcast actually has a page for that That page doesn't give any info other than "sign in", "type in your address" (lol), and "consider paying us rent for hardware, learn more".

cosmie 8y ago

Warning for anyone using a customer owned modem with Comcast: Be sure you keep your receipts and original packaging. I recently canceled service and switched to AT&T Fiber. It was actually an unexpectedly easy process. But when I dropped off my cable box at a Comcast store, they asked me for my modem. The one that I bought myself. The person taking receipt of my equipment was fine when I said I owned my modem, and just "put a note" on my file. ... then I get a collections letter, explicitly related to the "unreturned" modem. Despite having no history of receiving a rental modem, and no monthly surcharge for modem rental on any of my years-long billing history, they refused to budge. I happened to still have the original box with the serial number on it and that combined with a printout of my Amazon order from back then was enough to at least to successfully dispute the debt on my credit reports. But it wasn't enough for Comcast, and I'm sure I'll still have to pay that bill and put down a giant deposit if (when) I move somewhere that forces me back to Comcast.

xrd 8y ago
They did something similar to me too. I dropped off the modem, with my two small kids on hand, and forgot to grab a receipt. I figured dropping it off in person would leave no room for doubt. That was not correct. A few months later, I'm getting threatening calls that I need to return the modem. I call them and the rep says "Oh, thanks, we will note that you returned it." So, they just send a collection notice and don't actually keep a record you have returned it inside their own systems.
- kreitje 8y ago
  In my case, it was the HD receiver. The Comcast guy was surprised I asked for a receipt, and was shocked when I checked the serial number on the modem vs what was on the receipt. They matched, as they should. Then they still tried to ding me for an unreturned equipment and when I called they said 'it takes 2 - 3 months for it to come off your account'. It eventually did fall off, but was insane for hand delivering it to Comcast/Xfinity.
appleflaxen 8y ago
they did this to me, too. Comcast truly is the worst company in america.

panorama 8y ago

Recently, Cox had an outage in the city where my parents live. My dad, close to 70, misconstrued the situation and though it was just our modem being slow. He drove to a brick & mortar Cox shop, where a rep promptly sold him on leasing a gateway for $10/mo that would be (and I quote) "25 times faster" than the speeds we were currently getting (roughly peaking at 250 Mbps down). Of course, my Dad, not knowing too much about this stuff, rents the new router. And of course, it doesn't solve the fact that there was an outage in the first place. I tested the new connection and while I could see _rare_ instances of faster peak speeds, for the most part it was not much faster than the old setup when sampled over time. I really hope there comes a day when companies can be held accountable for straight up lying and taking advantage of customers who simply don't have the technical means to know any better. It really, really bothers me when my parents get taken advantage of like this and I know I'm mostly helpless to prevent it without micro-managing my dad's tech purchasing decisions.

eblanshey 8y ago
I sometimes think that the _core_ reason companies like this take advantage of people is because people don't usually care enough to do anything about it; in other words, to care enough to help _other_ people out. I envision that in the future there will some kind of easy to use "web of trust" that people will look up before deciding to do business w/ someone. Review sites like Yelp/Facebook are just the start of this concept but I think it could eventually turn into something more robust.
- andromedavision 8y ago
  care_enough_to_explain_the_weird_underscores?
  - voltagex_ 8y ago
    Older way of showing bold or italics.
    - will_pseudonym 8y ago

strictnein 8y ago

Comcast has a site to help determine what 3rd party modem will work with your Internet package: https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ Sign in, it takes a look at what speed/connection you have and then will recommend a list. Or don't sign in and just specify your address. It'll tell you the speeds available at your location. Select the speed and it'll list out the modems they officially support, including ones with phone support. The ones that everyone I know has is the ARRIS SB8200 or the Motorola MB8600. Both support Docsis 3.0 up to something like 1.4Gbps. They're $150 or so, so you'll break even in a little over a year.

NoblePublius 8y ago

My ISP (Altice/Optimum/Cablevision) makes it very hard to use your own router or modem, despite Federal laws empowering customers to buy their own equipment if they want to. For starters, their techs will not install new service with your equipment; you MUST have their equipment installed, set up your equipment, and then travel to nowhereville to return their equipment. After doing this, I’ve had my modem bricked by Optimum for not having “the latest firmware.” No explanation given beyond that. There is no justifiable reason whatsoever to permit ISPs to rent equipment at all. The only reason they do this is so they can advertise cheaper service prices. Altice/Optimum/Cablevision markets a “$99 per month plus taxes and fees” bundle that actually comes out to $145 per month once you have added the equipment fees and taxes. They should also have to advertise total price. Good thing that the Democrats are fighting so hard for “net neutrality” which would solve this. Oh wait, no it’s wouldn’t. It just makes Netflix slightly cheaper. Great priorities!

craftyguy 8y ago
Well, if they are obviously violating a Federal law, then it sounds like lawsuit time. They clearly aren't going to change by themselves. Considering that ISPs insist on being monopolies (in the US), it shouldn't be too hard for any competent law firm to make it into a class action lawsuit.
- Floegipoky 8y ago
  Why would ISPs violate the laws written by their own lawyers?
- NoblePublius 8y ago
  They aren’t violating the law as one can still buy. They just make it really really really hard to buy. They should be banned front renting outright.

wnevets 8y ago

I went from having to restart the FiOS router all the time to fix the WiFi to never restarting with the edgerouter/unfi ap. Buying your own hardware cost more up front but over the course of a 2 year contract you're paying over $240 ($10 a month) for something that barely works from Verizon.

tylerjl 8y ago

This is a topic that is near and dear to me - last year I attempted building my own router/firewall on an ARMv8 board (the espressobin) and I've been extremely happy with it as a DIY router solution [1]. While this sort of approach doesn't solve the larger problem of non-technical folks being fleeced by Comcast and other ISPs en masse, maybe with gradually-increasing tech literacy, projects like loading up an espressobin with a pre-imaged SD card for a home router will be a tenable option someday for more people. From a hobbyist perspective, the router has been a dream to work with, and you can do some really weird stuff when the router is a Linux box you're in complete control of (DNS tricks, packet scheduling experiments, et cetera.) I always get a kick out of updating it periodically and seeing the latest mainline kernel loaded up (it's on 4.20.10 at the moment). I've never studied up on home-brewing the modem/DOCSIS 3 aspect, but realistically I don't know how feasible that is in comparison to the relatively more simple DHCP/DNS/firewall parts of a typical home router. [1] https://blog.tjll.net/building-my-perfect-router/ https://blog.tjll.net/building-my-perfect-router/

fulafel 8y ago
ARM boards tend to be bad wrt getting timely security patches because they don't run the mainline kernel, and don't run a mainstream Linux distribution with a paid security team. Even relatively well supported ones like Raspbian have this problem. My advice is to rather get a low end x86 device.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  Marvell are better than most re: upstreaming code.
- tylerjl 8y ago
  While I've absolutely had this experience with some of my ARM boards (notably, most of my ODroids are stuck on some variant of the 4.14 kernel with vendor patch sets), the essential parts of the espressobin are in mainline, device tree and all. The larger problem of developer/security team time and effort is still there, though. Arch Linux ARM and Armbian are active and well-maintained, but I do find myself running into problems that indicate that the community of active users for this type of hardware is vastly smaller than a traditional architectures.

sliken 8y ago

I switched from Comcast's router to a Ubiquiti Edgerouter 6p. It's fast, easy to configure, flexible, and gets regular security updates. Overkill, but still cheaper than renting a comcast router. Adding QoS really helped as well. In particular I wanted a VLAN/dedicated port for untrusted consumer widgets (TV, Stereo, fitbit, etc).

tryphotography 8y ago

good

m0zg 8y ago

Where I live, we have Frontier FIOS. Frontier FIOS _requires_ you to get their "wifi router" for $10/mo even though, I quote, "you don't have to use it". There's simply no option to not get it with a new subscription, not online, not on the phone. How this is legal, I don't know.

Janeman544 8y ago

Comcast roughly makes $5 profit per customer per month. Questi

andoma 8y ago

I returned Comcast's modem because: 1) I wanted better control of routing (have a bunch of wireguard tunnels). I want all the IOT-crap on a separate network, etc. 2) Whenever there is a transient link connectivity issue on the cable side it seems that the comcast modem tries to "fix" this by rebooting itself which takes a good 5 minutes. I got a Netgear CM700 which is basically just a DOCSIS / Ethernet -bridge (you just get the public IP using DHCP on the ethernet side). The cable modem connects to a homegrown Linux ARM based router and then I use Unifi PRO Access Point from Ubiquity Networks for Wifi. Never looked back since. The Unifi AP have multiple SSID's configured which is separated on different vlans on the way back to the router. The Netgear modem have so far never had a single hick-up from what I can tell (about six months in now). OpenWRT certainly is an option, but unfortunately getting high performance wifi out of it is a bit of a dice roll in my experience. I've tried a few hardware variants but eventually gave up and bought the Unifi PRO instead. Also I'd just rather have separate things that do each thing well.

trumped 8y ago

I'll rent you modems and routers for $8/month.... you'll save at least $5/month.

innocentoldguy 8y ago

I would love to stop renting Comcast's over-priced modem, but those fuckers' gigabit service is extremely unstable in my area and causes both my Arris SB8200 and NetGear CM1000 modems to constantly hang. I have to reboot my modem at least 2 or 3 times a day, no matter which one I use, and sometimes every 20 to 30 minutes. I haven't tried the Motorola MB8600 yet, but I'm kind of weary of dropping another couple hundred dollars on a modem that isn't guaranteed to work. Comcast's router at least stays up for more than a day at a time, but of course I'm only getting 400 to 500 Mbits down on my gigabit service. I'd leave Comcast in a second but the only other option in my area is CenturyLink, with their whopping 20 Mbit speed.

ronlobo 8y ago

We should sue those

purplezooey 8y ago

"Over time, users wind up paying Comcast significantly more money than the modem or router is worth." It's not really the cost, probably for 90% of users, it's more your average soccer mom doesn't want to deal with owning, updating, and maintening networking gear. So the service has some value to people.

girzel 8y ago

I just signed up for a CenturyLink connection in Seattle. CenturyLink feels like they're playing catch-up to Comcast, and thus are sort of on the humble end of the arrogant-to-humble pendulum of monopolies. They are giving me a per-month service that can be cancelled any time, "no price-hikes" (though how can that be possible, am I going to get the same price in perpetuity into the future?), and I clicked the "I will install my own router" option, and there are no extra installation or equipment fees. My Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite is in the mail. We'll see if there's another shoe to drop.

meroes 8y ago

When I worked there we only guaranteed speeds coming off a Comcast router/modem.

dvtrn 8y ago

For the love of God, can the titles remain consistent with the posts?