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Funny timing. Was helping my father in law troubleshoot his WiFi this weekend and came across this article. All his wireless printers and his really old iPad

Funny timing. Was helping my father in law troubleshoot his WiFi this weekend and came across this article. All his wireless printers and his really old iPad (I think gen 1 or 2) refused to connect suddenly a couple weeks ago. No apparent changes or new devices on his network. Turned out Comcast pushed an update to his wireless gateway that enabled ‘managed security functionality’. Part of this included forcing WPA3 security on all devices. Once I figured out how to set it back to WPA2 for the 2.4 ghz network, all the old devices reconnected. Good times :)

jms703 4y ago
I don't think WPA3 is totally ready for widespread use (yet) due to older IoT devices. I'm not even totally sure what problem it solves, so I should probably read up on it.
teaearlgraycold 4y ago
You’d think they’d have some kind of migration system to detect if there are devices on the network that are lost after the switch over and revert if so.
- daed 4y ago
  You are clearly not a Comcast customer.
  - teaearlgraycold 4y ago
    Sonic Fiber!
- CharlesW 4y ago
  This is a brilliant idea. It makes me wonder if there are any user-friendly network scanners that do snapshot diffs.
cronix 4y ago
This is one of the main reasons I bought my own docsis 3 router for about $100 6 years ago. Comcast doesn't have access to it. The other bonus is you save a lot of money over the years by not having to rent it from Comcast, every month for the lifetime of your service. It pays for itself the first year. You give up pay per view/on-demand which never affected me, but something to consider if he uses that. I think you can still get ppv but have to call in or something and can't just order it using the remote, but my memory on that is foggy since I never use ppv. They make good Christmas presents and saving the FIL money always builds up the brownie bank :)
- sveiss 4y ago
  If you’re with Comcast, then it’s very likely they do have access to the modem, even if you own it. A cable modem is somewhat “trusted” from the perspective of the network: cable is physically a shared medium, and a malfunctioning or malicious devices can disrupt service for everyone on the same physical cable segment. There’s no way for an ISP to remotely cut off a bad device. This means cable ISPs demand tight control of the equipment connected to their network, including remote configuration and firmware updates. Comcast enforce this by limiting activation to a list of approved devices, and there’s a certificate-based scheme to try and prevent spoofing an approved device. Historically, the cable modem also enforced download and upload speed limits as well, giving ISPs another reason to keep modems under tight control, but I don’t know if that’s still the case. If you distrust Comcast, then you should treat your DOCSIS device as hostile even if you own it, and put it behind a router you do control instead of using a combined modem/router.
  - max51 4y ago
    if he only paid 100$ for a modem and it was brand new, it likely wasn't an all-in-one station like what large ISPs are trying to push. Cheaper/dumber modems severely limit the amount of control Comcast have and how much they can fuck up your network with a bad update. They can't mess up your wifi settings if the box they control doesn't even have a wireless radio on it. "dumb" modems are a lot more reliable simply because there is nothing for them to patch inside. It doesn't have a complex OS running a wide range of services that need regular updates (managing a TV, wifi, file sharing, etc.).
kzrdude 4y ago
This is the first time I ever heard of WPA3 existing. Does it exist under any other name?

jms703 4y ago

I don't think WPA3 is totally ready for widespread use (yet) due to older IoT devices. I'm not even totally sure what problem it solves, so I should probably read up on it.

teaearlgraycold 4y ago

You’d think they’d have some kind of migration system to detect if there are devices on the network that are lost after the switch over and revert if so.

daed 4y ago
You are clearly not a Comcast customer.
- teaearlgraycold 4y ago
  Sonic Fiber!
CharlesW 4y ago
This is a brilliant idea. It makes me wonder if there are any user-friendly network scanners that do snapshot diffs.

cronix 4y ago

This is one of the main reasons I bought my own docsis 3 router for about $100 6 years ago. Comcast doesn't have access to it. The other bonus is you save a lot of money over the years by not having to rent it from Comcast, every month for the lifetime of your service. It pays for itself the first year. You give up pay per view/on-demand which never affected me, but something to consider if he uses that. I think you can still get ppv but have to call in or something and can't just order it using the remote, but my memory on that is foggy since I never use ppv. They make good Christmas presents and saving the FIL money always builds up the brownie bank :)

sveiss 4y ago
If you’re with Comcast, then it’s very likely they do have access to the modem, even if you own it. A cable modem is somewhat “trusted” from the perspective of the network: cable is physically a shared medium, and a malfunctioning or malicious devices can disrupt service for everyone on the same physical cable segment. There’s no way for an ISP to remotely cut off a bad device. This means cable ISPs demand tight control of the equipment connected to their network, including remote configuration and firmware updates. Comcast enforce this by limiting activation to a list of approved devices, and there’s a certificate-based scheme to try and prevent spoofing an approved device. Historically, the cable modem also enforced download and upload speed limits as well, giving ISPs another reason to keep modems under tight control, but I don’t know if that’s still the case. If you distrust Comcast, then you should treat your DOCSIS device as hostile even if you own it, and put it behind a router you do control instead of using a combined modem/router.
- max51 4y ago
  if he only paid 100$ for a modem and it was brand new, it likely wasn't an all-in-one station like what large ISPs are trying to push. Cheaper/dumber modems severely limit the amount of control Comcast have and how much they can fuck up your network with a bad update. They can't mess up your wifi settings if the box they control doesn't even have a wireless radio on it. "dumb" modems are a lot more reliable simply because there is nothing for them to patch inside. It doesn't have a complex OS running a wide range of services that need regular updates (managing a TV, wifi, file sharing, etc.).

kzrdude 4y ago

This is the first time I ever heard of WPA3 existing. Does it exist under any other name?