Comment by femiagbabiaka
1 month ago
Xfinity won't give folks in certain locales (maybe everywhere in the US?) unlimited bandwidth unless they use their modem/router. This seems like a good reason that practice should be illegal.
1 month ago
Xfinity won't give folks in certain locales (maybe everywhere in the US?) unlimited bandwidth unless they use their modem/router. This seems like a good reason that practice should be illegal.
If you want to remove the 1.2TB data cap, you can either pay $25/mo and get Xfinity's gateway router "included" OR pay $30/mo to use your own modem/router.
Put their WiFi router inside a faraday’s cage and wire a modem behind it. That should shave off the $25/mo.
I use my own and there's a data cap.
I did too last time I had my own internet service, but I wasn't paying the $30/month fee to have unlimited bandwidth. Are you? (And if so, why, if they're not giving you the unlimited bandwidth?)
I have to pay more when I do not use their device? Crazy...
Right, it makes you wonder what they're getting out of using the first-party device. Companies usually aren't in the business of burning money.
I use my own modem/router with them, but I have to pay an extra $30/mo for unlimited download. Complete garbage. I wish there was competition; Comcast is my only realistic option in San Francisco.
As far as I’m aware, Xfinity fiber customers have to use the provided “Xfinity Wi-Fi Gateway” and cannot enable bridge mode.
If anyone knows a way around this, please share! I want to connect my Xfinity ONT directly to my UniFi router.
They have changed this policy with their new plans released last week. You no longer have to use their equipment to get unlimited data
In that situation, I would put the vendor modem in a microwave or other impromptu faraday cage to prevent the leakage. Remove/isolate the antennas as best as possible.
Can also open it up and disconnect the wifi antennas, or cut the traces if they're on the PCB.
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I was thinking about this with respect to the new uncomplicated no-contract service with no caps they started offering:
https://www.slashdot.org/story/25/06/26/2124252/comcasts-new...
Apparently you can get 1/2gbit ethernet only modems without wifi. You don't save any money over using their equipment.
This practice, and fear of the exact sort of nonsense in this article, plus wanting to keep my wifi bandwidth free for the network I actually connect to, is why I'm still on AT&T DSL in my area, at 50 mbps. Comcast is available at up to gigabit, and they can keep it.
AT&T is pretty bad in its own way. They snoop DNS and to sell your info (including physical address) to advertisers - even if you switch your DNS providers. They used to had a paid opt out (~$20/mo IIRC) but I don’t see that option anymore.
This is quite easy to avoid by using DNS over TLS. It's like 15 minutes of effort in some OpenWRT documentation [1]. If you want any hope of having some semblance of control and privacy, you would already be using your own router, with their CPE being relegated to modem-only duties. It only makes sense that in this situation you choose a router that can run highly-configurable and privacy-preserving software.
I did it several months ago, including the optional adding an outbound firewall rule dropping forwarded UDP/TCP 53 traffic (I tried the redirect rule suggested there first, but it didn't work and the firewall ruleset failed to load, so a drop will have to do. I didn't bother investigating why, because everything on my LANs is configured to use the router as their only nameserver anyway).
I also added a rule dropping it from the router itself in case something breaks, for example if it suddenly decides to start honouring the DHCP-received nameserver addresses (my ISP) despite being configured not to.
EDIT: The article doesn't make this clear, but the bootstrap section is only necessary if you specify upstream nameservers by name (e.g. "https://dns.cloudflare.com/dns-query"). This is not required. For example, you can configure a manual upstream of "tls://1.1.1.1" like I did, and then it doesn't need to do any DNS lookups at all, so does not need to be configured with bootstrap servers, so will not break if you add the 2 firewall rules I mentioned.
[1] https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/dns/dot_dnsmasq...
I wasn't really meaning to defend AT&T as a good option, just a slightly less evil one. I'm surprised I have a choice at all out here in the sticks. A lot of places just have one provider.
I had AT&T DSL many years ago. They forced me to use their modem/router combo from 2Wire. It was truly awful. I eventually got so fed up with trying to connect things to the WiFi that I bought a separate router to plug into it, and connected to that network, which it did let me do. That solved most of my problems, other than the overall poor service.
Interesting. My family had one of the pointy 2Wire ones (the HomePortal 1000 looks like the one), and I don't remember it having issues with WiFi. Then again, all I had to connect at the time was an HP Pavilion running Windows Vista/7 (later Linux) and an iPod Touch. I think we eventually had a Wii and an Epson printer connected wirelessly as well.
Now I do remember some issues getting it to maintain a stable connection to the DSL network at some points, which even daisy-chaining another router wouldn't have fixed. No way to tell if that was the gateway or just the DSL network that was flaky.
So use their router, but connect your own to it. Then turn off the WiFi in their equipment
I'm doing the first bit, but I can't turn off the wifi -- only stop broadcasting my "personal" network. And actually, as I went in to make sure that was the case, I saw that broadcasting of my personal network had been forcibly turned back on. Lovely!
If you cannot disable it and you don't trust the wifi but need the service, wrap the isp provided box it in aluminum foil and ground that foil ( no need to try to solder on the foil, an alligator clip is more practical), the wifi will still be on but it will be completely blind. Just make sure it doesn't overheat.
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That is what should be illegal, for electronic devices (even if rented) to be unable to disable wireless communications, or for a contract to affect the operation of stuff other than wireless communications when the wireless is disabled. It should also be illegal to be unable to disable all power to electric devices (for devices with battery power, that would include that it must be possible to remove the battery, and the method to be documented).
If you don't broadcast your SSID, then how can device manufactures have hyper accurate location services available when GPS is not? You're not participating in the system! Hell, as much money as theGoogs gives to be the default search to various companies, would they not be willing to pay ISPs to keep that option on? I'm just throwing ideas out that I know nothing about, but I don't see why they would be opposed to the concept.
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Put the thing in a faraday box.
I use a cellular connection for my internet, but my apartment building is wired with Xfinity, and probably 90% of people use it.
Naturally, there is no way for me to opt out of this.
Does your apartment lease require that you use Comcast's hardware? When I signed up for Xfinity years ago I wanted to use my own hardware (NetGear cable modem, Buffalo Airstation with DD-WRT). I forget now whether I had to walk through the activation over the phone with a tech - I vaguely recall having to provide some information about the modem, which was one of the models listed as supported on their use-your-own-hardware web page - but the whole thing was easy.
Other people have mentioned that not using Comcast's stuff means that certain features won't be available, but I don't care. I don't have huge bandwidth needs, for instance.
I believe the person you are replying to does not use comcast, but is saying they cant' opt out of this spying due to their neighbors using comcast.
Are you in California? I'd contend there's a CCPA issue there. "I live at X address, and demand that you not collect my movement information from any of your equipment at this address or others."
Time to make your apartment a faraday cage!
RF-blocking paint exists.
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Exactly why I rent the modem but it sits unplugged in the closet lol