She writes that "People locate Comcast hotspots via an Xfinity app or through the Xfinity hotspot locator site.
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Samara Lynn, of PC Magazine, raised another concern - physical security. Addressing this, Comcast says "The XFINITY WiFi service is designed to work on a separate network so that your home network remains entirely secure." Here too, I have not run across any reports that put this claim to the test. I have not run across any tests with hard numbers, but my expectation would be that the bandwidth impact would be minimal.Īnother obvious issue is that visitors might be able to interact with computers and other devices on the personal network (wired or wireless) since everything connects to the same gateway device. But, to be clear, this is speculation on my part. It is possible that the Comcast gateway devices (Arris Touchstone models in Houston) are configured to send guest traffic over a different channel or channels than traffic from the homeowner.
Some DOCSIS 3.0 modems have 4 channels in each direction, others have 8 downstream channels (from the Internet to you) and 4 upstream (from you to the Internet). Unlike Wi-Fi channels, DOCSIS channels refer to wired connections between the cable modem and the home office of the cable provider. We have provisioned the XFINITY WiFi feature to support robust usage, and therefore, we anticipate minimal impact to the in-home WiFi network."ĭOCSIS 3.0 cable modems get their speed, much like the ac flavor of Wi-Fi, by using multiple channels. They also say that "The broadband connection to your home will be unaffected by the XFINITY WiFi feature. In response, Comcast says that they do not allow more than 5 xfinitywifi guest users at a time on any one router. The first reaction that many have is the fear that outsiders connecting to their home router will hog the bandwidth and slow down the Internet connection speed of the homeowner. The knee-jerk objections have been addressed by Comcast. If you read this entire article to the end (warning: it's long), I am sure you will agree.
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Here I will cover the obvious downsides to the service, some less than obvious drawbacks, and finally, a new security risk that no one has yet raised.įocused on Defensive Computing as I am, XFINITY WiFi seems like a bad idea for Comcast customers, both those offering the free Wi-Fi on their routers and those using the system away from home. They, like many others who have addressed the topic, have probably not considered all the security issues. At Lifehacker, Melanie Pinola recently wrote "It isn't necessarily a terrible thing." On his This Week in Tech podcast on June 15th, Leo Laporte didn't know what to think. Is XFINITY WiFi a good thing or a bad thing? To put this in perspective, Comcast has roughly 21 million Internet customers. Either way, Comcast plans to have 8 million by the end of 2014. The company claims to have over a million XFINITY WiFi hotspots, another source put the current number at 3 million. It may even let someone get away with a cheap Wi-Fi only tablet as opposed to a model with built-in 3G/4G/LTE. XFINITY Wi-Fi can save on typically limited 3G/4G bandwidth and it should be faster too.Ĭomcast makes XFINITY WiFi available to their business customers too and they have installed it at some public areas, such as the Universal Orlando Resort. The big benefit is that when Comcast customers are traveling to an area served by Comcast, they can use this public Wi-Fi to get online. Of course, this ignores the fact that many routers offer guest networks to solve just this problem.
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They tout it as a security feature, since the homeowner gets to keep their Wi-Fi password secret. In pushing the program, Comcast points out that when one of their customers visits another, the visitor can use the xfinitywifi network rather than the homeowners wireless network. Home users would see a new Wi-Fi network called "xfinitywifi" alongside their existing private wireless network. About a year ago, Comcast started modifying the routers of some of their customers to create a quasi-public wireless system called XFINITY WiFi intended for use, mainly, by Comcast customers.
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