
Ask HN: Did Comcast just screw me over? - dan-silver
I noticed yesterday that Comcast enabled their public wifi hotspot[1] on my home router.  I&#x27;m not sure if there are security risks or if it increases my electric bill, but it provides no additional benefit to me so I want it disabled.  Since they removed the easy way of disabling it from their website, I called them and they disabled it.  However, I&#x27;m now thinking that they just stopped the ssid broadcast since I can see another network with the same signal strength that the hotspot had, just without any network name.  I&#x27;m using an android app[1] to chart the signal strengths of networks.  I clearly stated to them that the network should be completely disabled, so I&#x27;m very confused.<p><i></i> Is there any way for me to know if this other network is still the Comcast Xfinity public hotspot?<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;tech-policy&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;comcast-sued-by-customers-for-turning-routers-into-public-hotspots&#x2F;<p>[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&amp;hl=en
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nness
Power cycle the modem and see if the hotspot disappears and reappears with the
modem. That would be fairly conclusive.

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moondev
Just buy your own modem from amazon. You get total control and don't have to
pay them to lease your modem/router

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manyxcxi
Absolutely. I saw the announcement that this was going to happen however long
ago that was (2 years?) and I just hopped on Amazon and got my own. Then I saw
they upped the prices on modem rentals and chuckled to myself on the timing.

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tmaly
Can you recommend a modem. I would prefer one without wifi or if with wifi, a
way to disable it.

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blcArmadillo
I just bought
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJHDZSI](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJHDZSI)
to use with Comcast. I've only had it for a month but haven't had any issues
with it so far.

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manyxcxi
That's exactly the one I bought. I've never had a moment's issue with it. No
WiFi, no IP phone, just power, a coax connection, and an ethernet jack.

Works great, I got a couple extra MB/s in speed tests and save the $10-$20/mo
Comcast is charging to borrow their pieces of crap.

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_RPM
You have to hook up a router to it right? It just provides the upstream
connection, you could of course hook your computer up to it, but how did you
do it?

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blcArmadillo
Correct, it's just the modem. I then connected a router for WiFi and hardwired
connections.

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PythonDeveloper
If there are external antennae on the unit, just unscrew them and that will
effectively disable the wifi radio since it can't attenuate.

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hijinks
if OP has the same modem as I do they are internal. I use to have this on/off
war with comcast as the SSID kept getting turned back on.

I finally just bought my own modem and was done with it.

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dan-silver
That's correct. They are internal on this model. Even if they were external, I
still want my wifi network, just not the public hotspot so disabling all wifi
wouldn't help.

