[ale] heads up - warning - you could be sharing comcast wifi without knowing it

David Tomaschik david at systemoverlord.com
Tue Jun 11 21:45:23 EDT 2013


On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 5:17 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE)
<atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I thought you'd like to know about this.  I heard the host on the Tech News
> Today podcast ( http://twit.tv/tnt ) say something similar to the following:
> Comcast will be expanding its wifi network by putting wifi gateways in
> Xfinity users homes. ... Comcast users will get free access. ... Guests get
> two free accesses. ... If you don't want to participate, you have to opt
> out.
>
<snip>
>
> Supposedly, they replace your cable modem with this new wifi gateway device.
> It broadcasts two wifi signals.  You log into one of them and use YOUR
> service as normal.  Guests login into the other, for free if they are
> Comcast Xfinity customers, and get two free accesses if they're not Xfinity
> customers.  SUPPOSEDLY, the 2nd connection is independent of the main one,
> and it doesn't reduce your bandwidth.  Yeah, I believe that.  The APPARENT
> plan is to replace all the gateways and enable this internet sharing without
> the customer's knowledge.  That's got to be against the law somehow.

Don't see how it would be against the law.  They're going to replace a
device they own connected to a service they own with another device
they own connected to a service they own?

> Now, I know some people willingly share their wifi.  I'm not one of them.  I
> have my wfi encrypted with long ugly passwords.  There are 3 main reasons.
> 1) Any other user on my modem is a potential security risk.

I don't know how they have implemented this, but it would be trivial
to assign a 2nd public IP (or even NAT through a single
neighborhood-wifi-network IP) for the 2nd hotspot and route all
traffic over that.  In that case, a user connected to that has the
same amount of access as anyone else on the internet.

> 2) It does
> reduce my bandwidth and performance.

Citation needed.  The biggest limitation to your bandwidth is the
traffic shaping comcast performs at their head end unit.  If the
"public" hotspot is shaped separately, then I don't see how it would
impact your bandwidth.  *Maybe* you could make an argument regarding
wifi interference, but a 2nd hotspot on your device won't be any
different from a 2nd device somewhere nearby.

> 3)  If someone else does something
> illegal while connected to your wifi, the police can ( and HAVE ) showed up
> at your door and arrest you.  You then have to prove you didn't do it and
> it's a royal mess.

Actually, no, the prosecution still has to prove you did it (at least,
legally), but yes, I suppose it could cause some headaches, unless
they can look at wifi hotspot vs private network.  Not sure how that
would work.

> Regardless, no ISP should be able to enable this type of access without the
> user's knowledge and consent.

On this, I agree.  This should be with the user's consent, but I don't
see it as a big bad threat.


--
David Tomaschik
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com


More information about the Ale mailing list