[ale] OT: Comcast Wi-Fi

Fri Apr 25 13:38:34 EDT 2014

I don't doubt Comcast got technically inclined people to do this properly.
My main concern was more of a ethical side. Why would you turn something
"on" without email or over phone talk.

I did quick test. My LAN is on 10.0.0.x the other wi-fi is on 10.224.0.x
if I remembered the number. Seems like speeds are independent although
speedtest.net test over "xfinitywifi" wasnt able to finish - stuck on the
middle. There is not a trace about this Wi-Fi network on the router control
panel, I guess is hidden from me in the way IP passthru is hidden.

Cheers

On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 1:03 PM, Lightner, Jeff <JLightner at dsservices.com>wrote:

>   Saying things done by corporations are not stupid or unethical or
> illegal doesn’t match my experience at all.
>
>
>
> Just because it would be “obvious” to people that think that things should
> be a certain way is no reason to believe that they are that way.    Most
> corporations are more interested in rolling out new things quickly than
> they are in insuring they don’t do them stupidly.    Assuming that they
> might actually NOT gouge you by charging you for the bandwidth they are
> providing to others would be foolhardy.   Whether they would do that by
> design (which is feasible) or by lack of attention to detail (which is also
> feasible) would be anyone’s guess.   I’ve had to call Comcast on more than
> one occasion after seeing the antics they’ve played with my bills.
>
>
>
> If you don’t think corporations do things to maximize their profits I’ll
> point out the recent article mentioning how very large banks (Chase, Wells
> Fargo, and Bank of America all mentioned) are posting transactions that
> overdraft your account from largest to smallest rather than chronologically
> to insure you end up paying more overdraft fees on smaller (yet
> chronologically earlier) checks.   They were previously caught doing
> exactly the same thing with debit card transactions but I think that got
> outlawed when they did some of the hasty banking reforms back in 2008/2009.
>
>
>
> Or look at the fact that GM is only now recalling parts that have been
> known to kill people over a long period of years.
>
>
>
> Corporations are in business to make money and pretending they don’t do
> shady if not outright illegal actions to that end is silly given all
> evidence to the contrary.
>
>
>
> *From:* ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] *On Behalf Of *Brian
> Mathis
> *Sent:* Friday, April 25, 2014 11:23 AM
>
> *To:* Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> *Subject:* Re: [ale] OT: Comcast Wi-Fi
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 3:12 PM, Michael H. Warfield <mhw at wittsend.com>
> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2014-04-24 at 14:40 -0400, Boris Borisov wrote:
> > Yesterday I've noticed Comcast silently enabled additional wireless
> > network on my cable router named "xfinitywifi". I didn't get the
> > reason behind the idea but is open with web based login. Someone else
> > with same issue.
>
> Congratulations.  You just became the newest member of the Comcast
> wireless internet cafe provider club.  Someone with a Comcast login can
> now log in through the Comcast app gateway and take advantage of their
> expanded WiFi footprint through your free bandwidth that they're
> offering up!
>
> This has been mentioned in a number of forums over the last several
> months.  I don't recall if you can or how you opt-out of them offering
> your bandwidth to all comers.  Since I don't have Comcast, I can not
> test and say for sure from first hand experience.
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
>
>
> Please stop with the conspiracy theories.  Comcast may be evil, but they
> are not stupid, and anything they do is most certainly going to be legal.
>
> Adding this service from a customer location is:
>
> 1) Most likely in your customer agreement somewhere
>
>
> 2) OBVIOUSLY not going to count against bandwidth caps on your own account
>
>
> 3) OBVIOUSLY isolated to a different subnet/channel, just like any
> neighbor of yours could not see your traffic
>
>
> 4) Uses a totally separate wifi subsystem, which is why they need to
> "upgrade" your equipment for this service to work.  The new cable modem
> needs to have a totally separate AP, or at least a chip that can support
> multiple wireless APs.
>
>
> 5) Your own service speed will not be affected any differently than if
> your neighbor was using their own bandwidth.
>
>
>
> No, I don't have a source for any of this, but these are clearly the first
> questions anyone would ask inside a company when they decide to roll out a
> service like this.  Common sense isn't all that common, but this stuff is
> just bloody obvious.
>
>
>
> If they didn't do any of these, they could easily be sued by customers for
> either exposing their networks to security risks, and/or using up the data
> caps they paid for.  The only possible complaint you could make is more
> power usage, but at only a few hundred milliwatts for the additional wifi
> network, that's barely costing you a penny per year in power usage, if that.
>
>
>
>
>  ❧ Brian Mathis
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Athena®, Created for the Cause™
>
> Making a Difference in the Fight Against Breast Cancer
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or confidential
> information and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you
> are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or
> use of the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful.
> If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply
> immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error, and
> delete it. Thank you.
> ----------------------------------
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20140425/41854e8c/attachment-0001.html>