[ale] OT: Comcast Wi-Fi

Fri Apr 25 14:02:09 EDT 2014

Is your cable modem one with the lights on the front labelled "wi-fi" ,
"phone1" etc?  If so, is your wi-fi light lit?

On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 1:38 PM, Boris Borisov <bugyatl at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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™
>>
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>>
>>
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--------
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