New Member
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2 Messages
Public WiFi Hotspot
We stumbled on our Comcast/Xfinity's Public WiFi broadcast after a newer modem model was installed. While Private WiFi can be disabled by the business customer, Public cannot. This answer is the last answer of multiple previous answers given by Comcast. At first it was, "somebody at Comcast must have turned it on by accident". After Comcast did turn it off, it was turned back on the next day. Comcast then tried to tell us that our modem must have rebooted. Log showed no reboots. Long Long story short, Comcast explained that the Cisco routers all have this setting defaulting to ON and that supposedly only Cisco can permanently control. Comcast of course, prefers this design. Our only solution was to replace our Cisco modem with a NetGear without WiFi. Supposedly, we have one of the last models available through Comcast. We cannot buy our own modem as we have static IP's. We have no use for broadcasting Public WiFi and do not appreciate sharing our costly internet service with non-paying customers.
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tmittelstaedt
Problem solver
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326 Messages
9 years ago
Trish,
Just to correct many misconceptions:
The "public wifi" from what Comcast has posted on here before is on a completely separate channel (tv channel) on the Cable side so not only is there no possible way for a connected wifi client to access your network, they cannot even share your bandwidth.
These BWG modems were originally designed for use with home users on Xfinity. But after a while it seems that they "leaked" into the business side. Nowadays I believe the only difference between a BWG for Xfinity and a BWG for Comcast Business is that the firmware for the business BWG says "Comcast Business" when you login to it.
If you are a residential Xfinity customer you are given a login ID on the Comcast site and there is a spot there where you can login and turn off the public wifi. The Comcast business site for customers lacks this.
It is known the CPU of the BWG is much, much faster than the CPU of the other 2 devices that Comcast provides for business use, the Netgear and the SMC. Also I believe the BWG supports many more channels making it a better choice for higher speeds in more congested areas.
It is also known that if Comcast pushes a firmware update or config change to the BWG that it will reactivate the public wifi if you have requested it to be turned off.
An extremely effective method of permanently disabling the public wifi is wrapping the BWG in steel window screen from the hardware store and grounding the screen. That will allow for cooling airflow and block all wifi from it.
In summary, you can certainly object to having your wifi radio spectrum used by Comcast but that would only be applicable if you were running wifi at your office, and you have not objected to this.
The rest of your objections are unfounded.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Comcast nor do I derive income from them.
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Trish
New Member
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2 Messages
9 years ago
Anybody out there care to guess why Comcast has removed control over Public WiFi Hotspot from business users and not residential?
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tmittelstaedt
Problem solver
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326 Messages
9 years ago
Probably because they know that an extremely effective method of permanently disabling the public wifi is wrapping the BWG in steel window screen from the hardware store and grounding the screen. That will allow for cooling airflow and block all wifi from it. They probably figure business users can manage that, while a residential user might not know how to buy a piece of steel window screen from a hardware store.
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