Wi-Fi for all, all for One - Comcast thread

[WiWavelength]

I absolutely hate this idea. I pay (well, my Dad pays, but you get the point) for my home broadband connection. There is no reason that I should have to give someone else access to MY connection and use MY bandwidth and add more data to MY home data usage.

 

Guys, you have to give some in order to get some.

 

Otherwise, in 5-10 years when slow but robust airlinks like CDMA1X are completely retired, you are going to be left with service in fewer places than you have now.  With LTE, even 600 MHz -- if it actually happens -- is not going to solve all in building coverage problems.

 

No, the solution is small cells deployed in most buildings.  After we have transitioned to an all IP environment, those small cells could be Wi-Fi access points, LTE base stations, or both.  But they are going to be using your broadband connections as backhaul.

 

Now, you should be able to opt out.  But the more who do opt out, the less coverage there will be for everyone.

 

AJ

[dnicekid]

In my neck of the woods comcast has been doing this for well over a year. As much as I hate it--- I love it! everyone has comcast cable so there arent many streets where there isnt at least 1 wifi for me to log into. The great thing is it connects by to any comcast wireless router. I thought my sprint speeds had increased until the speed test showed i was on wifi.. The best thing is its included with my service - not an add on feature. THis really helps when my cell signal doesn't cut it.

 

As more people return the old comcast modems and get this new wireless one coverage will only get better. They have access to VZW to sell phone service without using vzw name. So i can def see them rolling out some hybrid lte/wifi service in a couple of years, maybe sooner..   Even if they only offer it as a bundle, VZW lte/coverage and offload to wifi? If they can somehow make it work without the hard drops they could instantly make a big splash.. 

 

This may help sprint purchase tmo, if comcast has plans whats all the crying about only having 3 if comcast will be 4th?  Maybe  sprint/dish have more plans then what we know of

[twospirits]

When it comes to this issue i have a love hate relationship. On one hand  i hate when i am out and about here in NYC and try to get on wi-fi to only see either Time-Warner or Comcast available. Clicking on them and one has to have an account with them, Strange that Verizon Fios doesn't have that set up. Anyway, its times like that which I like the idea of shared universal wi-fi for all.

But i also dislike the fact that someone would be using my home service to broadcast out to the neighborhood for anyone to use as a free wi-fi. But like AJ said, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

Regardless, I do see this happening more and more regardless of what the consumer wants. usually the router is the property of the cable company and the user is basically renting it anyway (who actually bought their cable providers' router).

 

TS

[cletus]

Personally I would rather the implementation be more like what Time Warner does here in Austin. They setup high speed WiFi in popular locations for free using your TWC login. So, around the city in areas with bars or shops there usually is a TWC WiFi with pretty good speeds around. Most likely they are offering business customers a discount to host these wifi hotspots or something but shoving it on to normal customers and making them specifically opt out of it is pretty shitty.

 

I may be in the minority though as I bought my own router and modem because 1) $5.99/mo to $7.99/mo for a modem? really? 2) My equipment is better.

[Paynefanbro]

When it comes to this issue i have a love hate relationship. On one hand  i hate when i am out and about here in NYC and try to get on wi-fi to only see either Time-Warner or Comcast available. Clicking on them and one has to have an account with them, Strange that Verizon Fios doesn't have that set up. Anyway, its times like that which I like the idea of shared universal wi-fi for all.

 

Actually, if you've connected through CableWifi or OptimumWifi, you automatically get signed in to TimeWarner and Comcast WiFi networks across the city. They have some sort of deal in place for that. But like you said, it's weird how Verizon wasn't included in this.

[cletus]

Actually, if you've connected through CableWifi or OptimumWifi, you automatically get signed in to TimeWarner and Comcast WiFi networks across the city. They have some sort of deal in place for that.

This is correct. In Austin we have "TWCWifi" and "CableWifi" and I've only signed into them once on my phone and now I no longer need to sign in anymore. Also, if you share an HBOGO login from TWC with anyone you can use that to login as well (same login). 

[mozamcrew]

I'm fine with this sort of arrangement, provided:

1. Users of the "public"wifi have their own bandwidth and don't eat into mine. (Maybe some kind of QOS on the modem that gives the paying subscriber's traffic priority?)

2. Those users are kept on a separete network from my internal network, such that it's not any easier to access my internal network from the public wifi than from some other location on the internet.

[tommym65]

I'm fine with this sort of arrangement, provided:

1. Users of the "public"wifi have their own bandwidth and don't eat into mine. (Maybe some kind of QOS on the modem that gives the paying subscriber's traffic priority?)

2. Those users are kept on a separate network from my internal network, such that it's not any easier to access my internal network from the public wifi than from some other location on the internet.

 

2. Comcast claims that the public and private networks are completely separate.  I personally am very skeptical, as they seem to share the same antenna(s), and they certainly share the same Ethernet channel on the actual Comcast coax cable.

 

1. (OK, so I can't keep things in order)  As currently implemented, the public WiFi port does NOT have its own bandwidth, either on the physical cable (see 2, above) or on the air link.  Regarding the air link, the public and private access points are on the same 2.4 GHz channel, and changing the channel assignment of the private one seems also to change the channel of the public one.  Thus if someone latches onto the public channel and uses a lot of bandwidth, it will directly reduce the bandwidth available on the private channel.  The more public users, the larger the reduction.  Comcast will counter that I am getting fast enough speeds on the air link, so I should be ecstatic with my speeds.  I will snarl back at them that as soon as a bunch of people camp on my router, none of us will get anywhere NEAR fast enough speeds.  And, the air link is Wireless-N, so it ain't that fast in the first place.

 

I live in a single family house in a residential neighborhood, so the personal effect on me would be limited, even if I did allow access.  I also use the Comcast WiFi for very limited functions (Chromecast to an adjacent TV and to serve a wireless printer).  I have a really spiffy 5 GHz Wireless-AC router for everything else that I use on WiFi (I routinely get over 120 Mbps on my GS5 on WiFi!), plus I have run Cat-5 to several points in my house.  (I am something of a LAN geek -- need any cables crimped?.)  But someone less geeky, in a denser neighborhood, or in a condo or apartment, could certainly see a major hit on the bandwidth that they are paying a significant amount of money for.

[drhenning]

I just got the letter at my house in Jacksonville about this and it sounds like they will use their own device that I rent to offer this public WIFI on their XFINITYWIFI name...  I use most 5MHZ WIFI at home on my devices so that won't conflict...   Not sure when that will start....

 

D

[tommym65]

I just got the letter at my house in Jacksonville about this and it sounds like they will use their own device that I rent to offer this public WIFI on their XFINITYWIFI name...  I use most 5MHZ WIFI at home on my devices so that won't conflict...   Not sure when that will start....

 

D

It has probably already started. Load the WiFi Analyser app on your GS5 (if you haven't already got it), and it will show you if the Comcast channel is open (plus all the other access points in your neighborhood.

[anthony.spina97]

1) Would you feel the same way if you had a gigabit fiber line in your home, and the 'public wifi' side was limited to just 10mbps (roughly just 1% of the total speed of the line)

 

2) Would you feel the same way if your ISP gave you a slight discount for leaving their public hotspot wifi open (say a $5/month off the bill)

 

3) Are you against the idea, period? Or are you against Comcast's bad implementation of this idea?

 

4) Or are you frustrated with the bad implementation of their network? (with costs so high, and speeds so low / flakey that we instinctively fight for every Mbps we can get out of the network)

(I numbered parts of your post so that I can clearly answer them )

 

1) If it were set up this way (even if the public side was limited to 100 mbps), I would be 100% on board with the idea.

 

2) If my network was Gigabit, and the public speed was limited to 10 mbps (or 100 mbps), I would want either a discount of more than 5 dollars per month, or no discount at all. 5 dollars doesn't really mean much when your cable bill is 250 bucks, so i would be okay with it if there was no discount at all, just a capped public speed.

 

3) I would say what you are saying, that I'm only against the way that Comcast has implemented it. I don't like their implementation of it. I would be open to a capped public speed like you said.

 

4) I'm a Time Warner customer, so I have no experience with Comcast, and my speeds and network reliability on Time Warner has been pretty darn good, so I have had no problems with that.

 

-Anthony

[themuffinman]

I noticed comcast started doing this a few weeks ago in my neighbourhood, not really that big of a deal.  It also looks like they increased speeds to compensate for the open xfinity wifi.  I pay for 50megs and been getting about 50megs pretty consistently but since then I been getting close 90megs down and 20 to 25 up. 

[ddaniels3968]

My last speed test on Comcast was over 100 megs down and 30 up.