The Hidden Cost of Your New Xfinity Router

An anonymous reader writes "The battle over Comcast's public WiFi network that is hosted on your cable modem continues. Comcast responded to Speedify's earlier power measurements by rushing them a new Cisco cable modem. The new modem proved to be more power hungry than the last, and also introduced some tricky IPv6 problems that caused major headaches for the team."

Just refuse the new gear

[anthony_greer]

I advise all my contacts when they get new comcrap or slime warner installs to go to the local big box store and pick up a router, then to demand that they get just a regular modem and not a modem/switch/wifi combo...They will often say that it is not an option...if you say "fine, I decline service, please leave immediately if you cant find a non integrated modem" suddenly one just happens to have slid under the seat in his van.....

As someone who had the DPC3939

[Lothsahn]

The device has stability problems as well, as mentioned in the post. In normal (routed) mode, it worked fairly well, although I noticed odd lag spikes and other issues I didn't experience with the old modem. However, once you place the router into bridge mode (disabling all wifi features so I can use my modem direct), the router would reboot itself every 3-8 minutes.

I eventually, after talking to 20+ Comcast reps, got them to put a different modem back in. Even though my plan is 250d/30u, I'm only getting 30d/5u, because the modem won't provision with my plan. However, it works, so I'd rather have that than a laggy, rebooting faster plan.

I strongly recommend avoiding the DPC3939 until the problems are resolved. It lalso ooks to me like all of the problems are software related, not hardware--usually they can be avoided by changing configuration options, etc.

Re:Crapfinity

[Anubis IV]

He said he switched to OTA, so he likely dropped a pricy cable TV plan at the same time he dropped them as his ISP, hence the savings. After the special deals as a new customer expire (i.e. 12 months into the 24-month contract), several of Comcast's TV plans exceed $150, so even if he was paying the same for Internet with DSL, he could be saving $150 simply by having dropped cable TV for OTA.

Re:Service in exchange for a free modem?

[bws111]

It isn't a 'public' hotspot, it is a hotspot for Comcast customers. And you are getting something - the ability to use those same Comcast hotspots.

Re:Service in exchange for a free modem?

[Mr_Wisenheimer]

You get the added benefit of Comcast using up a big chunk of your dwelling's wireless spectrum with absolutely no benefit for your own devices.

Re:Just refuse the new gear

[Frosty Piss]

comcrap or slime warner

Do you also type "Micro$oft"?

Grow up.

Re:Just refuse the new gear

[mrchaotica]

That's a terrible idea. Every Comcast customer should use his own router and his own modem!

In fact, the only Comcast-owned equipment a customer should ever accept is a CableCard -- wait, no, scratch that. Customers should accept precisely no Comcast-owned equipment at all, because they should only use Comcast for Internet, not TV (and even then, only if there's no other reasonable choice).

put it in bridge mode

[tuffy]

If you call Comcast's customer service, they can put their new routers into bridge mode. This turns off its WiFi and other unnecessary features and makes it act like their old routers.