Hi,
I've had a Comcast/Xfinity plan for about 6 years now as it's our only option in my older neighbourhood for high speed access. I can try 5G connections with T-mobile now. Frontier has only offered DSL up to 30 Mb/s. Ziply is not here. As bad as customer service has been the 3-4 times I've had to call them, I can't complain about the actual connection or speed as I've had few problems and always seem to have the speed that I paid for (often 20% over).
My question now is if the ability to turn off the Xfinity Wifi hotspot, that automatically is setup by their gateways, still possible? Until last spring I had a Technicolor gateway and I could enter the device settings (10.0.0.1) and I used to be able to disable not only my personal Wifi but I could also disable the Xfinity hotspot. I have my own routers and two wireless accesspoints (1st floor/2nd floor).
Two months ago we dropped our TV service and upgraded the net connection to 600/20 (they are VERY asymmetric) mainly to get a faster upload so can stream to my phone when I travel. It works fine now. They gave us a new gateway though it looks and acts identically to my previous Technicolor based gateway. This gateway must have an updated firmware as I can't make any "advanced" changes through the device itself. I have to use their Website or the Xfinity mobile app. On the app and Website, there is an advanced page "internet.xfinity.com/network/advanced-settings" that is supposed to give you control of the hotspot "Xifinity WiFi Hotspot Nework". It gave you the ability to turn it on or off.
When I first set everything up in April I could turn off the hotspot. To be clear I am not talking about the personal WiFi network it tries to install for the user to use as their connection. That I can enable/disable through both the device and App without a problem and it is disabled now. I'm talking about the Xfinity hotspot available to any local xfinity customers. In April I turned it off and it seemed to stay off. Then in May I found it back on again and I could turn it off again.
Now in June it is on again. Whenever I try to turn it off through the App or WWW site, I get a "Let's Try That again" and "Looks like that page didn't load" over and over. Every day after work I test it out and can't ever bring up the page.
So other than buying my own Gateway (maybe I should, I might save $14/month), has anyone else lost the ability to turn off the Hotpot? I have not called customer service because other than billing they have NEVER been helpful and a call typically takes 1-2 hours. Their local store is more helpful, usually, but I haven't had the time to go.
Thanks,
LET
P.S. I want to turn this off mainly on principle. I've use a WiFi analyzer and they are not using either 2.4GHz or 5 GHz bands that my equipment is using. I live in a single family home and my neighbour's networks are all seen but at low power. So I don't think it is interfering with anything. It is blasting at higher WiFi levels than my own equipment though. In the storage room, one end of the 1st floor) where the gateway is located the Wifi analyzer says it is around -30 dB. In the office next room over it is -40. In the entertainment room with the TV around -50. My own APs which are more central in each floor are -40 in the TV room and -50 in the office. I use wired connections in the office though so it doesn't matter. I would just like to turn it off, but my life won't be ruined if I can't and it stays on.
P.S.S. I have some old copper fine mesh(gaps are 1-2 mm across) in the greenhouse and wrapped the Gateway in 3 layers (I wrapped it like a cocoon!) and the signal barely dropped to -40 in the storage room. It is -45-50 in the office and -75 in the TV room. I guess a fine copper mesh doesn't make a "Faraday" cage for the Gateway, lol. It still shows 4 (of 5) green bars in the office on my phone.
I've had a Comcast/Xfinity plan for about 6 years now as it's our only option in my older neighbourhood for high speed access. I can try 5G connections with T-mobile now. Frontier has only offered DSL up to 30 Mb/s. Ziply is not here. As bad as customer service has been the 3-4 times I've had to call them, I can't complain about the actual connection or speed as I've had few problems and always seem to have the speed that I paid for (often 20% over).
My question now is if the ability to turn off the Xfinity Wifi hotspot, that automatically is setup by their gateways, still possible? Until last spring I had a Technicolor gateway and I could enter the device settings (10.0.0.1) and I used to be able to disable not only my personal Wifi but I could also disable the Xfinity hotspot. I have my own routers and two wireless accesspoints (1st floor/2nd floor).
Two months ago we dropped our TV service and upgraded the net connection to 600/20 (they are VERY asymmetric) mainly to get a faster upload so can stream to my phone when I travel. It works fine now. They gave us a new gateway though it looks and acts identically to my previous Technicolor based gateway. This gateway must have an updated firmware as I can't make any "advanced" changes through the device itself. I have to use their Website or the Xfinity mobile app. On the app and Website, there is an advanced page "internet.xfinity.com/network/advanced-settings" that is supposed to give you control of the hotspot "Xifinity WiFi Hotspot Nework". It gave you the ability to turn it on or off.
When I first set everything up in April I could turn off the hotspot. To be clear I am not talking about the personal WiFi network it tries to install for the user to use as their connection. That I can enable/disable through both the device and App without a problem and it is disabled now. I'm talking about the Xfinity hotspot available to any local xfinity customers. In April I turned it off and it seemed to stay off. Then in May I found it back on again and I could turn it off again.
Now in June it is on again. Whenever I try to turn it off through the App or WWW site, I get a "Let's Try That again" and "Looks like that page didn't load" over and over. Every day after work I test it out and can't ever bring up the page.
So other than buying my own Gateway (maybe I should, I might save $14/month), has anyone else lost the ability to turn off the Hotpot? I have not called customer service because other than billing they have NEVER been helpful and a call typically takes 1-2 hours. Their local store is more helpful, usually, but I haven't had the time to go.
Thanks,
LET
P.S. I want to turn this off mainly on principle. I've use a WiFi analyzer and they are not using either 2.4GHz or 5 GHz bands that my equipment is using. I live in a single family home and my neighbour's networks are all seen but at low power. So I don't think it is interfering with anything. It is blasting at higher WiFi levels than my own equipment though. In the storage room, one end of the 1st floor) where the gateway is located the Wifi analyzer says it is around -30 dB. In the office next room over it is -40. In the entertainment room with the TV around -50. My own APs which are more central in each floor are -40 in the TV room and -50 in the office. I use wired connections in the office though so it doesn't matter. I would just like to turn it off, but my life won't be ruined if I can't and it stays on.
P.S.S. I have some old copper fine mesh(gaps are 1-2 mm across) in the greenhouse and wrapped the Gateway in 3 layers (I wrapped it like a cocoon!) and the signal barely dropped to -40 in the storage room. It is -45-50 in the office and -75 in the TV room. I guess a fine copper mesh doesn't make a "Faraday" cage for the Gateway, lol. It still shows 4 (of 5) green bars in the office on my phone.