Comcast xfinitywifi ...router is a public hotspot

[Wingman]

Comcast customer surprised to learn new router is also public hotspot

Routers broadcast public Wi-Fi signals, unless you ask Comcast to turn it off.

The second network won't slow your primary connection down, at least not much. "The broadband connection to your home will be unaffected by the XFINITY Wi-Fi feature," Comcast says. "Your in-home Wi-Fi network, as well as XFINITY Wi-Fi, use shared spectrum, and as with any shared medium there can be some impact as more devices share Wi-Fi. We have provisioned the XFINITY Wi-Fi feature to support robust usage, and therefore, we anticipate minimal impact to the in-home Wi-Fi network."

arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/comcast-customer-surprised-to-learn-new-router-is-also-public-hotspot/

[Flevokiwi]

Same happened in Holland where key provider UPC uses routers which have a built-in hot-spot feature. This means hundreds of thousands of hot-spots spread over Holland are available to UPC customers. However: the built-in hot-spot can only be activated after prior permission by the owner. If you give permission, you can make use of all other activated UPC hot-spots in Holland with your mobile device. If you don't give permission, you'll be excluded from using those hot-spots.

[Deleted]

In your case Kiwi, of course you would give permission!  However if it were otherwise like Wing has shared, you might have unknown folks sitting outside of your house camped out in lawn chairs Face booking with you!  I tend to recall an other member gave me a program to test if your "personal" router was safe. I need to look for that.

[Wingman]

For Comcast Customers:
You can turn off the Wifi Hotspot yourself.

Sign in to Xfinity

Go to My Account. Near the top to the right click "Users & Preferences".

Under "Service Address" on the left you should see a link labeled "Manage Xfininty Wifi".

Click that and you should see a popup window with the option to disable it.

When you have to reset your cable modem or it "gets" reset... check to make sure the Xfinity Wi-Fi option is still as you set it.

As far as I'm concerned, Comcast is using my broadband signal (that I'm paying for) to foster a different Wi-Fi network on the modem (I'm also paying for)... to give other customers free Wi-Fi. They say my broadband won't be affected but all my devices are wireless, so my Wi-Fi could be impacted.

Comcast should have set this to an OPT-IN feature before they pushed out on their users. :verymad:

[Deleted]

And your flaming emoticon is 100% displaying how I'd feel! Good for you Wingman to find out, and to share how to disable it!
Since you write so well, I'd be tempted to call the local paper and see if you can add a shout out in the editorial section! Grr..

[Wingman]

No newspapers please.

I had to do some digging to find out to disable the option. Of course you can always call customer service and request it be disabled.
I thought it would be good to post how a customer could disabled it themselves.

I also changed the name of the topic, so anyone performing a "search" could maybe find this topic.

[Webb]

ATT did something like to me. I told them I didn't want their new package, which was actually cheaper than what I had been paying before, because I live in an apartment with concrete and rebar walls and the wireless performance was poor on my second computer.

ATT finally had a technician (not a salesman) explain to me that they could connect 2 computers to a wired network for no additional installation or service charges. But ATT has a standard modem that comes with wireless automatically enabled. Unlike Comcast it's encrypted so no one is using it unless they have hacked the password.