[ale] heads up - warning - you could be sharing comcast wifi without knowing it
Ron Frazier (ALE)
atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com
Tue Jun 11 20:17:49 EDT 2013
Hi guys,
I thought you'd like to know about this. I heard the host on the Tech
News Today podcast ( http://twit.tv/tnt ) say something similar to the
following: Comcast will be expanding its wifi network by putting wifi
gateways in Xfinity users homes. ... Comcast users will get free access.
... Guests get two free accesses. ... If you don't want to participate,
you have to opt out.
That's not an exact quote but it was enough to get me thinking. They're
going to give the PUBLIC access to the internet through MY gateway in MY
HOME! Say WHAT?
http://twit.cachefly.net/audio/tnt/tnt0771/tnt0771.mp3 - summary at
3:05, discussion at x:xx
I googled around and found this.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57588325-94/comcast-expands-wi-fi-network-with-new-neighborhood-initiative/
Supposedly, they replace your cable modem with this new wifi gateway
device. It broadcasts two wifi signals. You log into one of them and
use YOUR service as normal. Guests login into the other, for free if
they are Comcast Xfinity customers, and get two free accesses if they're
not Xfinity customers. SUPPOSEDLY, the 2nd connection is independent of
the main one, and it doesn't reduce your bandwidth. Yeah, I believe
that. The APPARENT plan is to replace all the gateways and enable this
internet sharing without the customer's knowledge. That's got to be
against the law somehow.
Now, I know some people willingly share their wifi. I'm not one of
them. I have my wfi encrypted with long ugly passwords. There are 3
main reasons. 1) Any other user on my modem is a potential security
risk. 2) It does reduce my bandwidth and performance. 3) If someone
else does something illegal while connected to your wifi, the police can
( and HAVE ) showed up at your door and arrest you. You then have to
prove you didn't do it and it's a royal mess.
Regardless, no ISP should be able to enable this type of access without
the user's knowledge and consent.
I had an interesting encounter with comcast customer service. About a
week ago, they called me. They gave me adequate information about my
account to convince me that it was a legit call. They said their remote
diagnostics showed the signal levels on my modem to be low, and they
wanted an appointment to come check on it. I said fine, and set up a
date. Note that speed test diagnostics on my end are all fine and
within normal ranges.
After learning about this news, I called them back and asked for tech
support. I said I was told that my signal levels were low (but didn't
say who told me) and asked the rep to run a check on my modem. She said
everything looked fine and the signals and diagnostics were OK. I asked
her again and had her confirm that. She said everything was OK. I
thanked her and told her to cancel the work order for the appointment.
Now, I don't KNOW if there was any ulterior motive for setting up the
appointment. It could be an intermittent problem that I haven't
noticed. HOWEVER, I wonder if they were just trying to get into my
house to replace my cable modem with one of these new wifi gateways
without my knowledge. If they wan't another appointment to get into the
house, I'm going to need a pretty good reason. If they ever do replace
the cable modem, I'm going to make sure that, either it's not a public
wifi gateway, or I opt out of this new "service", and verify that my
wifi signal is the only one.
Regardless of how you feel about sharing your internet, someone needs to
challenge Comcast on the privacy and security concerns related to
enabling this functionality without the customers' consent if that's
what they're trying to do.
Feel free to share this far and wide.
DISCLAIMER: I don't conclusively know that Comcast would roll out this
new equipment without notifying the customer of the functionality of it.
Sincerely,
Ron
--
(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone. I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such. I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O) Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com
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