Comcast Sued For Turning Home Wi-Fi Routers Into Public Hotspots 291
HughPickens.com writes: Benny Evangelista reports at the San Francisco Chronicle that a class-action suit has been filed in District Court in San Francisco on behalf of Toyer Grear and daughter Joycelyn Harris, claiming that Comcast is "exploiting them for profit" by using their home router as part of a nationwide network of public hotspots. Comcast is trying to compete with major cell phone carriers by creating a public Xfinity WiFi Hotspot network in 19 of the country's largest cities by activating a second high-speed Internet channel broadcast from newer-model wireless gateway modems that residential customers lease from the company.
Although Comcast has said its subscribers have the right to disable the secondary signal, the suit claims the company turns the service on without permission. It also places "the costs of its national Wi-Fi network onto its customers" and quotes a test conducted by Philadelphia networking technology company Speedify that concluded the secondary Internet channel will eventually push "tens of millions of dollars per month of the electricity bills needed to run their nationwide public Wi-Fi network onto consumers." The suit also says "the data and information on a Comcast customer's network is at greater risk" because the hotspot network "allows strangers to connect to the Internet through the same wireless router used by Comcast customers."
Although Comcast has said its subscribers have the right to disable the secondary signal, the suit claims the company turns the service on without permission. It also places "the costs of its national Wi-Fi network onto its customers" and quotes a test conducted by Philadelphia networking technology company Speedify that concluded the secondary Internet channel will eventually push "tens of millions of dollars per month of the electricity bills needed to run their nationwide public Wi-Fi network onto consumers." The suit also says "the data and information on a Comcast customer's network is at greater risk" because the hotspot network "allows strangers to connect to the Internet through the same wireless router used by Comcast customers."
Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Insightful)
When I signed up for Comcast Business Class recently, they told me I had to use their modem+wireless router combo.
I managed to put their modem in bridge mode (i.e. let me use my own router) and "disable" the wireless functionality so I can use my own access points, but I can't seem to find any way to disable the damn public network.
I've confirmed that the public network uses a different public IP (clients connected to it get a private IP), but I'd still like to be able to disable it.
Bastards.
Re: Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Informative)
Call their business tech support and ask them to disable the public wifi, the tier 1 support can't, but tier 2 can
Re: Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
If you're not using their wireless, just put the router in a metal box.
Still uses power, and not an insignificant ammount.
Re: Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Funny)
Then Comcast will charge you a Faraday Cage container upgrade. They'll say you need to have a field assistant do the install, they'll come out sometime between 1 and 11. That being months, as in sometime between 1 for January, and 11 for November. Then a $9.99 rental fee per month. Then you get calls from their friendly techs to have you upgrade to Faraday Cage Turbo(TM) for $5 a month more, or Faraday Cage Blast (TM) for just $8 a month more!!
Jokes aside, it does suck that Comcast is forcing this on everybody. It's good to be the king, err, monopoly.
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Funny)
If I had only two bullets and was locked in a room with Comcast, Hitler, and Osama Bin Laden... I'd shoot Comcast twice.
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Funny)
If I had only two bullets and was locked in a room with Comcast, Hitler, and Osama Bin Laden... I'd shoot Comcast twice.
Well, yeah, because the other two are already dead.
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Funny)
And you don't want to pollute potential sources of food with lead.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Waste of time, it's a corporate entity.
What you do is shoot the lock on the door, then find a paper shredder.
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Funny)
Nice! Now you're stuck in a room with Osama and Hitler pissed off at you because their cable TV doesn't work.
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
What makes you think that having Comcast around will in any way increase the chance that the cable TV will work?
Re: (Score:2)
So you would let Ubisoft get away with it? Think of the gun more as a tool and use it get out of the room first...
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Unless you want or need static IPs or permission to run servers.
Comcast: Least popular company in the U.S. (Score:5, Informative)
It took me an estimated 9 hours of communicating with Comcast representatives to get Comcast to bill at the advertised rate, instead of far more than Comcast advertises. This is what works: Call the Comcast executive offices at 215-640-8960. Be very polite and logical, but insistent.
Don't check your internet access speed with Speedtest.net. Apparently that web site always reports the advertised rate, the connection rate, not the data delivery rate. DSLReports Speed Test [dslreports.com] shows that I get one-seventh the speed Comcast advertises.
Comcast was the 2014 Worst Company In America. [consumerist.com]
Comcast has apparently found that most people don't spend the many hours Comcast makes it necessary to protest over-billing.
It's interesting to me that Comcast apparently expects employees to abuse customers, and Comcast employees hear that as permission to abuse Comcast, also.
Apparently the U.S. government no longer protects the people, but just allows any abuse that will make the rich richer, or allow the violent to be more violent.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't check your internet access speed with Speedtest.net. Apparently that web site always reports the advertised rate, the connection rate, not the data delivery rate. DSLReports Speed Test shows that I get one-seventh the speed Comcast advertises.
Your ISP is free to run a speedtest server, my shitty WISP (Digital Path) just started doing that recently so the speed test is as useless as if you have comcast. However, the DSLreports speed test doesn't work. It always tells me that there is a connection problem, and that I should try again. Yes, after it loads. Do you know of any competently implemented speed tests?
Numion speed test (Score:2)
Unfortunately, Numion requires Java.
DOCSIS3 modem for Residential... (Score:5, Interesting)
I had Comcast for residential service for two years not long ago (2010-2012), and they gave me no problem with using my own modem. (They did try to charge me for not returning it when I disconnected service, but corrected their error without a hassle.)
They also still list acceptable personal modems on their website:
http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.ne... [comcast.net]
Re: (Score:2)
They tried to charge me for not returning my own modem as well
Re: (Score:3)
They did try to charge me for not returning it when I disconnected service, but corrected their error without a hassle.
That is normal. They also often charge for equipment returned to a storefront. Now I only use purchased hardware with them. (For both myself and my clients.) When they ask why I say "Because I do not trust you." It is usually followed by a few seconds of silence, and then "OK." :)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
but I can't seem to find any way to disable the damn public network.
Two words: Faraday cage. [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
The electricity still gets used, and the resident still foots the bill. Best to find a DOCSIS 3X modem that's compatible, and use THAT. Then update the modem's firmware, fast. Then use the weirdest longest WPA2 string possible to encrypt it. Then: stay paranoid.
Re: (Score:3)
But for what it's worth, on a modern wireless router, if the wifi were being used 24 hours a day, the annual bill for just its usage would run at somewhere around six bucks per year.
So to keep things fair, I would think,that comcast subscribers who have their modems used in this way should probably receive a monthly rebate on their bill of 50 cents, sinc
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_03) Average cost per kWhr is 12.41 cents. Even if the radio adds 1W (it doesn't) to the operation, that comes to (1W * 24hr/day * 365.25days/year / 1000W/kW * $.124/kW) $1.0878606. PER. YEAR.
(BTW, clicking the "off" box doesn't physically power off the radio chip(s). It'll cease transmitting, but the chips are still powered.)
Re: (Score:2)
(BTW, clicking the "off" box doesn't physically power off the radio chip(s). It'll cease transmitting, but the chips are still powered.)
It may well physically power off the parts of the chips needed for radio communications, however, when the interface is disabled.
Re: (Score:3)
I would find that level of sophistication very unlikely, your average ISP's branded end-user box is put together from the cheapest pieces of shit they've been able to find.
And they have no reason to care about the power consumption of end-user equipment, they're not paying for that power.
Re: (Score:2)
I would find that level of sophistication very unlikely, your average ISP's branded end-user box is put together from the cheapest pieces of shit they've been able to find.
That's why it's likely to be true. If Comcast had every part designed for them, low power consumption wouldn't even be on the map. But since it's built with standard-spec parts, only turning on the radio when it's actually in use is probably a driver feature.
Re: Comcast Business Class (Score:2)
The few watt power bill might not justify buying your own modem, but the $8 per month "leasing" fee for using their modem does. Most modems will pay themselves off at that rate in less than a year,two years if you get an expensive one.
Re: (Score:2)
I would think,that comcast subscribers who have their modems used in this way should probably receive a monthly rebate on their bill of 50 cents
Nice try.... the customer should also have fair compensation for some other things of value that are being used by Comcast to generate these extra revenue for Comcast.
Mainly, the use of the customer's real-estate which the customer pays for and pays taxes on, for a purpose not related to service delivery to the customer, and in a manner which generates noise i
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:5, Interesting)
Considering the fact that one is probably generally not just using a modem as a hotspot for comcast, but is actually getting some personal use out of it, and considering that, for example, to declare even a *portion* of your rent or mortgage as a business expense in a home business you have to actually almost *exclusively* dedicate some square footage of your home, such as a den or what have you, to that business, and not use it for any personal purposes (cheaters on this front get dinged a lot if they are unfortunate enough to get audited, and the likelihood of a home business owner being audited in any given year is not insignificant), so I'd suggest that the fact that the modem might be taking up some real estate in one's home that they pay tax on is not grounds for compensation to that effect, since they are getting use out of the modem that has nothing to do with what may be benefiting comcast.
Even if you wanted to argue that the customers deserve more compensation than 50cents per month because of the real estate used by the modem, considering they can easily take up less than a tenth of a square foot, plugging that into the average square-foot rate for real estate in the area where the customer lives would probably only amount to perhaps a only a few additional pennies per month. If you factor in the notion that it would not be reasonable to compensate them for 100% of that, becuase the customer is getting some use out of the modem as well, it probably doesn't even work out to a whole penny.
As for bandwidth, if the public wifi is not on the same hotspot that the customer is expected to use, then the customer has the full wifi bandwidth, and anyone on the router's public wifi hotspot will not generally impact any upstream wired connectivity. And hey, it's comcast's network... they have a right to put whatever equipment they want on their own network. The modem that they you lease from them to use their network belongs to *THEM*... the fact that it may be in your home does not make it your property.
As for the impacts on the customer's network... it's not on the customer's network. It would be on comcast's network, unless the customer is expected to use the same hotspot that the router is supposed to have open to the public, which is probably not going to be the case.
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:4, Insightful)
considering they can easily take up less than a tenth of a square foot, plugging that into the average square-foot rate for real estate in the area where the customer lives would probably only amount to perhaps a only a few additional pennies per month.
You are referencing wrong rates; you are referencing residential real-estate rates, but Comcast is using the real-estate for a commercial purpose, and when you rent out a small bit of real-estate for a commercial purpose, the expected rates are higher than personal usage. Lookup colocation rates for 1U of rackspace in low-tier data centers. Comcast is colocating a modem, which is comparable to colocating a 1U router. Obviously, you don't expect them to pay for delivering a service to you, but if they are using their colocation to generate revenue by taking advantage of the prime location of your property to deliver revenue-generating services outside your customer relationship, then you are entitled to a share of the extra revenue that placement on your property is used to generate independent of their usage to deliver your service.
For example, to declare even a *portion* of your rent or mortgage as a business expense in a home business you have to actually almost *exclusively* dedicate some square footage of your home, such as a den or what have you, to that business, and not use it for any personal purposes
This is only true if you are both the owner of the home and the owner of the business. And it is nothing more than a rule designed to prevent self-dealing on your taxes where you claim some rent to be a business expense without actually sacrificing anything to the business. The IRS rules also have some differences from the actual law, and you could challenge them.
Re: (Score:3)
Even if you wanted to argue that the customers deserve more compensation than 50cents per month because of the real estate used by the modem, considering they can easily take up less than a tenth of a square foot, plugging that into the average square-foot rate for real estate in the area where the customer lives would probably only amount to perhaps a only a few additional pennies per month. If you factor in the notion that it would not be reasonable to compensate them for 100% of that, becuase the customer is getting some use out of the modem as well, it probably doesn't even work out to a whole penny.
Wow, it's a good thing that absolutely none of what you mentioned any where in your post has any impact what so ever on what is in effect a real estate agreement between two private entities. Unless Comcast suddenly qualifies for some kind of federal housing allowance that I want to allow them to use, the average square-foot rate for real estate does not come into play any where at any time. If I have no interest in charging a rate that is "competitive" for use of my property then I don't have to, if they
Re:Comcast Business Class (Score:4, Interesting)
You will not notice 500mw of draw on your monthly bill. You lose more in the conversion losses of the power supply.
Re: Comcast Business Class (Score:2)
If you think the entire power budget for a wifi ap is the radio, you're pretty silly. They run slightly warm - more than 1W above the radio power. 8W is about median. [tpcdb.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Jumper the center conductor of the antenna to the screw part, shorting it. Shouldn't have much range at that point and may burn out the radio.
Re: (Score:2)
Most antennas turned for 2.4 Ghz are shorts to a ground plane.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
short the antenna wire to ground.
Re: (Score:2)
I've confirmed that the public network uses a different public IP (clients connected to it get a private IP), but I'd still like to be able to disable it.
Very interesting that it runs public WiFi even in bridge mode. So the modem must obtain two IPs from Comcast. I'd disconnect the internal antennas at this point. I cannot fathom running provided equipment of which I don't have control for my private networking. Only bridge mode and my own router/access point.
Comcast Business Class (Score:2)
If your modem is truly set to bridge mode (IE, it's effectively a Layer 2 device) and you're handing the Ethernet port off to your own router, why would there still be an additional public IP on the modem?
Re: (Score:3)
why would there still be an additional public IP on the modem?
Just because your service is being bridged, doesn't necessarily mean that the modem isn't acting as a router for other services.
It can also be assigned an additional public IP outside the forwarding plane for your service for management purposes.
Plenty of reasons for a device made to act as a bridge to still have an IP. Also, seeing as its DOCSIS, the additional IP it has if any can be completely discrete and not discoverable by the subscri
Tin foil hat solution? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wrap aluminum foil around it - to block the signal?
Re: (Score:2)
I can think of a few ways of disabling it.... most of them involve the use of a screwdriver and a pair of snips, or placing the modem/router in a shielded metal box.
This lawsuit will be dismissed. (Score:2)
Re:This lawsuit will be dismissed. (Score:4, Informative)
You can opt out [comcast.com] of the binding arbitration clause, not that they advertise this fact. I believe you're "supposed" to complete the form within 30 days of commencement of service, but I don't know whether or not that requirement itself is legally binding.
Re: (Score:2)
The Supreme Court begs to differ [supremecourt.gov].
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You can, but that won't stop them from pestering you with phone calls
I don't have that problem. Here is the solution. [amazon.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Do you have a solution that doesn't require caller ID service?
ATT wants an arm and a leg to have caller ID svc.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sorry what?!?!? You get charged for caller id?????
Isn't called ID just stamped on the call by default? Well I know the data is there by default, so why the fuck are you having to pay for something that they would actually have to be actively stripping?!?!?
I am by no means a fan of Comcast... (Score:5, Interesting)
... but their Xfinity Wifi Hotspot program, if implemented correctly, shouldn't cause customers any real harm.
What I believe happens is that your modem gets virtualized into two modems/routers. Cable Internet is already based on shared broadcast signals, so in terms of bandwidth it should be identical to adding a second, mostly inactive cable modem somewhere in your neighborhood. Since the 2nd modem is virtualized, it should not affect your transfer rates or bandwidth quotas.
This second modem is connected to a second, virtual router, with its own SSID. Unless there's a vulnerability in the router (which is possible), users of the Xfinity Wifi Hotspot should not be able to access your network, use your IP address, etc.
Available bandwidth could conceivably be reduced, due to more packets in the air, but WiFi is already unregulated and subject to additional interference. Increased load on the modem/router could theoretically reduce your bandwidth as well, although probably not by any noticeable amount.
The best claim is based on increased electricity usage. However, the additional energy needed is probably negligible. Here is a link [speedify.com] to a blog post about the increased electricity costs, where they conclude it's about $8 per year in the mid-Atlantic area -- if it's being used. Comcast could give everyone a $1/mo credit for enabling the Xfinity WiFi Hotspot, completely eliminating the issue.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
"a blog post about the increased electricity costs, where they conclude it's about $8 per year in the mid-Atlantic area -- if it's being used."
And this suit is being filed in CALIFORNIA, where the price of power is much higher.
Next off. That modem isn't secure. Man can make it, man can and will break it. Period. You guys thought the latest TLS was the bees knees against POODLE and BEAST and BAM someone just said "We can act like it never fucking existed" in an article on this site, not even two days ago.
"Co
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"a blog post about the increased electricity costs, where they conclude it's about $8 per year in the mid-Atlantic area -- if it's being used." And this suit is being filed in CALIFORNIA, where the price of power is much higher.
I wouldn't put too much stock in an analysis that confuses kW with kWh (it's probably just a typo, but these things matter). FWIW I live in a state with the fourth highest average electricity costs in the country, so I'm very sensitive to electricity costs. But it's not fair to compare a year's usage at idle vs a year's usage at full load.
If they wanted to make this realistic, they should have estimated the average time one of these public hotspots is used, and then compared that additional cost to the aver
Re: (Score:2)
see how someone got jail time for useing about $0.04 of power to change there car. Comcast needs to do some hard time. They can start at 26 and california
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/... [cleantechnica.com]
Re: (Score:2)
... but their Xfinity Wifi Hotspot program, if implemented correctly, shouldn't cause customers any real harm.
What I believe happens is that your modem gets virtualized into two modems/routers. Cable Internet is already based on shared broadcast signals, so in terms of bandwidth it should be identical to adding a second, mostly inactive cable modem somewhere in your neighborhood. Since the 2nd modem is virtualized, it should not affect your transfer rates or bandwidth quotas.
This second modem is connected to a second, virtual router, with its own SSID. Unless there's a vulnerability in the router (which is possible), users of the Xfinity Wifi Hotspot should not be able to access your network, use your IP address, etc.
Available bandwidth could conceivably be reduced, due to more packets in the air, but WiFi is already unregulated and subject to additional interference. Increased load on the modem/router could theoretically reduce your bandwidth as well, although probably not by any noticeable amount.
The best claim is based on increased electricity usage. However, the additional energy needed is probably negligible. Here is a link [speedify.com] to a blog post about the increased electricity costs, where they conclude it's about $8 per year in the mid-Atlantic area -- if it's being used. Comcast could give everyone a $1/mo credit for enabling the Xfinity WiFi Hotspot, completely eliminating the issue.
The problem is that they are enabling it without consent.
Comcast should give a large discount to incentiveize people in enabling them. Since they are Comcast, they just said fuck you and turned it on to rake in the sweet sweet profit.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a huge fan of many of Comcast policy's but in this case... They don't need your consent, it is their property, under a lease agreement, and they are allowed to modify that agreement at will with notice (and they DO print notices about pending hotspot activations on the statements). I haven't read the service agreement myself but I'm pretty sure that cost to power leased devices is mentioned somehow. In any case you can disable the feature yourself without talking to anyone by logging into
Re: (Score:2)
The home hotspots also require login prior to use, they can't be used anonymous by non comcast customers
Interesting claim... Unsecured wireless L2 networks can't be used anonymously. Perhaps not if it were located on Mars or Neptune far from human civilization. Here on Earth I'm pretty sure it can easily be used anonymously.
All you need to do is wait and hijack the session once an authorized user connects.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
They could, obviously, do this right now. And if everything is working correctly, all you should have to do is hook it up to a coax splitter. But you only get one modem per account...
Re: (Score:2)
...The best claim is based on increased electricity usage. ...
Au contraire... Comcast is usurping location and operational resources of a residence for a business purpose. The best claim is that Comcast should not be doing this without the explicit permission of the property owner.
.
On a customer by customer basis, there can be an attempt to explain away this theft of resources by saying that the resources used are negligible, and that the homeowner should not complain about such a negligible use of the homeowner's resources.
However, I look at this differently,
Re: (Score:2)
Before there were dedicated laws against hacking the main charge used was Theft of Electricity, and normally that was only a few cents worth. It will be interesting to see if a corporation has additional rights in this area that it can argue in court.
Re: (Score:2)
But your front lawn makes an excellent hang out spot for my free Wifi needs!
Your neighbors all opted out of sharing Wifi, so I can't very well loiter around in their front lawns, now can I?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not familiar with with cable in the states, but does this mean that Comcast are selling a service well below line speed? Where I am the cable company will sell you whatever they can squeeze down the line: this week it is 1000/100, but it tends to go up every month or two as they switch cable boxes.
Re:I am by no means a fan of Comcast... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is exactly what it means. And to be honest what you have is unusual.
Every connection has to come back to a main trunk line. That main trunk will have a current max bandwidth which has to be split between all users on that trunk. So if your main trunk is 10gig the combined speed of everyone on that trunk cannot exceed 10gig no matter how big their fast their final connection is. An easy way to control this is to limit the speeds of the final pipe. If I give you all 20mbit I can fit lots of customers onto the trunk.
They also however model average user behaviour. So they know that shortly after the kids get home from school the demand will peak and users at that time will be most sensitive to latency as they all jump into COD. From this they will know that their peak demand equates to on 40% of their sold bandwidth so they will then oversell their capacity. So instead of only selling 10gig of bandwidth they will sell 22gig and be reasonable confident that they will not hit the pipes limit too often. That is call a contention ratio of 1. Most isps however, and certainly the more dodgy ones will oversell WAY past a ratio of 1. Meaning at peak times your internet will crawl.
So in the end you having the ability to suck at the system limits is unusual because of the implications that has on the rest of the network. You may decide to grab an entire debian repository mirror and in the process completely clog the back haul pipe.
Re: (Score:3)
Back in the UK we had a situation quite like you describe, we used adsl a lot more than cable but in terms of contention they all worked roughly the same.
Here in Sweden I still find it a bit bizarre but we have no limits at all. Everything has been built either at, or close to, worst case levels of usage. Internet provision seems to be handled on the basis that people will use it. When we had cable I used to leave torrents maxing out the line speed for weeks on end and we never got any complaints. Back then
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. The DOCSIS standards used in the US give you a little less than 40 Mbps downstream per physical 6 MHz channel. Higher-end DOCSIS 3 modems can bond up to eight channels together.
IIRC, your speed is artificially limited by the modem, which is configured remotely by your ISP over SNMP. People used to hack their cable modems to remove the bandwidth limits, but the cable companies started cracking down on them.
Re: (Score:2)
I think the biggest issue is that an IP location lookup will point to your address for Internet traffic that isn't from you.
So say your neighbor does some illegal activity. Now chances are you won't get convicted. But just getting questioned, and investigated is troublesome in its own right.
Re:I am by no means a fan of Comcast... (Score:4, Interesting)
Here is the problem, I used to live in Savannah and we had the caps nearly a year ago. In my testing the public wifi DOES often count on your caps. Comcast denied this but they count not explain how I disconnected everything (physically and no wifi turned on) on my personal network and then downloaded a 2gig linux iso on the public wifi just to see my cap go up 2 gig. They said it was a coincidence and REFUSED to give me a rundown of my traffic on my line. I also have recorded all my transfers on my router (full logging and bandwidth monitoring) and they would show 2x or MORE traffic in use than was. I even showed that I had downloaded nearly 20gig one day when I actually had unplugged my service that day.
Sue them...yes, sue them into the floor.
the one thing about comcast i could get behind (Score:5, Interesting)
and thats the thing they're getting sued over.. ..there's something seriously wrong with our legal system..
Re: (Score:3)
There's nothing wrong with the legal system.... yet.
I could sue you for making this post if I wanted to pay the filling fee; the only real test of the legal system is how far the case goes.
Re: (Score:2)
you could _attempt_ to sue me. you'd have to find a judge who'd agree to take the case. possible? sure. likely? don't think so. not only that, there are laws against frivolous litigation.
that said, the problem is, suit at question isn't considered frivolous.
Re: (Score:3)
How do you find a judge to 'take the case' until you've already filed a law suit?
I'm not sure you're familiar with the process of filing a law suit. And who is to say it's frivolous? You? Are we to forward you all law suits for preapproval?
No; this is how the legal system is suppose to work.
You are allowed to file a case for whatever you want. You can sue for more money then exists on earth if you want. http://what-if.xkcd.com/96/ [xkcd.com]
Now what can and normally happens in these cases is the defendant will fi
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
David copperfield was sued by a man claiming to be God for theft of divine power. I kid you not. The fact that it got far enough that Copperfield had to actually respond to it shows significant dane brammage in the legal system.
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't realise providing you with a device you use to access the internet was required to come with some strict energy compliance.
Next up I better sue Samsung because their TV steals my electricity while I watch it too. I would like to see someone justify exactly how much is "stolen" between a modem with a wifi hotspot, and a modem with 2 wifi hotspots, because the tiny piece of extra software needed to do that would make such a huge difference in energy use!. God forbid someone compare their current mode
Suing over something that can easily be changed? (Score:3)
I would imagine that the setting could be turned off in the rental eMTA from Comcast. In my subdivision, I have only seen one XfinityHotSpot network, and it was only for a short time, then it disappeared. My guess is that the Comcast customer noticed this brand new XfinityHotSpot had as strong a signal as their own router, and figured out how to disable it in short order.
One of the things that bugs me about America is this mindset that we seem to generally have of, 'sue first, look at other options later, if at all.'
Re: (Score:2)
Comcast tends to make it hard to bring your own modem. The list they give of the ones that will work is frequently out of date, once you have one you may or may not need to talk with them to get it recognized, and they may just lie to you instead of helping.
Beyond that, its just that, again, they don't tell you when they turn it on (until months later, I eventually got a letter, though I already knew they had). I had tried to turn it off via the account settings (there's a button to do so), but it always ha
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"Unfortunately" (for this particular scenario, as its quite nice fore most purpose), I live in a loft where the walls are lined with windows.27 windows, roughly 35x70~ each, one next to each other all around. Blocking the walls won't help much :)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why sue? For $80 she could buy a Surfboard 6141 at Best Buy, and save the money by not paying modem rental. The modem will pay for itself in 10 months.
My guess they are suing because they don't like Comcast acting like a bunch of asshats and this is the only avenue available to them with any hope of making them stop.
It isn't so much about any one individual as it is aggregate affect on the masses of a scheme which uses customers facilities and power without any compensation and largely without their knowledge while concurrently charging $10/month for rental... strikingly distasteful.
People should not have to be tech heads to keep from being taken for a ri
Re: (Score:2)
Why sue? For $80 she could buy a Surfboard 6141 at Best Buy,
Yes, nobody should ever exercise their rights because it's easier to let the corporations take them than to take a stand and protect them.
Re: (Score:2)
Useful (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in a rural area, and do dual-sport motorcycle riding on mountain trails in the Appalachians. There is a small "town" where we stop to fuel up and eat, and this place doesn't even have cell phone service. However, I did find that there is an Xfinity hotspot. Actually, I didn't even know what the Xfinity thing was until seeing this story, but it now makes sense why there was a "commercial" hotspot at this little crossroads. They allow two one-hour free trial sessions a month, which just happens to be about the frequency I ride through there, so it has been extremely useful to communicate while having lunch. So I give Xfinity a thumbs-up as it was that or nothing at all (and I do mean nothing) in this one particular place.
What Comcast needs to do is share just a tiny bit of this revenue with customers whose routers provide this service. It might only amount to a dollar or two a month, but that would be an incentive to have it turned on, and would offset the extra cost of electricity.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm perferctly willing to share my net w/strangers (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
How to get a Comcast hotspot in trouble (Score:2)
Connect to hotspot
Use tor or old gnutella client. Search and download
R@ygold, hussyfan, babyshivid, pthc content.
See if folders are shared online, store goods there blatantly, otherwise email your newly gotten files to Comcast, whitehouse, NSA, FBI along with posting shooting threat on 4chan.
Disconnect from random hotspot and drive away...
This is why public open hotspots are a bad idea...easy to screw owners over
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
No you don't, use the trial option. You only need an email address and zip code. Both are easily faked. Then you need to change your mac address every 1 hour to bypass their time limits.
One thing that Comcast is doing which is cool... (Score:2)
And people are on their case! Having WiFi access practically everywhere is a great thing, and will improve your life and save you money. It will more than make up for tiny additional costs of electricity. It absolutely has to be opt out, of a "write a paper letter" variety, because people are lazy and stupid.
Comcast is doing lots of evil things. Force bundling TV (internet alone costs more), modem rental charges, HD charges, additional TV charges, traffic prioritization, not letting people subscribe to indi
Re: (Score:2)
Who says your router does not have security holes that allows external internet traffic to cross over to your private network? Is public wireless network somehow magical and more scary than public wired network?
I don't mind if you opt out, just as long as you are banned from accessing any xfinitywifi hotspots for at least half a year if and when you decide to rejoin. If I can't have WiFi when I happen to be around your house, you can't use mine or temporarily opt in while you are on vacation for a week.
Now,
Thats why we have modem & router seperate (Score:2)
Same setup as BT have in the UK - what's the BFD ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Because I have BT broadband in my home, people in the street nearby can use a BT hotspot. The quid pro quo, Clarisse, is that I get to use a massive number of hotspots for free in return, as part of my monthly service.
Parked in a street outside my kid's band practice waiting to collect here ? There's a hotspot. Sat in a cafe ? There's a hotspot.
In fact in a typical densely populated neighbourhood I get almost solid wifi coverage for miles and miles. Is that worth $8 a year to me ? Probably. And it's an option I can always switch off.
Now
- I'm no fan of Comcast (though it's a few years since Iived in the USA)
- Sure, someone might discover a flaw in their router and bridge the networks (but then they might discover a flaw and just hack my personal wifi network anyway).
But overall, what the hell are most people REALLY concerned about ? The electricity is the only real legit grounds for complaint and you can be sure that if they'd rolled it out with a pro rata cash back to compensate for the juice used there would still be people moaning.
What I really want out of a home router is
- my own private wifi
- a public facing hotspot (in return for which I get to use a million hotspots nationwide)
- a guest network for people who visit. Who may not have an account with my ISP but whom I don't want on my LAN either, In fact I'd rather have the option to create a shortlived temporary login for this guest account.,
Does anyone offer the third of these yet ?
The Netherlands has something similar (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
If it was a reasonable company doing it, it wouldn't be so bad. In this case for example, for a lot of people, the account setting to turn it off doesn't work (you get an "unexpected error" when clicking the button on the website). You're also only notified of it up to several months after they turn it on, and their customer reps lie about it and ways to get out of it.
If they were up front, honest, and had a decent workflow to get out of it such that a non-techy could understand how to do it without being l
Re: (Score:2)
I did that a few weeks ago, after being bugged to upgrade from my old DOCSIS2 modem. I wasn't about to pay $8/mo. for $60 modem (and I wanted control over the router), so I bought my own, a Motorola SB6121 listed as compatible on their website. I spent an entire evening on the phone with three different reps, none of whom could activate it (despite a lot of time spent trying) because of some problem with the "provisioning department". Finally, I was told I'd have to physically take the modem to a customer s
Re: (Score:2)
That is nothing try getting a cable card out of them.