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Thursday, June 26, 2014

Turn Off Your Comcast HotSpot




For more reasons than I can tell you - I hate Comcast.
They are - of course - a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ).

Unfortunately I have to use them 
unless I am willing to accept 1.5 Mbps that CenturlyLink offers - my only other option.

So - Comcast reigns supreme
Comcast screws their customers every day in every way - becausetheycan
And the FCC does nothing

This whole issue, the Comcast HotSpot, infuriates me.
I bought my own modem – so Comcast can’t make obscene profits off me to “rent” their modem.
I bought my own modem – to ensure Comcast would not use my house to increase their market share, with the Comcast HotSpot.

Imagine this:
  • A pedophile sitting in a car right outside your house watching porn - using a wifi connection you are providing.
  • A prostitute sitting in a car right outside your house connecting with clients - using a wifi connection you are providing.
  • A drug dealer sitting in a car right outside your house connecting with clients - using a wifi connection you are providing. 
While the IP address of the public service will be different from that of the hosting customer, the physical address of both will be the same.

Cops, lotsa cops - with guns -at your address
for something you did not do
GUILTY! until proven innocent
   - that's how the justice system works in the US, now
GO TO JAIL faster than you can imagine
for something you did not do.

That’s it for my original thought.
The rest of this is snips from across the web – source links at the bottom.

Comcast is quietly turning on public hotspots in its customers’ routers, essentially turning private homes into public hotspots.

Comcast has been swapping out customers' old routers with new ones capable of doubling as public hotspots.

noticed a new Wi-Fi network popping up on his home computer.
 “Suddenly there's this service that says XFINITY Wi-Fi.
coming from the Comcast router inside his hall closet.

Comcast's new X-Finity Home WiFi Hotspots will add a second separate and distinct signal to your home modem.  One is yours      The second will be for your guests

"The lack of consumer choice is disrespectful," wrote Kelly Morgan, vice president and general manager for Frontier, in a blog post. "Rather than allowing customers to opt into opening their homes to becoming hotspots, they are unilaterally making homes into hotspots and forcing customers to figure out how to opt out of this sharing if they don't want to be a commercial hub for Comcast."

Comcast basically said
"You know, we aren't even going to ask you if you want this, you'll just take the feature. Saves us from having to explain it to you."

“This is actually an opt-out, not an opt-in. So they'll actually send this command to your router to enable this public Wi-Fi hotspot in your house and hope you don't object to it," he said.

"From a security standpoint, it just adds another access point for a hacker or bad guy to get into your system," CPR Tools CEO John Benkert told WINK News.

Comcast gets a fairly cheap way to extend its network—by having its customers pay for the equipment!

Comcast representative told me the company expects to have 8 million customers with the public access feature enabled by year end.

in 19 of the largest U.S. cities.

Another concern should be that in an attempt to grow Comcast’s customer base, the public service will allow two free one-hour sessions per MAC address per month to non-subscribers.

you can buy or "rent' a wireless router from Comcast. I suggest you buy one from a store instead of renting one.

If comcast wants to use my router to provide service to others, then they can bloody-well pay me for that service I am providing.

If they are going to use the modem that they're renting to me to provide service to others, then they ought to reduce my rent.

LEGAL ISSUES FOR YOU
While the IP address of the public service will be different from that of the hosting customer, the physical address of both will be the same.

Comcast is essentially using your private residence as a corporate resource.

As many as five people at a time can use your personal hotspot;

There have been reports that you must re opt-out every time your router receives a 'refresh' signal.

the odds of serious problems emerging are very, very high.

And the FCC does nothing
 









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