Comcast repeatedly crams modem upgrade demands into browsers Comcast subscribers are complaining that the broadband biz has been bombarding them with requests in their web browsers to get new cable modems. According to Chris Morran at the Consumerist, the ISP has been injecting popups into webpages fetched from the internet – specifically, messages that urge people to get new modems to …
I had this with Rogers cable once many years ago.
They would call and try to book an appointment between 9 and 5 on Tuesday to replace my cable modem. I would tell them I would be working, and I felt no need to replace it. Then they would call the next week and start all over.
Finally they booked a rare weekend appointment, but after I sitting at home all day, they never showed up. They wouldn't even make an effort to book me another appointment the following weekend. They ended all support for the old cable modems while I was waiting for my next appointment. I was quite happy when Shaw cable took over the Vancouver market.
I ignored the snail mail, but succumbed to the browser injection. New modem was a combo modem/firewall/wifi/voip "gateway." It was immediately set to bridge mode, activated with a laptop directly attached, then connected to my existing firewall.
My firewall is now a bottleneck, but since this "upgrade" didn't include an associated bump to my monthly data allowance, I'm fine missing out on a few mbps.
I suspect their main drive for pushing these things is that when not set to bridge mode, they broadcast an XFINITY wifi ssid.
It is worse than that. They give it a complete lobotomy. Whatever the native capabilities of the device, the stock firmware is overwritten with a Comcast image that allows only a single SSID, limited DHCP capabilities and broken static IP allocation. And every time they feel the need to send a reset, the entire configuration goes out the window.
Not just a hotspot. A public hotspot that you pay for (electricity and rent fees - it's not your equipment, right) - double kill;). All this while enduring extra interference with your own wireless equipment. Glad I'm not exfinity customer (economy internet or whatever they called it) and I can see no need for docsis >2 for 3.7Mbps "broadband". Sure they sent some snail mail but no browser crap - possibly can't get past FF with noscript. No Comcast email either - they messed up account during move and should be happy bill gets paid on time.
I get automated phone calls from them constantly, which go to voicemail and get deleted. They have not injected anything into my browsing experience so far as I know, but then I scour my browsing experience pretty hard, so it's possible I'm just stripping it out and never seeing it.
They also pestered my parents, who have limited tech savvy, and they were mislead into thinking that getting the new modem would actually speed up their experience. That wasn't the case because their package had a performance cap below that of their old modem, so upgrading basically did nothing for them. Given my folks' level of expertise, I doubt the misleading was intentional, but I also doubt Comcast did anything to make the reality terribly clear.
I've no intention of taking their upgrade, as my modem works fine and I do nothing with my net that my existing bandwidth isn't overkill for. I don't want their WiFi. When I do upgrade, it'll be to a model I buy. The economics of that aren't great - renting their modem is cheap enough that buying my own will take a while to pay for itself. The main thing I care about is the device I get will be much more under my control (as much as anything is these days). Also, I read about a lot of people having performance and stability issues with the xfinity branded modems, which makes me want to stay far away.
...is their audacity to violate law whenever they feel and to make matters worse the FTC and FCC do absolutely NOTHING to stop Comcast or punish Comcast for their blatant violations of law. What does it take to get the FTC and FCC to perform their responsibilities under law to stop the illegal business practices of Comcast and other cable and internet providers? Does someone have to die before the FTC and FCC actually protects consumers from unscrupulous industry monopolists?
It takes people to actually file complaints to the FCC instead of the comments section of popular websites. They usually can't really do much unless someone complains to give them a basis for action.
You'd be surprised at how few complaints the FCC gets about this. Everybody hates it but nobody bothers to do anything.
I too have had the repeated robocalls and snailmails. I haven't seen the ads due to adblockers in every browser on every computer, I am supposing.
I've made sure to tell my missus to ignore the pleas to upgrade the modem. I don't want their easy-target all-in-one boxes in the house. We're getting the full speed of what I'm paying for (I test it every weekend), and the promised increase in speeds are for tiers that I'm not part of (Performance Plus and Blast! tiers got a boost, the rest did not). So there's nothing in it for me. I put a bit more trust in my Netgear boxes running DD-WRT, and they're fine for the foreseeable future.
You will obey in the USA
If not already, obedience will also soon be demanded in your country. It's big freakin' virus. Starts in one place and infects them all. Mutates, starts in another place and goes around the chain. Rinse, repeat.... the only thing changes is the names of the politicians, the companies, and the letters for the agency.
Interesting... a sort of inverted Morton's Fork.
Would they go on injecting malvertising and thus blast the feet off tEH nsa's disinformation drive, or would they quietly slither away into obscurity? I fancy either result would be a huge improvement and it'd be entertaining to see which they chose... perhaps they'd even manage both!
My sister, who's using a Motorola cable modem she bought around 4 years ago, gets these notices a lot. I checked into it and here's the deal:
Comcast has a page with a list of cable modems which are no longer supported by their manufacturers. That doesn't mean the modems don't work, just that Comcast has no guarantee they will keep working because of the non-support. Therefore they are asking the owners to upgrade. You can upgrade by renting or buying a new one. But you don't have to. I suppose it's like having software that is no longer supported. I suspect, if you are renting your modem from Comcast they will simply replace it.
Comcast is also rolling out a new cable box with a new interface (X1). It's much nicer and has things like a voice controlled interface (you can still just press buttons on the remote if you like). Perhaps they suspect the unsupported modems will not handle the new interface.
I just checked my parents connection, and what do you know, it died around 9AM today. While I don't know if this is the problem, I may need to take a trip there (it is about 100 miles away) to diagnose the problem. I use a nice DOCIS 3.0 modem feeding my wonderful router. Recently I signed up for (wait for it) Xfinity + voice service to get a couple of additional cable channels (it was $5.00 more). Now I don't really need the telephone service, but they gave it to me anyway. They sent me a clumsy VOIP/Router/WiFi box (that has provisions for a backup battery, but doesn't include one) and then did "weird things" to the internet service that required me to "re-enable" the existing cable modem. After I did that, things were back to normal. What I really want to do is keep my nice router (which has DYNDNS support) and just ignore the silly functions of their magic box. I suspect that I will need to do some work on this to get it all functional.
Then again, the problem may be a power failure, and the power hasn't come on yet (I doubt this though). Life goes on.
my BLIND cousin. Who is NOT a Comcrap customer. Having previously done telephone sales, he takes great delight in leading telemarketers of all stripes merrily down any of several meandering paths. IIRC, his personal best is 27 minutes with one of the "Microsoft support" scammers.
The upgraded modem Comcast wants to foist on my elderly parents does not contain a backup battery like the current one. This means the bundled phone service would not work during a power failure. Comcast said for $35 they would provide a backup battery for the "upgraded" modem. The offer was refused but the hard sell continues through email, snail mail and voice messages.
A local friend got the upgraded modem when he moved in. He did not want to host a hot spot for Comcast so he removed the hot spot antenna. Apparently the local service trucks scan for problems with the hot spot network. A service tech knocked at his door informing him that there was a problem with the modem that needed service. The friend said it was working fine. The tech insisted there was a problem but was refused entry.
They sent me a modem even though I told them i didn't want one. Now they're charging me for a modem i didn't request.
in the past, before they switched to encrypted tv only, they were required to distribute both HD and standard definition broadcast signals if they were offered by the broadcast tv station, so i could get hd channels for the standard networks (abc, pbs, cbs, nbc, fox, cw) . At the time they would periodically move the hd channels around, so every few weeks I was forced to have the tv scan for channels to find the HD broadcast. PITA. Now that they are encrypting everything, they don't have to offer the HD broadcast unless you pay extra. I am out of range of broadcast tv. so they are the monopoly I'm stuck with.
In addition, they keep trying to get me to buy additional services, but they won't tell me the actual cost. They'll only tell me the "special" 12 month introductory price, and I'm not going to buy it if they won't tell me the price! Really don't like Comcast, and I'd get rid of them in a second if there were any choices at all.
BTW, cable modem/router doesn't care what os you are using. Windows 10 irrelevant. The only real reason to upgrade is that the new modems are ipv6 ready, which an older modem may not be.
As far as speed goes, current system is plenty fast enough. Shared media, and many apparent speed issues are often actually other problems. Comcast should spend more time fixing it's really bad tv signal not to mention it's on demand system. During peak use, which for me is when the local University's are in session, on-demand frequently hangs or gives a try again later message, and regular channels are interrupted with broken images or dropped sound or sometimes blank screens for minutes at a time. Also had the cable box hang until unplugged and restarted. Takes forever to get the channel guide back..PITA.
Most consumer unfriendly company I've ever dealt with, and not very competently run. Fortunately i can get Netflix.
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