Comcast expanding Wi-Fi hotspots using home routers

In a bold move, Comcast is steadily blanketing the country with Wi-Fi transmitters situated within home routers. These enable anyone within range to log onto Xfinity service just by using their Comcast password.

The scheme only works for people using Comcast’s recent Arris Touchstone Telephony Wireless Gateway Modem. Anyone using their own modem and router is unaffected. However, so far five million homes have the hotspot routers installed. According to a report in CNN Money, the dual use routers “started in northern New Jersey has now spread to Boston, Chicago, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and elsewhere.”

According to Comcast, subscribers who aren’t happy that they’ve been turned into a public hotspot can ask to turn it off. The company says that fewer than 1 percent of customers have so requested. Which could mean that most subscribers are unaware of the situation.

In theory, this public use of your home network shouldn’t slow down your communications and TV streaming, but it’s still early to tell.

Moreover, according to a report in Ars Technica, widespread public Wi-Fi offers hackers nearly unlimited opportunity to break into networks. So, “if someone were to set up a malicious Wi-Fi access point called “xfinitywifi,” devices that have connected to Xfinity’s network before could automatically connect without alerting the user or asking for the password.”

We all like having free Wi-Fi, but no one is sure what the real cost might be.

Comcast is turning your home router into a public Wi-Fi hotspot (CNN Money, Jun. 16, 2014)

Comcast Wi-Fi hotspots to count on routers in homes (SFGate, Jun. 13, 2014)

“Free” Wi-Fi from Xfinity and AT&T also frees you to be hacked (Ars Technica, Jun. 22, 2014)