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Comment by thayne | Hacker News Reader

I don't like that comcast does this without adequately informing customers. But since Comcast is the ISP, at least in theory, they can mitigate some of the concerns, like not counting the shared bandwidth against the customer's limits and not associating any criminal behavior on the shared connection with the host.

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They also completely own the hardware on which this service is offered.

You can buy and use your own cable modem that doesn't have a WiFi radio.

Even if it does have a wifi radio, if you bought your own from someone other than Comcast, you probably aren't part of the Xfinity hotspot system.

You can turn off the Xfinity hotspots on the Cisco-brand modems. It appears to be neighbors and/or pole-mounted APs that provide the SSIDs where I was.

Did you know that cable modems -- whether you rent 'em from Comcast or buy 'em yourself -- download their configuration files from the ISP when they boot up?

> ... you probably aren't part of the Xfinity hotspot system.

Because of the above, I wouldn't be so sure (mostly due to Comcast's reputation).

Personally, when I was forced to use Comcast for a while, I purchased my own "dumb" (i.e., non-WiFi) cable modem. I didn't want to pay their rental fees, I didn't want to run an open hotspot for them, and I already had my own -- much better -- WiFi gear.

No consumer bought cable modem/router/AP combo is going to create its own WiFi hotspot on behalf of Comcast due to a config file. Unless it’s the one Comcast provides.

I guess it's another reason to buy your own modem?

I wondered which neighbor is the Hot Spot over Covid. By chance I discovered it was a house a few over because they replaced their main electrical panel, and the hot spot disappeared until pg&e terminated the Service lines. Ironically, the owner of the house despises Xfinity. I don't have the heart to tell him his modem is the Hot Spot. He's also a retired lawyer, but I assume Comcast has a legal right?

Does anyone have an alternative to Xfinity? I'm in Marin County. I would like some local channels too. I looked into AT&T, but they seem as devious as Comcast. Devious in high rentals of equipment, although less than Xfinity. Good deals only for new customers. I'm thinking about switching between the two every year, but that's a hassle. My bill is $230 a month. $100 just for low bandwidth internet. New customers are getting high speed for $50. Xfinity needs to be broken up. Oh yea, I heard Comcast decided to "milk" long term customers, instead of competing on price, or worrying about "Cord Cuters".

Rant over. I need an alternative, with tv. I live in Marin County, CA. Oh yea, I remember hearing about free local tv digital channels local channels here. I remember it being associated with UC Berkeley? I can't find it though. Does anyone remember? It was basically free local channels over the internet, which was great for Cord Cutters.

Amazon can do the latter as well. Sidewalk is not an open wi-fi hotspot.

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