Skip to content
Latitude42's profile

New problem solver

 • 

30 Messages

Thursday, June 11th, 2015 8:00 AM

Cisco DPC3939B Xfinity Wifi

Please pardon me for starting a new thread. The one I started on June 7 on the same topic sputtered out with no further feedback from Comcast.

 

Accrording to these forums, and self-help on the customer portal, I should have the ability to control my own  Xfinity Wifi (as deployed on Cisco DPC3939B router, installed  here June 3) through the portal. I do not see it. When I phoned Comcast at the end of last week, over-the-phone support said the self-help how-to was not credible, the facility does not exist.

 

I do not exactly having a squirrel running a wheel in my head on this. However, I am thinking about placing the call again and this time ask for level 2 support. But before I do, can I have another customer tell me they've actually seen and used this thing (turn Xfinity Wifi on and off through the customer portal)?

 

Thank you.

Accepted Solution

New problem solver

 • 

17 Messages

10 years ago

Thw WiFi options showed up on my settings screen tonight but they don't seem to work for me either. I turned off the public WiFi but it is still on. It does seem to recognize that my private Wifi is off but it claims it's having trouble connecting to my device. I get no error on the public Wifi screen. I even power cycled the modem. I'll try it again tommorrow, if it's not working by Saturday I'll have them take out the Wifi modem and install a standard non WiFi gateway.

 

I actually wouldn't mind leaving the 5G public on, it's just the 2.4G that I want off. I have way to much congestion at 2.4G. I have no real need for the private Wifi, I have my own solutions that work better for my setup.

Advocate

 • 

1.4K Messages

10 years ago

Hello Latitude42 and welcome,

 

Please use Manage your Business Private WiFi connection online to access your DPC wifi online.

 

Hope this helps you out.

New problem solver

 • 

17 Messages

10 years ago

Rather than starting a new thread I'll tag onto this one.

 

My modem was replaced this morning with a DPC3939B and I was told I would be able to de-activate the public Wifi but I'm now told by customer (phone) support that it is not possible. They have scheduled a technician visit for next Saturday to replace the modem with one that doesn't have the feature.

 

I do not have the "Manage Xfinity" option available on my account homepage so I can't do it from there, and the phone technician says it is impossible, period. Yet on this forum people seem to be able to do it.

 

I'm confused. I'd like to keep the modem but the extra hotspot is a nuisance. I have way too many wireless signals in this area and it is so bad my wireless remotes stop working due to all the congestion.

 

Is there a way for me to disable the public Wifi or not? If I can I will keep the modem but if I can't it's leaving next Saturday.

 

Thanks,

Visitor

 • 

4 Messages

10 years ago

Haven't yet tried it, but the pinned 5-7-2015 message at the top of this forum says we can disable public hotspot wifi.  I'm going to try it this afternoon and see what happens.  Later. 

Visitor

 • 

4 Messages

10 years ago

I think the Business dashboards may be different from what Comcast John had in front of him.  Try this: go to Manager Tools> Services> Internet.  My screen then shows "Manage XFINITY WiFi Hotspot," which I hit.  In the screen that comes up, there is no on/off or enable/disable button :(, but there is "Edit".  If you then hit "edit" it brings up a screen that does have an "on/off" switch for the Wifi hotspot.  When you hit "off", there is likely to be a message that says you need to reboot/power cycle the 3939B.  See if that works for you.

 

It didn't work here.  Though the manager screen says the WiFi hotspot is "off," it's still cranking along as usual.  

 

Rick

New problem solver

 • 

30 Messages

10 years ago

On my second phone call to Comcast, the agent had heard of the new portal feature and agreed with me that it was missing from my portal. He stated a level 2 ticket and it was fixed in a couple of days. It is true that you have to "Edit" if it is your intention to turn off the Xfinity Hotspot. But for the first 10 days or so I had absolutely nothing in the portal.

 

What I haven't done yet is go over to the physical location and see if it is really gone as desired (I am a church accidental techie and not there every day).

New problem solver

 • 

17 Messages

10 years ago

Sometime during the night my public Wifi did turn off. I tried power cycling the gateway to make sure it wouldn't come back on and it didn't. It would be nice if I could control both bands individually but this is sufficient. It would be even nicer if I could control it directly on the gateway but perhaps that is coming.

 

I'm still very disappointed with Comcast over this. It is disgraceful that they would not provide that functionality to their customers, especially their business customers. It is also careless of them to be installing these things everywhere. I see at least six Xfinity gateways with decent signal strength from my location. It's not surprising that I have so many issues with congestion on the 2.4 ghz band.I'm wondering if a complaint with the FCC is warranted.

 

For now I'm going to cancel the service call to have the modem removed.

New problem solver

 • 

17 Messages

10 years ago

Well this stinks! It turned itself back on again!

 

The website still says it's off and I tried power cycling the modem but it is still on. I tried turning it on and then off again via the website but it remains on. Did they wait until I cancelled the service call to remove the modem to turn it on again?  I'm not going to re-schedule for this weekend but will call and schedule the removal again Monday morning if this thing doesn't shut off and stay off.

 

I really think a FCC complaint is in order. They are installing these things everywhere and not giving the property owners control over them. These things are causing interference with my own equipment and FCC regulations requires that they be disabled if that is the case. 

Gold Problem solver

 • 

610 Messages

10 years ago

While i totally agree with you on this, keep in mind you are technically not the "property owner"; you are renting the gateway, and are subject to whetever terms Comcast decides upon. Again, doesnt make it right, just explains it further.

Visitor

 • 

4 Messages

10 years ago

Same here.  Maybe we need to "ping" Comcast_Jon to see if he has something to say.   (Is this a "placebo" "feature" that just lets Comcast ascertain how many users would turn the public wifi off if they could.  Just sayin'.)

New problem solver

 • 

17 Messages

10 years ago

Well, it's back off again. Hopefully it will stay that way unless I decide to turn it on.

 

Comcast may own the gateway but I own (well, rent) the location. If they wish to install a transmitter at my location they should provide me with the ability to de-activate it if I deem it is interferring with my own equipment. Most of the complaints I've seen on the Internet seem to relate to power usage, privacy issues and bandwidth usage. I seem to be the lone wolf complaining about interference.

 

I'm not sure how much interference these xfinitywifi transmitters are causing me. What I do know is that when I first installed wireless many years ago I was the first in the area to do so and my wireless speeds were great. They have been steadily deteriorating ever since as more and more people get wireless. In the evenings the 2.4Ghz band is almost useless to me now. It's OK for simple web browsing but any kind of HD video streaming is out. 5Ghz is still fine, very few of them around here. Unfortunately many of my devices still don't support 5Ghz.

 

I've actually discovered that I get the best performance at 2.4Ghz if I limit my router to "G" mode. It outperforms the "N" and "A" mode when activity is high.

 

I actually commend Comcast on what they are trying to do. Blanketing an area with accessable WiFi is a great idea. It's just that they are not considering the implications of what they are doing and what problems it can cause in heavily congested areas. Perhaps they could add some circuitry to the gateways to decide if an additional transmitter is neccessary in a given area. As I said in an earlier post, I see at least six xfinitywifi signals with good to excellent power from my location and many more lower power ones show up from time to time. That's getting a bit ridiculous.

 

The 5Ghz band is still clean. In fact I was the only one visible. Perhaps my neighbors don't have 5Ghz routers or perhaps it's just because 5Ghz doesn't travel very far through walls. That's why I wouldn't really mind leaving the 5Ghz public signal active. Right now it's an all or nothing situation and because of that I choose nothing.    

Problem solver

 • 

326 Messages

10 years ago

5Ghz does not travel through walls so leaving it active to provide public access is an exercise in futility.  If you put your gateway in the window - maybe.

 

If this deployment had been done properly then it would not have been a problem.  Being done properly means that the BWGs would be shipped with external antennas so that users could unscrew them if they did not want their BWG advertising to the world.  And if they did want that, then they could put on external antennas and place them properly.  Being done properly also means that any BWGs in an area would setup a WDS network.  This is how Ubiquity ap's operate.  Then there would only be 1 channel and 1 ssid and you could drive down the street and your phone could hop from AP to AP.  Or if there were a dozen BWGs in an apartment building then they would all cooperate.

 

My MIL is in a condo and it is so bad there that wifi only works if your within 15 feet of the transmitter, and I'm using a heavily optimized access point running DD-WRT firmware.

 

Ted