Mad at the concept, but at least it's off by default. Had Xfinity for 2 years and was running my own modem and router anyway, so I'm all set if I decide to switch back at this point
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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By default, WiFi Motion is set to detect even small amounts of movement in the motion-sensing areas, including motion caused by small pets.
holy shit lol
I remember when MIT had a paper on this around 2000
The show continuum used it too.
Get your own gateway. Don't rent theirs.
You can buy cable modems cheap, too. No reason to use their crap at all.
"cheap" is a relative term.
Nobody should be buying a DOCSIS 3.0 modem these days. They are obsolete and for some reason still being sold.
A decent DOCSIS 3.1 modem is at least $200. A Next Gen like S34 is at least $220. At least at the big blue big box store. And then you have to get your own wifi.
(However, that big blue store also will give you a 15% discount on any networking purchase if you recycle an old network device...I traded in an old modem but you should be able to find a switch or router at a thrift store and still come out ahead)
It pays for itself pretty quick (by not paying rental fees), but that doesn't necessarily make it cheap.
I absolutely prefer using my own equipment, and do...but it's also worth mentioning that in many markets, Xfinity removed data caps if you have a rented modem.
If a DOCSIS 3.0 modem still can't be saturated by the tier of internet someone is paying for, what advantage would 3.1 have?
If your provider has implemented it (Comcast is the only one i know of in north america) then Active Queue Management is a huge quality of life improvement that you won't know you were missing unless you already had a router that implements queue management. https://www.cablelabs.com/blog/how-docsis-3-1-reduces-latency-with-active-queue-management
Yeah I recently switched from cable to fiber (finally available), and prior I was using an old as fuck modem/router that capped at 500Mbps. My internet at fastest was 380. I rarely transfer files over the network, so figured why bother? (I did have Gen1 Google Mesh though to cover dead spots). I had a bit of a shopping splurge when I got fiber. Nothing crazy, just an upgraded mesh and a switch (Why the fuck does Frontier provide an ONT with 8 ethernet ports but only one is active?)
Not buying another modem when the ISP quietly upgrades the CMTS and makes more speed available in your neighborhood.
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Oh boy, I can't wait for this new wave of paranoid customers claiming their wifi is watching them. Thanks, comcast.
Well, it very well can be used for exactly that.
fucking Batman
Well yeah. That’s what their tech does. And it’s why I have my ISP’s WiFi offering disabled and the antennas removed and run their router in bridged mode, hooked up to equipment I own that doesn’t call out to the Internet.
Doesn't matter for me, my neighbors use all that shit. There's enough latent rf for them to triangulate literally everything happening nearby.
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Faraday cage or bust.
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Didn't read the article, but it's possible to get a 3d map with wifi. They can probably see you.
There is no privacy or security.
They don't need a 3D map, and the researchers who have rendered a 3D map need a lot of specialized software and resources.
Xfinity doesn't need that. They only need to know when people are online, what they're looking at, and who/how many people are watching TV, and if there's indication of pets in the house. That gives them an advertising gold mine of data.
DOCIS 3.1 involves more than just speed. No point going over the speed limit if all the traffic lights are timed based on a certain speed. https://www.cablelabs.com/blog/how-docsis-3-1-reduces-latency-with-active-queue-management
I don't really understand how this works, so struggle to see any benefits (only drawbacks😐). It does make me thankful my provider is a small local company. Not the fastest, but probably no spying.
It’s been around for almost 4 years. Don’t use rental modems.
If you are interested I can try and find the article on it but a few years ago an article came out where they were able to use wifi signals with enough accuracy that they could see a password that you were typing on your keyboard!!
But basically they use the way the wifi signal bounce off things to make an image in much the same way that echo location works
Like - I’m excited about sensors that uses higher frequency versions of this for health monitoring. I think that’s a perfectly valid use. But also, in my use, I’d be installing it as an IoT device on a network I control, feeding data to services I own.
This use - where it’s opt in for now, until they figure out how to monetize selling how much time you spend in front of the TV, in the kitchen, bedroom, or bathroom (paired with ‘anonymized’ data about what you’re looking at online in each space) is creepy as fuck.
Is it really “opt in” or is the opt in only for them to give you the information that they collect? I haven’t read through any terms of service for it but my assumption is they are already selling that data
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