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from the mobile-data-service-businesses-for-everyone dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Comcast is getting ready to bid on spectrum as it prepares a move into the mobile broadband business.
Bidding under the name "CC Wireless Investment, LLC," Comcast submitted its application a few months ago and is now one of 62 qualified bidders announced by the Federal Communications Commission on Friday. These bidders have submitted down payments and met all the necessary requirements to participate in the auction, which is shifting 600MHz airwaves from TV broadcasters to wireless carriers. Bidding is scheduled to begin on August 16.
Comcast files to participate in FCC's broadcast TV spectrum auction.
Comcast has said it will only buy spectrum if the price is right, but there are ample signs that it is planning a mobile data service. Comcast has activated a Mobile Virtual Network Operator agreement with Verizon Wireless that will let Comcast resell the carrier's service, and it has created a new mobile division, Multichannel News reported. Comcast has also been developing a large network of Wi-Fi hotspots, in part by turning its cable Internet customers' home modems into hotspots.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 19 2016, @09:47PM
For me to hack in! Thank Comcast for weak firewalls. It's not surprising to see a partnership with Verizon, which also uses weak firewalls. I'm convinced Comcast and Verizon implicitly permit free riding on their networks. The ease with which they both can be hacked has been an open secret for many years now, it must be obvious that it's happening, and there's no hint of any attempt to stop it.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Tuesday July 19 2016, @10:27PM
Xfinity Wi-Fi is their public facing Wi-Fi network and they assign generic passwords to Comcast subscribers so you can access any hotspot. I installed some new Comcast cable modems for some friends and they have dual band inward facing Wi-Fi networks and a single band outward facing Xfinity Wi-Fi network. While setting up the modems I had access to the outward side briefly before their automated set-up app took over and the password for general users was hardcoded into the setup, but the admin password was assigned during automated setup.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 19 2016, @10:43PM
Password and password, what is password!
Stop watching Mr Robot. This has nothing to do with passwords.
See here a thread from 2011 about tunneling through Verizon's wide-open firewall.
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/fulldisc/full-disclosure/82609 [gossamer-threads.com]
The year is 2016 and the same firewall hole is still so gaping wide you can push 15 Mbps through it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Wednesday July 20 2016, @12:18AM
Other than deliberately breaking the wi-fi (or blocking it with good amount of aluminum foil), sure. Although the setup to block the signal is probably more expensive than a real standalone AP/Router and not some Comcast P.O.S. Even better to purchase your own DOCSIS 3.0 cablemodem, a standalone AP, and a good OpenBSD based router. Nobody is using Xfinitywifi on *my* bandwidth, no thank you.
I'm not surprised about the router and firewall being an abhorrent piece of shit. There was ONE reason they designed it that way (the single all-in-one device), which is completely and totally removing all abilities for true pure bridge mode. Not that hybrid bridge mode crap where my router is still getting an internal address.
You ever notice that Comcast has access to all the internal networks of these customers? That's not a coincidence, and the push to eliminate routers is here I think. That may sound crazy, but I've had to report AT&T to the Attorney General because ALL of their new modems are ROUTERS. There is ZERO option with AT&T to support your own router and have a public IP address. I screamed at technicians all the way up to managers before being told that AT&T simply doesn't offer the equipment anymore at all. Unless something has changed, you can't effectively use your own router with the service at all.
This is just one more reason to tell Comcast to shove it and go BYOD on them. Fuck their service selling my bandwidth, and fuck them for having zero security while doing it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 20 2016, @01:16AM
Nobody is using Xfinitywifi on *my* bandwidth, no thank you.
OK then I'll just use your neighbors' xfinitywifi instead. Either way I won't be using your bandwidth because traffic on your separate guest network doesn't count against your usage anyway. It's supposed to be counted against the usage of the visiting Comcast subscriber who logs into your guest portal, but there's nothing stopping anyone from ignoring the portal, not logging in at all, and getting free internet access by tunneling straight through the firewall on one of the conveniently open ports.