Scanning my neighborhood I'm seeing a few WiFi access points with an 'xfinitywifi' SSID and a Signal by Technicolor MAC (4a:b4:d4....) address.

Does anyone know if these are distributed by Comcast? Perhaps someone is simply duplicating an SSID on a WiFi6 AP?

[Link: theverge.com]

Although the ones we have in our area are black in color, not white.

Thanks.

I saw one of these a couple weeks ago. I thought that it was simply a white version of the gateways we’ve been seeing on Gigabit accounts. I did notice that it has four Ethernet ports, but thought that it was just a special version for customers who did not have landline service.

This gateway had been sent to the customer with a note that essentially said: “Install this”. I was happy to use the four ports because there had been an ancient 4-port switch on site that could not hack Gigabit service. Customer self install would have been easy by simply going to a website that did all the work, including picking up the old SSID and password.

White ones out here. You get one when you subscribe to gig internet service (not free, client is still renting it from Comcrap). Can't speak to the wifi6 as I put them in bridge mode

Has Comcast locked everyone else out of the modem/router menu in your area?

Here, you can login to the modem/router but you can't change anything anymore. When you try it tells you to use the Xfinity app to make changes or call. So you have to have one of their service boobs make the changes in the router for you - which never works because they either screw it up or have no clue what you are telling them to do. Or worse, argue with you on what you are changing "Why do you want to change the DHCP pool? There is no need to do that!"

Every customer now 'has' to purchase a modem. Either from me or online somewhere. I refuse (can't) work with the Xfinity modem rental anymore. Customer either ponies up or they will have to find someone else. It is not worth the hassle of trying to make the Xfinity POS work and the service call nightmares that come in the future, when Comcast reverts it and customer is mad at you for their screw ups.

If you have the account's log-in credentials, more adjustments are available, but I share your concern about mischief in the middle of the night.

For simple systems the "tower" Gateways are much more effective than previous generations. We do a lot of small systems for elderly customers in small apartments and condos. With previous generations of hardware, we might have needed to get into multiple access points, but these towers can often stand alone. If there is anything even slightly novel about the installation, we will install our own modem.

One customer bought a pack of Comcast Pods (without consulting us) to solve a coverage problem in their four story home with marble floors in some areas. Before we installed our own access point, removing the Pods was an improvement.