.

Has anyone responded to Comcast's notice that customers should request new faster routers, either by mail for self installation or arrange to have a technician come to install it for a fee?

Also, why would the Samsung sound bar's wireless subwoofer stop working? I tried following the instructions to stick a pin in it, etc, but no luck.

I work for Comcast, and if they are offering a faster router, it is so that we can bump your speed using a new protocol (called DOCSIS 3, but you don't need to worry about that).

Self install of a router should be very simple:

1. Find your old router. Note where the cables are currently attached.

2. Detach the cables, remove old router.

3. Attach cables to new router in same places.

The physical attachment points for routers don't change much (if at all) from generation to generation - you will have three types of connectors:

- Ethernet (looks like a fat phone jack)

- Coaxial (looks like a thick, round TV cable with a screw-on nut at the end that attaches so a threaded barrel)

- Power (this one will be obvious as it's connected to the wall outlet).

There is no way to mis-connect any of the three.

The only catch is if you have another router connected down the line - then it might matter which Ethernet cable is going into which port. If this is your only router, then no worries.

Can't help you on the Samsung thing. I have a Samsung home theater, but I am counting the days until I can replace it with a Sonos soundbar.

You work for Comcast?! After ordering the new Infinity router which will take 5to7 days to arrive, my laptop and IPad went nuts! Doesn't recognize my netgear wifi connection even as I am informed that netgear is connected.

Brings up something about infinity activate at Comcast . Com. I just ordered the Internet upgrade yesterday -nothing is installed

Planning to call Comcast tech help,I sat down with a cup of coffee, opened my iPhone and this deviceis working!and I find your comment!

Any idea what got so messed up?

TIA very much!

I think my issue with the activation screen has been resolved.

My issue with the subwoofer remains. Any suggestions?

Something to know about being a Comcast customer and using their router: that router is most likely broadcasting a wireless signal apart from whatever your own network is generating.

This is meant to expand their wireless network which can be used by any Comcast customer. Theystate that this network does not consume any of the bandwidth you are paying for, but it does consume your electricity, and all the while this is a device for which they are charging you a monthly fee.

Cnsder getting your own router and eliminating the whole fiasco.

Being more or less a Luddite, when I receive two letters and more than one email from Comcast alerting me to the necessity to upgrade my router, I responded a couple of days ago, agreeing to take the easy to install by the customer equipment! The second choice was to call for a tech to come to the house for a fee. Incidentally, battery is not included!

Well, around 6 pm tonight, a HUGE box was dropped off by FedEx. I didn't get to open the box up until just now. Comcast sent two upright tower like routers in separate boxes, assorted nuts, wires and bolts, and slick bilingual instructions on one sheet of paper!

I wish I had seen your message before I opened the box! Now I will have to schlep it to a center. Do I have the option to opt out? Will my service become bogged down for refusing the speedier Internet?

I have Net Gear wifi router now.

I'm no expert, I managed to muddle through on my own. Perhaps others who have better expertise will jump in here.

Why did Comcast send two routers? I have three TVs. I plan to reexamine the mess when I have more time.

I'm a relatively new Comcast Xfinity customer (FIOS is not available where I moved to) and I haven't received a letter about the router (although I'm constantly being hounded about their home security service).

In the 4 months I've had it, I've had 4 service calls because the bedroom box kept freezing and nobody could get it working. I'm now on my 4th box. Additionally, I had major problems recording programming -- some shows will only record the first couple of seconds, others will record the first 21 minutes (of a 2 hour show). Since I recorded those shows, I can't watch them On Demand -- they're not available and the Comcast techs don't know how the DVRs work (believe it or not). I never had any of these problems with FIOS, and although I hate Verizon as a corporation, I miss the FIOS TV service terribly. After my 2 year agreement is up, I'm going to use somebody else (hopefully FIOS will be available then).

Well, back to the enormous box of free stuff Comcast shipped to us. Will refusal to upgrade now present problems down the road? Getting it back to Comcast will be a hurdle.

I think I have recovered sufficiently from the Xfinity upgrade nightmare to update this thread.

I returned the Huge box to the Comcast service center.

The person taking the box, checked the contents and told me they had sent me two routers instead of one, and told me some folks had received three! We laughed as we bonded over the idiocy of Comcast. I asked if Comcast would stop emails and phone calls to upgrade to the new, faster Xfinity wifi service, and I was assured that would be so.

Back home, with my slow, but adequate equipment untouched by any attempt to hook up anything new, my TV screen had a message announcing that the set top was not connected and I had to call the billing office. My lapto and tablet didn't work either, saying I needed to complete my upgrade!!  

For my mental health, I won't give details of the many phone call analysis and plug pulling efforts on my part over three days on trying to figure what was wrong.

Cutting to the chase, the Comcast service person who accepted the return of the Huge box had apparently inadvertently put my set box ID number on her list of returned items!

The technician who had finally arrived at my house and was stumped did not figure it out, incidentally. Having had to read off that ID number several times over the phone, the last few digets stayed in my mind. I happened to glance at the receipt while the technician was scratching his head, and there was that familiar number on the list of returned items!

A meme currently circulating through the interwebz says that the best way to finish the war on drugs is to legalize them and ensure that they are dispensed through comcast customer service.

   I'd laugh, but the pain is still fresh!  

Sorry to hear you had continued issues. I had taken a bit of a sanity break from MOL, so I wasn't around to see your replies and questions- my apologies. If you still have issues, PM me and I can connect you with some resources that might be able to help. 

Comcast chased after me to upgrade my router (via phone calls, mail, etc.) even though I already owned a router that used DOCSIS 3.0 and was on their "approved" list.  I finally had to call them to get them to stop hounding me.

I know, even just thinking about it, that I am nuts, but can someone tell me about Roku or Apple TV? I do watch Netflex on my IPad, but burying my face in the screen for prolonged periods of time makes my husband jealous!  

We have a 55" Samsung TV with a Samsung sound bar - 2 remotes already since I think the setup was wrong 3 years ago. Flat screen TV sound is awful and the sound bar makes it a tad less awful.

Movie offerings of late have been poor IOHOs, and I hate to purchase premium movies since I am already a ridiculous amount of $$$$ for premium cable!  

Is there a simple streaming device out there for old Luddites?

We have found Roku to be very easy and reliable.

max_weisenfeld said:

We have found Roku to be very easy and reliable.

As have we, the Roku2 box, not the stick. And a very large channel selection.

Before we had a smart Sony DVD player. But the streaming was not so reliable, a bit slow and the offered channels were limited. We then tried the Amazon Fire stick which we found very unreliable, daily hangups due to slow or lost connections.

Actually I believe the reason behind the change in Comcast routers is that they are upgrading their internal backbone network to IPv6.  The new router is performing network address translation between your IPv4 address and the IPv6 address it is using to connect to the Comcast network.  I found this out when they replaced my dad's router back in the summer.  If you are on Comcast and have one of their routers, you can try their speedtest.comcast.net website.  It will tell you your address.  If instead of the old IP address format, it looks something like 1a1a:2b2b:3c3c:4d4d:5e5e:6f6f:7a7a:8b8b, then you have one of the new IPv6 routers.  This should all be transparent to you, and you can continue to use the old IP addresses that we are all familiar with, at least for now.  

I thought I had blocked out the trauma resulting from the Comcast upgrade from hell (see my earlier posts) when that xfinity welcome activation screen pops up again! It appears when I attempt to access MOL especially. A plot, perhaps, for bad mouthing Comcast?

I never upgraded since I returned their equipment weeks and weeks ago!

Will that upgrade announcement that never was haunt me forever?  

Can you post a screenshot of the screen, or at least describe what words are on it?

this

"This is meant to expand their wireless network which can be used by any Comcast customer."

^^^^ this! They can make your signal a hotspot. Downside: my parents' neighbors have kids hangin outside their house because they use the wifi signal/hotspot.

marcsiry said:

Can you post a screenshot of the screen, or at least describe what words are on it?

I am still bedeviled by that activation screen taking over my iPad!  

I went to xfinity tool site and there is no help link- that site is beyond useless. 

I am too old to call Comcast and try to explain this takeover. 

HOW CAN I CANCEL WHAT I VIEW AS AN INTERRUPTION OF SERVICE?

You can't just close that tab? The activation page appears in every tab/window?

The activation screen over rules my selection of an icon to open. MOL was the first place this was happening. I thought I had outwitted it the other day when I went selected the site again as favorite on my home page and discarded the other icon.

This morning, I tried to open another favorite and up popped that darn screen!  I again discarded the "infected" site and selected it again for my home page.

Why don't I pick up the phone and call Comcast you may be thinking? I have not yet fully recovered from the original issue described above.

The activation screen  invasion continues. I click on  "continue"  to see if I might catch an opportunity to cancel the activation ghost.

I got this..

Could it be this?

http://blog.yoocare.com/remove-xfinity-comcast-net-redirect-virus-completely/

Ridski, I believe you found the problem! The article does not mention Safari, but everything fits. Now whose fault is this? Comcast? As a Luddite, I am afraid to follow the suggestions offered. This all came about because of the drastic mistake of showing some interest in upgrading to Xfinity's faster internet. Whe the box of routers arrived, I returned them almost immediately so I never activated anything. It seems to me this virus was caused by Comcast.

WWYD?

Do you think Apple would be able to help?

It's not comcast's fault that someone is masquerading as comcast.

I'd be surprised if Apple were willing to help, but you might as well ask. The instructions may not be as hard as they seem once you get started.