Do you mean the "xfinitywifi" ssid? Afaik you don't get the customer's IP address when you use that. And you definitely need to enter your Comcast credentials to use it, so law enforcement could probably trace who is really using it.

They probably remember your login based on wifi MAC, so it's probably easy to fake being somebody else, however.

They do it a bit more sophisticated than that. There's an xfinity profile that gets loaded and after the initial authentication you actually connect to a different SSID. When I had Comcast, I used this occasionally, but it was overall pretty flakey and I ended up disabling that SSID on my phone because it kept connecting to non-functioning xfinity hotspots while I was out and about and then I'd have no internet.

I don't like that comcast does this without adequately informing customers. But since Comcast is the ISP, at least in theory, they can mitigate some of the concerns, like not counting the shared bandwidth against the customer's limits and not associating any criminal behavior on the shared connection with the host.

They also completely own the hardware on which this service is offered.

You can buy and use your own cable modem that doesn't have a WiFi radio.

Even if it does have a wifi radio, if you bought your own from someone other than Comcast, you probably aren't part of the Xfinity hotspot system.

Did you know that cable modems -- whether you rent 'em from Comcast or buy 'em yourself -- download their configuration files from the ISP when they boot up?

> ... you probably aren't part of the Xfinity hotspot system.

Because of the above, I wouldn't be so sure (mostly due to Comcast's reputation).

Personally, when I was forced to use Comcast for a while, I purchased my own "dumb" (i.e., non-WiFi) cable modem. I didn't want to pay their rental fees, I didn't want to run an open hotspot for them, and I already had my own -- much better -- WiFi gear.

No consumer bought cable modem/router/AP combo is going to create its own WiFi hotspot on behalf of Comcast due to a config file. Unless it’s the one Comcast provides.

You can turn off the Xfinity hotspots on the Cisco-brand modems. It appears to be neighbors and/or pole-mounted APs that provide the SSIDs where I was.

I guess it's another reason to buy your own modem?

I wondered which neighbor is the Hot Spot over Covid. By chance I discovered it was a house a few over because they replaced their main electrical panel, and the hot spot disappeared until pg&e terminated the Service lines. Ironically, the owner of the house despises Xfinity. I don't have the heart to tell him his modem is the Hot Spot. He's also a retired lawyer, but I assume Comcast has a legal right?

Does anyone have an alternative to Xfinity? I'm in Marin County. I would like some local channels too. I looked into AT&T, but they seem as devious as Comcast. Devious in high rentals of equipment, although less than Xfinity. Good deals only for new customers. I'm thinking about switching between the two every year, but that's a hassle. My bill is $230 a month. $100 just for low bandwidth internet. New customers are getting high speed for $50. Xfinity needs to be broken up. Oh yea, I heard Comcast decided to "milk" long term customers, instead of competing on price, or worrying about "Cord Cuters".

Rant over. I need an alternative, with tv. I live in Marin County, CA. Oh yea, I remember hearing about free local tv digital channels local channels here. I remember it being associated with UC Berkeley? I can't find it though. Does anyone remember? It was basically free local channels over the internet, which was great for Cord Cutters.

Amazon can do the latter as well. Sidewalk is not an open wi-fi hotspot.

No, Comcast doesn’t share your home connection. That ssid goes to an entirely different network with a captive portal and resulting public IP.

That's the same as Sidewalk (except for counting against data caps): All data is tunneled to Amazon and can't be tied back to your IP address or SSID.

"Sharing your internet with the neighbors" is an extremely misleading description of the product.

No it’s not the same FFS. Sidewalk is using your home internet connection. It counts against your data caps and if Amazon gets malware on those it’s associated with your IP.

When zero days start floating around that allow people to bypass the VPN they are just sitting directly on your internal network.

Amazon is absolutely sharing your Internet with randos, they are just being picky about where the traffic goes. Still your data caps and still your qos bucket.