Does anyone actually like Comcast? I feel like absolutely 0 consumers, no matter the political background, enjoy the Comcast experience.
My most recent Comcast crashout™️ was how their router does port forwarding.
First, you have to pay an extra fee per month to get more than 1TB monthly data usage (crazy)
Next, you can’t change the default DNS server (annoying)
Third, I had this random issue where the gateway would randomly force clients to be ipv6 only, and sometimes ipv4 only. (Diabolical)
But their port forwarding was the worst.
I, as an advanced user, go to the admin panel. EVERYBODY who knows what tf port forwarding is and why they’d want to do it would use this admin panel.
I go to advanced. Wait 5 seconds for their god awful panel to load. I click “port forwarding”. while I wait, I reflect on the fact that this panel has a 6mb JavaScript bundle for absolutely no reason. And then, the page loads.
“Port forwarding has been moved to the My xFi page – some link – manage your router easier than ever!” - I DONT WANT EASIER THAN EVER!!! I AM PORT FORWARDING. I AM NOT A 79 YEAR OLD GRANDPA WHO NEEDS AN APP TO RESTART THE WIFI.
Whatever. I go to the page. Log in to the mandatory account that I shouldn’t need, because a router is independent of external services (or at least should be). After I log in and download the 8 gigabyte JavaScript bundle, a new page appears. “Download the xFi app for easier access”. I HAVE TO PULL OUT MY PHONE AND DOWNLOAD SOME RANDOM APP FOR “EASY ACCESS” TO A FEATURE THAT ONLY PEOPLE WHO DONT CARE ABOUT EASE OF ACCESS WOULD USE!
I download the app. I log in. Get redirected to a WebView. I log in twice. Finally.
My god, this is the most atrocious app I’ve ever seen. No dark theme, probably not native kotlin or java or anything. The backstack makes no sense, some pages will exit out of two simultaneously.
I finally find the port forwarding page. I click “Add a port forward”.
Instead of forwarding to an IP address, you have to select from a list of NAMED devices. The router isn’t detecting the hostname of my home server, and the router won’t let me assign a new IP address.
I desperately try and fix that, but it turns out the list updates on a fixed timer of 2 minutes, where it suddenly appears.
I click Add port forward again, and select my home server. I added port 443. Suddenly, the router seems to reboot completely, which was strange. After it finally reboots, I add port 222. IT REBOOTS AGAIN! THIS APP MANUALLY REBOOTS THE ROUTER FOR EVERY SINGLE CHANGE MADE TO PORT FORWARDS!
Luckily those were the only ports I planned to port forward.
Later while debugging this terrible router, it turns out FOR SOME REASON OTHER LESS ADVANCED OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE HERE! I CAN MANAGE UPNP, DMZ ZONES, WHAT IS HAPPENING
Thank you for reading my rant. I needed to scream into the void about this.
What’s funny is later on injust gave up and started to use cloudflare tunnels, nullifying the need for port forwarding. Maybe I should just go completely ipv6 too.
I used to work at Comcast as a programmer (consultant, never worked directly for them). The only surprising thing about your story is that you were eventually able to do what you were trying to do. Software and apps at Comcast are overseen by a constantly rotating cast of executives and managers, and are mostly written by a constantly rotating cast of contractors, most of whom are provided by InfoSys (who provide workers that can only stay in the country for six months at a time). A few people here and there are competent but it makes no difference as nobody is involved with any project for long and documentation is nearly nonexistent.
I was only there for a few years, but by the end I (a consultant grunt) was constantly having to explain to vice presidents why certain things were even being done in the first place. For example, I had been put to work ensuring that Comcast’s suite of apps passed accessibility testing (mainly seeing - pun intended - that their apps were usable by blind and low-vision people). I was on my third VP by the end of this process, and she asked why we cared whether or not blind people could use these apps. Um, possibly because we faced million-dollar-a-month fines from the FCC if our apps failed the accessibility tests?
Fun fact about all the InfoSys contractors: I was there before the second Comcast tower in Philadelphia was completed, working at the company’s HQ. There were enormous numbers of InfoSys employees working in the building. You would go to meet someone to talk about some issue, and there would be 7 or 8 people working in an office meant for one person. And this was on nearly every floor in the building. The scuttlebutt was that Comcast executives had gotten mightily sick of there being so many Indians in the building (even Indian executives said this was the case) and that they had commissioned the second tower (called the Comcast Technology Center) to get most of them out of their HQ.
What’s a Surfboard? I currently run my own router connected to Google Fiber’s required router and am wondering if there’s a benefit of some sort using the Surfboard.
My first IT adjacent job was remote support for Support Dot Com who contracted me out to Comcast. This was just as they were trying to get away from the maligned ‘comcast’ brand by calling everything ‘Xfinity’ like they think their customers are idiots. Well, turns out they mostly are. I don’t even think I lasted six months. Despite having the best metrics in the company, I just couldn’t take the abuse, or the lack of downtime between calls.
Anyway the point is you can call up Comcast and have them put your router into ‘bridge mode’ making it essentially an expensive modem, then connect your own router.
This is why i stopped using an ISP router… And went eiht pfsense. Last time i tried to change a port forward my wifi went out for a whole week before they even answered. I gave u at that point. They think you’re absolutely brain dead, they treat you like you’re absolutely brain dead. And they themselves are absolutely brain dead. I had enough. So I’ve installed my own shit and i haven’t had an outage since then. Surprise surprise?
Does anyone actually like Comcast? I feel like absolutely 0 consumers, no matter the political background, enjoy the Comcast experience.
My most recent Comcast crashout™️ was how their router does port forwarding.
First, you have to pay an extra fee per month to get more than 1TB monthly data usage (crazy)
Next, you can’t change the default DNS server (annoying)
Third, I had this random issue where the gateway would randomly force clients to be ipv6 only, and sometimes ipv4 only. (Diabolical)
But their port forwarding was the worst.
I, as an advanced user, go to the admin panel. EVERYBODY who knows what tf port forwarding is and why they’d want to do it would use this admin panel.
I go to advanced. Wait 5 seconds for their god awful panel to load. I click “port forwarding”. while I wait, I reflect on the fact that this panel has a 6mb JavaScript bundle for absolutely no reason. And then, the page loads.
“Port forwarding has been moved to the My xFi page – some link – manage your router easier than ever!” - I DONT WANT EASIER THAN EVER!!! I AM PORT FORWARDING. I AM NOT A 79 YEAR OLD GRANDPA WHO NEEDS AN APP TO RESTART THE WIFI.
Whatever. I go to the page. Log in to the mandatory account that I shouldn’t need, because a router is independent of external services (or at least should be). After I log in and download the 8 gigabyte JavaScript bundle, a new page appears. “Download the xFi app for easier access”. I HAVE TO PULL OUT MY PHONE AND DOWNLOAD SOME RANDOM APP FOR “EASY ACCESS” TO A FEATURE THAT ONLY PEOPLE WHO DONT CARE ABOUT EASE OF ACCESS WOULD USE!
I download the app. I log in. Get redirected to a WebView. I log in twice. Finally.
My god, this is the most atrocious app I’ve ever seen. No dark theme, probably not native kotlin or java or anything. The backstack makes no sense, some pages will exit out of two simultaneously.
I finally find the port forwarding page. I click “Add a port forward”.
Instead of forwarding to an IP address, you have to select from a list of NAMED devices. The router isn’t detecting the hostname of my home server, and the router won’t let me assign a new IP address.
I desperately try and fix that, but it turns out the list updates on a fixed timer of 2 minutes, where it suddenly appears.
I click Add port forward again, and select my home server. I added port 443. Suddenly, the router seems to reboot completely, which was strange. After it finally reboots, I add port 222. IT REBOOTS AGAIN! THIS APP MANUALLY REBOOTS THE ROUTER FOR EVERY SINGLE CHANGE MADE TO PORT FORWARDS!
Luckily those were the only ports I planned to port forward.
Later while debugging this terrible router, it turns out FOR SOME REASON OTHER LESS ADVANCED OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE HERE! I CAN MANAGE UPNP, DMZ ZONES, WHAT IS HAPPENING
Thank you for reading my rant. I needed to scream into the void about this.
What’s funny is later on injust gave up and started to use cloudflare tunnels, nullifying the need for port forwarding. Maybe I should just go completely ipv6 too.
As someone who’s never had an issue with Comcast. I still hate comcast for the pure fact that they have a monopoly in my area.
I used to work at Comcast as a programmer (consultant, never worked directly for them). The only surprising thing about your story is that you were eventually able to do what you were trying to do. Software and apps at Comcast are overseen by a constantly rotating cast of executives and managers, and are mostly written by a constantly rotating cast of contractors, most of whom are provided by InfoSys (who provide workers that can only stay in the country for six months at a time). A few people here and there are competent but it makes no difference as nobody is involved with any project for long and documentation is nearly nonexistent.
I was only there for a few years, but by the end I (a consultant grunt) was constantly having to explain to vice presidents why certain things were even being done in the first place. For example, I had been put to work ensuring that Comcast’s suite of apps passed accessibility testing (mainly seeing - pun intended - that their apps were usable by blind and low-vision people). I was on my third VP by the end of this process, and she asked why we cared whether or not blind people could use these apps. Um, possibly because we faced million-dollar-a-month fines from the FCC if our apps failed the accessibility tests?
Fun fact about all the InfoSys contractors: I was there before the second Comcast tower in Philadelphia was completed, working at the company’s HQ. There were enormous numbers of InfoSys employees working in the building. You would go to meet someone to talk about some issue, and there would be 7 or 8 people working in an office meant for one person. And this was on nearly every floor in the building. The scuttlebutt was that Comcast executives had gotten mightily sick of there being so many Indians in the building (even Indian executives said this was the case) and that they had commissioned the second tower (called the Comcast Technology Center) to get most of them out of their HQ.
So, the cheap assholes who run Comcast are also racist. What a not surprise.
Your first mistake was using a Comcast router. I just use a Surfboard to connect and got my own router that I have 100% control over.
What’s a Surfboard? I currently run my own router connected to Google Fiber’s required router and am wondering if there’s a benefit of some sort using the Surfboard.
Cable modem
Ah, okay thank you!
My first IT adjacent job was remote support for Support Dot Com who contracted me out to Comcast. This was just as they were trying to get away from the maligned ‘comcast’ brand by calling everything ‘Xfinity’ like they think their customers are idiots. Well, turns out they mostly are. I don’t even think I lasted six months. Despite having the best metrics in the company, I just couldn’t take the abuse, or the lack of downtime between calls.
Anyway the point is you can call up Comcast and have them put your router into ‘bridge mode’ making it essentially an expensive modem, then connect your own router.
Terrifying
I am so sorry. Comcast is truly a scourge
This is why i stopped using an ISP router… And went eiht pfsense. Last time i tried to change a port forward my wifi went out for a whole week before they even answered. I gave u at that point. They think you’re absolutely brain dead, they treat you like you’re absolutely brain dead. And they themselves are absolutely brain dead. I had enough. So I’ve installed my own shit and i haven’t had an outage since then. Surprise surprise?
So you baited everyone with a Rotten Tomatoes title just to bitch about your Comcast Router?
This guy is not the OP.
deleted by creator