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by ascagnel_ 3868 days ago
In the case of cable internet service (not fiber), you'll almost never get a standard Ethernet socket. Chances are, you'll get a coaxial connection that requires a device to bridge the connectors and perform a handshake with your upstream provider.

Of course, most consumers go with whatever hardware their provider gives them (usually a gateway to provide Wifi). This presents it's own problem: in the US, cable companies are trying to set up mesh networks/guest access, and so those gateways may be running a second semi-public as a node on the mesh.
1 comments
drbawb 3868 days ago
We just got new tenants in our (commercial) building. I'm honestly a bit upset as there are now _four_ new access points for a single tenant.

"TWC WiFi", and "CableWifi", both unsecured (!!!), and then "TWC WiFi Passpoint" (which requires a TWC subscription to use.)

I sure wish people wouldn't blindly trust the cable technician to configure their wireless network properly. Now there's just tons of RF noise, and people can leech bandwidth off our building. -- I frankly find it ridiculous, given the premium we pay for commercial internet (which is slower than my residential subscription), that we are expected to share it with their "mesh network."

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wtallis 3868 days ago
Aren't those SSIDs all on the same WiFi channel? Having split guest/internal networks broadcast from the same radio on the same channel really doesn't hurt things enough to care about. And it's almost certainly using separate DOCSIS channels or not counting toward the traffic shaping limit on your traffic, and it's prioritized lower than your business-class traffic when it's further upstream in TWC's network, so you don't need to worry about it affecting your WAN connection performance either.
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uxp 3868 days ago
The fact that the telco/cableco broadcasts a public or subscriber wifi off an installed business class service line is more WTF than potentially misconfigured broadcast channels. This is partially why I bought a SB6141 for my home. It has no radio. Maybe I need to go shave my neck, but I'd rather have a device that does one thing well than one thing that tries to do everything adequately.
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wtallis 3868 days ago
Given that the business is merely renting the modem/router/AP device from the ISP, the only theoretical downside to the business is the extra electricity used by that functionality. And for quite a few businesses, the zero-effort zero-liability hotspot for customers is a pretty big upside.

If you want thorough control over your network, then of course you won't rent a modem from the ISP and you'll install a separate router of your choice and decide for yourself whether to operate a hotspot. But for the majority of customers, none of that is worth thinking about and the ISPs are actually providing sensible defaults.

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