Despite previously making it incredibly difficult to opt-out of xfinitywifi to begin with, they've apparently secretly turned on this feature to customers who have already opted-out!
A bit of background, I had my gateway set to bridge-mode from the day of install & at no point was my WiFi light ever on (model Arris TG862). As of a week ago, I noticed that I had a very strong signal to xfinitywifi at my apartment, which I assumed was my neighbor's. I tested the theory by checking signal strength while pulling the power to my gateway only to find it went from 'excellent' (all-bars) strength to 'poor' (1-bar), indicating that my gateway had secretly become their hotspot in the last few weeks. My guess is that Comcast enabled this for everyone (at least in my area) recently--even those of us in bridge mode--to pad the marketing numbers of "their" nationwide xfinitywifi network. In fact, the first person I spoke with at Comcast internet support (who admittedly didn't seem too intelligent) said "just because the gateway is in bridge mode doesn't mean that xfinitywifi can't be working."
Before I even called Comcast though, I tried to follow the instructions previosuly given to us by Comcast to turn it off earlier this year (when the xfinitywifi network was turned on), except the option to disable wifi is no longer on my account page, contrary to the FAQ (»wifi.comcast.com/faqs.html) page. On that page it says:
We encourage all subscribers to keep this feature enabled as it allows more people to enjoy the benefits of XFINITY WiFi, but you will always have the ability to disable the XFINITY WiFi feature on your Wireless Gateway. Visit My Account at »customer.comcast.com/, click on Users & Preferences and then select Manage XFINITY WiFi or call 1-800-XFINITY.
So again, my ability to turn WiFi off via the "Users & Preferences" page did not exist. Calling the 800 number and going to internet support gave me someone who only suggested trying to disable & re-enabe bridge mode (which didn't eliminate 'xfinitywifi'). He then suggested I (get this!) read up on the Comcast customer forums on their website as "there are constantly updates to the firmware in our modems and this is probably just an update that has an issue at the moment."
When I told him that wasn't acceptable, he transferred me to the WiFi department (who actually seemed to be both U.S. based & knowledgeable!) This rep empathized with me and admitted that although I have the WiFi set to 'off' and I have my gateway in bridge mode, he could apparently see that xfinitiywifi was active on my account. THIS DEPARTMENT SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY ONE ABLE TO DISABLE THE XFINITYWIFI ON GATEWAYS AT THE MOMENT. Their direct # is 855-308-9453 (I'm glad I asked the clueless tier 1 tech for it before being transferred) I can confirm that this person was able to ultimately able to fix the issue.
If it helps, my modem firmware is: 7.6.59S (having been reverted from 7.6.68H to 7.6.59S on the Arris TG862 a few week ago).
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