Yes, we’re talking about the modem you rent for $13 a month. Xfinity is using your modem to give everyone, including those that aren’t Xfinity customers, Wi-Fi access through more than eight million hotspots. But before you get table-flipping mad, let’s talk about how Xfinity Wi-Fi internet on the go works, how you can turn it off, and what to do if it’s not working. After all, more Wi-Fi could be a good thing, right? Xfinity stresses that the hotspots are entirely separate from your home Wi-Fi network. That means your personal data allowance shouldn’t get used up, and your internet speed shouldn’t slow down if someone logs into your hotspot. Some people remain skeptical about this, though, and we can’t say we blame them. So jump ahead if you want to know how to turn off your modem’s Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspot. However, Xfinity mobile and Xfinity internet customers with a Performance plan or above get access to the Wi-Fi hotspots for free. If you need Wi-Fi and an Xfinity hotspot is available, you don’t need to exchange passwords to get your Xfinity internet on the go—you’ll use your own Xfinity account info to sign in. Sign in to your Xfinity account and take a look at a PDF of your billing statement. You should find your plan name on page three. Ah, yes, the “Performa-Gig-Ultra-High-Speed-Blastoff” plan. We remember now. Here’s where to download the Xfinity WiFi Hotspots app
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Here’s how to turn off your Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspot: What if you don’t see a place to switch your home hotspot on or off? More than likely, your modem doesn’t support the home hotspot feature. That also means it’s not sharing a hotspot to the public, so rest easy. The answer could be as simple as remembering that you recently set up your new Xfinity Wi-Fi modem, which takes up to 24 hours to start broadcasting that hotspot signal. But if you suspect user error or something else, here’s what to do if your Xfinity hotspot is giving you trouble: But wait! What if your Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspot is working too well, and your wireless devices always connect to it instead of your home network? Well, you can always manually select your home network any time your device automatically connects to the xfinitywifi hotspot. But if you want to learn how to make your device prioritize your home network over the hotspot network, we recommend checking out Xfinity’s connection guides for various Mac and PC devices. To address the issue of slower Wi-Fi speeds, Xfinity says it has optimized its Wi-Fi “to support robust usage.”1 But heads up: a 2018 test by Speedify, a VPN company, shows that enabling Xfinity Wi-Fi hotspots may bump up your electric bill.2 This is because broadcasting the hotspot signal puts additional stress on your modem. However, Xfinity does say that, in the future, they might use general indicators of Xfinity Wi-Fi home hotspot availability around a neighborhood, but only in a manner that assures the privacy of our customers.” So it may be worth keeping an eye on what kind of information is shared through the hotspot location app and map if this is something that concerns you.
