C

Tuesday, February 4th, 2025 11:03 PM

XB7 - Can't make changes in app, not broadcasting 5Ghz band

This all started when I upgraded to Xfinity Complete with the battery backup option. I already had an XB7 at home, but I figured I would see if the "new" one had updated firmware, which it did not. I have had my current one for at least 2 years and it has firmware 7.9, whereas the "new" one has 7.6. Why are modems shipping with outdated firmware? Anyway, not the point. I didn't want to go backward on the firmware, so I reactivated my original modem, which is where all the problems started.

Before all this, I had both my 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands broadcasting separate SSIDs with no issue. After reactivating it, I only had the 2.4Ghz band. I checked the Xfinity app and both bands indicate they are broadcasting, but no device sees the 5Ghz band, nor am I able to connect to it if I manually configure the connection on the device. I attempted to login to the admin page via 10.0.0.1, but I forgot the password. At this time, I performed a "factory reset" on the modem, that only halfway worked. It reset the user/password and I was able to login, but all of the network settings remained the same. After I was able to login, I checked the Wifi setup and noted that both the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands now had the same SSID, with "2.4" appended to the end of the name. They were also both showing up on my devices at that point, but that doesn't matter because with identical SSIDs, you can't discern between the bands. I double checked in the Xfinity app, and it showed that they were both active, but still showed separate SSIDs. Also of note, is that the app showed the encryption type as "unknown" but in the admin page, it was WPA3. The app only has one option in the encryption dropdown, and that's WPA3. I tried multiple times to make changes via the app, and every time it gave me a generic "something went wrong" error and would not change any of the settings. I did note that the support page for the XB7 says that the bands are now managed automatically.

I believe what this boils down to is that when I received my original modem a couple of years ago, I was able to do setup via the admin page. Now that the features I setup are no longer an option via app configuration, the modem is basically bricked. I was going to ask about an upgrade to the XB8, however that one has also been dumbed down significantly, and setup options are severely limited. It's looking like I will need to buy my own equipment if I want to have separate bands again. Could I get this confirmed by a rep?

Gold Problem Solver

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26.2K Messages

11 hours ago

Direct Messaging does not become available until you have made your first post. You should be able to see it now as long as you are logged in to a forums.xfinity.com page (you may need to reload the page after posting). Please be aware that using Direct Messaging before you have been asked to do so is considered a violation of the Forum Guidelines and Acceptable Use Policy. See https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/guidelines/xfinity-forum-guidelines/602da8fdc5375f08cd20b38c and https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/guidelines/xfinity-forum-acceptable-use-policy/602d9c64c5375f08cd574236.

You are encouraged to first post a description of your question or problem in the appropriate Forum topic section without including any personal information. If personal information is needed you'll be asked to provide it in a private Direct Message.

Please be aware that there are 2 kinds of responses in this Forum: Replies and Comments. When you Comment on a post by scrolling down to "Comment on this post here...", I am notified of your response. But if you select Reply, I am NOT notified and may not be aware of your response.

Of course it would be considered breaking the rules for customers to use DMs to seek resolution to problems with the service they pay hundreds of dollars a month for. That seems perfectly reasonable.

Official Employee

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1.9K Messages

Thank you for reaching out to us @corpse_collector! One goal of our forums is to potentially help other forums users by remaining as public as possible on our community forums. This can help is situations where we find publicly find the solution for an internet technical concern than another customer may also be experiencing.

 

Of course, we also understand there are some concerns that can only be resolved over direct message such as billing concerns that require personal information to locate and authenticate the account. While those concerns may require direct messaging, it still helps others know our team can address those needs.

 

In some cases, there are concerns that require the assistance from other teams such as security or fraud concerns requiring our Customer Security Assurance team or NOW Internet inquiries that need the assistance of our NOW Internet team.


Could you please tell us more about your concern?

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

10 hours ago

This all started when I upgraded to Xfinity Complete with the battery backup option. I already had an XB7 at home, but I figured I would see if the "new" one had updated firmware, which it did not. I have had my current one for at least 2 years and it has firmware 7.9, whereas the "new" one has 7.6. Why are modems shipping with outdated firmware? Anyway, not the point. I didn't want to go backward on the firmware, so I reactivated my original modem, which is where all the problems started.

Before all this, I had both my 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands broadcasting separate SSIDs with no issue. After reactivating it, I only had the 2.4Ghz band. I checked the Xfinity app and both bands indicate they are broadcasting, but no device sees the 5Ghz band, nor am I able to connect to it if I manually configure the connection on the device. I attempted to login to the admin page via 10.0.0.1, but I forgot the password. At this time, I performed a "factory reset" on the modem, that only halfway worked. It reset the user/password and I was able to login, but all of the network settings remained the same. After I was able to login, I checked the Wifi setup and noted that both the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands now had the same SSID, with "2.4" appended to the end of the name. They were also both showing up on my devices at that point, but that doesn't matter because with identical SSIDs, you can't discern between the bands. I double checked in the Xfinity app, and it showed that they were both active, but still showed separate SSIDs. Also of note, is that the app showed the encryption type as "unknown" but in the admin page, it was WPA3. The app only has one option in the encryption dropdown, and that's WPA3. I tried multiple times to make changes via the app, and every time it gave me a generic "something went wrong" error and would not change any of the settings. I did note that the support page for the XB7 says that the bands are now managed automatically.

I believe what this boils down to is that when I received my original modem a couple of years ago, I was able to do setup via the admin page. Now that the features I setup are no longer an option via app configuration, the modem is basically bricked. I was going to ask about an upgrade to the XB8, however that one has also been dumbed down significantly, and setup options are severely limited. It's looking like I will need to buy my own equipment if I want to have separate bands again. Could I get this confirmed by a rep?

Note: This comment was created from a merged conversation originally titled XB7 - Can't make changes in app, not broadcasting 5Ghz band

Not sure why it was decided to merge my technical question about my modem with a completely different question about DMs not working, but if anyone is wondering why the replies about DMs above don't seem to match up to the topic, that's why.

Official Employee

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1.9K Messages

In addition to our forums guidelines asking users to not send unsolicited direct messages, we also ask users to avoid spamming or creating duplicate posts @corpse_collector.

 

Thank you for clarifying what is going on. Our xFi Advanced Gateways such as the XB6, XB7, and the XB8 require using the Xfinity app. The bands can be separated in the Xfinity app. In the Xfinity app:

  1. The first page that opens should be the "Overview" page.
  2. Towards the bottom of the page there should be a “WiFi” tab.
  3. Clicking on this tab will take us to a page showing the xFi Wireless gateway.
  4. Towards the left side of this page there should be a “WiFi Details”.
  5. This should take us to a page to select a WiFi band.
  6. Clicking on the any of the bands should bring us to a page with a QR code with the option “Edit WiFi settings” towards the bottom.
  7. Clicking on “Edit WiFi Settings” will bring us to a page with your WiFi network name and password.
  8. On the bottom of this page we will want to select “Split bands (not recommended)”
  9. This option will allow you to create a unique wifi Network name for the 2.4 GHz and the 5.0 GHz WiFi networks.
  10. From here, we want to type different WiFi Names and WiFi Passwords for each band.
  11. Then Click Save at the very bottom.

 

Changing the home network’s WiFi channel selection or mode cannot be managed on xFi Advanced gateways (XB6 or newer) as mentioned in this article here.

 

If you’d like to purchase your own modem and have more access to features like changing the WiFi channel, we have this site here where you can compare compatible modems based on internet speed tiers.

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

I'm not spamming multiple posts. You closed my post in the Internet section and moved it to the Customer Service section under a post about Direct Messaging where it would get exactly zero engagement. What about that action makes you think that was the right choice? 

@XfinityAldrik

This is what my menu option shows. It's back to only broadcasting a single SSID now, the 2.4Ghz.

Official Employee

 • 

1.9K Messages

Thank you for sharing that screenshot @corpse_collector! Are both the network names and passwords different?

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

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