Xfinity App Needed for PC

I know I'm late to the party on complaining about this, but I recently had to forward some ports and the process was so incredibly ridiculous having to use a mobile app to manage the modem on my home network. I refuse to download your app or use my phone for these purposes.

I'm not sure what kind of "next-gen" lunacy corrupted your minds to believe that forcing users to purchase a mobile device to manage their gateway makes any sense at all. You've effectively abandoned any sense of security, efficiency, and adherence to legacy processes just to force users to purchase a mobile device (probably hoping that they will buy one of yours), and download your app to manage devices that are likely already on PC. Better not lose your phone, I guess! I suppose if it gets stolen, good luck to you.

Further, I've noticed over the years that you've been sequentially removing workarounds or existing processes such as simply accessing the gateway from your browser (10.0.0.1) or attempting to manage it from your existing website infrastructure, such as xfinity.com . You had also abandoned Norton years ago, claiming that "xFI" does it all, which is a blatant lie. xFI is not a replacement for an Antivirus solution. Essentially, this forced users to either buy a separate subscription on their own, or simply use Windows Security. Another business decision that forces costs back onto the customer.

You're not going to be able to stop every workaround. Even if you force people to use a mobile app, it's still possible to use an emulator from your PC regardless. "Mobile everything" is not the future for professional IT infrastructure. Sacrificing everything for mobile convenience is not a rational tradeoff. I hope that whoever proposed this as an idea is removed from your company and/or isolated from making any impactful decisions again. Whoever told this to you is incompetent and does not likely have any professional IT or networking experience whatsoever.

Here are my recommendations:

1. You need to immediately reinstate all features to gateway management through the user's browser (10.0.0.1). Then you can remove the pointless message popup that says "To manage your gateway settings and other features, please download the Xfinity xFi app.".

2. You need to develop and make available a Modem/Gateway management application that will work on Windows PC devices. DO NOT restrict access to certain features. All management options should be equivalent or superior to what is currently found within the mobile app.

3. Offer up another Antivirus solution as part of your service or renegotiate your contract with Norton. "xFI" is not a comprehensive Antivirus solution.

I doubt you will actually do any of this, but I thought I would at least put this out there on the record for anyone having similar concerns over the years. I've been a customer of Comcast/Xfinity for probably over 27 years now, so I can't say I'm surprised by some of your decision making. You've improved substantially over the years, but sometimes you go completely down the wrong path even while everyone is shouting at you to turn around.