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James_R810
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Friday, June 9th, 2023 12:26 AM

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Storm ready wifi question

I got it today in the mail is this made to replace my current gateway or is it made to work with the gateway?

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2 years ago

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NoGoodNamesLeft4Me

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72 Messages

2 years ago

From what I can tell from the Storm-Ready WiFi FAQ page, it's made to work in conjunction with your existing router. I believe you would set up the wireless router on the Xfinity Storm-Ready WiFi to use the same network IDs and passwords you have on your existing Xfinity router. (That's assuming you changed them from the defaults. And you should change them from the defaults, IMO.) Using the Xfinity App on your cell phone as outlined in the Activate Xfinity Storm-Ready WiFi page to set up the Storm-Ready WiFi may do all the network setup for you.

When your existing router is powered and connected to the Internet, the Xfinity Storm-Ready WiFi acts like a wireless network extender. However, if your existing router loses power or connectivity to the Internet (e.g., the coax cable is cut or disconnected), then the Storm-Ready WiFi (which has a battery backup with it to keep it powered) should switch into "router" mode. It will connect to the Internet using a 4G LTE connection on the Xfinity Mobile network. That connection will often be slower than the normal connection via the coax (depending on your plan). However, it's infinitely faster than no connection. :)

(edited)

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James_R810

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2 years ago

Ok thank you! Seems like it would be easier to make one unit to do the job of all 3!

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NoGoodNamesLeft4Me

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@James_R810​ You could also buy a UPS and plug your existing Xfinity router (e.g., XB7 or XB8) into that. I'd have to look up the power requirements of those to say what size UPS you should get, but I'd bet even a small one would power the router for some time. That would handle short power outages (like < 20 minutes or so). The Storm-Ready WiFi battery backup is supposed to last up to four hours. I'm not sure if the Storm-Ready WiFi would try to take over the routing when it sensed it was on battery (and thereby conflict with the existing router running on a UPS) or only when it couldn't get to the Internet via the original router. I would guess the latter (so that conflicts are avoided as much as possible).

I have a separate cable modem and router setup and have each plugged into their own UPSs. I also have UPSs for all the switches between my router and my desktop machines that use wired Ethernet, as well as UPSs for the desktop machines. When I lose power, I have about a half hour to shut everything down. My outages are typically less than a minute, so I save whatever I'm doing and stand by for a few minutes to see if it is coming back. However, all the UPSs in the world won't fix the issue if the Internet goes out in the neighborhood for some reason other than a power outage, such as a cut cable or equipment failure somewhere upstream. The Storm-Ready WiFi would (or should) handle that - depending on how widespread the outage is. It sounds like a pretty neat backup plan.

2 years ago

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user_e71849

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@James_R810​ I agree. Xfinity is behind the times. Who uses a coax cable anymore????

2 years ago

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