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9 Messages
Connection issues following xFi Advantage gateway / gigabit upgrade
I've read through the various connection issue questions posted here, but there's nothing quite like the problem I'm experiencing. Last week, I upgraded from 300 Mbps Blast service on my client-owned Aaris modem to gigabit service using a new, xFinity supplied xFi Advanced gateway. Since activating the new gateway, I've experienced a whole host of problems. First, it will randomly lose connection. It has never stayed connected for more than about 36 hours without cutting off all internet and phone access at some point. The gateway has to be power cycled to fix this, but it does come back following reboot. Second, none of my Amazon Echo devices will connect to the xFi wifi. I tried both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands, and I even renamed the SSIDs and reset the passwords to match my previouls router thinking that would make the change seamless to the Echos, but they all refuse to connect to wifi, even after trying to use the Alexa app to reconnect or doing a factory reset on the Echo. And, finally, some websites do not load at all on some devices, either using a wired or wireless connection. For example, my son's MacBook Air will connect to Google and YouTube, but not Outlook.com to get his mail, with the results unchanged on wifi or wired connection. My phone is similar - sites like CNN.com are fine, but I can;t get to my Outlook email. But my son's Win 10 desktop computer and my own Win 10 laptop seem to have no problems, wither on wifi or wired. Very frustrated at this point. I even tried reconnecting my old router, a TP-Link Archer C3200, after putting the xFi gateway in bridge mode, but the router shows no internet connection on either of the xFi gateway ports. Extremely frustrated at this point, and tech support can only seem to offer resetting the gateway as a solution. Any ideas?
Ninjastryk
New Poster
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3 Messages
4 years ago
Literally just had a tech leave my house because my router (Netgear Nighthawk X6) was unable to connect to my Xfinity gateway (XB6) when it was put into bridge mode. The tech told me Comcast disabled 'bridge mode' on their XB3 and XB6 gateways because of issues it was causing on their network. This must've been about 4 or 5 weeks ago because that's when I started having issues.
A week prior, I spent an hour on the phone with a tier 2 tech who was putting the XB6 into bridge mode from their end and I was unable to connect to the internet with a computer directly connected to the XB6. Needless to say, they were unaware of the recent bridge mode change and scheduled a tech visit for today.
I will now buy my own modem so that I can get around this issue I am having.
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GoBucks2020
Frequent Visitor
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Interesting, Ninjastryk. I had also thought about purchasing my own DOCSIS 3.1 modem and using it to connect to my Archer C3200 router. Please do let me know if you do so and how it works out for you.
As for me, I spent about an hour on the phone with Comcast technical support last night trying to fix this issue. My problem was elevated to advanced support, who reprovisioned the modem and checked settings. I was able to connect 3 of my Amazon Echo devices while on the phone, had at least one computer that connected and was able to load pages that were previously unresponsive, and had a hardwire connection established to my Arlo hub that was previously not working, so I thought all was fixed. Upon hanging up and trying to connect the rest of my devices, though, I found this was not the case. No additional Echo devices can be added, my work laptop will not load web pages even though it reports that it is connected to wifi, and my Samsung SmartThings hub cannot connect to wifi. So I still have connection issues on the wired and wireliss sides. Going to place another call to support today. Running out of patience with this...
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GoBucks2020
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Another call to tech support yesterday. They now believe the modem is faulty and are going to send me a replacement. My hopes are high, but confidence still fairly low that things will work as they should. We'll see.
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GoBucks2020
Frequent Visitor
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Miraculously, things were working yesterday when I got home from work. No rhyme or reason, I just noticed that some sites that ahdn't been loading on my phone were actually loading, so I checked to see what else might be working. I managed to connect all my smart home devices to wifi, and my Arlo hub had connection on the wired side of things as well. Still pursuing the gateway replacement, though, as reliability of something that just happened to start working is still very suspect, in my opinion. So I followed up today to see why I hadn't received a ship notice for the new gateway. They didn't send it due to "some kind of error" according to the customer service person I was chatting with. Shocker! Really losing what little faith I had in customer service.
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Ninjastryk
New Poster
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3 Messages
4 years ago
Just ditched my Comcast gateway and am using my own basic cable modem. No connection issues with any of my devices now since the Comcast gateway stopped doing bridge mode 4-5 weeks ago.
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GoBucks2020
Frequent Visitor
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Good to know. Out f curiosity, what modem did you go with? And did you have to call to activate the modem? In one of my many calls to customer service, they told me you can only activate Xfinity owned equipment online, client owned equipment must be activated by calling. But I really don’t trust customer service to have any correct info at this point, so knowing what you did would be helpful.
I thought mygateway was fixed somehow, but reality smacked me today when my internet access shut down this morning out of the blue. Reset the gateway and I’m back to where I was before - some devices work fine, others refuse to connect. Really frustrating at this point. I just hope Xfinity actually gets me a new gateway this time. If not, I may try my own like you did.
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Ninjastryk
New Poster
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3 Messages
4 years ago
I bought a Netgear CM1000 DOCSIS 3.1 gigabit router (actually good for speeds as fast as 6 Gbps) because I wanted to have something that would be able to support gigabit if I were to ever upgrade to it. I looked for cheapest price online and BestBuy had it for $160 with free 1-day shipping. Only Comcast equipment can be activated online as if you were to buy their kit in a store and hook it up yourself. The best way to contact Comcast support is to go into the app on a smartphone or on the internet and "Request a callback" so that you actually speak to someone in the USA. It's too hard to understand everyone I've spoken with at a foreign call center.
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BruceW
Gold Problem Solver
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25.5K Messages
4 years ago
Online activation of approved 3rd party equipment should be available in many if not most Comcast service areas. It is in mine in South-Central PA.
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GoBucks2020
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Thanks for the info, Bruce. I was told by customer service in Activation that I could only do online activation with Xfinity owner equipment, it I really don’t have a lot of faith in what they tell,e at the call center. Pretty much everything else they have told me hasn’t been right...
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GoBucks2020
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Thanks for the info , Ninjastryk - I’ll keep that one in mind should I have to get one myself. Still waiting for Xfinity to supply me with a replacement that works before I go that route, though.
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GoBucks2020
Frequent Visitor
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Finally received a replacement gateway yesterday. It took five separate orders before Xfinity finally sent me one. Installed and activated yesterday afternoon and everything seems to be working. Now I just need to monitor things for a bit to make sure it's stable.
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GoBucks2020
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9 Messages
4 years ago
Now that I have a working xFi Advantage gateway, I’m using the router that’s built into it. My router, which would not work with the bad Xfinity equipment, was a TP-Link Archer C3200. I may try going back to it at some point, but everything seems stable for now, so no need to experiment.
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Annieb2
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1 Message
4 years ago
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Natrat71
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1 Message
4 years ago
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user_c8751e
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1 Message
3 years ago
On a similar boat here. Months now of poor internet service and it all started when we upgraded plans to the 1G and got (rented) their new “advance” Gateway. We keep getting disconnected sometimes to an alarming rate of 5 or 6 times during the hour. Comcast has been good to give us a small discount here and there on our monthly but they haven’t been able to fix the problem. Last time one of their technicians was here they blamed the problem on our PS4 saying “it was attacking the Gateway” and consequently causing the interruptions. A week has past now since the console has been off (and disconnected) and there’s been no improvement. After speaking again with customer service, they will be sending another tech next week to look into things again.
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