robbski's profile

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Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020 7:00 AM

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How many DEVICES are connected to your Xfi Advanced Gateway? Mine now only accepts 60!

I've been fighting with Comcast and constant network issues since "upgrading" to Comcast's Xfi Advanced Gateway for over 3 months now. I never had a problem with my 75 devices connected to my top of the line Netgear router. As of the last 2 weeks, I just cannot connect important devices like Apple computers, iPhones, brand new tablets and Chromebooks, etc... Comcast replaced the gateway yesterday, and the problems are still there. With a master's degree in computer science, I know what heck I'm doing when it comes to networks. Looks like I'm going back to what was working before. Just need to upgrade to a 3.1 DOCSIS modem. Is anyone else successfully able to keep 70+ devices connected to their gateway? Mine USED to for about a month. My last shot is to split the networks to 2.4 & 5, but I know Comcast really frowns on that. I'm tired of trying to explain everything I've tried for the last 3 months to tier 1 & 2 tech support. They have ZERO clue as to what the problem is. Firmware updates? Who knows. 

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25.9K Messages

4 years ago

What are you using, the top of the line Netgear router or a Comcast Gateway? You mentioned both

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4 Messages

4 years ago

I WAS using a Netgear Nighthawk R7000. (top of the line a few years ago, but NEVER had a problem with running separate networks) I'm currently using Comcast's Xfi advanced gateway. It was great when it worked properly. I finally discovered last night that about 60 connected devices is now about the limit. I had 5 different devices (MacBook Pro, 5K iMac, Sony SmartTV, iPad Pro, and a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+) that would NOT connect to my network last night. I disconnected about 5 other devices (tablets and phones) and THEN those devices successfully connected. I'm sick and tired of power cycling this gateway every day. That's a temporay fix that only lasts a couple hours.

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2K Messages

4 years ago

Using the XB6 (TG3482G) here.  Are all of those 70 devices on WiFi? 

 

I have about only half that on my LAN and I've never had more than 5 on WiFI at any time, because of issues with WiFi congestion.  I'm surprised your old router was able to maintain an active connection to all those devices at once without dropping any, since WiFi routers will drop unused connections to save bandwidth. 

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1 Message

4 years ago

pardon me but did you ever solve the problem?  My situation is much the same as yours was/is.  I upgraded to xb6 and now the xifinity people say that i have too many devices attached (36) and this has never been an issue before the "upgrade".  Thanks

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4 Messages

4 years ago

Spoiler
 

4 months later, and I'm still pretty much in the same boat. I've been researching WiFi 6 routers, but still can't decide what to get. The new Comcast router is pathetically WORSE than the current "advanced gateway", so I'm steering clear of that. I currently have 30 devices connected to my 2.4GHz network, and 27 devices connected to my 5GHz network, along with my Vonage and Roku connected via Ethernet. I do have a Netgear Extender connected which allows me to exceed the 60 device limit, but it isn't great. I've got a few things connected to that, so in total, I've got about 62 devices that are always connected to my network. I just added 2 more IP cameras today, so I had to part with 2 other devices (an Echo Dot and a smart plug) to free up space. I'm hoping I can get a straight answer from the manufacturers of some of the new WiFi 6 routers hitting the market right now, since they claim MORE devices, and more speed. So basically, I'm still stuck with having to take things off of my networks if I want to use/add something. I hate it, along with my sheer hatred for you know who, but it's my only option right now in terms of speed and reliability from a connection standpoint. I've completely given up on their customer service department, too. It's an absolute JOKE.

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1 Message

4 years ago

I have somewhat similar issue, but it might help. I just talked to a comcast tech rep. She told me that although the router connects to many devices, say 30, the actual Data connection is limited to 11 devices. If you upgrade to 600Mbps package it goes up to 15 simultaneous data connection capacity. This limit is not a hardware limit, comcast package limit for 300 Mbps. So my issue was random devices were kicked out of internet for 30 seconds, looking like the internet cuts out. But in reality only the device is disconnected for a short amount of time... I still can’t quite believe it is only 11 devices though, it just doesn’t sound right...

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1 Message

3 years ago

Where you able to solve this? I’m making my house smart and got many new devices that use low bandwidth (smart switches, plugs, rings, locks, etc), and last week it just started dropping many connections, including my wife’s phone that she uses for work. I really need to find a fix!

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1 Message

3 years ago

Did you get this problem solved?  

Fellow Computer Science and Engineering degree holder here!  :-)

I think I have a solution that should work 100%.  The following is my setup.  It supports an unlimited number of devices.  

  1. Put the piece of junk comcast gives you into bridge mode.  I am continuously under-impressed with the modems from all cable companies. I used to help businesses setup Internet on Comcast, Cablevision, Charter, and Cox (we have all four in Connecticut) and all their modems are pretty poor.  They have memory leaks that need a reboot every x number of months.  They intercept DNS queries, which triggers a bug and make them reboot, etc.
  2. If your Comcast cable modem doesn’t support bridge mode, try purchasing a completely dumb cable modem on Amazon. You don’t need routing or NAT or wireless or anything, just a cheap modem.  Something like a NetGear CM700 will do great.  It’s already configured to do bridge mode because that’s ALL it does.  There’s nothing to configure.  There’s no web interface or anything.  The MTTF should be fanatic because it does one and one thing only.
  3. Use your Nighthawk R7000 as your router/NAT/wireless device, which is exactly what the manufacture intended to happen. Now you have full control over everything, and Comcast can’t impose any limits.  All your traffic will look to Comcast like it is coming from one IP address.  They won’t know if you have 5 devices at your house or 10,000. 
  4. I guess it’s possible that the R7000 has its own internal limitations. No problem.  Just buy a better piece of gear.  I’m a network architect so I like playing with crazy configs.  I use a Cisco 3825 router which is $75 on ebay.  But you’ll have to be a Cisco nerd to get it configured.  I recommend most people just get a good router/wireless device from NetGear or Linksys or whatever.

 

Hope that helps.  Good luck.

 

--Dan

 

 

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103.5K Messages

3 years ago

Thanks for your contribution. 20-month-old dead thread now being closed.

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