Joined Nov 2006
L10: Grand Master
Forum Thread
Spectrum Router Is Really Intrusive
October 15, 2018 at
10:00 PM
I recently replaced my own modem and router with ones that Spectrum provided, the modem so I could take full advantage of my 200/10 plan's speeds, the router to hopefully fix some internet issues we'd been having as my router was kind of old. Turned out to not be the router (signal issues upstream), but I kept the router installed. But then I found out some weird capabilities it has.
For one thing, when you change its default browser-based admin pages ID and password, and set your WiFi SSIDs and passwords, turns out that these are all accessible by Spectrum remotely. I found this out when I logged into my Spectrum account and saw them in plain text in my browser!
And almost as bad, when I was on the phone with a tech tonight, she was able to see all the devices on my home network, including type of device, their names, how they were connected to the router, etc. I bet they could also see their MAC addresses. That just seemed weird.
Why should they be able or need to see what's on my network? That's none of their business. They're supposed to connect me to the internet, period. Even worse, why can they see my my WiFi SSIDs and passwords? Why are they even able to see these?
I assume that this is all enabled by their router, so I'm switching back to my own, reliable router, even though it's several years old and not up to the latest standards. Since it turned out that the router wasn't what was causing the outages, I should be ok in going back to it.
Anyone else see this with their Spectrum or other ISP-supplied router, and am I being too paranoid?
For one thing, when you change its default browser-based admin pages ID and password, and set your WiFi SSIDs and passwords, turns out that these are all accessible by Spectrum remotely. I found this out when I logged into my Spectrum account and saw them in plain text in my browser!
And almost as bad, when I was on the phone with a tech tonight, she was able to see all the devices on my home network, including type of device, their names, how they were connected to the router, etc. I bet they could also see their MAC addresses. That just seemed weird.
Why should they be able or need to see what's on my network? That's none of their business. They're supposed to connect me to the internet, period. Even worse, why can they see my my WiFi SSIDs and passwords? Why are they even able to see these?
I assume that this is all enabled by their router, so I'm switching back to my own, reliable router, even though it's several years old and not up to the latest standards. Since it turned out that the router wasn't what was causing the outages, I should be ok in going back to it.
Anyone else see this with their Spectrum or other ISP-supplied router, and am I being too paranoid?
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For one thing, when you change its default browser-based admin pages ID and password, and set your WiFi SSIDs and passwords, turns out that these are all accessible by Spectrum remotely. I found this out when I logged into my Spectrum account and saw them in plain text in my browser!
And almost as bad, when I was on the phone with a tech tonight, she was able to see all the devices on my home network, including type of device, their names, how they were connected to the router, etc. I bet they could also see their MAC addresses. That just seemed weird.
Why should they be able or need to see what's on my network? That's none of their business. They're supposed to connect me to the internet, period. Even worse, why can they see my my WiFi SSIDs and passwords? Why are they even able to see these?
I assume that this is all enabled by their router, so I'm switching back to my own, reliable router, even though it's several years old and not up to the latest standards. Since it turned out that the router wasn't what was causing the outages, I should be ok in going back to it.
Anyone else see this with their Spectrum or other ISP-supplied router, and am I being too paranoid?
You might want to repost this in The Tech section, I am sure people there would appreciate the info.
You might want to repost this in The Tech section, I am sure people there would appreciate the info.
Not buying it but figuring it was worth trying, as my router was kind of old, I installed their router. But even with their router, the problems came back. But the tech keep blaming the router, the latest one saying that I had too many devices on the 2.4Ghz band (which she kept referriing to as the 2G network, initially confusing me).
This didn't sound right, as I actually have 2 routers, the main one connected to the modem, and a wired extender in another room, and devices balance out in which router they connect to. Plus I've had this setup for months now without a problem, and most of our devices are low-traffic, e.g. WiFi switches or Home Minis.
From what I understand any decent modern router of say 600 or higher should be able to handle 5 or 6 devices at once at the very least, provided that they're not all streaming at high speeds at once, which they aren't in our home network. Our high data usage devices are 2 Fire Sticks, a Roku, a PC, and a laptop, but there's rarely a case where more than 2 are in use at the same time.
So, not only are they able to spy on your network, they're giving bad tech advice.
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And watch out for your sewage, too. They're sampling that to see what drugs you're on.
Flashbacks to your last pelvic exam, MLV?
And watch out for your sewage, too. They're sampling that to see what drugs you're on.
For one thing, when you change its default browser-based admin pages ID and password, and set your WiFi SSIDs and passwords, turns out that these are all accessible by Spectrum remotely. I found this out when I logged into my Spectrum account and saw them in plain text in my browser!
And almost as bad, when I was on the phone with a tech tonight, she was able to see all the devices on my home network, including type of device, their names, how they were connected to the router, etc. I bet they could also see their MAC addresses. That just seemed weird.
Why should they be able or need to see what's on my network? That's none of their business. They're supposed to connect me to the internet, period. Even worse, why can they see my my WiFi SSIDs and passwords? Why are they even able to see these?
I assume that this is all enabled by their router, so I'm switching back to my own, reliable router, even though it's several years old and not up to the latest standards. Since it turned out that the router wasn't what was causing the outages, I should be ok in going back to it.
Anyone else see this with their Spectrum or other ISP-supplied router, and am I being too paranoid?
I solved it by putting my own router between their router and my devices. So it goes:
-----Their Modem - Their Router - My Router - My devices
FYI - They still see your internet traffic unless you set up a VPN.
Also, if they offer you an upgrade to the "combination modem/router" you might want to decline or do some research before accepting. It is technically difficult to stick your own router in since they combine the set top boxes with remote access points. You are also limited to only using their boxes for any cable based services (for example, using a TIVO and a cablecard is not possible).