The Joys of Comcast Pt.2

In the Joys of Comcast part 1, I shared my story of how Comcast has opened up what could be the biggest security hole since heartbleed, at least as far as the average consumer is listed. They have mandated a unencrypted wifi network be broadcast from every router in their customer network. They offer no way to turn this network off, and will even flat out refuse to when asked to. I've since set up my own WiFi network on separate devices, and now seek to end this xfinitywifi network for good.

The idea is to build a faraday cage, which is a device used to isolate electromagnetic fields and insulate them from the outside world. A realatively simple device, the faraday cage is a cage or box made of a conductive material. Through the magic of physics, this creates a force field of sorts for electromagnetic radiation(aka WiFi).

I set out to build one, heres the how to so you can do it to!

First you will need to take some measurements of your router. You will need at least the size of the surface area(plus a bit of overlap) of the router in conductive mesh. This is something between chicken wire and large screen.... realistically the smaller the holes the better (as you will see ahead).

You will need something to ground the entire cage with. I used an electrostatic bracelet for working on computers. you can use a piece of wire and connectors, or whatever you want.

NOTE: THIS GROUND WIRE WILL BE PLUGGED INTO THE WALL. YOU ONLY PLUG THIS WIRE INTO THE ROUND HOLE ON THE BOTTOM (US 120V). IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO USE A MULTIMETER AND CHECK THAT THIS IS PROPERLY GROUNDED, DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THIS MOD. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INJURY OR DAMAGES THAT COME FROM FOLLOWING THIS POST. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS

You will need some tape... I used gaffer tape, but it wasn't a great choice. Duct tape, packing tape, or electrical tape will all probably work better. The tape ended up being more to protect the aluminum foil.

You will also need some aluminum foil. A few feet should do, but more probably wont hurt.

At this point, its pretty much up to you and your creativity. Wrap the Gateway completely in aluminum foil, then in your mesh cage, and finally make sure the mesh cage is grounded. There needs to be no holes anywhere in the enclosure, so get creative around the chords at the back. Heres some results:

This was my baseline reading. As you can see, the network xfinitywifi has the same strength as HouseLANister, which is my home network. This was with no modification.

 Then I added the mesh cage, and grounded it. While there was a definite drop in signal strength, it was not enough to make me happy.

Enter aluminum foil: Again, a signal drop, but not quite enough.

So what do we do? Combine them of course. 

 And finally, a screenshot from the mailbox.... While the network is still there, its got significantly less signal strength. I think I'll likely redo this again, but with finer mesh, and instead of wrapping the router, I think I'll build a box and set it inside. This shows some potential as a proof of concept, but definitely needs refinement in order to work 100%.

The Joys of Comcast... a 2 part blog post?

Today I'm here to write of the joys of being a subscriber to Comcast... Which I guess is technically known as Xfinity now, however I refuse to accept their rebranding until I see a difference in service quality.

This incident started last monday, when my roommate sent me a text that said "we are at our data limit for the month...may want to cut back on the downloading." I laughed, as I keep careful track of the downloads in our house, and told him we'd check it out when we both get home. Upon my arrival back home, I found 4 notices in the mailbox, addressed to my same roommate. These notices were DMCA violation notices. While there is no action placed behind these, they were quite disturbing for a few reasons. First, no one in the house had watched any of the content we were being accused of downloading. Two, it was a bit too coincidental that we get these notices on the same day we hit our bandwidth cap (which we had never before done in a month, much less a half month, which is where we were at in the billing cycle when this all happened). And third, was that we received four notices at once. We had never received any notices before, and this was just too fishy.

After a bit of snooping around, I discovered an unencrypted network called xfinitywifi being broadcast from our router. After thoroughly searching through the settings, and googling extensively, I came to the conclusion that this was a part of Comcast's new initiative, WiFi everywhere. The idea is that Comcast customers will have access to broadband wifi almost anywhere based on the existing customer architecture. Unfortunately this came at a cost to the original subscriber. Not only is their bandwidth affected by any activity on the xfinitywifi network, but any data used over it counts against the monthly bandwidth cap. While Comcast denies that use of the xfinitywifi network counts against the consumers monthly bandwidth limit, they publicly state elsewhere that all traffic through gateway is counted towards the limit.

Furthermore, upon connecting to this unencrypted wifi network, I am allowed full network access to my homes private wifi network. This network exists inside the firewall, creating a massive security vulnerability for all Comcast users. This was a change that was rolled out nationally in a firmware update for the router. This update was installed automatically, and without an opt in. When you call Comcast asking them to politely turn the network off, they tell you they cant, or that they wont, as it supports the community.


I would have to take matters into my own hands.
Find out how in the second part of this post...coming later today

21st Sentry Productions

I was actually inspired to create this during the last class, while we were watching the Remix Manifesto, I saw something that brought this to mind. I quickly photoshopped it together, and ended up loving the result. The original was a stencil on the wall in front of the camera boldly exclaiming "What are you looking at?" My idea remixes this concept, as well as 21st Century Fox productions, and with a quick play on words, we have a clever name that reflects film, the current time, and the world we live in. As I'm in the process of preparing to film my first web series, I found it fitting to use this name as the production company behind it all. There will likely be tweaks to the logo, but I love the idea of the remix, and it worked out better than I thought it would.

$29,934,623,383 - Cost of the War in Iraq? Wrong. Cost of the war on drugs.

How much does the drug war cost American taxpayers?$40 billion+ /yr. What competes with the drug war for budget money? Education. By the government's standards, are we winning the drug war? No. illicit drugs are cheaper and purer than they were two decades ago, and still readily available.Who really profits from drug prohibition?Organized Crime

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iPhone vs. Blackjack [Pic]

In Apple/MS commercial style. A good comparison of 2 high end smartphones,

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15 things no man wants to hear... from a woman

1 Any stories about ex-boyfriends, even ones told against the poor blokes. If your ex was a violent, brainless, tattooed ex-con, this will only make us feel boring and unmanly. And scared.

2 The phrase 'I'd say it's bang-on average, if not slightly bigger'. Best to steer clear of the size issue. Like us talking about your weight, it can only lead to misunderstanding and hurt.

3 Obsessive accounts of your diet and exercise regime. Men like skinny women, true. But they dislike being exposed to the borderline eating disorders and pathological obsessiveness that produce them. And curvy and sane always beats mad and thin. Eventually.

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4 The accusing phrase, 'What's wrong with the blue dress, then?' after we have said we like the red one.

5 Any details of your day at work. Although men can find the most basic things endlessly fascinating - the number of buttons on their shirts, farting - they will suddenly develop ADD when it comes to your professional life. Unless you are a porn actress. No, actually, even then...

6 Any information about things you thought about buying. We are perfectly happy to admire actual purchases, but yearning for those phantom shoes/dress/bag exasperates us.

7 Stories about other men patronising you. This will give us an irresistible urge to ruffle your hair and say in a kids-TV voice, 'Awww, did dey? Did dey do dat to oo?' I know, sometimes we're asking for trouble.

8 The word 'Fine' as a stand-alone sentence. The scariest syllable in the female vocabulary.

9 The sound of weeping. It destroys us.

10 Any details of strife you may be having with your female friends. The endless round of hurt and rapprochement that constitutes girls' friendships mystifies us. If she's that much trouble just delete her from your bloody mobile.

11 The phrase, 'Hang on, I'll just reply to this text before we order'. We want first claim on your attention, woman.

12 The phrase, 'Can you turn over, you're snoring'. Great, that's both of us awake.

13 The words 'Am I special? Am I?' Especially if you are drawing a circle around our nipple with your finger at the time.

14 Anyone else's name, in your sleep.

15 Your dreams. Unless we're in them. And in a good light, too. If not, save 'em for the shrink.


Mick Hunter
Sunday April 9, 2006
The Observer

Good news: Verizon stores open today!

Verizon actually sent out a press release to let everyone know that their stores will be open "all day" today -- and what's more, you'll be able to purchase and take home any of its 18 offered music phones! We guess we have to hand it to these guys for making an effort to draw some attention to themselves on iDay, though. Wait -- no we don't.

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