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I have an IPhone 6. It worked flawlessly until just recently, when I first encountered an XFINITY Wi-Fi hotspot.
Here's the scenario:
I have a typical IPhone 6 with wi-fi enabled as a part of the initial set up. I guess when I'm at home it uses the wi-fi for data retrieval rather than my phone's data plan.
Anyway, one of the bars I sometimes frequent has now installed an XFINITY hotspot. I sometimes look up things on the internet when sitting at the bar, talking. And usually, the phone will connect to the Internet via my phone's data plan, which is no big deal because I don't use much data anyway.
Well, now that the bar has XFINITY, when I open my browser a very intrusive XFINITY screen appears automatically. There's no way around it. It just assaults me. At that time, I have two choices. "Join XFINITY" or "Use another network." There's no "go away and leave me alone" option. Anyway, I get tired of fooling with it and quit trying to use the internet on the phone. And I guess, that is where the trouble starts.
After that, my phone's battery will drain to zero in less than 24 hours. And apparently, the only way to fix it is to do a hard reset of the phone. That works, but I just did my second hard reset in three days. From now on, I guess I'll just leave the wi-fi turned off. That might cost me money, but what other choice do I have? In the meantime, maybe someone at Apple or XFINITY can tell me what the problem is and how it's fair that I'm assaulted by the XFINITY app. It's not that easy to reset your phone every day.
Is it fair that XFINITY intrude on my Internet session like that? I didn't ask for it, but there it is.
Do you have Xfinity as your home internet provider? If so, yo may have turned on your phone to act as their wi-fi hotspot. That may be the cause of the battery drain.
You may also have accidentally downloaded the Xfinity app which is causing your phone to default to Xfinity whenever it finds an Xfinity hotspot.
If the battery isn't draining from your own use, it may be draining because our phone is working behind the scene as a hotspot.
Do you have Xfinity as your home internet provider? If so, yo may have turned on your phone to act as their wi-fi hotspot. That may be the cause of the battery drain.
You may also have accidentally downloaded the Xfinity app which is causing your phone to default to Xfinity whenever it finds an Xfinity hotspot.
If the battery isn't draining from your own use, it may be draining because our phone is working behind the scene as a hotspot.
I have Xfinity at home, but I never downloaded any Xfinity app. In any event, something happens after I'm assaulted by the Xfinity screen at the bar, and at that point my phone must be doing something in the background to drain the battery. Is it being used as a hotspot? I don't think so and I certainly don't want that. That would use up data pretty fast, and once you're past your monthly limit, it's expensive.
Anyway, my phone seems to be back to normal after this morning's hard reset. It normally uses about 20% of the battery every 24 hours. After an Xfinity assault, it drops to 100% usage in 24 hours.
For what it's worth, I just logged onto my Verizon account and looked at the data usage for my number. Nothing unusual, so I guess no one was using it for a hotspot. Anyway, until this is sorted out, I'm going to leave wi-fi turned off on my phone.
Xfinity hotspot is behind the scenes which means it does not use your date, it just lets others Xfinity accounts connect to an Xfinity hotspot internet through the Xfinity device that was available. Go to the Xfinity website and do a little research on Hot-Spots and you'll get all the details of how your home internet is turned on as a hotspot for other xfinity users. Although it does not show or use your data, it does require your device to be active so others can use it. It's also not supposed to be turned on on mobile devices unless you said so, but when you hit one of their open hotspots and started using it, it may have recognized your xfinity account and asked you (somewhere in something you clicked agreeing to use the hot spot) to turn your phone on as an available hotspot. Once again, it does not use any of your data so even if its activated on your devices and others are using it, only your usage will appear and be listed against your account.
Don't feel bad, many customers with Xfinity who are using their system do not know they may also serving as a hotspot. And, they are not the only ones who do this. Some cable companies also have individual's internet access doubling as a wi-fi hotspot fore that companies mobile service. Ever wonder why you can be traveling around a city using wi-fi access from a specific cable or telephone company? They don't have their own antennas and access points installed all over town, no they use their customers connection to serve as a wi-fi hotspot.
I have a good friend who works for the local telephone company (actually they are pretty darn big) and she told me that since the introduction of their internet service, the modems have an embedded channel and SSID that is an employee's access to the internet while traveling. The company's portable devices connect to the company's system via the wi-fi of customers. It doesn't show up as usage and it's throttled to not impact your service, but every modem that is on and connected to their service serves as a company wide intranet. Xfinity has taken it a step further to open it up to any registered paying Xfinity customer.
Now, it could be something else, but that's my guess.
I've read all about the Xfinity home modems being used as hotspots, and there's plenty of advice, online, about how to disable that "feature." I guess they're even being sued. And they should be, IMHO.
Anyway, I've had this problem with my IPhone twice in three days. Once from one bar, and then from a restaurant. After the first incident I did a hard reset of my phone. Wiped it clean and reinstalled everything. And still, it happened again after I visited a restaurant that had the Xfinity wifi crap. So today was hard reset number two, and once again, my phone is working fine. How could the phone now have any data at all from any prior Xfinity log-in? And yet I bet if I went back to that same restaurant to try to use my phone (with the wi-fi on), Xfinity would once again try to hijack my internet session. Is that called a captive portal?
Something stinks here. I don't want to use the F**** wifi. I just want it to leave me alone. I'll gladly use my Verizon data allowance. I guess I'll just turn off wifi, for now.
Settings -> Wi-Fi -> tap the "i" inside a circle next to xfinitywifi -> tap "Forget this network"
Jason
Given the history, I'd be afraid to try that. If the Wi-Fi is on, the Xfinity sign in page will appear and won't go away. And once that happens, you have the problem, whether you want it or not.
11-15-2015, 09:41 AM
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n/a posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by John7777
Jason
Given the history, I'd be afraid to try that. If the Wi-Fi is on, the Xfinity sign in page will appear and won't go away. And once that happens, you have the problem, whether you want it or not.
What exactly is the point of this thread if you're unwilling to spend the < 10 seconds required to resolve your issue? The solution is easy and takes virtually no time.
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