1. Recently, Xfinity made the decision to lock "Advanced Settings" so that no customer has the ability to customize their connection. This affects all users in the United States. When logging into both the router's firmware and the new(ish) Xfi app, certain settings are "greyed out" so they are unchangeable. When investigating the issue, the official answer is "These settings are being automatically managed by Xfinity to provide you the best connection possible!" Except, it isn't working. The only thing users can control is whether or not their 2.4/5/6Ghz bands are separated or lumped together, what the SSIDs are named, and what the network password is. Everything else is locked or missing entirely.

2. The reason this is a major problem is, as mentioned, the automatic management and configuring is NOT WORKING, which results in periodically slower connections and sometimes laggy/buffering/unplayable or unviewable video and gameplay streaming. These are problems that did not occur BEFORE Xfinity chose to lock all settings down behind an autoconfiguration. Specifically, the ability to chose a different channel within the Wifi Band is CRITICAL to maintaining high connection quality, but routinely the service chooses the same wifi channel that every neighbor and device in my area is also using. Logging into the router's firmware shows the current channel and all other settings, but they are greyed out and unchangeable (with the clueless "We're doing it for you to make things better" message.) When accessing the Xfi app, the setting isn't even there.

When using an app called "Wifi Analyzer," I am able to see the devices in my area, the channels they are on, and the quality of those channels. On the long list of channels in the 2.4 Ghz band, only one has low (one-star, red) quality, and the two on either side are yellow (currently, channel six is red, channel 5 and 7 are yellow, the rest are green 10-star quality.) Guess which one Xfinity has determined is the best channel for me (and all of the 2.4 Ghz SSIDs in my neighborhood.) You guessed it, channel 6, the worst quality channel on the list. When switching to 5 Ghz, the much longer channel list is almost entirely green (10-star) quality with 5 channels showing a red 1-star quality (channels 43-47.) The 5Ghz setting is stubbornly stuck on Channel 44 for me and all surrounding neighbors. (This is actually an improvement over last week, when I and all neighbors were stuck on Channel 147, but the problem is, LAST week, it was channels 145-149 that were red 1-star quality. So, the connection seems to be changing the channel once in a while, but always picking the channels with the greatest congestion and lowest quality!) The 6Ghz band has 100% green quality across all channels, but the problem is, most devices don't take advantage of Wifi6 yet, and when they do, I have no reason to believe this issue won't persist across the 6Ghz band as well - as soon as more and more 6 Ghz capable devices begin connecting to the wifi, no doubt the autoconfiguration will assign them all to the same channel, eventually resulting in the same problem. I have tested every possible troubleshooting step to ensure my router is in the right place, has no surrounding interference from other devices, is using brand new cables, and that it isn't a congestion issue in my own home (by disconnecting all but my mobile device and checking the quality in my analyzer app, just to see that nothing has changed.) And, after much searching online, I have found numerous other users who have discovered the exact same thing I have - across the country, users are complaining about being locked into a channel which has horrendous quality, is congested by the other users in their neighborhood, and they're now unable to change their own channel because of Xfinity's autocratic control limitations.

After speaking with support reps on Twitter I received a "there's no way to change this setting, but we'll pass your idea on to others to consider." I even contacted the "Send Tom Feedback" email at Comcast/Xfinity and received a response back that said "these settings are what work for most people, and unfortunately there isn't a way to turn this automatic management off, but we will save your experience and make sure it is discussed in further planning sessions. This is no guarantee the setting can ever be changed, or that if it can, the change will ever be implemented, but we want to make sure your voice is heard."

After days of researching online, it appears the only way around this issue is for customers to buy their own network router, set the Xfinity router to Bridge Mode, and connect the new router so we have unlimited access to settings. There are two problems with this - first, why should we have to pay $300+ for a new router just to have access to settings that we should already have access to? Especially considering customers like me are paying around $100 for high-quality internet and a monthly fee for rental of the router, we shouldn't have to buy even more equipment to get our connection quality to what it was before implementing these boneheaded limitations on our settings. The second problem is, if I go out and buy my own router and get everything working, there is absolutely ZERO guarantee that Xfinity won't implement more changes that render my fixes moot (for example, they could choose to take away Bridge Mode in the future, so the only way we can use their service is by using the company-provided network device.) You might not think that's a plausible scenario, but I never would have guessed they would have taken away all of the settings they already have, it would be no surprise if they locked it down even further.

3. I am hoping you'll join me in demanding the following change from Xfinity, and if they do not respond, to go to the FCC with these concerns for an immediate investigation:

This is not a difficult fix, or even a complicated one. I only ask that we be given the OPTION to control our own connection settings if we want it. There may be some basic users out there who don't know there is a problem and are even happy with what they have, and they should be allowed to keep their settings on "Auto." But for those of us who experience issues and know unequivocally how to fix it with a simple tweak to the settings, we should absolutely be able to do so. EVERY router has the "auto" setting for things like Channel selection and most other advanced controls, so users who don't care can just leave their settings on Auto. For those of us who have the expertise and know it will fix the problem, we shouldn't be FORCED to use Auto when it's clear that isn't working to optimize the connection! Just unlock the settings and give us back the control of customizing our network settings.