@Bplayer wrote:
Will an Xfinity Gen 2 POD purchased in the US work with a Rogers XB7 or is there some account check that would prevent its activation?
I have no idea. Tagging @CommunityHelps .
I have not heard of anyone activating a Comcast xFi Pod (or any other theoretically hardware-compatible non-Rogers Pod) on their account. I don't know whether Rogers would block it or start charging you $5/month for each Pod that you add.
FYI, the Comcast xFi and Rogers Ignite/Xfinity Gen2 Pods are Wi-Fi 5-only devices, so they are getting dated. Plume has since released Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E based hardware (and plans Wi-Fi 7 hardware) but Comcast has not yet released any upgraded Pod hardware in years.
Another reason for my uncertainty is that a number of years ago, I saw a (Plume?) support article asking what would happen if a Plume Pod got added to a Comcast Xfinity account/gateway. Apparently this WAS possible (Comcast does not rent Pods, does not (or did not) care where you got them from, and apparently did not have any protections or safeguards in place to handle this) but it would also result in the Pod getting updated with Comcast firmware and make it impossible to add back to a Plume Wi-Fi mesh afterwards.
@Bplayer wrote:
Thanks for your insights and thoughts. This fills in my research of alternatives as the band steering on the XB7 has been switching my laptop (5' away from the XB7) from the 5 GHz network band to the 2.4 GHz one when using the Wi-Fi 6 protocol.
Does your laptop have an Intel ax200 or ax210 Wi-Fi module? I have had all sorts of issues with Intel's drivers not playing nicely with the Broadcom WiFi chipsets on the Technicolor XB7 and XB8 gateways.
The current Intel Wi-Fi 6 / 6E drivers have been pretty stable for me but years ago, things were really bad when testing an Intel ax210 module with the early XB8 firmware. There were times where my PC would not connect on the Wi-Fi 6E 6 GHz band and would frequently connect on the 2.4 GHz band.
@Bplayer wrote:
Early morning activities completed.
1. Reset Wi-Fi Router: still switches to 2.4 GHz.
2. Restore Factory Settings: took less time than expected, but band steering automatically enabled, and still switches to 2.4 GHz.
It's been two years since I had to troubleshoot instability on the higher frequency bands but I remember the RSSI was dancing around and so was the data rates on the connection.
With an Intel ax201 module (Wi-Fi 6) and a Technicolor XB7, all I had to do was download the latest Intel drivers and the problems went away.
A few months later, I became an early tester of the XB8 Gateway. Wi-Fi performance (with those same Intel drivers on the PC) was a train wreck. It just did not like the Wi-Fi 6E chipset/drivers on the XB8. My MacBook (with completely different Wi-Fi hardware) also had all sorts of problems, as did other XB8 testers, some of which dropped out of the trial and reverted back to their XB7. I maintained an archive of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers that I downloaded from Intel and then, every time we got updated XB8 firmware, I would go through another round of testing. Then, one day, I downloaded newly-released Intel drivers and I got very good Wi-Fi performance.
I then purchased an Intel ax210 module during a Black Friday sale and upgraded the ax201 in my PC. I hoped that this would remain stable with those same drivers but, no, that was not the case. Occasionally I could get a connection on the 6 GHz band but the ax210 and the XB8's Wi-Fi 6E chipset/drivers had all sorts of issues. In January, 2023, we got a pretty stable version of XB8 firmware. Soon after, I got Intel firmware that would allow me to get a stable connection on the 6GHz band, and I was able to attain throughput exceeding 1.8 Gbps on speed tests and actual sustained data transfers with my 1.5 Gigabit service.
During all this time, I had absolutely no issues with those Intel modules connecting to a business-class Wi-Fi AP with an Qualcomm/Atheros SoC.
The Gateway is a Technicolor CGM4331COM. Do you think requesting a change to an Arris might resolve the switching issue?
It might. You can try to get a (Puma 7-based) Arris XB7. The problem is that there is no way for Rogers to send you out a specific make/model of gateway. They can dispatch a tech but there is no guarantee that he/she/they will have an Arris XB7 in their van.
If you search the Internet for "Intel ax210 WiFi slow" or "Intel ax210 WiFi unstable", you will get a gazillion results.
You can also try calling your computer vendor's tech support. They may be able to offer you some tips on how to get a stable connection to an XB7 or XB8 gateway.
@Bplayer Also see this support article from Intel, with the recommended settings for the 802.11ax driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057574/wireless.html
Intel changed the default settings over time but driver updates won't make changes to your settings.
@Bplayer wrote:
Thanks. I connected the laptop to another Gateway in the Gym of our condo. The 802.11ax connection to the 5 GHz band was stable for over 30 minutes.
Can you check the bottom label of that gateway to get the model number? We can also determine the make/model from the BSSID that you connect to, provided that it is not using a locally administered address.
I have also reached out to CommunityHelps. RogersCorey responded and I have asked him to run any tests he can.
If your gateway is faulty, I would expect all of your Wi-Fi connections to be unstable.
@RogersCorey may also be able to determine whether there are any known issues with the hardware revision of your Gateway or with your gateway's production run.
@Bplayer wrote:
CGM4331R0G
That's the part number for a Technicolor XB7 with Rogers branding.
I don't know why the connection to that gateway would be more stable than yours. It could be a different hardware revision, could be that its operating on a different WiFi channel, or your gateway could be defective. I don't have enough information to say; I'm just guessing.
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