Question Can I use a Comcast Hotspot for my business internet?

[SJMaye]

I work at a small business with Comcast business internet service. Recently the internet down and Comcast was not in a hurry to get to us. Without internet access we were shutdown.
This incident had me try thinking of ways I could McGuyer something together as a backup. I know I could use my phone as a hotspot using data. Then I thought of all the Comcast Hotspots close by. Is there a device we could buy that could be used to receive the hotspot wifi and connect it to the businesses router to provide internet when these occasions happen?

 

[jsmithepa]

I never used an EXTENDER but sounds like that's what it will do for you, MAYBE.

 

[bill001g]

It depends how hard comcast goes to prevent it. In the simplest method you might get by with a repeater/extender assuming you get strong enough signal inside. There are 2 issues with this. The first is I think every user would have to have a comcast userid/password. The next is I don't think you will even get that far. I strongly suspect they do not support WDS. This allows multiple machines/mac addresses to pass over a single encrypted connection.

So what you need is a router that takes its WAN port as wifi. This will hide all the machines behind a single ip/mac. You will still have to log in with at least 1 machine to get the connection active.

I am guessing you best bet is going to be a ubiquiti outdoor bridge. These can run in router mode I am pretty sure. You would still need to connect it to your network inside the building and find a way to "login" to the comcast network.

I suspect this is not a approved use of their services but I doubt they detect it. If you put too much load on the hotspot router the person that owns it may turn it off and/or ask comcast to remove the guest access. I know this is a key reason to own your own router so comcast can not allow other people to leach part of the bandwidth going to your house.

 

[digitalgriffin]

I work at a small business with Comcast business internet service. Recently the internet down and Comcast was not in a hurry to get to us. Without internet access we were shutdown.
This incident had me try thinking of ways I could McGuyer something together as a backup. I know I could use my phone as a hotspot using data. Then I thought of all the Comcast Hotspots close by. Is there a device we could buy that could be used to receive the hotspot wifi and connect it to the businesses router to provide internet when these occasions happen?

Wrapping foil around your antennas would do it. It a common trick to extend range. I've seen them go up to a couple thousand feet before with a clean line of sight.

That said, when Comcrap..I mean Comcast goes down, it's usually a general area. And depending on your plan, there are data caps associated with using roaming hotspots. And IF you are going to do this, for god sakes use VPN. Those hotspots are not encrypted in any way.