Comcast Flashing Store bought router?

[Randel-0]

my brother bought a new docsis router for his comcast internet.
he changed some settings and locked himself out so he had to call comcast to get help with it and when they heard he had his own router they installed their own rom by flashing it.
is that legal? or a breach of privacy in some way?

 

[ABagOfFritos]

Considering this voids the warranty on the product, I'd say this is potentially illegal for the company to just go and do. At the very least it is completely unethical from a business standpoint. Contact the router manufacturer and give them the details of what happened to see if they can help you out.

Note: You can void your own warranties all you want, that's up to the product owner's discretion, but for a company like comcast to void your warranty because they want their software on something is HIGHLY questionable.

 

[boosted1g]

If he gave them permision then irregardless it is legal.

Otherwise they probably have something in page 92 of the user agreement stating they can.

 

[boosted1g]

^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

I doubt the OP was confused and more concerned about an answer to his quesion then using proper grammer.
After all, the english language is a shinning example of logic and consistency

 

[Wolfshadw]

Back on topic, if the OPs brother gave Comcast permission to attempt to fix the issue, then it's a moot point. He should have contacted the router manufacturer.

-Wolf sends

 

[Randel-0]

Considering this voids the warranty on the product, I'd say this is potentially illegal for the company to just go and do. At the very least it is completely unethical from a business standpoint. Contact the router manufacturer and give them the details of what happened to see if they can help you out.

Note: You can void your own warranties all you want, that's up to the product owner's discretion, but for a company like comcast to void your warranty because they want their software on something is HIGHLY questionable.

thats what i was thinking. and to another user, yes he did give permission.
would it interrupted his service with comcast to flash it back? (or have the manufacture flash it) ie. would thay say "you removed our software so now we limit your service"
and he has a ARRIS / Motorola SBG6580.
can you flash that with dd wrt?
i am a tech and have done this before with many other routers so im not new to flashing. just a fyi

 

[Randel-0]

Back on topic, if the OPs brother gave Comcast permission to attempt to fix the issue, then it's a moot point. He should have contacted the router manufacturer.

-Wolf sends

oh and forgot to mention, yes the router does work now, the issue is the hole privacy thing and getting original flash back.

 

[bill001g]

You can not load dd-wrt or pretty much any third party firmware onto devices that contain modems. Both cable modems and DSL modems have this issue and it is related to issues with release and inclusion of copyrighted drivers in a open source product.

I would suspect if you really wanted to you could download a firmware image directly from motorola/arris and over lay it.

I am not sure it really matters from a privacy perspective the ISP can see every byte of traffic you send. The only sensitive data in a router would be a preshared key for the wireless but I am not sure what they could do with that.

If you are concerned just run the device as a modem only and place a router in front. A modem is very stupid it just converts the traffic from docsis format to standard ethernet so there is not much for them to look at.

 

[mgilbert]

^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

I doubt the OP was confused and more concerned about an answer to his quesion then using proper grammer.
After all, the english language is a shinning example of logic and consistency

Lighten up, man. There's room for a little humor here.