With this cable provider (
the largest Dutch cable provided), it's completely legit to use your own hardware, as long as you use their modem (because they remotely throttle your bandwidth with it, by provisioning a config file which and how much channels it's allowed to use).
Recently I had a set top box/PVR for HDTC replaced after three visits by three different cable guys and to my surprise, I noticed the cable guy swiftly replaced the modem as well for a new model. All fine be me, as this one is supposed to be ready for future changes on their network. Suddenly three days ago, I noticed a very strong bgn signal with an unknown SSID (stronger than my own router) which I didn't recognize. Around here, it's overcrowded with SSID's so getting channels with less interference, almost requires optimized alternative firmware, in my experience.
So I checked the bottom of the new router they placed, did some googling, and found out that the beginning of the SSID is a temporary name, which starts with the name of the manufacturer of the WiFi chips used in the router they had just replaced, which should have been replaced by the name of the ISP on first run. But the cable guy never configured anything, he just plugged it in, connected it to the COAX wall outlet, connected my router to LAN 1 and turned it on and asked me to reboot my router. No problem, a few minutes later my RT-AC68U got assigned a new WAN IP. So I googled some more, found out what IP it was active on when in bridged mode, logged into it with the default user/pass on the bottom and confirmed that it wasn't set up (but still working by the provisioned config file). So I went through the initial setup, and got access to the (crippled) menu, where I could access the logs. There I discovered they remotely pushed a provisioning config update and a firmware update and got confirmation that the WiFi had been turned on, as there are loglines that confirm it's switching channels because of interference.
Now, this particular ISP has a free service for (nearly all of their customer) called WiFiSpots, throughout the country, which is basically a third radio in their customers' routers, creating a huge roaming network, you can freely use. Except... when you decide to have your modem bridged, which only they can do remotely, in that case you no longer have access to WiFiSpots anywhere and they shutdown WiFi on their router, as well as the entire router functionality and the menu is crippled, to hide all other options you no longer have access to. Only VoIP and LAN port 1 works, that's it. And there you have it: a bridged router/modem. Fine by me, their routers are well-known for weak WiFi performance.
Well, that
should be it. A few months ago I discovered, with my own previous router (Netgear R6300v2 running dd-wrt) that their (previous) bridged router had started broadcasting an SSID again, or actually two: one for WiFiSpots and one for the customer itself. However I was no longer entitled to use WiFiSpots, the two routers (theirs and mine) were constantly circling around each other battling for a free channel or at least one with less interference. So I demanded they remotely turned it off, which they did. Now that I noticed that with a new router they pulled the same trick again, I'm wondering whether they purposely try to re-enable the radio for (expanding) WiFiSpots again, after some time has gone by. Unfortunately in this case it didn't turn out as they expected, as the cable guy never finished setup. I did a factory restore on their router (knowing the thing will immediately phone home after rebooting to get its config) but it kept the factory SSID and the DHCP queries kept showing up in my logs.
Long story short, I'll call them again, probably for 40th time since I became customer (again) in February this year. I have no intention cancelling, as they simply outperform by far every other ISP in the Netherlands when comes to price comparison. They're the only one on the cable, the rest is either (ancient) copper or glass fiber. I had fiber before, which was good but expensive in comparison, so I went back after a couple of years. Not sure anymore whether that was the wisest decision, but now that they've recently merged with Europe's largest cellular provider, they've become one of the strongest players in the (European) market and I'm having two cellular contracts, 150/15 Mbit internet, HDTV and a landline at a price no one else can beat. They just shouldn't start pulling tricks like this on me... With a background in several positions at several ISP's, before I got sick and ultimately physically disabled, I still have more knowledge than the average first line agent at the other side of the line... Always a joy waiting for the 'hold on, I'll put you through to one of my colleagues...'
