ISP replaced cable modem, now my wifi doesn't work in other rooms

rjo98

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My ISP came out and replaced my old cable modem with a new one that also does wifi, but I have my own wifi router. Once they left, I tried using the wifi in other rooms, and the connection speed is now so slow I can get maybe 1 of every 4 web pages to load. I called Comcast back and asked them to disable the wifi in their modem, thinking maybe there was a conflict, so now it loads maybe 1 of every 3 web pages, so a mild improvement. Nothing changed with my home wifi router, so I'm not sure what to do next.
Should I have them replace my new modem with another new one that does not do wifi at all? The 2.4GHz light on the front of the modem went off when they disabled wifi, but the 5GHz light is still on, although I don't pick up any of the xfinity ssid's anymore now, so it must not be broadcasting.
 
Your old Modem was probably a modem only. It sounds like your new modem includes a router/firewall. If you also have a router/firewall this can cause some problems sometimes. You need to get the ISP to put their Modem in bridge mode. This way your router will do all the router/firewall work and it won't be done twice by both your router and theirs. What router do you have?
 

rjo98

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It's a NetGear I believe but I can't remember what model it is off the top of my head. So you think a call to the Comcast might be all it takes, or do you think they'll have to swap out the cable modem they just installed?
 

rjo98

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OK thanks. I'll see if they can do that for me remotely. Just so I understand though, how does that affect the wifi? It seems to be worse the farther you sit away from the wifi router, and it used to work perfectly pre-modem-swap throughout the whole house.
 
That can effect speeds in general, not just wifi. So if you can connect to your router with an ethernet cable and it works just fine, then the bridging thing will not help (though I would still get them to do that if you are going to use your own router).
 

rjo98

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It does seem to work ok for the machines that are hard wired into the wifi router. And the wifi does work pretty well if you're in the same room as the wifi router. It's just when you go to the rest of the house, where it worked fine before, now it doesn't, must be something to do with signal strength then? But weird it just started happening after they swapped the modem.