U

Visitor

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19 Messages

Friday, May 23rd, 2025 12:40 AM

How to force device to use Gateway instead of Pod for WiFi?

When using apps on my iPad, I was seeing messages about poor internet connectivity even though my Gateway supports 1000Mbps. I ran the Ookla Speedtest app on my iPad and was only getting about 40Mbps. I then ran the Xfinity app’s Gateway speed test and was seeing more than 1000Mbps.

After playing with the Xfinity app some more, I realized that my iPad (and some other devices) were connected to a WiFi Boost Pod in my garage rather than the Gateway, which is much closer and faster. I did some research and learned that there’s no way to select whether to use the Gateway or Pod, the network chooses whichever connection it thinks is best (apparently using a flawed algorithm). I tried turning WiFi off on my iPad and back on, but it still uses the Pod. I also tried pausing and unpausing network access for my iPad using the Xfinity app, but that didn’t work either.

What is the recommended way to resolve this issue? Restart the Pod? Something else? The Pod is only meant to be used by equipment in my garage and outside the house, since the Gateway is too far from those locations.

Official Employee

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174 Messages

2 months ago

Greetings user_29dd6b, Thanks for reaching out to our XFINITY Community Forum. Working from home myself, I completely understand how important it is for your wireless Internet speed to be working up to par on all your devices as you would like. Rest assured, you have reached the right team to assist! Usually, the devices will be assigned automatically to where they find the strongest signal to each device. There isn't a specific way you can change where the device is connecting to. However, you can make some adjustments with your pod by relocating it to check if that helps. You can learn more through here at xFi pods FAQs. Let us know if this helps! 

 

Visitor

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19 Messages

Thanks for your response, but moving the Pod isn’t an option, since it needs to be in the garage, and I doubt it would make a difference, since the Pod is already far away from some of the devices connecting to it. Ironically, my car in the garage will sometimes connect to the Gateway instead of the Pod.

I get that Xfinity wants to make this process as automatic as possible, but the algorithm used to select where devices are connected is clearly flawed, and as a result I’m not able to make use of my Gateway’s 1000Mbps bandwidth. My Pod’s maximum bandwidth is 200Mbps (I know the newer ones are 500Mbps), but I’m not even getting the 200Mbps because Pod is far away. I would like to see a feature that allows me to specify which devices are allowed to access the Pod, because in my scenario,, most of my devices should not be allowed to do so.

Official Employee

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3.5K Messages

 

user_29dd6b I can definitely understand how frustrating this is and we appreciate your feedback. Since it is a mesh system with everything transmitting the same signal, my colleague is correct that the devices would simply connect to whatever the strongest signal is. 

 

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