Cox Cable/Internet in General

[U4IASTRM]

Anyone using Cox Cable as their ISP? Did you receive a notice on the mail, saying that your modem will no longer be supported after the first of the year? Have you experienced a general lag issue while browsing during high traffic hours?


Two weeks ago my modem suddenly dropped service. I waited for a few minutes for it to find a signal again. When it did not find it I called tech support. The automated machine told me that Cox was performing maintenance and I might lose signal, also to power cycle my modem and/or router. I did so, and the signal was immediately found again and I was a happy camper. Since that day I have experienced a slower than normal connection speed. I have the lowest tier available with Cox which is 1.6megaBIT. Which equals about 200kbytes/sec download maximum. Right now I am at 33kbytes/sec max. On previous calls with Cox Tech Support, they have noted that my slow speed is associated with high traffic time. I'll believe that, it makes sense. For two weeks now, my speed has been generally lower.....with no packet loss. Both my pings, and Cox's techs have tested the modem.

Today I called about 1pm when my modem failed to find a signal. I was told by the same automated system that there is maintenance and to expect it to be down until I cycle my modem. Cool, I hung up and cycled the modem again to make sure. Nothing. I called and spoke with an agent this time. He told be that there was no maintenance in my area, and suggested techs come to my house and run some tests. And if the internet did happen to come back up prior to them showing up to call and cancel the work order. Internet was back up less than 30mins later. I felt impatient and stupid, so I called back and cancled the order and spoke at length with a different tech. He suggested that since his software said my modem was retired-meaning no longer supported that I should be looking for a new one. I go on to tell this tech, that up until two weeks ago this modem has had no issues with service drops, nor latency. He has no answers. I would like to vent and say a few nasty things but I don't. I do some research, and read the logs my modem spits out occasionally. Look up some of the terms that I see and come to a forum where these guys are havng the same exact issue. I read for another hour or so, and then call Cox back and see about these errors that my modem log is spitting out. Tech 3 suggests that I have techs come to my house once again and run some diagnostics. And also my modem may or may not be compatible witht he hardware update that Cox performed at the first of the year. Since the updates coincide with my recent troubles I probe him for more info. He goes onto say that Cox did not send a new modem because mine passed thier test. I have a BEFCMU10 Ver.4 modem. That is DocSIS 2.0 compliant. According to tech 3, it is compatiable. But! It may be the cause of the issue. Thats 3 different answers from 3 techs. At this point I turn everything off and reboot my PC, and browse the internet for awhile while I have service. And mull over what those 3 techs have told me.


All 3 have stated that it is nothing on thier end. It is my modem, or the lines in my house somewhere. But not thier systems. I find this very hard to believe. I called again, and spoke to what seemed to me a very competent tech. He also stated that my modem could have been skipped, and I should be on the list for a new modem. But there were no guarantees that a new modem would fix the issue. He fast tracked me a new modem which I pick up tomorrow. And also told me that the techs should check the line for signal loss. I spoke to a super and asked why I was given 3 different answers. He gave me no answer other than to wait for the techs.

[Detector]

I use Cox. I do remember the downtime but haven't had issues that I'm aware of. Here is my speed test.

[357 mag]

I haven't noticed any changes either, but I'm not really on my computer much at home. I'll check tonight and see what mine does. I also never got a letter from them either.. Very strange..

[gunnar1073]

Have you moved your modem? how many splitters are behind it and the main drop coming to the house?

[whyme?]

We have Cox also and ours has been lagging and not performing as well as it usually does. My husband was speaking of getting a new modem last night. I will have him look into this also and see what's up with Cox. They always give you the run around when it comes to tech support and have also told us we had to have them rewire our house one time when it was working fine before they started messing with it. UGH!!!

[U4IASTRM]

I am on the lowest level of service which is 1.6mb down/768kb up. Detector-You should run that speed test during high traffic hours. For me, it is between 4-9pm. But since the update, my speed has been fluctuating throughout the day. Sometimes its normal, others its less than .2mb/s. Convert that number to bytes instead of bits and my maximum download speed is 20-25Kb/s. Youtube, Hulu, any site that streams audio/video is out of the picture. Just tested my speed again and it is .7mbs. Less than half of what I pay for. My issue presented itself several times while browsing. They will be here tomorrow morning to check the mainline.

Now onto juicy part of the visit. First off this tech that was here today was speaking to cox tech support asking for help. On many occasions while speaking to tech support, he said "megahertz" instead of "megabits" to find out what tier I was on. I said nothing, these techs probably don't get paid the best. We ran a few speed tests on both speak easy, and speed test(try speakeasy as well Detector). First came back with a normal 1.6mb down. He exclaimed "See, I told you I when I replaced that line outside the house, it would help". Unconvinced I ran another test to the same server a minute later and it came back with .5mb/s. The third came back with .2mbs. He proceeds to hook up his diagnostic tool as I go check on my son in the other room. When I came back into the room, the tech is holding my router and he looks at me and says he has found the problem. He shows me that I had the ethernet cable from the modem plugged into one of the four "output" ports on my router instead of the "internet" port. It is entirely possible that I did in fact have a brain fart and plugged the cable into the wrong port. BUT, if that was the case, then how in the hell were we running speed-tests, and browsing the internet? It is just not possible to get to the internet if router has no signal from the modem, and the only way to get that signal is to have a cable from the modem plugged into that internet port. As soon as I came back into the room I noticed the bubble that pops up in the lower right hand corner of the desktop tells me that a LAN connection could not be found. This happens when either my modem drops service, or when the ethernet cable is unplugged. The time it took me to get from the computer room to check on my son and back again the tech disconnected the cable from the "internet" port and connected it to the "output" port. I am still stunned at this. Just because I call for tech support does not mean that I am a total friggn idiot. Cox has always been exceptional when it comes to customer service. But this incident......sigh.


So after 3 hours of fumbling around and getting nowhere, and an epic fail by the tech. I call tech support back, and 15 minutes later a supervisor shows up, takes the tech outside and sends him on his way. He goes through a few steps and comes to a conclusion that the problem is with the mainline. He says he will be back tomorrow morning with the mainline techs. He apologizes for the techs behavior and leaves his cell number in case the issue is not resolved.

Hmmm 3 hours, getting nowhere vs 15 minutes, no attempts to buffalo the customer. Jeewizz Cox, hire somebody that knows their head from their ass next time.

Sorry for the wall o text. Got a little carried away.

[U4IASTRM]

Have you moved your modem? how many splitters are behind it and the main drop coming to the house?

There was a splitter in the main box outside the house. The tech removed it after I told him that we do not subscribe to cable TV. I have moved my modem. But only to turn it upside down to read the model number to the tech support guys at Cox. I have had it since March of 2008. I still have the invoice. Cox gave me a brand new Motorola surfboard today for free. No speed changes as of yet. I have no need for a higher speed connection at the moment. I am able to game with no latency issues except during peak times.

[Detector]

Done at about 2:00pm. I'll try again after 4:00pm.

[gunnar1073]

you can view a web diagnostics page for that surfboard modem by going to 192.168.100.1. (you will need to bypass your router and plug directly into the modem) There you can check all sorts of things like signal to noise ratio, upstream and downstream powers. If your upstream is over 50 dBmV there could be a problem.
Also the signal to noise ratio should hopefully be in thee 20's to 30's

Also, a surfboard modem will act as a router for up to 32 hosts I believe. So if you did indeed plug it in wrong it would still work because the 4 ports on your router act as a switch.

[U4IASTRM]

you can view a web diagnostics page for that surfboard modem by going to 192.168.100.1. (you will need to bypass your router and plug directly into the modem) There you can check all sorts of things like signal to noise ratio, upstream and downstream powers. If your upstream is over 50 dBmV there could be a problem.
Also the signal to noise ratio should hopefully be in thee 20's to 30's

Also, a surfboard modem will act as a router for up to 32 hosts I believe. So if you did indeed plug it in wrong it would still work because the 4 ports on your router act as a switch.

Just Great! I feel guilty now. Cox upped my speed one notch. It "was" 35/3mbs. I say was, because now it is 1.6/3mbs now. They are on their way back here now.