COX internet problems evening of 28 MAY 2015

[turnpup]

Cox...sigh...

They came out about a year and a half ago and installed whole-home DVR. We have six units (the DVR + 5 receivers). At any given time, several of them won't be able to use the On Demand feature. We get an error message saying to call Cox for support. When we call, the first thing they always say is to go around and reset all the boxes. Which we do, and it doesn't fix anything. So they send out a service technician.

Multiple service technicians have come out, and on each visit, each one has THE ANSWER, and does their version of the fix. Which of course doesn't fix the problem. Each successive guy that comes out has THE ANSWER, and blames the problem on the previous technician. Over and over and over.

The most recent team of techs who came out informed us that the whole-home system isn't really designed for more than 4 units at a time. REALLY?!! Then why the hell did they install six? Hmmmm? He didn't get the problem fixed. He said he'd contact his supervisor and get back to us...that's been about 3 weeks ago. We won't hear from him again.

We're finding out that the biggest issue we have with Cox is that their technicians are all independent contractors rather than Cox employees. So there's no common protocol for service visits apparently. Everybody has a different idea of what needs fixing, how to fix it, where to fix it, etc. It's frustrating, to say the least.

[turnpup]

Anybody experiencing extremely slow speeds this evening? I am currently testing at less than 1Mbps and I pay for 50.

We're in NW OKC and we've been having a strange issue when first getting on the Internet. It'll take literally 2 minutes to load, and then it'll be fine. Shut it down and it does the same thing when you re-open. I don't know if that's us or Cox.

[bchris02]

We're in NW OKC and we've been having a strange issue when first getting on the Internet. It'll take literally 2 minutes to load, and then it'll be fine. Shut it down and it does the same thing when you re-open. I don't know if that's us or Cox.

Go to Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test and run a speed test from the OKC server. If you have the regular Cox plan, you should test at 60 Mbps.

The past day I've been at 500 Kbps.

[FighttheGoodFight]

I heard the announcement OKC is getting symmetrical gigabit internet this fall. $99.99. I will trying this out. Can't wait for 1gb up and down.

Only bad news if you need a different modem and I'm sure it will take a while to move to neighborhoods.

[turnpup]

Go to Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test and run a speed test from the OKC server. If you have the regular Cox plan, you should test at 60 Mbps.

The past day I've been at 500 Kbps.

130.65 mbps just now

[FighttheGoodFight]

Heard someone on reddit say that they are doing line maintenance over the next week. They will give you 30 days of free TV or discount day to day if you call.

[SoonerDave]

Heard someone on reddit say that they are doing line maintenance over the next week. They will give you 30 days of free TV or discount day to day if you call.

I think I just got zapped this afternoon. Struggling for even 1MBPS down. Out and barely usable since about 4pm Sat.
Cox tech believes something on their side has failed, and given my high upstream power levels on my modem, I think an upstream amp on their side might be part of the problem. Not sure.

Anyway, no streaming movies from Netflix for me for a while..

[stick47]

Slooooow this morning. (yes I'm just on the starter plan but that;s been above 10mbs since they rolled out the upgrade). Hopefully they fix this right away.
Speedtest.net by Ookla - My Results

[Chadanth]

Cox has been pretty awful lately, and we had a service call last week, they swapped out our modem but no improvement. FWIW, the guy showed up late, with no logo shirt or uniform, smelled bad, and scared the crap out of my wife.

[bchris02]

Cox has been pretty awful lately, and we had a service call last week, they swapped out our modem but no improvement. FWIW, the guy showed up late, with no logo shirt or uniform, smelled bad, and scared the crap out of my wife.

It's working fine for me right now. This seems to be a neighborhood by neighborhood issue. It wouldn't surprise me if it had something to do with them upgrading the infrastructure for Gigabit, which they are rolling out this fall.

I agree about their techs. I have had them show up with no uniform as well and its very unprofessional.

[okatty]

They are mostly outside contractors. I've had terrible ones and excellent ones. Hit and miss.

[trousers]

Anyone else have terrible speeds last night? Mine kept dropping to basically nothing.

[SoonerDave]

After posting some issues from last week, thought I'd offer an update of performance/status:

After talking with the tech over the phone, I took a look at the configuration page for my modem and noticed the outbound power levels were too high, at 54 dbmV. I also realized it was bonding over two channels, not four. The tech did some tests on his own, and he noticed several things:

1. The Cox connect at the demarc was the original COAX attachment to the house when it was built back in 1999. He opened the service box and it was full of cobwebs, dust, dead bugs, and other rot, and a connector/adapter he said "we haven't used that kind of connector in a long time." So he replaced that entirely.

2. I no longer use Cox landline phone, but the Cox coax was routed through to a splitter into a phone junction box. Since I no longer use the phone service, he cut that out of the loop completely.

3. He went out to the pedestal serving the house and did some equipment replacement at that point, but did not elaborate on what.

4. He noted that there was a wall split between the modem and an adjacent room, so he moved the modem to a dedicated (unsplit) line.

5. He inspected, but did not replace, an inline amp Cox had put in a few years ago when the one installed when the house was built had failed.

After that, the outbound power levels on the modem dropped to 47dbmV and starting binding on four channels, and my downstream connection test pegged the meter on the test I used, in excess of 120Mbps. He even showed me his "tech" side and that matched up with what my modem config page showed me.

This was a very nice and knowledgeable Cox tech, not at all scary and got my service back where I expected it to be. So, try as I might, I can't find anything to complain about