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SE7EN57's avatar
SE7EN57
New Contributor II
6 years ago

Can you please just fix my internet without trying to sell me cox home care every time you have an outage in my area.

Outage in the area last night intermittent as usual internet is all messed up now. I call cox many times and they always try to sell me cox home care for $10 a month... seriously I been building computers for over 15 years I'm tired of being told about it every time I call.

The speeds are in the tank. When the internet works it works but when it doesn't it happens at the worst possible times. 

12 Replies

  • SE7EN57's avatar
    SE7EN57
    New Contributor II

    My speeds are 100mbps down should be 300 but my upload is normal 30mbps. It's almost like I'm being throttled up to 100mbps. Ever since the outage last night it's been anywhere from 50-100mbps download.

    • will_ditch_cox_'s avatar
      will_ditch_cox_
      New Contributor III

      It sounds like you might have an older modem.  Unfortunately, cox is so unethical that they will charge you for a higher speed then your modem supports.  Even though they can clearly see the model of modem that you have on the network.  The old Cox is gone, they've become criminals.

    • will_ditch_cox_'s avatar
      will_ditch_cox_
      New Contributor III

      One other possibility (kinda remote though).  When I first realized there were data caps, I enable bandwidth monitoring on my cisco router.  Little did I know that this limited my speed to 25mbps.  Make sure you didn't do something similar on your router.

      The funniest part.  I'm a very heavy user and I didn't notice for a long time.  I ran at 25mbps for weeks.  That's when I realized that I'm paying for more speed then I need.

      To get a handle on where my data usage was coming from, I run custom firmware on cisco router with a custom per device bandwidth monitoring app that runs on the router.

      This is the *ONLY* way a consumer can accurately see what is using bandwidth on their network.  That is what makes Cox's data cap literally criminal.

      Without properly informing the consumer of their data usage, Cox is just stealing money from their customers. And, no, the crappy bandwidth meter doesn't count.  It's a joke.

      With your cell phone data limit, the actual device that you hold in your hand tells you what your data usage is.  And it tells you what specific apps use that data.

      The actual device that you use with cox, the cable modem, does nothing of the sort. Call cox and ask them to tell you which devices are using the data on your network, they can't and won't.  They will just try an upsell you.

      Criminal ... Cox should be ashamed.

      Contact your Local Franchising Authority to make complaints (usually city, county or state)

  • will_ditch_cox_'s avatar
    will_ditch_cox_
    New Contributor III

    The best is when you call owing $300+ because you finally tripped the data usage limit.  I called 6 times.  *EVERY* time they tried to up-sell me.  Pathetic.  Even supervisors would give the hard upgrade sales pitch after I told them how pissed I was.

    • SE7EN57's avatar
      SE7EN57
      New Contributor II

      I have a brand new 3.1 netgear modem and new router purchased maybe 6 months ago when I had upgraded to gigablst. After I had found out there was a 1TB cap I downgraded to save $30 a month and now having all these issues. The bill sure does come out on time tho.

      • will_ditch_cox_'s avatar
        will_ditch_cox_
        New Contributor III

        I'd recommend trying one of the motorola cable modems.  Over the years, I've found all consumer netgear products to be junk.  Even a Docsis 3.0 SB6141 would probably be better (its good for 300 down 100 up) .  It's what I run now.  You can get them from Amazon wherehouse for $40.  Always buy your modem (never rent).  

        If you want something faster, the 32x8 SB6190 can be had from Amazon wherehouse for $50 right now.  That supports 1,400 down and 262 up. I have an SB6190 on standby for when my SB6141 fails.

        Honestly, anything over 100mbps is worthless these days unless you have multiple simultaneous streams running at once.  Over the past few years, server optimizations that limit per user connection speed mean it's rare you get 100mbps+ speeds from a single server (google and similar services would be the exception).

  • Radon's avatar
    Radon
    New Contributor II

    If you haven't I'd do a full inspection of external connections & then to the inside to where the coax connects to the modem. I've had my line replaced twice in 10 years. Once squirrels got into it where they were running down the line and jumping to a tree near the aerial connection block. They chewed the insulation off the coax. The other time it was a corroded external splitter caused by condensation inside the junction box. Occasionally they will have a channel that gets to strong and need to filter it down to decrease interference as well. If your equipment is in good state you should be set.  

    • will_ditch_cox_'s avatar
      will_ditch_cox_
      New Contributor III

      It's most likely the filters.  When I had an issue like this a while back, a Cox tech would come out, test the line and add a filter.   Then after a while, the problem would come back.  Another Cox tech would come out and say the filter should not be there.  Rinse and repeat a few times and I finally asked for a supervisor to drive out and look at the issue.   Turned out it was a problem at the pedestal.

      Complete incompetence.