Las Vegas Intermittent low speeds/loss (2 weeks)

I have completely exhausted all troubleshooting and tech support. I desperately need this issue escalated to maintenance. There is something broken on my node or line. Please please, help me.

TIMEFRAME: This problem started happening on 3/20/2019. Service cut out, lights on modem were flashing. I called in and there was notification that my area was experiencing an outage. I hung up and waited. Service came back 30 minutes later and since then I have been having this problem.

THE PROBLEM: At least once per hour, every hour, for the past two weeks internet service slows down to a crawl. I never lose signal, modem stays online, but speed test shows 20-60 Megabits/s down and only 0.05-2 Megabits/s upload. My normal speed test is 350 mbps down and 30 mbps up without fail. There's literally 3 lines on my box in an elderly neighborhood and there's no congestion. The node is never ever congested.

I, however, stream to Twitch at 4 mbps. My room mate also streams to Twitch at 4 mbps on the same account. We have the Ultimate plan with unlimited bandwidth. This is a 4kbps upload stream for 12 hours straight. So when this problem happens, the stream cuts off, you see maybe 1 fps on the live feed and Streamlabs OBS reports 90-100% packet loss. Over the course of a day, the average packet loss is 10% because this problem happens for literally 10 minutes every hour. The other 50 minutes, there is 0% packet loss and speeds are perfect. This problem is visible in gaming (Fortnite), Twitch, Discord, speed tests to Cox, Century link, google fiber etc. It is also visible by Cox tech support, who has documented up to 20% packet loss (simple ping timeouts) to my modem during one of my phone calls. If they are pinging my modem and timing out then there is an issue!!!! I am paying $150+ a month for this service and there is an intermittent problem that is constantly happening.

All my PC's are hard wired, however, the speed test drops are evident on every device (even testing on phone wifi during the outage period). This problem happens when 1 PC is streaming, 2 PCs are streaming, or 0 PCs are streaming. My signal strength is perfect.

I have had 2 tech visits in the past week and have another scheduled for tomorrow. The first tech setup something called "home view" and never got back to me or escalated. The second tech was a Cox in-house rep and he documented the issue and escalated the ticket. The ticket now shows that it was closed "because there were not enough tech visits to escalate it". I have texted this tech numerous times and he has reassured me it was escalated but I haven't gotten a response from anyone other than him. He also said that he would put me in touch with a "field tech specialist" but I have no idea what that means. He also keeps asking me questions that infer that the problem is on my end or on my PC.

In addition, I have tried the following steps to fix this. I have connected my modem directly to my PC and only played Fortnite without streaming. So there was no data usage besides my PC playing Fortnite. As soon as Fortnite displayed 10-15% packet loss spikes and Red X connection, I ran a speed test and recorded the same low numbers of basically no upload bandwidth. This problem persisted for 10 minutes, then connection was perfect for the rest of the hour, then repeated. Again, this was with 1 PC directly connected to the modem and no streaming involved.

Additionally, I also replaced the 3 month only CM600 modem with a brand new CM500 modem. For the record, on the modem status page, both modems only use 4 channels locked upstream so for a 300 up/30 down connection, a 24x8 modem has no advantage over a 16x4 modem. Both modems achieve the same max speed on Cox's Ultimate plan. Changing the modem, cleared up the problem for about 3 hours then the packet loss came back and ultimately the dead internet outages of 10 minutes returned. Before changing modem, the problem happened at the top of the hour. Since changing the modem, the pattern is less predictable but still occurs at 60 minute intervals depending on when the modem was last reset.

Here is a list of times the service was unusuable for one day (early morning on Tuesday April 2nd):

11:24-11:25 pm
12:08-12:23 am
1:21-1:26 AM
2:15-2:21 AM
3 AM ish outage missed the exact times
4:01-4:10 AM
5:01-5:11 AM
6:12 AM - WENT TO SLEEP

Here is an earlier documentation of outages on Friday March 29th:

Friday PM
8:58-9:08
10:02-10:12
11:03-11:10
1:02AM-1:10
2:00AM-2:10
3:57- started again, went to sleep

After not receiving any help or resolutions I have tried further tests to fix this.  I split my line on 4/3/2019 with a splitter and setup both modems at the same time. I have the CM600 on one line and the CM500 on the other line. The CM500 goes to my roommates PC and the CM600 goes to my router then to my PC. Both modems are on the Cox Preferred plan currently just to test this. On this setup, when one modem starts packet loss and slow speeds, the other modem experiences the exact same issue.

I'm 100% certain this last test rules out any outside issues. Both modems are crapping out on speed tests at exactly the same 5-10 minute intervals. This rules out a DDOS attack, a PC problem, a router problem, a modem problem, or basically anything past the point of the line to my house. The last tech also installed a brand new line from the pole to my house. So the issue is somewhere beyond the pole. (HINT, check your node and not my house)

What do I have to do to get this issue escalated?

I emailed my personal details to cox.help@cox.com with a link to this post as reference.

Thank You,

Michael Schulz