Lets start with the data. I am also a gamer..and also don't have much of a life since I left my job  

1. Are you connected direct to the modem or through a router?

2. What are the signal levels of the modem, you can find them at 192.168.100.1, unless you have a different kind of modem (gateway), if so, please respond with the model number. 

3, When you say your being reported "afk" could you explain that? Are you ghosting in a multiplayer game? Do you mean AFK from facebook or Skype?

Hi thanks for the response. I am hardwired to a new doc 3 motorolla SB6141 modem, one comp in house. Afk, i enter a game and as soon as it starts I will sometimes disconnect but i'm still in the game and it appears to others that i'm just sitting there being of no help to the team so i get reported as a bot or inactive, it hasn't happened enough to get me banned yet and since i made this post i've been playing the rest of the day so far with no problems. I can go for a couple of weeks worry free then one weekend it does it all the time.

Ok, so thats what i would call ghosting. Usually its a problem with UPnP, which I wouldn't expect with a direct connection. Is it just one game? Or all games? If it's just one, which? Maybe I can try to duplicate the issue? Or maybe we can find if there is a central server that you can run a tracert to to look for packet loss or latency.

how is your normal web browsing? I mean besides for the AFK/Ghosting, are there any other issues? 

Last, what are the signal levels of your modem? If there is a obvious problem there it would save alot of time barking up the wrong tree.

It does happen when I surf the net once in a while but not as often because I surf during the week and game on weekends. World of Tanks is what it happens on now. I quit playing Final Fantasy 14 because of 2-5 second freezes that would cause rubberbanding in the game and once again when in groups with a useful role they would get upset but I think that was a tracert thing. The servers for the Japanese game for the US are based in northeast Canada. I ran a tracert then and didn't save it, can't remember how to really do it now. Funny thing when I posted this saturday morning it had happened 3 times in like 20 minutes but after this post it's been solid like it usually is. I've never seen a pattern to it, it's random. Two weeks nothing then a half a dozen times one weekend.

After 28 years as a cable TV subscriber in this location I elected to transition to Cox internet from Verizon DSL for the supposed increased reliability and speeds.  Speeds, yes - as advertised, higher speeds available.

Reliability? NOT EVEN CLOSE!!

In 10 years of DSL use, the "internet" never went down.  In 3 days of Cox internet, the connection has gone down 2X each day requiring power cycling of workstation, router and modem to reconnect.

For years cable TV has also been "iffy".  Picture freezes, audio track loss (usually after loss of sync), selective channels going "black" (no audio, no video, but guide and info still active for the channel in question), Cox cable boxes turning off (screen goes black, cable box LED shows the "boxing" LED  motion, then the Explorer reboot screen shows on the TV...), MAJOR MPEG macro block artifacts on any program where major changes happen rapidly to all pixels in the picture (rapid motion, cut to new scene...).

Is this the "norm" for cable TV / Internet, is Cox just a ** provider in their protected monopoly markets where they have pocketed all the politicians who deny FiOS / Uverse access to the same markets, or is there some specific tech issue with my line which Cox has refused to acknowledge despite repeated problem reports over the years?

Chris,

The reason you saw the modem as offline, is because that is how the internet goes down.  All of a sudden, tied to no event, (Computer doesn't even need to be on) I'll notice the modem online light blinking, and usually all upstream lights are off, and only the channel one downstream light is on.  Tech support offered to send a tech, but I have to pay for it, and I am not sure why that should be the case since I do not believe the problem is inside the wall.

Also, the last time they sent a tech out for the TV reports, all he did was come in the house rewire my entire  home theater system (not just the cable connections!!) saying that would fix the problem.  Of course it didn't - just couldn't use some of my audio gear because it was incorrectly hooked up, so I just decided that intermittent service delivery was the norm for this neighborhood.  Two years ago, the house was remodeled, Cox replaced the cable from the pole to the house, electricians replaced all the in-wall cabling, and wall outlets (F-connectors).  No change in quality or reliability on the TV side. 

So I take it the loss of data is the internet equivalent of when a channel goes black and the cable box has to be power cycled to get it back or when the box does a spontaneous reboot.  Except the modem won't auto reboot.  I have to manually power cycle it to get it to re-connect, and sometimes even that fails - I have to wait an hour or two before I can get it to re-connect.

Also, there is nothing in here for a tech to rewire without punching holes in the wall or going into the attic to pull out existing in-wall wiring (done in 2011 - no change in quality or reliability from before to after).  Living room cable outlet goes direct to HD cable box - nothing on the box's "Cable Out" connector (HDMI from box to TV).  One bedroom outlet goes to an SD box, its cable out goes to the TV's F-connector.  My home office space outlet goes direct to the modem.  No splitters between wall outlets, cable boxes or cable modem.  I can run with and without 75 ohm terminators on other (2) unused wall outlets and it makes no difference. I would be tempted to disconnect the TV boxes from the wall to see if internet reilability goes up, but the hast time I disconnected one of the boxes for a day of testing, I had to call in to Cox to get it reactivated, so it is a little more trouble for what I fear will, again, make no difference.

No one seems to think testing the signal coming off the utility pole is of any value, because the pre-defined position is that it is the customer's equipment, infrastructure or lack of know-how, causing any and all problems with any Cox service. And therefore the customer has to be billed for someone to come into their house, fiddle with wiring of Cox and non--Cox equipment, and say "its clearly this or that thing of yours, and unless you replace / remove /discontinue use of it, the problem won't be fixed".  At least that is the way it has been for nearly 30 years here.  I just don't want to be billed for nothing, yet again.

OK - Last night I disconnected the modem from the gateway, plugged directly into computer, powered computer down, set modem so I could see the lights from my TV viewing chair.  When A&E HD went into a freeze-frame glitch mode, the modem went offline.  I also lost HBO HD and all the HD Encore channels for most of the night, and could not get the modem to reconnect for several hours. Lost TV channels same symptom for years - the carriers are still there (get the 1080i, 720p 0r 480i appropriate to the channel I turn to,but there is no picture or audio - just black, but the guide / info pages for those channels still work).  This is a nightly occurance, has been for years, it just effects different channels different nights.

I assume whatever causes the TV problems is also causing the Internet problems, since the modem can be connected only the the cable outlet and a powered down computer and still go offline.  It has also gone down three times since 8:00 AM (in five hours) and when I do get the modem reconnected, it only has 3 if four upstream channels on. Still waiting for Netgear to tell me if there is some way to get diagnostics on / from the modem.  (It is a straight modem, so there is no internal web server for external admin).

wmcole said:
When A&E HD went into a freeze-frame glitch mode, the modem went offline. 

Thats very good data. So its probably ingress of some kind leaking in, but only intermittently. The reason the technicians aren't focusing on the signal from the street is probably when the get there, the problem isn't occurring, so they aren't seeing a signal issue to track and isolate.

I think what might need to be done is have your modem put on monitoring, and track down exactly when this is occurring, and then compare those time-frames to the signal history of the modem. If they can find what signal problem is occurring to cause the "glitch" then its a matter of tracking down where that signal problem is leaking in. How easy/hard that is depends on the infracture around you and how much real time data Cox and the technicians have access to. Sometimes they literately have to go from pole to pole, taking measurements until they find the "leak". Also, sometimes while they are doing this, the ingress will stop, and they will have to wait (sometimes days) for it to re-appear before tracking it again.

I spoke too soon.  Cox internet has been gone down 5 x in the last 90 minutes, and only twice has it come back by itself without a modem power cycle or “reset to factory defaults” button push.

The sequence seems to be that upstream channels drop one at a time about 15 – 45 seconds apart, and when the last upstream channel drops, all the downstream channels go dark and the online light starts to blink.  The first occurrence was during a chat session with Intuit tech support, which totally f’d that up.  The rest of the occurrences have been during sessions trying to access Intuit community support forums, and of course it has mess that up totally.

I’m seeing a pattern.  During the day (sunlight hours) the connection does not go down.  But after sunset, (or more probably because it is after 6:00 P.M. when everyone else in the neighborhood is home from work, watching TV and jumping onto the Internet) Cox Internet goes down repeatedly as do random TV channels (picture freezes, goes black, audio loss, MPEG macro block artifacting on both HD and SD channels etc.).  These symptoms appear to be absent in the daytime (when neighborhood folks are at school and work) when a tech would come out to look at signal strength etc.

So how would I convince them to do like a 3 – 5 hour monitoring of QoS / signal levels coming from the utility pole to my house during prime time?  NOTE: I generally have no TV’s on when using Internet, or any computers on when watching TV in my house.  I think it is a neighborhood capacity issue.

wmcole said:
  I think it is a neighborhood capacity issue.

You should probably make a new thread on this issue. This seems completely different then the OP and don't want to hijack the thread. Also, usage in the area has no effect on actual signal levels. The amount of signal going through the line is the same no matter how many people are using it. If your seeing the upstreams drop, then it sounds like a issue with the upstream signal in some way. A congestion issue would manifest as your modem staying online, but seeing packet loss or latency on the connection. 

As for OP, I have asked a couple times for signal levels. I don't know what else to suggest without first seeing that data. If the problem is resolved, or no longer relevant, please mark thread as answered. Thank you.

I FINALLY got the info from Netgear on how to access the modem's internal status pages.  I hope the copies of those pages (below) are some of the info you are looking for.  NOTE: that last page details trying to get re-connected after being dropped last night.  I only got one upstream channel after a hour of power cycling / resetting modem etc.  It has since been up and down several times as I write this (requiring multiple power cycle / resets to reconnect).

Is there a particular datum in this info I should be talking to Netgear about?

wmc

Modem Status

Connection

Event Log

::sigh:: So...sorry to OP for the thread hijack...I tried..

Your upstream power is way too high. Thats why the upstreams keep dropping, your modem is having to scream for Cox to hear it.

How many splitters, and of what type, do you have between the line from the street and the outlet that connects to the modem?