Internet issue impacting Arizona customers - Outage Resolved

So why is it that those of us with brand new Apple Airport Extreme routers with the newest firmware accessed by new Apple Macs, laptops and handheld devices were taken down for over four hours?  What is the connection between one customer's outdated router firmware and scrambled, illegible and unreadable DNS directions for others?  This post is neither particularly clear nor particularly helpful.  

We appreciate the update from Chris, but it does not really answer the question, nor does it tell us how this kind of problem will be avoided in the future and how these kinds of outages will be communicated to paying customers (try push emails, texts, link postings, social messaging, and other options from the huge array of connection techniques that are readily available to modern users).  We understand that sometimes unexpected technical issues might arise, but please make your customers aware of what's happening so that they can plan accordingly.  Thanks.

Hello Maxxm,

I can at least address part of your question.  The reason this would still impact you is that the outdated Netgear routers were constantly hitting our dns servers.  All of this activity degrades the performance of our servers regardless of what kind of router you are using.  Unfortunately we don't have any way of proactively identifying which customers have Netgear routers with outdated firmware, once this issue occurred  we were able to identify most of them based on the frequency in which they were trying to hit our servers.  

We've made a lot of progress throughout the day and hope that your seeing improvement in your connection.

I agree with maxxm.  There are people who work from home and need to have notifications of when there is going to be a network change or anything of that nature. This should never happen without proper information being sent out to your paying customers that you are making a change such as this.  I'm sure that Cox has Change Tickets and other means of control of their environment.  

As a paying customer for the highest tier of Internet Speed, I'm very upset with the vagueness of Cox's troubleshooting message on how to resolve the issue.   Simply, rebooting your modem doesn't do anything and this answer doesn't help.  Please provide more of a technical reason why this is happening and continuing to happen.  My service is still out at my house.  It's been down since 6 am this morning. 

I also didn't appreciate the voice mail on Cox's Customer number when I tried to call in this morning for 5 hours stating "we are experiencing a large call volume so we cannot take your call at this time, please call back later"  This should never happen.  You should be able to take my call regardless.

Which routers are affected??? I have a D-link & it's now dead - no WiFi - NOTHING but 1 PC hooked directly to modem. Where are instructions on how to fix this without waiting on hold?

Hello Cocacola,

Are you connecting successfully with your computer connected directly to the modem?  The issue doesn't necessarily impact routers, the issue was caused by some Netgear routers with old firmware.  If you haven't tried already I would try resetting your router by disconnecting the power to it, and then reconnecting power.  If you do this I suggest resetting the modem at the same time if you reconnect the router to the modem.

Are you connecting successfully with your computer connected directly to the modem? Yes (only way I could get to this forum)

The issue doesn't necessarily impact routers, Apparently it does because bypassing the router is the only way I can get any internet connection (hardwired to my PC only). the issue was caused by some Netgear routers with old firmware.  

If you haven't tried already I would try resetting your router by disconnecting the power to it, and then reconnecting power. Did that all day up until 2 hours ago - didn't work.  If you do this I suggest resetting the modem at the same time if you reconnect the router to the modem. Last thing I did before coming here. Still nothing!

We have been having intermittent internet,tv and phone outages for the last 4 days. Sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for an hour or two. I have read about the router problem but why should it effect tv and phone ? We are in the 85748 area code of Tucson. I have rebooted my modem and router numerous times. Would appreciate some info, are they working on the lines in this area ?

Husker it sounds like you are having a different issue that we need to address.  If you can send us an email at coxhelp@cox.com we can take a look at this for you.

Cocacola, it sounds like you may be having a separate issue as well.  When your router is connected are you able to access the router config page? Or does your computer not even get a 192.X i.p. address from the router.?

No, I can't access the router config page.

Cocacola, I would suggest trying to do a full reset on your router.  Most routers have a small pin hole, typically on the back of the device that you can press with the tip of a pen.  Hold the reset in for about 10 seconds while the router is on.  If this works you should be able to connect to the router config page, however this will clear out any your previous configuration information, like security encryption and ssid.  That would need to be set up again.  If you can tell me what router model number it is I may be able to provide more info as well.

I will try that thanks.

I have a D-Link Model WBR-1310 ver B

Let me know how it goes cocacola.  Also, here is a link to the manual online if it helps.  It shows the location of the reset button on page 7. 

http://www.dlink.com/us/en/support/product/-/media/Consumer_Products/WBR/WBR%201310/Manual/WBR%201310_Manual_EN_US.pdf

I am in Las Vegas and we are having the same issues here as well. Apparently the problem is spreading.

Is this widespread?  I'm in Orange County, CA and am seeing massive packet loss.

Hello Bruce,

This issue should not have impacted anyone in Orange County.  In any case the outage has been cleared.  If you are still having issues I'd suggest resetting your equipment if you haven't already.  If that doesn't help shoot us an email with your account info to coxhelp@cox.com.