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Packet loss and poor speeds (An Oklahoma City Version)
I am having high packet loss & latency coupled with slow speeds/disconnects similar to what FujiwaraTakumi posted about in his thread at: http://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/5/t/12613.aspx.
Can someone please help me with escalation of my issue beyond rude “level-3” techs? Is there a customer service concierge that can help me drive this to closure?
Want to read a novel?
<VENT ON>
I have made 5 calls to level-1 support with a few of them being passed to level-2 and “level-3”. I have had field techs at my residence 3 times now. I am not going to even comment on the support I received from level-1, it just isn’t worth it.
1/25/16: Post phone agent time, the first field tech comes out and tells me that I (1)needed a new modem, (current 8-channel bonding download to an upgraded 16-channel bonding download), of which I bought on the spot, and (2) the cable from the house to the distro box in the corner of the yard needed to be replaced. I was still getting spotty performance when the 1st field tech left my house but was told that, “the equipment needed to be on the line for a few hours to get up to speed”. The next morning I experience the same drops & latency issues, plus slow speed. I was out of the house the next few days, but guess what, when I returned, so did my connection problem.
Slow speed: I used to average 185Mbps down and 25Mbps up, Now I was getting 50-75Mbps down and 0.1Mbps to 2.0Mbps up.
1/28/2016: Introduction to PingPlotter. I LOVE THIS TOOL!! From this point forward, I not only am plotting against cox.net and google.com but also through my network to my modem at 192.168.100.1. (3 separate traces.) My path to the modem is 0% packet loss and ~0 to 1 ms round trip times for the duration. I start capturing data packet loss & latency events. The connection became riddled with 100% packet loss as expected and I call for support again. Not much they can do but send a field tech out the next day.
1/29/2016: I was able to show my captured PingPlotter data to the 2nd field tech and he could tell that I was indeed having an issue. The graphs clearly showed 100% packet loss for extended periods of time, unfortunately, not while he was there. At the time he was here, everything was running fine. It is not unusual (last 2 weeks) for my connection quality to be hit or miss. He went outside and said that there was a connector that he didn’t like, and replaced it.
1/30/2016: The next morning my connection was so bad I could hardly check email, or run a speed test. It was almost as bad as being in a complete outage. I called tech support and was put through to a level-2. He was very helpful and even noticed that my account was not setup to take advantage of the 16-channel bonding download speeds. For about 10 minutes of trouble shooting he was not able to even “see” my modem online until after he made those account changes. He commented that I should not have even been able to connect since he could not see me. After a few modem reboots everything seemed to be fine…it wasn’t, that evening it was terrible again.
1/31/2016: Let the rudeness and condescension begin! My connection is unusable. As usual, I reboot my router and modem, I try rebooting the machine, I try a different machine, I try different cables, power supplies, even removing the router from the system, no luck. Ok, I call back in to tech support and am immediately connected to “level-3” support. This guy is just wanting to talk down to someone and I guess I was the guy (enough said). He is saying that there is no problem that he can see, the system is fine, it has to be on my end, and that I might need a new modem, er well I see you have a new modem, well you might need new cables and a new router BUT that he will send out a field tech the next day. The issue clears up for 30 minutes then is junk the remainder of the day.
2/1/2016: I wake up and go check PingPlotter’s capture overnight. It looks great. There looks to have been something happening the night before, but at about 1:00 AM it clears up. I now have a rock stable connection at speeds I have never seen before. At about 9:00 AM I get voicemail from tech support stating that some other people in my area were experiencing connection issues as well, and that Cox had technicians out working on it until early this morning. He said that it should now be working fine and that if I wanted, I could cancel the scheduled call for later that day. As good as it was running, I almost did cancel the visit. Unfortunately about 10:15 AM I started getting heavy packet loss again.
The 3rd field tech came out this afternoon. He listened to my issue and decided to replace the cable from the wall in the office, through the attic, and out to the service box at the side of the house. So for those keeping score, I have had the cable from the distribution box in the corner of the yard to the service box on the side of the house replaced, the cable from the service box on the outside of the house to the wall plate in the office replaced. The cable from the wall plate to the modem replaced, the modem replaced, the cables from the modem to the router replaced, the router replaced, and finally the cables from the router to each respective system replaced. All systems are hard wired. I had a rock solid connection for about the hour after the 3rd field tech left, then guess what…it went to ** again.
My internet connection is pretty much useless right now. I am very frustrated and don’t “seem” to be getting anyone to help me with this. I am at the point where I am just going to log the events for a few days then call back in for support. Any ideas?
<VENT OFF/>
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Dubuddaman
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RogerK- What modem are you using?
What router are you using?
When you say replaced, is all this Cox equipment currently being utilized in your home/ business?
Do you set up your own internal connections between devices? <--- Meaning are you setting up static IP addresses or dictating how many IP addresses your router will produce for the amount of devices you have?
How many devices do you have connected at one time?
Have you changed your password and set up security on the router?
Have you ran a malware/spyware program on your computer?
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RogerK
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What modem are you using? My new modem is an ARRIS SB6183 purchased from Cox on 1/25/2016.
What router are you using? My old router is the same model as the replacement I purchased. They are both Linksys WRT1900AC; the original one is about a year old, and the new replacement was purchased on 1/31/2016
When you say replaced, is all this Cox equipment currently being utilized in your home/ business? When I say replaced I mean the old/existing item that was in place was removed and “swapped” with a new component of equal or better quality/upgrade. I.e. The cables going through the yard were taken out and replaced with new ones run through conduit, my old ARRIS SB6141 was swapped for a newer ARRIS SB6183. The equipment is owned by me and is not Cox equipment, if that helps. Let me know if you need clarification around this.
Do you set up your own internal connections between devices? <--- Meaning are you setting up static IP addresses or dictating how many IP addresses your router will produce for the amount of devices you have? I do have some static IPs set for my DVR, 2-desktops, 1-laptop, and my printer, all other devices are auto-assigned. Keep in mind that this setup has not changed in about a year and I am just in the last 2 weeks seeing a periodic events hitting the capture.
How many devices do you have connected at one time? As I type this up, the routers network map shows 12 devices; a few mobile phones, Xbox, another laptop…beyond what I mentioned above.
Have you changed your password and set up security on the router? ABSOLUTLY That is the first thing I do out of the box.
Have you ran a malware/spyware program on your computer? I have, I run Malwarebytes, Avast on a few machines and McAfee on a new system (came preloaded). I have actually ran these items multiple times manually over the last week on each of the devices. ALL results have come back clean.
For kicks, I decided to connect my Roku stream box directly to the (new) modem’s ethernet jack during a time when I was capturing data and saw high packet loss. I was able to eventually get Netflix to start streaming a movie but is kept stopping and buffering constantly. In a way it was a gut check to see if it was related to just the computers or the network itself.
Thank you for helping
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Dubuddaman
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What I would do is start at the first device, the modem. Plug in only a computer, something you can run some tests on. Since you did this with the Roku, there is a potential issue at the modem or before. Can you get into the UI of the modem? We would need to see the "Modem Status Page", can you provide these details?
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tray1
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I have no answers. But I can tell you I have been having similar issues off and on for 6 months. Mine seems to only happen at peak times. It will be fine all day then around 8pm packet loss shows up. Usually in the neighborhood of 15-20%. When I run a pathping or tracert the drops are never in my house. Its usually somewhere in Dallas or Kansas. Every time I've called i get the typical responses. I have a technician coming out next week. Im sure nothing will be solved.
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RogerK
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The modem and router are both up to date on firmware. I have not limited the number of devices allowed to connect, but it is good to rule that out.
Here is the current status. I don't think there is much to gain from this snaphot as it was taken during a "good time". SNR look good, etc... I'll try to grab a screenshot when it is flaking out.
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RogerK
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Thanks for the feedback
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ChrisL
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Checking from this end everything looks good with the modem. Can you try without the router? Do you have the pingplotter results to share?
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RogerK
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@ChrisL
Thanks for the help!
We did test with the router removed and with a brand new router with the same results.
I ran a PingPlotter trace to two destinations separately, but at the same time; to the modem at 198.168.100.1 & to cox.net. I was then able to line up the the two so that I could see what was happening in my network (PC to router to modem) versus what was happening on the line going along the hops to cox.net. It appeared clear to me (though I might be reading the charts incorrectly) that I was having no problems on my internal network at the same time that the Cox network was having issues.
I have since learned that I can adjust the charts for better visibility and have been running a continuous capture since Feb-1 @ 17:00.
Here are some of my PingPlotter charts. I apologize for the herky jerky time frame captures and chart size, but they should still illustrate the artifacts i was experiencing. The 1st 3 are to my modem, and the 4th one is to cox.net.
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ChrisL
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Do you have any of those pingplotter results without the router attached?
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RogerK
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Thank you again for the help ChrisL. (sorry for the long answer)
I do not have a PingPlotter capture without the modem,...
...but after reviewing with the field techs, and a gentleman from the Customer Advocacy Group internal to Cox, it was determined that everything on my property, including both routers, are not at fault.
We performed multiple tests with with connecting different devices, (2 separate desktops and 1 laptop) directly to the modem, using new and existing cables. The problem still existed.
Once the logic indicated that my router was not a culprit, well, neither of the 2 routers that I had, the CAG told me it was fine to put it back in the system. After all, the results were the same with and without it.
The CAG did witness some periods of time where my SNR fell way below the allowable margin.The CAG believes it might be a cut shield somewhere on one of the radials going to potentially a neighbors house. Then if they are running some type of defective equipment it might be interfering at that point in time. I am still waiting to hear back from the CAG for assignment to a field rep.
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ChrisL
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The results you're getting show something going between the PC and the 1st piece of equipment on our end. Most likely causes are going to be modem, router, or signal related issue. We can eliminate some of those variables by trying again without the router and following the pattern of symptoms. If you still see the same thing with a direct connection that is something a technician would likely need to come out and troubleshoot further.
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RogerK
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@ChrisL
Thanks for the feedback.
Since the symptoms were still there after the router was removed is one of the reasons we had the techs come out, 3 times. The problem STILL EXISTED with the router removed, I am not sure how many time I need to state that fact. It IS NOT the router causing this issue, that might be the case in a more elementary case. I am not mad here or directing heat in your direction. PLEASE do not feel that. I am very happy for your help with this. I am simply stating that the router has been ruled out by 4 separate Cox representatives including the CAG. (The problem simply exists with the router there or with it out, the problem simply exists with a PC directly attached to the router or not...remember, I tested with a Roku device directly connected to the modem and was still having problems.)
Again, thank you for the help, but I am looking for ideas outside the usual, "it is a problem with your equipment". That ship has sailed. What kind of things could be happing down line intermittently?
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RogerK
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@ChrisL
Can you PM me? I tried to PM you but didn't not see the option to do this.
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ChrisL
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Our forums aren't setup for private messaging. I was really wanting to see a pingplotter without the router so I can try to better understand the nature of the problem. From the customer side things like signal status and connectivity events can be observed via the modem interface however beyond that it's not uncommon for a technician to need to come out and troubleshoot further.
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RogerK
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@ChrisL
My signal seemed to have cleaned up. I have not had any drops in for a about 3 days now, after a very latency/packet loss prone 2 week period. The thing is, I have changed absolutely nothing since the signal cleared up.
I am hoping for the best in that the signal will now be of high quality with low packet loss, but expecting the worst in that it very well may return. If the artifacting does indeed return, I will do my best to get a capture without the router in the system, for at least 30 minutes.
Chris, thank you again for your help.
One last PingPlotter for now. This shows about 4 days of continuous tracking. The blank area on the left of the chart looked just as red as the 1st 24 hours that you see in the chart; all red w/lots of packet loss. (I know this from the other captures, some of which are posted above ). On 2/2 at about 4:00p, the connection became "solid" again. Sure there were some blips here and there, but I feel that is "probably" normal.
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