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Random connection disruption
I'm looking for some answers regarding an issue I'm having with my connection. Answers preferably beyond "I can't find anything wrong", which is all we get from the technicians who have now been out 4 times or so.
Over the past 3 months, my wife and I have been experiencing random drops to our connection. However they are not normal internet connection drops. I don't really know how best to explain it, so I'm just going to dump the information I have available here:
-These are some sort of signal disruption that does not cause the modem to disconnect. In fact, when it happens, only certain types of computer programs are affected. Buffered programs such as movies and games which are heavily buffered do not get affected by these "drops", however programs with little or no buffer drop (such as IM programs, several games, music streams, and so on).
-These "drops" occur only on one system or another at a time. There is no point in which all of our network devices suddenly get an interruption. We can be each playing the same game, and at one point, one of us will drop, the other won't. Later, it will be the opposite.
-These "drops" occur on both wireless and wired systems
-The disruption seems to occur randomly, though usually is an hour to two hours between drops when active. When I say "active", I am referring to the fact that this past weekend, as well as for a period of 4 days in early June, we had no issues.
-We have run weeks worth of tests on our own computers, making sure drivers were updated, testing various programs, and have found nothing out of place.
-We are on our 4th modem/router (because Cox technical support apparently doesn't talk to Cox technicians who come out and say everything seems fine). We recently switched from the Netgear modem/router to a Motorola that we purchased (after consulting with Cox to verify that the model we wanted was compatible with our service.)
-The drops do not knock out the base level signal on the connection. If you were watching the router when a drop took place, the lights wouldn't change. The only evidence that something is wrong is the disconnection of games, music streams, IM programs and other un-buffered software.
-Using 'netstat -e' via the command prompt, we are seeing around 20 ethernet errors per day, and the number of listed errors is almost, but not always, incremented by 1 every time a drop occurs (and only incremented on the machine for which the problem affected, not all systems on the local network).
I am at a complete loss as to what to do about this. Cox technical support seems to believe that sending a technician out magically solves all problems, but after 3 months and 4 visits, we still have the same issue. The technicians only do short checks, which, of course, will yield no results because this problem only happens about once every one to two hours. We've verified over and over that we have no splitters in our line, our modem is hooked up right, and so on.
The only thing different that happened was one day after saying everything looked fine in our townhome, the technician went outside to the base of our building, to a box/unit that apparently houses a switch or something for all the units in our building. He sat for almost half an hour running a test. When he returned, just before leaving, he said he had seen a drop of some sort while down there. I don't know anything about what sort of issue the guy saw. It's not impossible it was a straight up disconnect, as we have problems like that in the first place (but those we can identify easily because *all* our computers go offline and the modem has to be restarted).
I'm tired of dealing with Cox on this problem, because we get nowhere. I've explained the problem to at least a dozen people, none of whom seem to have any notes on our account from the previous technicians stating that our equipment is fine. I'm beginning to think this is some sort of joke to them.
If anyone else has had similar issues and found ways to resolve them, I'd like to know. This is getting ludicrous with the amount of time and energy I'm having to put into it just to have a stable connection.
cnjb
New Contributor
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I believe I made it quite clear that this issue is affecting both our wireless *and* wired equipment.
We have already changed the channel as well.
I've also noticed that this issue seems to pop up more in the evenings, and not as much during the daytime.
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Paying_for_prem
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Geronimo1964
New Contributor
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TiffanyR,
We started having random drops a week ago. My sons can no longer play X-Box One online games or Steam games without being booted out. I call customer service twice and did everything they asked. I even bought a new NetGear Router (today)j. It is their top of the line model and we still have the same problem. I did notice that we get an IP conflict error of some sort once in awhile. So, I have a new router, new wiring and same problems. Can you advise me on what to do next since it isn't a wireless equipment problem as it is brand new and I don't know how to fix an IP problem if that is what is wrong.
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Health_Edge
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Valued Contributor III
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A IP conflict is usually caused for a device set with a static IP in the routers DHCP subnet but where the router doesn't have a reservation for that IP. IE You set network printer or xbox with static IP 192.168.1.2 and everything works. Then that device shuts off, and a new device (say a laptop) connects to the network and the router assigns it the first open IP via DHCP; 192.168.1.2. Then the device with the static is turned on again, and you have two devices trying to use the same IP= IP conflict. Happens alot on printers, security camera systems and game consoles since they need port forwarding.
What kind of router do you have? And ask your son how he has the Xbox One connected.
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Tmuldn
New Contributor
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We have also started experiencing these random internet disruptions this past week and can't figure out why. We've had our service for a year and typically have to reboot once a week. Over the past week we've rebooted more times than we can count.
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Health_Edge
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Valued Contributor III
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Were you also getting IP conflict errors? The OP issue sounds network in nature more so then the modem, but could be too early to tell. If not directly related to OP then your better off making your own thread so it can get the attention it deserves.
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cnjb
New Contributor
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I must stress that the interruptions we are having do not cause the modem to need to be reset. They are not full connection losses, but an interruption of information flow.
Recently we had a two day break with no issues at all, now we're back to having interruption once every hour or two.
As seen in the above replies, Cox is no-where near on the ball with solving these issues, they want to send out a technician AGAIN, to run 10 or 15 seconds of testing on a problem that only occurs randomly and at a rate of about once every hour or two. I can guarantee that if they send someone out, the results will be the same. "I can't find any issues".
Obviously the solution to this, for us, is to find a different provider. I've had it with obtuseness from Cox.
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Health_Edge
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Valued Contributor III
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Ok, best of luck to ya. If you change your mind feel free to post again and I will try to help.
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ChrisL
Former Moderator
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cnjb
New Contributor
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We have spent weeks testing the equipment on our network. Currently there are 2 computers with wire to the modem/router, and 4 wireless devices (1 computer and 3 other devices). We've tested all 3 computers and each one of them has experienced these sort of disconnects.
These disconnects also only appear to happen during heavy traffic times. I rarely see a problem during the daytime, and sometimes we go 3 days or so without any issues. Weekends and evenings however, disconnects almost hourly.
I would love for this to be a problem with our network, because then we could actually get it fixed. Considering that we don't do any custom optimizations or any tweaking on our network, it is operating on the same basic network that the average user gets when you plug things in. We've switched systems around, changed modems, checked wires, changed wireless channels, and so on. The amount of testing has been extensive considering it's a simple plug-and-play home network using no custom modifications.
And before you ask, yes, our software and drivers are up to date.
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ChrisL
Former Moderator
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cnjb
New Contributor
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I've been through that process, Chris.
Months ago, when this problem first kicked up, I was using a desktop PC hooked via ethernet to the Netgear CG3000D-RG that we were renting from your company. It had performed very well for over a year at that point, with the only issues being the occasional loss of signal which was due to power outages, or other outages that often affected multiple customers in our area.
When this problem started happening, it occurred regardless of how many devices were connected to the network. The only devices attached to the network during the day are my computer, my Iphone, and my Nexus 7. All of which worked many many months without issue.
About 2 weeks after this problem started, as life would have it, the hard drive on that computer crashed. As a result, the computer I now use is a completely different system, a laptop, made by a different company. Still the problem persists. We have also replaced the physical wires, as well as, at Cox' suggestion, changed modems out. After the problem persisted, we decided to change modem brands completely in an effort to solve this problem (which cost us roughly $100), still it persists.
As much as your company would love to blame this on the customer hardware, the customer hardware has already been through complete change-out for new hardware, but the problem persists.
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ChrisL
Former Moderator
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lizdance40
New Contributor
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What level internet service are you signed up for? If you are on the bottom levels of speed and service, that is your problem right there.
Verify your service is provisioned at the correct level. Once in a while a customer paying for "premier" service, discovers they still have only "basic" speed.
We had similar problems for years. Especially the service drop during prime time, on snow days or other days where being indoors on Warcraft was the thing to do. We also had an additional problem of a fax sound on the line for incoming callers on rare occasions. (We have phone, internet and TV with Cox).
After years of it being a minor annoyance, we added streaming players to the house. It got worse. On any given day we had 2 desk tops, 1 laptop, 3 smart phones, 2 iPad, 2 iPod touch, an Xbox, and a Playstation, 2 Roku and an Apple TV. Not all at once, but close.
Since I knew these players were high demand and I had mid-level internet package, I upgraded. I also removed my security system from the phone landline and put it on a cellular connection. (this resolved the fax signal problem, which also caused internet fails) I purchases an Apple Airport Extreme to replace the 4th router I had tried in as many years (all pricey, top rated routers). A side note on non-cox equipment - Cox sets up the system to talk to their modem and their modem to talk to their router. One of my purchases was a Motorola Gateway or Surfboard. For some reason Cox could not "see" that modem/router. It would go out, I would get Cox on the phone, we would reset, they asked questions about model, blah, blah, trying to "see" the router on the system. Never worked for long before we were out again. There were 2 Netgear routers the 2nd supposedly better. Then a Belkin, which lasted longer than the others.
The best advice I got during the worst of my problem was from a Geek Squad tech: If I was having the same problem, on multiple devices, with multiple platforms and operating systems and the only common thread is my incoming internet service, then it is the service - hardware, software or service level.
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cnjb
New Contributor
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It would appear now, after several more days of testing, that the issue is not as random as I had previously thought.
It is random in that it happens one day, but maybe not the next. The issue comes and goes.
However, when this problem does show up, we are seeing this drop once per hour, exactly on the minute. I just had a drop at 12:58PM, and can now know that it won't happen again until 1:58PM, and then 2:58PM, etc.
Yesterday I also tested out whether or not resetting the modem changed the time at which these drops happen, and it *does* affect it. I was experiencing drops at around 43 minutes past the hour, every hour yesterday, until I reset the modem at about 10minutes past the hour. The drops then took place at 10minutes past the hour.
Why it has been shifted to 58minutes past the hour now is something I've not yet determined, but I do know that we will go for a day or so at times with no drops at all.
Additionally, we had a technician out the other day who tested the signal on our lines and made some adjustments. Whether or not it was coincidence that the problem stopped for a while after he did the adjustments, I cannot say, but for about 24hours after he changed some things, we had no issues.
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