Massive spike

Cox may have renamed the “Network Management & Testing” usage category to "Communication Applications' a couple of month ago. 

For the first time, I noticed “Network Management & Testing” and "Communication Applications' are both listed in my 'Data usage activities' this month.  It would make month-to-month comparisons easier if we knew Cox wasn't changing data usage categories.   

FYI, it looks to me like you may have mistakenly used a capital 5 in your post in place of a lower case 5.

I know I hate it when I miss caps on a 5 and having to go back with lowercase. 

Thank you for writing it like that. It truly gave me more happiness than anything in the past week at least. I will be able to use that feeling for days. 

Hello FamilyAllen4. I apologize for the data spike issues you are experiencing. I can understand how frustrating that can be.  We can take a look and see if there is anything we can determine from this end or find a way to assist you in this matter. Can you send us an email to Cox.Help@cox.com with your full name and complete address? We would like to investigate this issue for you.

There are things that can cause that spike. If you have amazon alexa devices, they can get into a loop listening/broadcasting to amazon trying to decipher/decode normal conversations as instructions and they can use an EXTENSIVE amount of data. I helped a friend out last week who's alexa was using over 325gb daily. We know now it was those devices, cause when we removed all of his alexa devices from his network, the usage dropped back to normal usage. We reconnected 2 days later and the usage went sky high again. We "DEDUCE" it's in a translation loop of some sort, but it could be something else. We removed it again and usage dropped back to normal, so he has taken all of his alexa/amazon echo/dot devices off and all is good now. 

Hello I can understand what you are saying because it’s now happening to me and nothing in my house has changed. I never went over for years now and all of a sudden I’m going over!!! And it says it’s being used by the others category but doesn’t show or say what that means!!! Just keep getting the run around from cox about it 

Hi, there. I'm really sorry for the issues with the data usage. I want to help. Please email us the physical address and any other pertinent information to Cox.Help@cox.com with your name and a copy of this forum message. We would be glad to look into this for you and help out in any way we can. 

Can you tell me what’s that really going to do?? I have gone into the store and I have spent hours on the phone and all I get is the run around and now I even have a new plan and paying more because I’m told there is nothing else that they can do !!!

familyallen4 

After re-reading your post, I have a feeling I know what Cox would say.  "Change your Wi-Fi password."  What threw me off was the idea the spike was solely due to general browsing.  Someone could have pirated your Wi-Fi to download their wish list of every game they ever wanted.  Some game title downloads use more than 50 GB of data.  10-12 of those would get to your 600 GB data usage spike.  In what data usage category was the spike reported?

You don't need to change your lifestyle.  Just change your Wi-Fi password.

Do you think your reported data usage is a mistake?   If you do, change your Wi-Fi password to a strong password and don't share it with anyone.  Then, if your data usage spikes when you're away, you'll be able to make a more impactful argument with Cox.

Have you changed your Wi-Fi password since February?  You may not be using that much data, but your neighbors could be pirating your Wi-Fi.  Even if you don't think it's happening, change your password anyway and let others in your household know they shouldn't share it with anyone.  Let us know if your reported data usage significantly drops next month.  

I’m having the same issue, massive spike in network management and testing usage, putting me at my limit, nothing has changed, no unknown devices on the network, cox wanted me to buy more data, also change the password but nobody is around to steal my WiFi, I’m fairly isolated, I’m thinking to change to satellite, has anybody else done this?

Here’s my current breakdown:

cox network management and testing 90%
Streaming video 3%
other 3%
Social media 2%
Web browsing 1%
File transfer and backup 1%

I feel like if anyone were stealing my WiFi it would show up as streaming or something other than network management and testing

Has anybody here switched to Starlink? I don’t need more speed, and my cox goes down every few days, I think it would be more reliable 

They were absolutely no help to me at all and only kept throwing the higher data package at me.  Not a solution to the issue.  I have disconnected their Panoramic WiFi router, and bought my own modem and router.  Since hooking that up (about 4days so far) the numbers look WAY more normal. 

I'm having the exact same issue and I do not have a Panoramic Gateway. I'm also getting the same response from Cox as everyone else, the only difference on my end is that all of the usage is showing in the Other category. I've been searching threads, wondering if anyone has found any type of resolution to this issue, but haven't found anything yet.

If you don't have a oanaromic gateway then checkk your router's breakdown of data usage. It will give you by day per device breakdowns of data usage and aggrates. If they don't match cox's numbers it's unlikely your router is incorrect. 

If data logging at least if the current month (which you can adjust to match your billing cycle on ever router I have seen in the past 15 years) is disabled, turn it on and check back tomorrow.

I have a netgear RAXE300 and have found it to be spot on with Cox's data measurements. 

I have Pano 7, tech support says I can see the usage per device with the app but I can’t see it, and it looks like tech support can’t receive my screen shots, so not much help. They WON, I upgraded to unlimited data, so an extra $50 a month just to account for their network management and testing. Until I get a starlink, that is. Has anybody else tried starlink?

Worth noting I live alone, am not a gamer and don’t watch very much tv. Ridiculous 

There are several network sniffers that are free to use that can be installed on a system so you can see anything and everything going across your network so you'll know if a device on your system is actually sucking up bandwidth or not.