Forum Discussion

wmcole's avatar
wmcole
New Contributor III
3 years ago

Cox Throttling Down Internet Connections Again?

Suddenly, overnight web pages take forever to load, email messages sent in HTML format take ages to load while Ookla SpeedTest shows no change in Cox ISP speed.  This leads to one conclusion - Cox is intercepting, analyzing and categorizing ALL our internet traffic and "throttling" down traffic that is not from Cox "preferred"  (i.e. paid to get priority of their traffic) web sites and content sources. 

Initially ISPs wanted to do this to be able to extort more money from streaming services and / or force users to stick to only their ISP's streaming service.  Net Neutrality made that illegal until Trumps FCC commission diddled with the rules and reclassified certain ISP activity ad "not electronic communications that fall under the regulatory power of the FCC" thus negating Net Neutrality without having to change the law.

It appeas that Cox is now gotten their full snoop-ware suite up so they can drastically degrade streams of Netflix, Roku, NVidia, AppleTV etc streaming services to force user to use Countour plus exclusively.  They appear also to  have removed HD channels from the cable in favor of "down-coding" them to a 16:9 aspect ration very low MPEG-2 profile for transmission.  It is ridiculous when you can see the macro blocks all the time and have content where certain camera moves overrun the encoder and the picture completely breaks up.  Is Countour plus signal (an IP feed supposedly) any better?  I don't know because I won't be forced to Countour plus just because Cox has maneuvered itself to unregulated monopoly status in our area.

So I think the only logical explanation for the instantaneous degradation in internet service is Cox's insertion of the comm intercept, analyze, categorize and throttling software into the otherwise quick, straightforward IP routing software.  No doubt they are also profiling us and selling specific user profiling info to marketing / spamming operators in order to compete with the likes of Google and the other snoopware profiling companies that pollute the internet.  Meanwhile, non-streaming users like me pay in annoying wait times for page / email loads that used to be (even in the days of DSL) instantaneous.

Bad Internet
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  • CrystalS's avatar
    CrystalS
    Former Moderator
    3 years ago
    Hello @Wmcole,

    I completely understand the hassle of having inconsistent internet speeds. I am here to help. We do not throttle speeds. We would definitely be able to assist you with this. Please reach us on Twitter at @CoxHelp, visit us on Facebook, or email us at cox.help@cox.com. Provide us the name on the account with the complete service address with a link to this thread so we can get started.

    Crystal S.
    Cox Support Forum Moderator
    • wmcole's avatar
      wmcole
      New Contributor III
      3 years ago

      It also appears that part of the problem is pass-through from COX DNS servers of DoS attacks. (From my router log:

      [DoS Attack: RST Scan] from source: 45.232.131.151, port 16187, Monday, January 31,2022 15:52:29
      [DoS Attack: RST Scan] from source: 45.232.128.54, port 1121, Monday, January 31,2022 15:40:17
      [DoS Attack: RST Scan] from source: 45.232.130.47, port 25736, Monday, January 31,2022 15:25:31
      [DoS Attack: ACK Scan] from source: 45.61.142.182, port 10668, Monday, January 31,2022 14:41:49

      )

      I don't understand why my lowly router can detect and reject these attacks yet your DNS servers cannot? Result: multiple "Server unavailable. Try Again" responses to attempts to retrieve email, connect to a web page (NOT connected with the sources of the attacks from IPs listed above or their servers) or view HTML email that may include graphics / links from the Web.

  • Mark1h's avatar
    Mark1h
    New Contributor
    3 years ago

    Unless you constantly monitor your speeds, Cox will, no matter what they say, throttle your speeds.  They will say it is because so many people are using it.  I use it late night and there are not that many on, yet my speeds run sometimes almost DSL speeds.  I also get loss of signal at the same time of day and that may happen for over a week.  Cox sadly is currently the only somewhat reliable connection this old disabled veteran living on a very tight budget can get.  At least until OEC gets their fiber in our area.  My rates just went up again, and I am going to have to cut down on things here to survive.  thank you Cox for the insane rates you have.  Give a new customer a rate for 2 years that is half what I am paying but tell me there is nothing you can do.

    • DavidA2's avatar
      DavidA2
      Former Moderator
      3 years ago
      Hi Mark1h,

      I am sorry to hear that you get slow speeds periodically and I understand needing to keep an eye on your bill. If you would like information about our policy regarding throttling, you can refer to section C1. using the following link. www.cox.com/.../internet-service-disclosures.html . If you have questions specific to your account, we ask that you email us at cox.help@cox.com with your service address and a link to this forum thread.

      David
      Cox Support Forum Moderator