Erratic internet service

This issue was finally resolved, at least for now. It took two trucks with two techs, one a line tech and the other an outside plant tech. The RG11 cable to the house (larger than standard RG6 due to 200') was fine and so was the modem. The problem was "noise on the node" down the street which was removed by the outside plant tech somehow. The line tech said they did have problems with noise on the system in general so I'm sure that compounded the issue. Though my Cisco DPC3010 DOCSIS 3.0 modem was fine they replaced it with an ARRIS CM8200A DOCSIS 3.1. The reason for this is that the Cisco is an 8x4 (8 download x 4 upload channels) and the ARRIS is 32x8. The line tech said this modem would have more "redundancy" and so far that seems true. If you have a few channels with problems then having 32x8 instead of 8x4 to use is a huge advantage.

What I think is happening is that as the load has increased due to streaming, plus now remote work and remote learning, the Cox system is struggling to keep up. Nodes were typically between 500-2000 users depending on load. As that load has increased they are now splitting nodes to reduce the number of users on each node. This is not a simple thing and per communication a friend received from Cox, it might take six months to "redesign the system. The following link is a good depiction:

Hybrid fiber-coaxial - Wikipedia

I imagine Cox and other ISP's are hesitant to invest in infrastructure because 5G and Starlink will soon take over so you can see the dilemma. Verizon stopped installing and deploying any more FIOS some time ago so the handwriting is on the wall. I'm not ruling out Starlink once it comes out of beta and is available. I hope this follow-up helps people having problems so you have the correct terminology to get problems corrected. Don't waste your time with phone or chat support and mindless reading off a script. I emailed Cox.help@cox.com and that is what finally got the help I needed plus this post.

Good luck!