Forum Discussion

yancmo's avatar
yancmo
New Contributor II
5 years ago

Frequent connection drops

I too am experiencing the recent uptick in connection drops. This only started this week though. Panoramic wifi has been pretty good to me but now throughout the day and much more at night we are getting very brief disconnects. Just enough to lag out of video games or cause a quick buffer while streaming. At its worst I'm disconnected every 10 to 15 minutes. 

I'm posting here in the hopes that a tech can check my system health. I've rebooted the modem a couple times and today being a hard reset unplugging everything from the modem and letting rest for over 30 seconds. 

Thank you in advance!

  • bobsun's avatar
    bobsun
    New Contributor III

    This seems to be a widespread problem. The response from Cox is always the same - there are some bad connections somewhere. Why are a large number of customers experiencing the same problems? 

    • Dave9's avatar
      Dave9
      Contributor III

      It seems like a widespread problem but it's really not. It's actually dozens or even hundreds of individual problems that all cause the same symptoms in different areas. Unless you live on the same block with another poster, the problems are almost always caused by different things. The cable network is vulnerable to a lot of RF interference that doesn't affect fiber optic or copper baseband (DSL) networks. That RF interference is probably what Cox is referring to when they talk about "bad connections". Cable is also a lot more complex than those other networks so it needs constant maintenance to keep it running. I see major upstream packet loss due to noise ingress about every 4 to 6 weeks. Sometimes I call the tech, other times I wait for a neighbor to call a tech. The tech always fixes it, but it always comes back. Like I said, constant maintenance.

      Oversubscription and congestion are also problems, but like I said that's an individual problem in each neighborhood even though it causes the same type of problem for everyone.

      Unfortunately there's nothing Cox can do to to fix the "widespread problem" because to completely fix it would require fixing all of those hundreds of individual problems on the network. All you can do is schedule a tech to come out and hope they can identify whatever individual problem is occurring in your neighborhood. Then when the problem comes back, call for a tech again. Repeat this process until Cox finally runs fiber to your home, whenever that may be.

  • Overall the signal looks decent, but there are a few down stream channels that are a little out of the normal range and some that are showing quite a bit of uncorrectables. Make sure connections are tight and bypass any possible splitters. Other than that, we may need to have a technician out.

    Brian
    Cox Support Forum Moderator
    • yancmo's avatar
      yancmo
      New Contributor II

      I only have a barrel coupler between the box and modem and I've replaced that. I also connected via ethernet to rule the wifi out and it still happened. So I'm calling for a service call. 

      • yancmo's avatar
        yancmo
        New Contributor II

        Well I called into tech support and was told to reboot everything, they rebooted the modem and said everything look great and my problems should be solved. Of course they issue is not solved. Why when you call in and tell cox everything you have done including talk to someone in support here they still insist on just rebooting? Now i get to waste more time to get the issue escalated. So frustrating. Guess next time I need to do the post chat survey. 

  • ken_c's avatar
    ken_c
    New Contributor

    Can't even get a 24 hour uptime. Usually about 10 hours. So, modem reboot at least twice a day. Not good...

    • Allan's avatar
      Allan
      Moderator
      @Ken C, I recommend sending us an email with your full name, address, and a brief description of the issue to cox.help@cox.com so we can take a closer look for you. -Allan, Cox Support Forums Moderator
  • MrBlueSkyFi's avatar
    MrBlueSkyFi
    New Contributor

    I have been having this issue for the last month.   I am dropped from at least one online meeting per day.  Every single day.   Outage interruptions at least two times per day.  Every single day. 

    • Dave9's avatar
      Dave9
      Contributor III

      As mentioned in my previous reply, unless you live on the same block with the OP it's probably not the same issue. I would suggest starting a new thread and posting your modem signals and logs after allowing the modem to run for at least 24 hours without being rebooted. If you post logs and signals right after a reboot it can make it hard to identify some problems.