Understood. So all this happens when someone upgrades to Gigablast? 😉 Because I've been a Cox customer for 2 years now and everything was perfect until recently. And upgrading to Gigablast seemed to make things worse. I go back to Edward's well stated "But trying to prove it... is like pulling teeth" statement, as I'm seeing I need to do here. I definitely can't deal with this for 5 years to fix itself, or even 2 years. Seems like Cox is full of excuses and no solutions. I think all this could be faster remediated if Cox wouldn't charge for their techs to come out. We're paying for the monthly service, why doesn't the tech ensure all is perfectly fine from the get-go of upgrades or new service? If I have to pay a tech to come out to resolve the issue, then switching providers is the way to go. I pay way too much to have horrible internet connection, specially when it's impacting my ability to work. If I can't work to make money, then I can't afford to pay Cox.
Cox doesn't charge for their techs to come out, IF the issue is the delivery of service to the home. If the issue is the home wiring, or your equipment, then yes, unless you are signed up for Cox Complete Care, you will be billed, because it's not a Cox issue.
Now that we are past that, how about a test, with a computer that has a gigabit , (1000baseTX) ethernet port, connected direct to the modem, the modem restarted and then a speed test run from various sites for a good average.
I wanted to allow enough time after Cox informing of the issue in the area and "resolving" the issue. Cox came out last Tuesday to our neighborhood to address whatever issue they had finally acknowledged. It has now been one week since they fixed whatever it was in our area and I have not had the drops anymore. My connection has become very stable once again and I am able to have zoom meetings without complete embarrassment of bad internet service. One thing that they have not addressed is the Download speeds. I have Gigablast and still only get in the high 300's , but it's a lot more consistent than it was before. It's constantly close to 400. Considering the horrible ups and downs, this is somewhat of a win...however knowing that I'm paying for Gig speeds and not getting it feels a bit like a scam.
Anyone thinking of going with Gigablast to improve speeds, don't waste your money with Cox. You most likely won't get Gig speeds unless Cox has built the infrastructure in your area for it. Don't take their word. Ask your neighbors instead. It's an expensive lesson I learned.
Recap: Cox had faulty wiring in my neighborhood that impacted my internet. I thought the solution was to upgrade to Gigablast. I did and nothing changed. They fixed the problem in the neighborhood after taking weeks to acknowledge (probably on purpose to get more desperate people to upgrade). Things are more stable and looks like I didn't need Gigablast and was fine with my previous, much cheaper plan.
When you say "Given the results you've obtained via a wired Ethernet connection I'm thinking the Internet connection is not the likely cause of the issues you're experiencing", in regards to the speed, doesn't Gigablast mean getting at least close to 1 Gig speeds? I know we can't expect 1 Gig, but shouldn't we get at least 800 or 900? Otherwise the 500 MB was giving me the same speed as I get now, for a significantly cheaper monthly fee.
When you mention "It sounds like it used to work", to clarify this...the stability was much better when I was on the 500 MB speed plan and the speeds were similar to what I have now. The upload speed was half, but the stability was better. I upgraded to Gigablast to get close to Gig speeds with higher upload speeds. The download speed hasn't really changed, but the upload speeds have increased. However, the dropped connection has increased significantly, which outweighs the upload speeds. I mean, what's the point of high upload speeds when there's no internet connection?
So by switching to Gigablast
Also, I'm about 20 miles from the nearest airport. As far as I know, nothing has changed in my neighborhood. If it did, it would be an incredible coincidence that the change in my neighborhood happened at the exact same time I upgraded my service and got off the phone with the Cox representative.
Is there a sure way I can determine if it's the router/modem or not? I tried researching the serial number of the modem, and couldn't find anything on it. I just want to make sure Cox did in fact give me a router that can handle Gig speeds. Secondly, can anything be looked into from my account to ensure all is setup correctly there and it has taken into effect? When someone says it took their speeds 2 years to kick in, makes me wonder if a refresh needs to be forced to make it happen faster than that. Thirdly, in regards to the stability, anything I can configure so that when burst of upload happen, like making a Zoom meeting call, that the router doesn't have a temporary cardiac arrest, as I wait frustrated and embarrassed for it to revive itself?
Did a bit more research. The "New" router they gave me is:
Panoramic Wifi Gateway
Brand: TECHNICOLOR
Model: CGM4331COM
I looked this up and it's a 2020 model. If my understanding is correct, it has both DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1...which I didn't know was possible. But in any case, it seems Cox didn't really change out my old Panoramic for a new one. They switched it with another old one. However, based on the specs, it can handle up to 2 Gig speeds. Soooo...no idea. Also, I see on my account that they have finally acknowledged there's an issue in my area and plan to fix it on Tuesday. We'll see how the "Cox fix" goes. Maybe the coincidence of my upgrade at the exact same date/time and a Cox issue happening in my area did happen. Wow, there's higher probability of winning the lottery, yet it may have happened here.
I directly connected my laptop to the modem using a Cat6 cable. I restarted the modem and here are the results from 3 different sites.
Also, interestingly, I haven't had as much drops today, however it's probably because it's a light day for meetings. I had two meetings and as soon as I connected to the meetings, within 30 seconds into the meeting, the internet cut out for about 2 minutes. Then it came back somewhat stable, but I kept getting the "Internet connection unstable" message in my meeting. It happened in both meetings. It's almost like when a device uses upload speeds all of a sudden, the modem goes into shock, stops for about 2 minutes, then regains itself...somewhat shaky at best.
Given the results you've obtained via a wired Ethernet connection I'm thinking the Internet connection is not the likely cause of the issues you're experiencing and if you've swapped routers already and still seeing problems with all wireless devices it's probably not the router. In some environments, wifi simply just isn't reliable due to the factors described previously. It sounds like it used to work however based on your description suggesting something in the environment could have changed in a way that wifi is experiencing interference. One source of interference not mentioned above is rarar. If you live near an airport or large weather station a large swath of 5Ghz channels won't be usable by your router.
Try a Cat 5e cable, and reboot your laptop into safe mode with networking. Laptops traditionally have less powerful cpu's in them, so booting to safe mode with networking will drop out all the background programs, and provide more accurate results.
My guess is you had a DOCSIS 3.0 gateway before, and now you have a DOCSIS 3.1 gateway, and they did upstream OFDM channel upgrades in your area and now your having issues. DOCSIS 3.0 modems don't use OFDM. If you want to go nuclear on the problem, try going to a Cox store and see if they will swap you for a DOCSIS 3.0 gateway like the Arris TG2472.If that works, downgrade to 500Mbps.
they no longer have any 2472's at the Cox solution stores. You MAY find one at ebay, but since it has telephone on it, cox may not allow it on the network.
Really? That's a bummer. They should state that somewhere on the documentation. Thanks for the insight. I retract my suggestion.
trust me, if I could get my hands on a 2472, I would LOVE to have it. It has moca on it, the 2460 doesn't. 😞
