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Dave9's avatar
Dave9
Contributor III
4 years ago

Here we go again, part 6 - problems after outage

Things had been going along pretty well for a few weeks. A really clean connection doesn't seem to be possible anymore, but upstream noise was only causing about 2-3% packet loss which was tolerable if not ideal. Also was getting a couple of T3 timeouts per day, but I'd learned to live with that as a consequence of decaying infrastructure. I understand the fragility of any cable network and that things break faster than they can be fixed especially as the network ages.

Then there was an outage yesterday, which I know can also mean that maintenance is being done on the plant. I was hopeful that maybe this maintenance would correct the remaining upstream noise issue and restore a clean connection, which I know is possible since I've had periods of time when my connection was flawless.

No such luck for me. Ever since the outage, I've had dozens of T3 timeouts and upstream packet loss ranging from 12% to 65%(!). So whatever they did, they made it much worse.

I know, I know...Call a tech! But wouldn't be be nice if the tech who "fixed" the previous outage had checked their work so I wouldn't have to call a tech in the first place? Wouldn't it be nice if Cox proactively monitored their network and dispatched plant maintenance when they see so many errors and so much packet loss in a neighborhood? Think of how many truck rolls that would save. Maybe they could use all of that money to run some fiber and never have to deal with upstream noise ingress again. I know it will never happen, but a guy can dream, can't he?

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  • SharonL's avatar
    SharonL
    Former Moderator
    4 years ago
    Hello Dave,

    This appears as if you may need someone to investigate your account personally. We would 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.

    Thank you.
     
    Sharon
    Cox Support Forum Moderator
     
    • Dave9's avatar
      Dave9
      Contributor III
      4 years ago

      E-mail sent. I will post an update here when I hear back.

  • Dave9's avatar
    Dave9
    Contributor III
    4 years ago

    Tech visited a few days ago and confirmed the issue was seen at the tap and was not a problem in my equipment. He opened a plant maintenance ticket. As of a few hours ago, it appears that the packet loss has been reduced from an average of 20% down to an average of about 3.5%. T3 timeouts have been reduced from multiple times per hour to once every hour or two. I was hoping that they would have also found and fixed whatever was causing the remaining T3 timeouts and packet loss but as I mentioned, a truly clean connection seems to no longer be possible. Since Cox has the monopoly on decent speeds in my area I suppose I should be happy with whatever I can get.

    UPDATE: As of a few hours ago the T3 timeouts stopped completely and I'm seeing a clean connection (0% packets loss up/down). I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if it's an intermittent noise source that's only active during the day, but for the moment it looks like they might have fixed it completely. I really hope so.