Forum Discussion

SnpynAZ's avatar
SnpynAZ
New Contributor III
4 years ago

High saturation node, slow internet speeds, intermittent drops and nothing they can do?

I'm hoping to get some additional assistance for our internet woes.

We contacted Cox on April 15th because we experienced an outage with our internet service. This outage was longer than we had been experience for the last month or so so it was time to call. We were greeted with a recording indicating Cox was working on some upgrades in our area and that users might experience intermittent outages between midnight and 6am. We chalked it up to their maintenance window and let it go for the evening.

The next day we noticed we were experiencing slower than normal internet speeds, in our case, less than half of our potential 150Mbps download speed. We did some internal troubleshooting, resetting our router, re-provisioning our cable modem through the automated system, factory resetting our cable modem and eliminated the router altogether, going straight from computer to cable modem for testing. All tests are done using hardwire, either through a router or directly from the cable modem. WIFI was not used during any of this testing. A majority of the responses were the same, download speeds generally ranged between 70-90Mbps from early afternoon into late evenings. There were sporadic results that showed closer to "normal download levels around 110-130Mbps but those were not consistent; we saw many more of the abnormal download speed results than "normal" ones. An appointment was eventually made for a technician to come out and take a look at everything on the outside of the home on 4/20.

We received a call from a technician the morning of 4/18 about our service call. The technician indicated he was looking at the node we're attached to and said it was over 80% saturated and that slows speeds and drop outs were somewhat expected given the high level of saturation. The technician indicated he looked at everything and everything looked good, levels were good and there was really nothing he would be able to do about the situation and cancelled our service call for 4/20.

A number of days later, our connection appears to be getting worse, with speeds generally ranging in the 60-80Mbps range in the early afternoon through late evening. Again, we still have some results in the 100-120Mbps range but those are far fewer than the 60-80Mbps range. We're also experiencing more drop outs (loss of connection lasting 5-15 seconds) and increased frustration.

We understand download speeds are an "up to" but we're generally not getting anything close during the waking hours. Is there anything else we can do to address these issues in the short term? We have been forced, like many others, to work remote and our ability to provide support has been impacted with these connectivity related issues.

Here are some recent examples of speed tests using Cox's speed test portal:

PING: 11ms

JITTER: 5ms

DOWNLOAD: 65.8 Mbps

UPLOAD: 10.0 Mbps

 

PING: 20ms

JITTER: 96ms

DOWNLOAD: 66.8 Mbps

UPLOAD: 9.9 Mbps

 

PING: 11ms

JITTER: 2ms

DOWNLOAD: 62.3 Mbps

UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

 

PING: 10ms

JITTER: 4ms

DOWNLOAD: 73.2 Mbps

UPLOAD: 10.2 Mbps

39 Replies

  • vegasmgr's avatar
    vegasmgr
    New Contributor II

    Yup same here man. I purchased the preferred 150 and have never once reached anything close to that speed. The network constantly lags. One minute I have decent speed the next it cuts out. They always blame my personal modem and/or router but I actually had it checked and my modem is perfectly fine. So frustrating. 

  • SnpynAZ's avatar
    SnpynAZ
    New Contributor III

    Another follow up email sent in to cox.help@cox.com. Also ran some more Cox speed tests from 10-10:30 PM local time... here are the results:

    PING: 13ms

    JITTER: 30ms

    DOWNLOAD: 38.3 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 16ms

    JITTER: 19ms

    DOWNLOAD: 37.4 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 16ms

    JITTER: 4ms

    DOWNLOAD: 55.3 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 14ms

    JITTER: 1ms

    DOWNLOAD: 57.7 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 14ms

    JITTER: 7ms

    DOWNLOAD: 62.7 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 14ms

    JITTER: 2ms

    DOWNLOAD: 55.2 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 13ms

    JITTER: 11ms

    DOWNLOAD: 47.8 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.0 Mbps

     

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 3ms

    DOWNLOAD: 30.3 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 4ms

    DOWNLOAD: 56.9 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.0 Mbps

     

    PING: 12ms

    JITTER: 2ms

    DOWNLOAD: 44.3 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 12ms

    JITTER: 14ms

    DOWNLOAD: 22.0 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

    The speed drop off definitely appears to be more prevalent in the mid day through early morning. Earlier speed tests between noon and 1 PM today showed closer to normal speeds in the 100-130 Mbps range on average. We will attempt to take tests multiple times a day and post here to track patterns. We will also continue to note any other issues here and hope for additional help with our degraded internet service.

    Along with continued troubleshooting and tracking, who should we discuss compensation with since we continue to experience serious degradation with our Cox internet service.

    Thank you.

  • EricaW's avatar
    EricaW
    Former Moderator
    Hi SnpynAZ,

    That is an uncomfortable position to be in. We'd be glad to review matters for you. There may be an update we can offer. Please take a moment to email cox.help@cox.com with the complete address and your account name for support.


    Erica
    Cox Support Forums Moderator
    • SnpynAZ's avatar
      SnpynAZ
      New Contributor III

      Thank you Erica. I will do just that. Is there anything in particular I should reference in my email to point to this discussion?

      • QQless's avatar
        QQless
        New Contributor II

        When they say they are glad to review your account that’s exactly what they mean just review it nothing will get fixed and no refund will be provided oh they will tell you that there will be an automatic adjustment you’ll be lucky to get a dollar or two back. The truth of the matter is their Internet system is not capable of handling this many people on at one time but their system is capable of taking your money every month or they will disconnect you good luck and stay safe.

  • SnpynAZ's avatar
    SnpynAZ
    New Contributor III

    New numbers from this evening 😞

    PING : 13ms

    JITTER: 9ms

    DOWNLOAD: 51.7 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.2 Mbps

     

    PING: 12ms

    JITTER: 4ms

    DOWNLOAD: 57.9 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.2 Mbps

     

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 9ms

    DOWNLOAD: 55.7 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.3 Mbps

    @Support: How long does it generally take to respond to support emails that come in?

  • Bryn's avatar
    Bryn
    New Contributor

    Same kind of problem in 92691.  Lots of correctables/uncorrectables on cable modem, although data rates are decent (usually 100Mb/s for the "150" plan).  Most annoying are the dropped connections which kill the VPN for work, and kill online gaming (kids go crazy because a dropped connection looks like you quit a match, and you get banned from the game for a period of time!)  Checked connections as best I could.  Emailed cox.help@cox.com just now.

    • Bryn's avatar
      Bryn
      New Contributor

      Cox replied to my support email very quickly with a suggestion.  Have not been able to try yet since it involves connecting computer directly to cable modem (which means no router, so no internet for anyone else!)

      • Bryn's avatar
        Bryn
        New Contributor

        Cox said there was work being done in the area. 

    • Bryn's avatar
      Bryn
      New Contributor

      Cox techs came by the house and found that a neighbor's cable was introducing some noise into ours, so they added a filter to their cable and mine may have improved somewhat.  I still get long pauses on my work VPN indicating a possible timeout, but I do not seem to be dropping the connection as much.

      Connection speed still varies from 70 - 130Mb/s, but connection stability is more important.  You can still stream HD at lower data rates (70Mb/s is more than enough for several devices), but if you drop the connection you will definitely notice and be frustrated.  Same for gaming:  an immediate response (ping) is more important than data rates - you can have all the bandwidth you want but if your ping is slow you can not game.

      I am not convinced my problem is gone, but maybe yours is the same - you could ask Cox to visit the house and check for noise on the connections.  They can not come inside your house to measure signal levels though.

      • SnpynAZ's avatar
        SnpynAZ
        New Contributor III

        I did have a tech scheduled to come to the house originally. The tech looked at our node remotely, determined it was over saturated, told us there was nothing they would be able to do, and canceled our service call.

        In the end, it appears more like Cox' infrastructure simply is not properly capable of handling the existing demand given this scenario. Scoping and planning for disaster recovery scenarios is done as standard practice in the tech industry, it just feels as if Cox may have not planned appropriately. Either way, we're getting nowhere near the service we are "suggested" to get and it stings even more because we "pay" for the unlimited download caps...

    • SoCalRez's avatar
      SoCalRez
      New Contributor II

      I'm also in 92691. Same issues, though thankfully we never lose connection. But the jitter is so bad (ie ping is so inconsistent) that voice/video calls are garbled and the kids games are a mess. But it's not consistent. We get smoooooooth connections for hours at a time, and then its garbage for a few hours.

  • CoxIsTheWorst's avatar
    CoxIsTheWorst
    New Contributor II

    Happens to me too. Cox is lagging no matter the time of day. Extremely slow internet sometimes.

  • SnpynAZ's avatar
    SnpynAZ
    New Contributor III

    Second email sent to follow up on this issue. So far no relief on the speed issues and intermittent drops.

    • SnpynAZ's avatar
      SnpynAZ
      New Contributor III

      More Cox speed test results for this evening...

      PING: 12ms

      JITTER: 5ms

      DOWNLOAD: 47.9 Mbps

      UPLOAD: 10.0 Mbps

       

      PING: 11ms

      JITTER: 3ms

      DOWNLOAD: 12.1 Mbps

      UPLOAD: 6.5 Mbps

       

      PING: 13ms

      JITTER: 2ms

      DOWNLOAD: 59.7 Mbps

      UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

       

      PING: 11ms

      JITTER: 4ms

      DOWNLOAD: 48.8 Mbps

      UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

       

      PING: 11ms

      JITTER: 52ms

      DOWNLOAD: 48.7 Mbps

      UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

       

      PING: 8ms

      JITTER: 3ms

      DOWNLOAD: 44.1 Mbps

      UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

  • Sylvanas's avatar
    Sylvanas
    New Contributor

    Sadly, we all are experiencing the same thing. for me it's been since I had COX, clearly cox is throttling it customer who pays a high price of that shity service.

    • JonathanJ's avatar
      JonathanJ
      Former Moderator
      @Sylvanas


      What type of device are you testing with and are you hardwired directly or wireless when running these speed tests? If wireless please reboot and run a hardwired speed test.




      Jonathan J
      Cox Moderator




  • SnpynAZ's avatar
    SnpynAZ
    New Contributor III

    Still no response from Cox support to my email inquiries. Here are some updated speed tests numbers done over a 10 minute window around noon locally.

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 7ms

    DOWNLOAD: 61.7 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.0 Mbps

     

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 2ms

    DOWNLOAD: 63.8 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.2 Mbps

     

    PING: 13ms

    JITTER: 5ms

    DOWNLOAD: 116.9 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 9.8 Mbps

     

    PING: 12ms

    JITTER: 10ms

    DOWNLOAD: 107.7 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 8ms

    JITTER: 10ms

    DOWNLOAD: 67.0 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 9.6 Mbps

     

    PING: 19ms

    JITTER: 25ms

    DOWNLOAD: 82.5 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 19ms

    JITTER: 102ms

    DOWNLOAD: 107.3 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.4 Mbps

     

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 8ms

    DOWNLOAD: 73.4 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

  • SnpynAZ's avatar
    SnpynAZ
    New Contributor III

    New stats for today... still no response from Cox support via email.

    Local time @ 3:30PM

     

    PING: 14ms

    JITTER: 9ms

    DOWNLOAD: 76.5 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 13ms

    JITTER: 11ms

    DOWNLOAD: 85.6 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 13ms

    JITTER: 4ms

    DOWNLOAD: 77.9 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.1 Mbps

     

    PING: 9ms

    JITTER: 2ms

    DOWNLOAD: 89.3 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.2 Mbps

     

    PING: 14ms

    JITTER: 2ms

    DOWNLOAD: 56.6 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.3 Mbps

     

    PING: 11ms

    JITTER: 5ms

    DOWNLOAD: 82.6 Mbps

    UPLOAD: 10.2 Mbps