Continuing my previous post that was closed: https://forums.cox.com/forum_home/internet_forum/f/internet-forum/21292/internet-issues---consistent-lost-packets-north-phoenix-arizona The same issue is still occurring. I now have months of data collected to support packet loss beyond my home, as well as an in-home Cox technician that confirmed the infrastructure beyond my home was the issue and that he was seeing packet loss at my tap while excluding my entire internal network. The call date was September 8, 2018 and packet loss beyond my home should be notated on my account in accordance with that call. Here are screenshots from a packet testing utility I've been using while hard wired to my modem and through a router - the same packet loss issues persisted with or without the router in between. Packet loss also persisted through different hardware and operating systems. This packet loss issue persisted through three separate/new routers, two separate, brand new DOCSIS 3.0 modems, a Cox supplied Panoramic modem/router combo as well as the current Motorola MB8600 DOCSIS 3.1 modem. The modem provisioning can be found in my account history. In the photo below, you can see lost packets using UDP (in the Ping Plotter application window, not a normal ICMP request that would normally be dropped due to low priority) and a normal ping in the command prompt window both displaying dropped packets at the same time using two separate types of communication: Here is a screenshot from my modem indicating the uptime (less than three weeks, modem is brand new) and the several hundred thousand of corrections needed on bands 2-21: I called Motorola to confirm my understanding of the "correction" column, and was immediately informed that the number of corrections based on the modem's status page is indicative of an issue with Cox's infrastructure beyond my home. My RG6 line runs direct from the tap at the outside of my home to my modem - no splitters or other devices in use, and was replaced about two months ago by a Cox technician. The RG11 line that runs from the closest Cox ingress point to the outside of my home was replaced as well, about two months ago. There is a problem with the Cox infrastructure in my area of Phoenix. I've been dealing with this problem for months, and have provided Cox with dozens of data sets like the ones linked in this post - yet no tangible corrective measures beyond replacing the lines running to my home have been taken. I currently have a complaint in with the FCC and FTC, and will continue documenting and communicating this information out until the issue of packet loss is identified and corrected.

Try Ping Plotter - it's the program I used to narrow down the issues of packet loss and high latency during outages. You're reporting the exact same symptoms I had - which turned out to be bad Cox infrastructure/equipment in my area. Don't make the same mistake I did - get data right away, and have techs come out during peak times when the packet loss is likely to occur. If you see a trend (which I did this week), see if they can come out and test when packet loss is most likely to happen - and request an actual Cox employee. I'm not sure about Vegas, but the non-Cox/outsourced techs they use in the Phoenix area are very very very bad. In the course of troubleshooting this, I was told by an outsourced Cox in home tech that my problems were due to "having too many things plugged in". It took thirteen on site tech visits before Cox finally confirmed the packet loss issue while excluding my internal network. Thirteen. Most of which were outsourced technicians who wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible, to theoretically maximize the number of visits and subsequent payments they receive. I'm fairly sure you are if you're streaming - but testing while hard wired to your modem/router is the way to go. To vet my network I tested while hooked up directly to my modem and had data showing the issues persisted with that setup as well. Another thing to try would be to manually assign DNS servers. This didn't help me, but if Cox's DNS servers are problematic, it might help. Try 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 or 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Both are low latency/reputable DNS servers. If all else fails and you have data to show that Cox's infrastructure is the problem, file a complaint with the FCC. The more records the FCC has, the more data about Cox's aging and unreliable infrastructure will be in the public records. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002206106 Good luck!

Bringing this back up - on November 11, overnight, Cox field techs performed work to our neighborhood node. I did not experience packet loss or spikes in latency for 16 days, until today - November 27. Unfortunately/not coincidentally today - I noticed a Cox tech out at our neighborhood node around 9:30AM. After that particular visit, I'm now seeing the same packet loss issues I was seeing before, possibly worse. Here is supporting data:Before contacting Cox tech support: After contacting Cox tech support and refreshing my modem: Here is a screenshot of connection data from my brand new DOCSIS 3.1 modem: One channel (channel 2) has logged over 18,000 uncorrected packets over the past nine days of uptime. Every single channel has logged hundreds of corrected and uncorrected packets. This is ridiculous. Why is this still an issue? Two FCC complaints, a BBB complaint, local Phoenix city complaint, dozens of phone calls to Cox tech support with very specific data sets, dozens of emails to Cox support with additional data sets, at least half a dozen neighborhood node visits by Cox field techs since November 11, 2018 - why can't one of the nation's largest ISP's figure out the problem plaguing my area of Phoenix? This should be embarrassing to Cox tech support and field technicians. It is apathetic at best, malicious at worst from my perspective as a customer of ~10 years. This is not a complicated issue. If the infrastructure is the problem (which my neighborhood node is), take a portion of the $100/mo payments from your literal millions of customers in the Phoenix area and repair or replace the problematic infrastructure. I would imagine one market's gross of (conservatively) a hundred million dollars a month would allow the funds to replace faulty infrastructure. Come on Cox.

I received zero communication from your field technicians despite being assured last weekend by a tier 2 rep that I would get a call no later than Wednesday. No work has been performed on my node as far as I can tell. Work is typically notable on my trace route utility by way of obvious, prolonged down time with 100% packet loss. This did not occur this week, so as far as my data is concerned, nothing has been done and nothing has been communicated to me despite being assured I'd receive a call about this. Here is evidence of an outage from about 8PM to 10:30PM last night: I will say this again, to continually highlight this point - this problem has been ongoing for over a year. I have attempted to work closely with Cox for almost five months now, and have data going back as far that highlights consistent packet loss. Why is a consistent problem with my connectivity still unresolved after almost five months of direct communication regarding the problem? As a customer, this is completely unacceptable and as an ISP this should be humiliating for your technicians trying to sort the problem out.

I'm now being told by Cox's Executive Support Team that this issue will no longer be investigated and is being classified as acceptable as a "Best Effort" consumer service. I was also questioned about posts to multiple social media organizations, highlighting the poor performance of Cox's network in my part of Phoenix. Repeated interruptions of service with 5-30% packet loss during peak times is wholly unacceptable and would not fall under what any consumer would classify as "Best Effort" service.

Here is an image of my internet from last night. 20+% packet loss. This is ridiculous and deserves to be addressed. As you can see based on my previous post, the number of corrections made by my modem went up by 10,000 or more on several channels following the service outage last night: I was unable to maintain a 1080p video stream from YouTube, let alone play games online. All devices suffering packet loss were hard wired to the router. Modem is brand new, DOCSIS 3.1 - Motorola MB8600 - approved for Cox's network according to your list of certified modems: https://www.cox.com/residential/support/cox-certified-cable-modems.html My router is brand new and is demonstrating no issues according to my packet loss tracking utility. This is a problem with Cox's infrastructure beyond my home.

Internet Issues - Consistent Lost Packets North Phoenix, Arizona

66 Replies

sjo102784
Contributor
Bringing this back up - on November 11, overnight, Cox field techs performed work to our neighborhood node. I did not experience packet loss or spikes in latency for 16 days, until today - November 27.

Unfortunately/not coincidentally today - I noticed a Cox tech out at our neighborhood node around 9:30AM. After that particular visit, I'm now seeing the same packet loss issues I was seeing before, possibly worse. Here is supporting data:

Before contacting Cox tech support:

After contacting Cox tech support and refreshing my modem:

Here is a screenshot of connection data from my brand new DOCSIS 3.1 modem:

One channel (channel 2) has logged over 18,000 uncorrected packets over the past nine days of uptime. Every single channel has logged hundreds of corrected and uncorrected packets. This is ridiculous.

Why is this still an issue? Two FCC complaints, a BBB complaint, local Phoenix city complaint, dozens of phone calls to Cox tech support with very specific data sets, dozens of emails to Cox support with additional data sets, at least half a dozen neighborhood node visits by Cox field techs since November 11, 2018 - why can't one of the nation's largest ISP's figure out the problem plaguing my area of Phoenix? This should be embarrassing to Cox tech support and field technicians. It is apathetic at best, malicious at worst from my perspective as a customer of ~10 years.

This is not a complicated issue. If the infrastructure is the problem (which my neighborhood node is), take a portion of the $100/mo payments from your literal millions of customers in the Phoenix area and repair or replace the problematic infrastructure. I would imagine one market's gross of (conservatively) a hundred million dollars a month would allow the funds to replace faulty infrastructure.

Come on Cox.
- Becky
  Moderator
  Hi Sjo102784, a Field Specialist tested the tap on 11/27/18 and found no packet loss. He wanted to test your drop again; however, no one was home. I've contacted the Field team and asked for an action plan update. We'll let you know what we find out! -Becky, Cox Support Forums Moderator
  - oldezio
    New Contributor
    I'm going to throw my hat in the ring here as well. I am in North Scottsdale (far north, nearly Cave Creek) and we've been having noticeable problems for a few weeks now. We have the 300 level of service. Today will be a third visit from a tech. I seriously doubt anything will be found in the house. Also, as the tech is coming at 1PM today I doubt they'll find anything going on. The main problem is serious degradation of upload speed. Usually I notice it while gaming. This morning I noticed it just because I started running speedtest as soon as I got out of bed. The problem lasted for an hour after than point. When this occurs it corrects itself after a while and stays fine for a time. I try and run speed tests as soon as I notice it. On many occasions the upload test will totally fail. those results do not save however. Some tests show much slower results than expected. but at least those results save and are reviewable. I just installed ping plotter today so next time I have an issue (probably this evening) I'll be able to run it as well as speedtest. The modem was replaced by a tech three days ago and there are no error logs on the new modem. The previous modem had recorded many, many, errors. When the tech was here three days ago everything in the house checked out ok, but he replaced the modem and signal amp. To say the least that has not fixed the problem. Now if all I was doing was web browsing, or even streaming video I'd probably never notice the problem. When these faults occur the download degrades. Sometimes this degradation is well over 50%, but you can still get away with web browsing or even streaming. It becomes noticeable when gaming as the upload hits zero or very near zero. So I suspect Cox's problem is a lot bigger than they think. Looking at the demographic in my neighborhood I don't think there's a lot of gamers here. So maybe not so many complaints coming in. I'll see what happens after the tech visit today, but I'm not very optimistic.
sjo102784
Contributor
I'm now being told by Cox's Executive Support Team that this issue will no longer be investigated and is being classified as acceptable as a "Best Effort" consumer service. I was also questioned about posts to multiple social media organizations, highlighting the poor performance of Cox's network in my part of Phoenix.

Repeated interruptions of service with 5-30% packet loss during peak times is wholly unacceptable and would not fall under what any consumer would classify as "Best Effort" service.
sjo102784
Contributor
Here is an image of my internet from last night. 20+% packet loss. This is ridiculous and deserves to be addressed.

As you can see based on my previous post, the number of corrections made by my modem went up by 10,000 or more on several channels following the service outage last night:

I was unable to maintain a 1080p video stream from YouTube, let alone play games online. All devices suffering packet loss were hard wired to the router. Modem is brand new, DOCSIS 3.1 - Motorola MB8600 - approved for Cox's network according to your list of certified modems:  https://www.cox.com/residential/support/cox-certified-cable-modems.html

My router is brand new and is demonstrating no issues according to my packet loss tracking utility. This is a problem with Cox's infrastructure beyond my home.
- GregP1
  Moderator
  Hi sjo102784,
  
  We can certainly get this reported. At this time I am not detecting packet loss. do you notice this issue happening at a specific time of day?
  
  Greg P
  
  Cox Forums Moderator
  - sjo102784
    Contributor
    If you consult the images linked, that will give you a general idea as to when it occurs. I tend to see this between 6AM to 9AM and 6PM to 11PM on weekdays and at various times during the weekend.
    
    The issue is sporadic and does not occur consistently. Some weeks it will occur a few days, and other weeks it will happen several days consecutively. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of this week were abysmal. Other people in my area are telling me they're experiencing the same symptoms.
    
    In addition, my modem should demonstrate the hundreds of thousands of corrections necessary when dealing with the problems of infrastructure beyond my home. I've attached images of the status page in this post.
Michael-MS
New Contributor III
I hope they fix this for you! I'm in Las Vegas and just had my first packet loss issue tonight. Download is fine, Upload speeds are at crawl speed and I can't play Fortnite or stream on Twitch since 6 PM, just about 8 hours now.

Tech support told me my modem was bad, no other complaints in the neighborhood. So I went to Walmart and got a brand new one... $97 later... still 25% packet loss in Fortnite and 50% loss in StreamLabs. Tried disconnecting the router, no go. Service was 100% perfect for months now... I think I took it for granted. This is horrible!

They have an appointment setup for tomorrow and no way to escalate the issue because nobody else is reporting it. The packet loss is only on the upload, so probably nobody even notices it.

Anyway, sorry to hijack your thread a bit, but I needed to vent a little. Hope they get it fixed for you and also hopefully my problem goes away so I don't need to make a thread of my own for Vegas! Peace <3
- sjo102784
  Contributor
  Try Ping Plotter - it's the program I used to narrow down the issues of packet loss and high latency during outages. You're reporting the exact same symptoms I had - which turned out to be bad Cox infrastructure/equipment in my area.
  
  Don't make the same mistake I did - get data right away, and have techs come out during peak times when the packet loss is likely to occur. If you see a trend (which I did this week), see if they can come out and test when packet loss is most likely to happen - and request an actual Cox employee. I'm not sure about Vegas, but the non-Cox/outsourced techs they use in the Phoenix area are very very very bad. In the course of troubleshooting this, I was told by an outsourced Cox in home tech that my problems were due to "having too many things plugged in".
  
  It took thirteen on site tech visits before Cox finally confirmed the packet loss issue while excluding my internal network. Thirteen. Most of which were outsourced technicians who wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible, to theoretically maximize the number of visits and subsequent payments they receive.
  
  I'm fairly sure you are if you're streaming - but testing while hard wired to your modem/router is the way to go. To vet my network I tested while hooked up directly to my modem and had data showing the issues persisted with that setup as well.
  
  Another thing to try would be to manually assign DNS servers. This didn't help me, but if Cox's DNS servers are problematic, it might help. Try 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 or 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. Both are low latency/reputable DNS servers.
  
  If all else fails and you have data to show that Cox's infrastructure is the problem, file a complaint with the FCC. The more records the FCC has, the more data about Cox's aging and unreliable infrastructure will be in the public records. https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/articles/115002206106
  
  Good luck!
- Michael-MS
  New Contributor III
  Well, at 5:15 AM, my internet went down entirely. All the lights on modem were off and it reset. Came back up and no packet loss with 90 mbps down and 12 up. Tech support did try to reset the modem 6 hours ago and it didn't help. But someone did something this morning to fix it. Thanks! Good luck on your Phoenix issue!
- Becky
  Moderator
  Hi Michael-MS, I'm glad you have a service call scheduled. Your modem is reporting very poor downstream levels. Please let us know if things improve after the tech's visit! -Becky, Cox Support Forums Moderator
  - Michael-MS
    New Contributor III
    Thanks Becky for the response. I actually went out and bought a brand new modem because that's what tech support said as well. But it didn't fix it. It was a service outage that fixed itself later that morning. Everything has been okay since then.
sjo102784
Contributor
Major packet loss for about 70 minutes this morning:

Cox help is still suggesting an in home tech. Unbelievable. Escalate this. This is what you use the 90% profit from internet service to fix and improve.
sjo102784
Contributor
Update - the packet loss is back again:
- aaronjim
  New Contributor
  Experiencing similar issues with packet loss - former network engineer but know jack about docsis/"cable" technology. Your posts are disheartening as you've had this for three months and I've only been working with Cox support for about a week.
  
  Just through googling I see tons of people having this issue, I don't know how it couldn't be an infrastructure issue. If you start experiencing packet loss the minute you leave your gateway it is either cabling or infrastructure, and I wish their phone techs were able actually look at issues and not just "Oh we pinged your modem and it's fine."
  
  If it's an intermittent problem you have to look at logs and see what's going on, you can't just say "looks fine now". I find it insane that their extent of troubleshooting is 'pinging' the modem. I asked if they have looking glass tools or anyway of looking at logs, which of course they don't.
  - Becky
    Moderator
    Hi Aaronjim, there were two maintenance tickets related to noise issues on your node. The noise was tracked down and resolved yesterday. Are you still experiencing packet loss? -Becky, Cox Support Forums Moderator
dbhanna
New Contributor III
I'm in North Phoenix also and I am having problems also. Since the big push to bring in 1Gbps service to the area all the old infrastructure problems are showing up. The backbone carrier speed has increased a lot which also raises the noise floor, a lot. I think that Cox may be interrupting the data channel to try and get performance data on the cable nodes and that probably is not working out vary well.

https://www.cablelabs.com/insights/cable-broadband-technology-gigabit-evolution/
- sjo102784
  Contributor
  Interesting. Thanks for posting this
sjo102784
Contributor
More data confirming problems related to packet loss and high latency at or beyond my neighborhood node as of this morning:

Why has this not been fixed?
sjo102784
Contributor
Internet is down a second time today, going on over 30 minutes now:

Why Cox? Why can't you invest in functional infrastructure? What is so hard about that?
sjo102784
Contributor
Here's what my modem's number of resolved and unresolved packets are:

As you can see, tens of thousands of uncorrected lost packets due to problems beyond my network.