Forum Discussion

TrierV's avatar
TrierV
New Contributor
2 months ago

Network outages

For the past few months we have been having intermittent network outages several times a week and almost every single Sunday around mid afternoon.  The outages are short but frustrating as the outage occurs, clears up, as everything comes back online it goes out again, this can happen as many as four times within an hour.   I log onto my account and I get the notice that a network outage has been detected in my area so it's not my equipment causing the issue.   Why do these outages happen almost daily and what is cox doing to fix the issue?

  • JuanC's avatar
    JuanC
    Moderator
    2 months ago

    Hello. I'm very sorry to hear that your are experiencing outages. Please reach out to us at cox.help@cox.com if you need assistance. 

    • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
      WiderMouthOpen
      Esteemed Contributor II
      2 months ago

      I am curious. What can a moderator tell a customer about an outage? Do you have access to see what ticket is assigned to the outage and to check the status/ETR of that ticket?

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    Esteemed Contributor II
    2 months ago

    Most issues are caused by ingress, which is usually a "leak" in the system somewhere that is letting bad signal (usually cellular) in, interfering with the signal to deliver service. It could be in someone's home, or the wiring on the poles, or deeper inside Cox's infrastructure (like CMTS). There can be other things like branches taking out lines, or people hitting poles, or people stealing the copper wiring right off the pole, but those things aren't usually intermittent.  Emailing Cox probably won't help much, because they (social media team) can only see the same type of data you see when logging into your account. Have you had any issues when a outage isn't declared? If so, I would call then to schedule a technician. 

    • Darkatt's avatar
      Darkatt
      Honored Contributor
      2 months ago

      You are right. I have said previously, If people would once a year or so, replace inside cables, and replace the barrel connector in their wall plates, that MANY issues would never happen. IF someone can replace the splitter in the audit box, or if they have one inside, replace it as well. Cable wires that get bent, are bad wires and the bent cable can reflect the signal backwards causing issues, as well as barrel connectors and splitters going bad. Bad connections can cause ingress, and people need to check their connections. I was told once by a customer that they never touch the cable wires, there is no way they can get loose, and then I mentioned vibrations, like trucks driving by, loud music and more can cause vibrations that can loosen connections. The said to wait a minute, went around and checked their cables and found 3 loose connections, then did something that surprised the hell outta me. They apologized. 

      • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
        WiderMouthOpen
        Esteemed Contributor II
        2 months ago

        I had a theory that one (of many) of the reasons Cox/cable internet isn't as good as fiber is because Cox allows for self-installation. Not only does this allow people to connect to service with signal levels which aren't optimal, that effect performance for them, but those same signal problems can back feed into the network, affecting everyone's performance and connectivity. Many just plug any coax into the gateway, and if it works, assume everything is fine. Then when problems start happening, they think something new must have happened, when really, it's their inside wiring which they are ignorant of.

        People think Cox allows self-installs for the customers benefit of not paying for an install, but really, it's so Cox doesn't have to pay for the technician. Pretty sure the cost of the install doesn't come close to what it costs(pay, insurance, gas, tools, etc) Cox.

        Another issue is Cox prefers contractors, because they are cheaper and can use the "they aren't Cox employees" card if anything goes wrong. Contractors get paid on a point system I think, where the contractor gets paid based on the number of jobs they did that day, not the number of hours they worked. This makes contractors focus on completing the work order and getting out of there then actually fixing the problem. That's why you see a lot of contractors swapping the gateway when that is almost never the problem. They also do stuff like say they are going to put in a ticket or "contact their supervisor" when they actually don't.