Users don't update modem firmware. ISP's such as COX strictly "push" firmware updates to supported modems. They don't want user firmware tampered with. I suspect the technician had other appointments to tend to so he gave you a ridiculous explanation so he/she could leave.
Anyways, I have my own SB8600 I purchased and I'm on the ultimate plan. With the last week or some I've seen considerable lag spikes when playing some games. Here's the current info for my modem:
Software Version 8600-6.1.1.19 (firmware)
Hardware version: 1.0
I don't recall what software version my modem started with nor do I know if there has been any changes to the software.
What does your modem currently show?
Karen_R can you look at my account as well?
Actually it wasn't the tech who said this. It was the support center office who he was on the phone with the entire time. I asked to speak directly to the phone tech because I didn't believe it either. The onsite tech reluctantly allowed me to speak to him and the home office tech specifically stated that customer bought modems will not be updated by COX and its up to the customer to update their firmware. As far as I know that's not even possible and I thought it was pretty crappy considering it was COX's system updates that screwed up my Gigablast speeds!
Hopefully Motorola will talk some sense into COX engineering and they will push the update to my modem and that will fix my recent slow speeds. I am also currently on the older Software Version 8600-6.1.1.19
All I know is that if this truly is COX's official policy to screw anyone not using their equipment then I think I will finally have to leave them for someone else after being with them for 20 years when they were @Home!!
Brian, thank you for your response. I checked this morning and you are correct. The update has been pushed to my modem sometime in the last 24 hours as I now see I am on 8600-18.2.9 Unfortunately, my speedcheck still indicates that I am topping at 300mbps despite being on the Gigablast plan. The mb8600 is a COX certified modem according to your website. Is there some sort of configuration issue on your end that would be limiting me to this speed? My speedtest corresponds to the speeds I was receiving prior to upgrading to GIgablast 1 year ago which makes me think something has changed on COX's end. One week ago I did not have this issue.
I can confirm that I am having this same issue, also on an MB8600. Speeds are topping out between 300-350 Mbps whereas before I would be able to get to a little bit above 900 Mbps. However, I am still on the 8600-6.1.1.19 software version (though based on your previous comment, it doesn't seem to make a difference). 😞
As a side note, I noticed that even when things were fine, enabling IPv6 in my router would degrade top speeds (down to the 300s, I think it was?), whereas going with strictly IPv4 would result in normal tests ranging between 700-900.
