Data Throttling

Hi Kroop,

We actually do not throttle any of our data services.  The download speeds are determined by a number of things, one of course being the speed of your actual internet connection.  Secondly, the speed of the location you are downloading from.  We would only be able to download at the maximum bandwidth that location allows.  I do find it out that it happens on larger files, that is when the faster download should actually happen.  We have Powerboost that would kick in on our side of the network.  Click here for more info - http://ww2.cox.com/residential/neworleans/support/internet/article.cox?articleId=dabe13c0-b3d9-11e0-ce05-000000000000.

Are you using a wireless connection or are you hard-wired to the modem/router?  That can play a part in the speed as well.  If you're not using an ethernet cable, I would recommend using that as a way to test the speed of the connection.. When you run speed tests what do the results show?

The advertised speed for the premier package is 36 Mbps.  I'll only rarely get this but the usual speed for browsing or playing games is acceptable.  Again this data throttling only happens when downloading large files or groups of files and always between 1.2-1.5 GB.  The speed is a relatively constant at 4,000 KBps and always at the same time across multiple connections (Steam, SOE, etc.) it drops to 200-300 KBps.  I am hardwired in with an Ethernet cable.  There is no wireless router at all.  I also have a brand new DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem that was on the approved list.  Here is a speed test result with no other internet activity, run through your websites "internet tools" section.

Thanks for the reply Derrick.

I am experiencing the same issues. When I try to stream video, Watch youtube videos, transfer files via P2P for work, upload or download files via FTP I get service interruption for 1 to 2 minutes. I have read about COX's Traffic Shaping and their used a couple tools to determine that this is in fact what is happening. Using ShaperProbe you can see for your self.

In a move that's basically baiting the FCC and Congress to see if they will act, Cox announced that it's going to experiment with rather aggressive traffic shaping, granting priority to bits that  it feels have a great priority. Why Cox gets to describe what gets a priority and what doesn't seems very questionable.

Their employees and company reps will deny deny deny that they are actively throttling and shaping your internet connection.

Since I've been a customer with cox on and off for the last 9 years I have NEVER received the full bandwidth speeds that have been advertised.

Quoting an article from 2009 (without attribution) about something that we briefly experimented with and never fully implemented doesn't prove that we're throttling traffic. And if we were, it wouldn't cause a "service interruption" when it kicked in. That's going to be either a hardware or a signal problem.

I'm seeing the same behavior - it only occurs when I am downloading data at a rate of around 2 MBps or faster. First the rate decreases, then I eventually lose connection to Cox's DNS servers until I reset my modem. This started about three months ago. It doesn't matter where I'm downloading from, be it Steam or iTunes or wherever. 

I can otherwise use my Internet connection with no problems at all, ever. But once I begin getting good speeds my connection will be throttled and eventually severed. It's really disappointing. I'm moving at the end of the year and if the problem still persists I'll just be going with Verizon. It will be a little more expensive for a lesser connection, but at least they won't throttle my connection.