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Packet loss due to upstream channels dropping

A Cox Customer
over 1 year ago

I've been getting outages due to the upstream dropping out on my internet connection for more than 6 months now.

Downloads, watching streams, podcasts, hearing and seeing people on voice/video calls and are fine if they've already started.

Uploads drop, voice/video calls break up for listeners, website requests take forever, games get disconnected.

Modem upstream during packet loss:

Bottom row with red question marks is packet loss. Other rows are just hops which sometimes don't respond (`mtr one.one.one.one`):

  • I can't even get a screenshot without packet loss over the past few hours.

  • I've rebooted my modem.

  • I have a new cable and connectors from the box outside directly to my modem 2 times over.

  • I've upgraded my modem 2 times and now have one of the best (MG8702) if not the best one supported by Cox.

  • I've had several techs out to troubleshoot the issue. Some of them have replaced the same cable or connector as previous techs have done.

  • One tech actually worked on something up the street, which improved the connection dropping a little.

  • Another of the techs said there wasn't really anything they could do to fix it and that the lines are over-saturated because everyone is working from home now. If this is actually a problem, it sounds like a case to expand infrastructure rather than telling me it's all used up.

  • I've confirmed with the techs that have visited that there's an issue with the upstream signals somewhere between the box at the utility pole and further up the chain.

It doesn't seem like this issue will every be fixed. I've burned a lot of my time (days and days), burned money upgrading hardware that was fine, talking with customer support, and waiting for techs.

I've been having to use my phone as a mobile hot-spot to ensure a consistent connection for voice and video calls. If this keeps up I think I'm just going to stop wasting money on useless internet and dump Cox and switch to a mobile hot-spot, since I end doing that anyway.

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  • +1 over 1 year ago

    Hello, 

    My name is Palmer and I’ve been experiencing these SAME exact issues on and off for the last year, whilst paying 200 per month in Gigablast services. I’ve had 2 technicians come out, 1 of which I was charged for. The 2 techs that came out had little to no IT experience and were not even Cox employees (3rd party contractors). While the “IT” tech was out he ran several tests and even noticed the high ping and low speeds and basically said sorry, nothing he could do about it. He chalked up the problem to being the nodes and too much network congestion. When I tried to escalate the issue I was offered a 3rd technician to come out but when asked if I could have a cox employee (preferably a supervisor) come out I was told there’s no guarantee. What makes things even more frustrating is when you call they go through the same “troubleshooting” steps followed by their $10 additional charge for IT support… 

    At this point I’m convinced they don’t care. As a company who has no real competition there is no incentive to do right by their customers. I honestly feel like it’s time to start a class action lawsuit. They simply don’t deliver on what they advertise.

    Based on all of the related topics I’ve seen I think there is adequate support to take legal action.

    - Palmer

    (Glendale, AZ)

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