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For about one year now, I've had an Arris SB8200 cablemodem and Cox 300Mbps Internet tier, and this has worked esssentially flawlessly in that time. I've had Cox Internet even longer with very few issues - until about two days ago.
I noticed decreased download speeds, and when I logged into my account, I was notified that an "issue" in my area was detected, and I assumed my speed issue would be resolved when the issue was solved. About two hours later, the issue was clear, but my Internet speeds were still decidedly abnormal. I then noticed that the middle-two lights on the front panel of the cablemodem indicated the *downstream* connection was DOCSIS 3.1 (bonded downstream), colored blue, but the *upstream* light was now *green*, indicating only DOCSIS 3.0. This is a change from the previous behavior in which both up and down lights were bonded (blue).
That was two days ago. The problem has persisted, across multiple reboots of my cablemodem, and reboots of the firewall appliance that receives the Ethernet out from the cablemodem. I contacted Cox and they said the signal looked clear, but they agreed that my struggle to reach 200Mbps (usually topping out around 170-190) is not consistent with the 300Mbps service tier. They went so far as to re-provision the modem, all to no avail.
I took a look at my cablemodem serivce page, and it shows that the upstream channels hover between 39.0 and 42 dBmV. I found that Arris states the required upstream signal must be between 45-55 dBmV.
A bit of Googling has revealed a bit of warfare normally has to be undertaken to get Cox to increase power to the upstream channels, which is precisely what the Arris tech support rep told me when I reached out to them for assistance (cablemodem is only one year old and under warranty). He flatly stated the ISP must increase channel strength. Excerpt of my upstream channel status listed below:
I traced the line all the way back to the Cox input, eliminating an intermediate cable in the attic, and directly attached the Cox coax to the cablemodem and powered it up - no difference - bonded down, unbonded up. This means the signal to the modem from Cox is too low. But if I know from research Arris says Cox has to increase power, but Cox will refuse, what on earth do I do? Go out and drop another $200 on a new/different cablemodem?
Any suggestions appreciated.
-sd
Your service was "esssentially flawlessly" on 11 May, so everything within your demarc is fine. After the issue in your area, your upstream seems to have not fully bonded because I only see 5 channels as opposed to 8. Try logging into your Cox account to reset your connection.
I agree, and I've told this to each of the four different people I've "chatted" with AND the level 2 tech who talked to me on the phone the other day. I've made a point of saying this seemed to have started with an outage affectingy area. Yet the last word from Cox is for a truck roll.
This is another aspect of my frustration: When I mentioned this to the first agent with whom I chatted he told me he would escalate it because of the outage being coincident with my issue. I waited for a couple of hours and checked back, told the next tech the situation, and they said there was no record of any tech escalating anything on my account to anyone for any reason. So I was lied to to get someone's chat resolution metrics inline. And I still have the problem.
I chatted with, as I recall, four different agents, got disconnected twice, and then told I had to pay for more diagnosis. That's when I about threw my phone through a wall. Then I called tech support and they related me to a (supposedly) Tier 2 who finally concluded a truck roll was necessary because everything in their end looked correct. I told them about the outage but it made no difference to them.
Just an update: Tech came out today and measured from pedestal to demarc and said downstream signals were OK but not ideal, and agreed upstream signals are too low. He replaced the box (coupler) at the demarc, then measured on the line from the demarc to the outlet, and said the line from the demarc to the outlet should be re-run.
He was exceptionally nice and I was very impressed with him. He will return in the morning to run the new line in our attic before the temperature hits broil.
After replacing the coupler, did Down become "ideal"? How does a cable go bad in 1 week?
I'm just relaying what the tech observed. The cable run in the attic is basically in a summer roaster and after, what, twenty years (?) the heat maybe has gotten to it and the impedance finally just hit the "straw that broke the camel's back" moment. I don't have a hard answer at this point. I don't know why the Cox tech from years ago put a splitter on that line, but he did. We will see if the new run fixes the issue.
Your attic must be some roaster. Even the cheapest coax can survive 175º and probably more since it's not dry-rotting in sunlight.
After the tech yanks it, I'd check the cable for any obvious chaffing or severe kinks. If so, yeah, probably a bad cable. If not and the tech also suspects heat, will the tech replace with higher-quality (Ethylene, Propylene, PVC) or just what's in the truck?
I completely understand the purpose of a splitter; my point was that there was no *need* for a splitter on our setup. There's just no rationale for it - feed should go straight to the drop in my office. And Cox was the one that put it in years ago.
I have no insight into what media he will use to run the new line.
It is. We haven't even hit the hot part of the summer here in OK, yesterday was in the high eighties/low nineties and the attic temp was easily over 110. I had some additional vents installed years ago because when we get dropped in the true summer roaster and routinely push 100 daily the attic space can run 140-plus. The last Cox guy in that attic years ago was a pretty stocky guy and he was sweating so profusely I was worried about his health - I told him he could come back the next day in the morning but he said he was OK. I at least have him a big cup of ice water. The tech yesterday told me Cox requires them to schedule attic work in the mornings now for heat safety considerations.