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Just got out of a chat with an agent about speed issues I've been having for the past month and he confirmed with me that due to exceeding the data usage cap that Cox is indeed shaping/throttling my connection. I tried to point out that under Cox's own Terms of Service it states that "Cox does not shape or throttle Internet traffic based on the particular online content, protocols or applications a customer uses" but he was adamant that I was being throttled due to excessive usage. I had a feeling that was the case since my speeds have taken quite a nose dive in the past month.I'm currently on the Internet Premier plan that reportedly has 100mbps/10mbps and I'm down to 16.2mbps/768kbps on my last speed test. The download doesn't bother me so much, but the upload is killing me. I've done some troubleshooting on my end just to make sure it wasn't Cox doing this to me. I've moved the modem to every possible spot in the home, tried the connection with and without the router (same results either way), did a factory reset on my modem (Motorola Surfboard 6121), and checked my signal ratings and they appear to be in a good range for both the downstream and upstream.
I feel like I've covered all my bases, and the timing of my slow down with me going over my data usage really only points to shaping happening on Cox's end. I'd love to be proven wrong, but that's what it looks like to me. I'll probably be calling in the morning to cancel service.
tl;dr: Asked agent if I was being throttled, said yes even though it's not Cox's policy to do so.
vegasmar6 said: I'm a former employee from the resi tech support call center division
How long and what were you trained in?
Yes, Cox uses configuration files to disable or limit service when a bandwidth notice has been triggered and abuse ticket has been assigned. But the whole point of those is to make it obvious to the customer their service is impacted and for them to call in. It would continue to effect performance until the code was removed and would effect both download and upload. This doesn't sound like OP at all.
Sounds like you might've worked for them too at some point in time lol. Lets just say for a very long time until recent in a very important role. I was not referring my post to op's situation just throwing it out there that cox does indeed take actions against data cap abusers. The no throttle stuff is just for legal. They do what they gotta do to get your attention on the subject matter. I don't know OPs situation, was he over the data cap for the month or not. I see with and without router many places around the home but were alternate virus free devices used, sercurity settings/firewall etc. But if it fluctuates it could be line/node issue. In the end though according to legal speeds are not guaranteed. This was the only ISP I ever worked for that did not have a minimum speed rating for each tier unlike other ISPs would say set a QoS at like 80% so if you were on a 50 plan and you weren't getting at least 40 directly connected to the modem with all other factors ruled out they would fully have the field investigate cause a lot of times in that case it was a node oversaturation or line issue. Signal levels in range don't mean a thing what if your signal is constantly going from say -6 to -15 every minute and back and forth inconsistently but only registering -6 cause its a super fast change so its like an every other packet issue which would be left undetected forever. Cox though is funny they choose to like as long as signal levels are okay will let people live with super slow service without further investigation, not until you get a ton of complaints from the same neighborhood/node but if you happen to be one of few users with Cox services and probably the only one that even uses internet if somethings broke it probably won't ever get fixed since you're just a number to them.
First, it's usually a good idea to keep previous employment on the down low, especially when you're claiming Cox doesn't conform to their ToS without any data or facts to back you up. Throttling doesn't refer to changing the config file on the modem, that is disrupting service for the sake of getting the customers attention. Throttling is dynamically adjusting certain traffic to run slower so that other traffic may run faster, and controlling traffic management at the peering points to save money. It takes complex and very expensive systems to be installed. If Cox did throttle, they wouldn't bother with the warnings or the caps.
You state that Cox has problem with network sometimes. This isn't specific to Cox. All ISP's have network problems, it goes with the territory of running a network. I am not saying Cox is blameless, just no more to blame than any other ISP. But aren't those technical problems probably to blame for OP's problem? Why support the misinformation that OP was given for the sake of devil's advocate?
I have had the same problem, we started having issues with anything on the internet and I called cox to find out what the problem is and all they did was reset the modem. That did nothing! They never said anything about throttling. But that is exactly what it was! Two days after the data meter was reset to the new cycle, I now have full speed that I'm paying for. So I now know cox does throttle.
Best of luck to everyone here.