Cox HSI disconnects and won't reconnect -- long-term problem (5+ years)
This is memoir about my Cox HSI ordeals. If it is too long to read, I apologize - skip to the end and I summarize, otherwise read through it just to figure out my level of frustration. I reconnected my Cox HSI because DSL just wasn't cutting it - now I'm back to the same problem I have had with Cox HSI for the last 5 years - that caused me to switch in the first place!!!! The problem is the modem randomly (no rhyme or reason/time of day/anything I am doing to cause it) resets itself and usually does not restore connectivity to Cox. The only thing I can do is power cycle the modem and everything comes back. Bigger problem is when it starts happening it happens multiple times a day and what happened in Feb 2013 when I decided to jump ship was that even the power cycle did not fix the issue everytime. I say this is a 5+ year journey because immediately after moving to Las Vegas this started happening. The modem I brought with me (had worked for 2.5 years on another cable system) was supported by Cox. Within weeks of getting it online with Cox here in LV the resetting started. Went through the tech support song and dance - we have to send a tech out; the tech comes out and finds nothing wrong so he changes some cables and makes busy - says nothing is wrong, closes the ticket. This time I bought a new modem because I wanted to achieve the higher advertised speeds that my current DOCSIS modem would not take advantage of - so problem fixed. Fixed until a 8-10 months go by and the same thing starts happening all over again with the new modem. Back through the Cox Tech Support hops I go. Call in, they check the levels, say a tech needs to come out; tech comes out, checks this and that, moves some cables around, makes busy - says nothing is wrong, closes the ticket. Works for a while..... we think everything is fixed. Fixed until 4-5 months go by and problems dust up again. By now though I had all the Cox services - cable, internet, and phone. And everything worked fine; because I had all the services I went for the triple play bundle to get a premium package with the highest broadband speed. Everything was humming along until I went to a web page and realized none of the loading or downloading was faster. I checked a few speed websites and the speed promised was not the speed gotten. Tech Support was unable to figure out why and the answer came out to being simply your area cannot support the higher speed. So as usual, for a while everything was peachy, until the bundle promo price went away and the regular $~200 bill came - so I decided to downsize a bit. I removed the phone, it was a second line anyway just to get the bundle and I removed HBO, Cin, Show, etc... With the phone gone, Cox was charging me to use their modem for the Internet, so I switched back to my modem, which had been unplugged. Couple months go by and again the resetting starts - but the cable TV is fine. Tech Support dance again - this time one of the techs who visited said "Have you given any thought that it might be the modem? We've always had problems with these all-in-ones." I say, why yes I have but I have also given it some thought that other people are having this same problem and posting about it on the Internet. But at that time I was using the DOCSIS3 Motorola Surfboard modem-wireless router-firewall combo. I had had the DOCSIS2 Motorola Surfboard modem-wireless router-firewall combo previously and it went the way of this one - expected to be a modem problem and Cox has no other answer than to send a tech out to check the levels. So, wanting to upgrade to better technology and take advantage of changing my home-office, I went to separate modem (the highly-rated Zoom 5341J) and wireless router (the very high-end Asus RT-N66U premium-class device). Now, no more all-in-one and second the logistics of the modem/router are optimum for my situation. As expected, everything went swimmingly for 9 months and then it happened - almost on schedule, the Zoom is not passing internet traffic. One more time to the breach, my friends, I call Cox Tech Support. This time I leave the modem in the state to see what the tech is seeing - because all the lights are the way they should be, the web management of the Zoom says it has an IP but nothing is going through. The tech through his system does not see my modem online. I assure him it is and that the LEDs are as they should be. Reboot everything he suggests - the modem, the router, and my computers. Power everything back on, but wait, this time the router does not spring to life as in the past. The Ds/Us lights are flashing and Online is pulsing. Reboot the modem again and he sends a signal to provision it again. Voila - all is right with the world again. Time spent 3 hours on this one, but he wants to send a tech out to measure the levels and check things out. I say fine. Now, no offense against the subcontractors Cox uses, but at some point these guys know there are only so many things they can do when they get to a customer's house. And for a customer like me with this long-term issue, I had something to show him. I had printed out the CM event log, complete with the DHCP and TLV and broadcast maintenance requests. Without taking it from my hand, the guy glanced at it and said he had no knowledge of that and what he could do was limited. So after about two hour this time, because the Zoom is resetting itself with him in front of it - power cycling/provisioning brings it back but it starts resetting almost immediately. He's calling into Cox and supervisors and this and that he says there is nothing else he can do. I come inside; he's still outside talking to a supervisor. A bit goes by and he knocks on the door and says he has to get to another call and he's sorry. I call Centurylink right then to switch to DSL. When I call into Cox to cancel the internet the nice lady on the other line asks why am I canceling, I explain. She says had I ever escalated to this department or this person or availed myself of this and that assistance. I say no one ever told me those were available - I make the point of telling her I have gone to 2d level and even a 3rd level person before but they all seem to stop working when the incident is resolved, not that the problem is fixed. I was with DSL for about 1.5 months and when I tried to open something and nothing came back for 45sec I knew what I had to do. I had been hoping for Verizon FiOS to come to Las Vegas, but that hasn't happened, so I guess Cox must have known what I was thinking because in my mailbox sat a shiny Cox promo envelope. I went to the website just to check if my problem had been addressed, but alas there are still lots of postings about this happening not just to Cox but other providers as well, so I know it cannot be my equipment, my lines, my house, my cable box, my... . I looked around and found a number to Cox Corporate in hopes that I could get around the lower level techs so my issue could receive some visibility to the higher ups at Cox to ultimately be FIXED not just the incidents resolved because the internet is working again. I want to be rid of the problem entirely. So I spoke with a nice woman and explained what I had endured over the 5 years and thought the problem could be resolved by a static IP. (Cox does not offer static IPs to residential customers - only business, so I also pursued going SoHo Business. A $30/mo premium just for a static IP is a bit steep though.) So the Corporate woman said she would direct my inquiry to the general manager's office at Cox LV. And I received a call from a nice woman in the escalated support department who made me believe that Cox would work tirelessly to fix my issue but I had to sign up for Cox service again for that to happen. So I signed up for high speed internet again and everything went well until we checked the speed; I was not getting the speed advertised for the Premier package (around 50MB down/10MB up). Tech speaks to this and that person and come to find out the service did not have the correct provisioning code to enable the speed - so once that was there the floodgates open and woa baby we're cooking with grease now. (I wonder if this was the same case the last go around with the speed - if they had changed the provisioning code, would the speed then might have worked? Guess we will never know.) So here I am with the very same modem+routers I had that the power cycle+provisioning would not resolve back in February. But the tech has changed this and that and the service seems to be stable. That is until yesterday - almost a week to the day since installation, and the modem reset in the middle of the day yesterday and this morning at 4am it was sitting without nary an LED on other than Power. This cannot be normal or am I just a non-normal Cox customer working from home so I see the problem as it happens. So the promised summary - I have had Cox HSI for 5+ years and the service is rock-solid for the most part, but rather consistently at times the modem is commanded to reset itself by the Cox infrastructure and when it does it is let lose from the Cox network and does not automatically rejoin - no WAN IP, no CM management, nothing. I have purchased/used 5 DIFFERENT modem/routers (2 were all-in-ones [1-DOCSIS2 and 1-DOCSIS3]), including 2 Cox devices - one was a test loaner that to some degree experienced the problem my devices encountered. I have been told numerous times from Cox reps when they want me to buy a new modem: "These modems don't last more than 2-3 years" but that is a ridiculous statement - and even so 10 months is a lot less than 2-3 years. Further if this were a device issue the failure would not be limited to network alliance - I would have problems with other capabilities as well - not ONLY the way the box communicates to Cox.) And even if it were a bad box, I would be the most unlucky guy in the world to get 5 different faulty boxes.4.5KViews0likes3Comments