INCOMPETENCE

19 Topics

What's Cox's plan for customers traveling outside the U.S.?
In a marathon chat session last night I learned that by default Cox blocks email IMAP access from customers outside the U.S. Much of my time was wasted dealing with a Tier 1 tech who also had no clue that Cox does this. The Tier 2 tech explained this by saying Tier 1 techs are not trained to know this. So I'm wondering. If not even Cox's Tier 1 techs don't know this deep secret, how does Cox expect customers to learn about it? In particular, suppose a customer (a) relies heavily on Cox email and (b) also needs the features of a serious email client (features like tight integration among email accounts from multiple email providers, programmable filters, or open API's allowing tight integration with other software such as calendars, task managers, and contact synchronization)? How are customers supposed to know their email app won't work overseas unless Cox whitelists overseas access for the account? In my case, the way I learned was wasting 2 hours chatting with a Cox Tier 1 Tech who was totally ignorant of this and too ignorant to know he was ignorant, so he tried all sorts of things that ultimately made the situation worse before he finally passed off to a Tier 2, who explained the problem. Is this how Cox intends for us to learn about it? P.S. The Tier 1 changed my password without my permission. Now, even using the new password he gave me, nothing about Cox email seems to work properly.
Darius
7 years ago Place Internet
7.3KViews
0likes
7Comments
Intermittent disconnects and packet loss
Hello, Issue: Issue 1: Every few minutes or so I get 1-3% packet loss. Sometimes it can go up to 20%, but this usually only happens 1-2 times a day. Issue 2: My internet will drop connection. There is no trigger for this. It happens any time. The odd thing is that when the internet drops, I can still hear my friends talking on discord. I cannot speak back to them, but I will be able to listen to their conversation while I wait for discord to drop me for disconnect issues. It's almost as if my packets being received are coming in fine, while the packets trying to leave are getting lost. When the internet goes out, all the Wi-Fi and ethernet connections disconnect as well. I know this because, my wife's ethernet connected computer disconnects, and the PlayStation on Wi-Fi disconnects. Also, my phone disconnects. None of the lights on the modem change. The internet usually comes back on 1-2 minutes later, but this happens frequently. Usually around every 30 minutes.If I run a tracert to google.com it says that the Destination host is unreachable. My setup: I have a Motorola Gigabyte modem with Docsys 3.0. That is connected to a UBNT Edgerouter X Router (Firmware is up to date), the router is connected to a TL-SG1210P switch, and the switch is connected to an access point for Wi-Fi and 2 computers. The Coaxial is directly connected from the tap to the modem. No splitting. The Coaxial cable has been completely replaced by a Cox technician, and tested for assurance. What has been done: I have had two different technicians come to my house and confirm that the node that feeds internet to the neighborhood is malfunctioning. The first technician setup a test that would check the node directly and report back any problems. She found tons of issues, and put in a work order to fix the node. The node was reported "serviced" in November. The packet loss issues started coming back, and with each day they worsen. The technician has since ghosted me, and will not respond to my recurring issues. The packet loss used to be consistent and around 15-50% loss. Since the node has been service, the issue has lessoned, but still persists. Before this, I had a DIFFERENT technician who didn't understand what packet loss was, but at least believed there was an issue because my upload speed was almost 0. He hooked up his monitor to my modem directly; the problem persisted. I kept trying to convince him that the problem lies with the node, but he didn't understand. I had him switch my modem out for a cox modem to prove to him that it wasn't my modem. The problem still persisted. We hooked my modem back up, and I took him outside to check the line feeding into the tap for my house. The problem persisted. We scoured through my neighborhood, and found the node that distributes internet to everyone, and hooked DIRECTLY into the node. The problem persisted. He called his superior, and the superior said he will have to send a specialist out to service the node, because there is something wrong with it. When the problems started to arise again in December, I tried to contact the technician who left me a work number, but they didn't respond. I tried calling Cox again, and they wanted to send out ANOTHER technician. I cancelled, because I've already been through this loop many times, and if the problem isn't occurring when they show up, then they will say that everything is fine.I am also afraid of getting another incompetent technician. I am willing to jump through some more hoops for technicians if they need more clarification on the issues. Let me know what you would like me to do. Thank you.
Solved
NokyX
4 years ago Place Internet
4.1KViews
2likes
9Comments
I fixed my Outlook email problem after Cox "maintenance"
Hi all, Like all (?) Outlook users, I lost the ability to receive mail a week ago (I could still send). I use Windows 10 Pro, version 1903 (OS build 18362.746). I am using Outlook Version 1911 (build 12228.20332). I fixed my connection issue by disabling the use of TLS 1.0 by Windows 10.I suspect the "maintenance" was to require TLS 1.2 connections. Our Outlook clients are trying to connect using TLS 1.0 and get rejected. Here's how I did it. The first step may not be required -- I think it was the second step that was definitive. NOTE: These directions are essentially the same as those here:https://windowsreport.com/how-to-disable-tls-1-0/ 1. Disable TLS 1.0 in Internet Settings Press Windows Key + S [This will bring up Search] Type "internet options" into search bar The Internet Properties window pops up Select the "Advanced" tab Scroll down to the bottom, the "Security" section. Uncheck "Use TLS 1.0" Note: I also unchecked TLS 1.1, and I checked Use TLS 1.3 (experimental). You may not need to do that. 2. Edit the Registry to Disable TLS 1.0 Press Windows Key + R [this brings up the "Run" window] type "regedit" in Run to run the registry editor Then, in the left-hand tree view, open up this key path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols I couldn't see TLS 1.0 and Client subkeys went I arrived at the end of the above key path, so I had to create them. To create them: right-click on Protocols and select New > Key then enter "TLS 1.0" as the key title Next, right click on the TLS 1.0 key you just created, and select New > Key again. Enter "Client" as the title. Then, select the Client key, and in in the empty-space to the right of it, right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value Enter "Enabled" as the new DWORD's title The default value for this new Enabled DWORD is 0 (zero), which disables TLS 1.0. Finally, restart Windows (reboot). My Outlook IMAP Settings for Cox The above procedure should have restored your prior configuration to a working state. If it's not, here are is my working Outlook configuration. Recall that I am using Windows 10, with OutlookVersion 1911 (build 12228.20332) as part of Office 365. Note that I use IMAP and not POP. It Outlook, select the File menu In the Account Information screen, press the "Account Settings" button, then select "Server Settings" The IMAP Account Settings -- Incoming mail -- window appears: Now press the "Outgoing mail" link in this window. Now the IMAP settings for outgoing mail appears: Good Luck & Merry Christmas!
blackeneth
5 years ago Place Internet
3.4KViews
1like
0Comments
Paying for 300 Meg... Not getting close to that. Five technicians in one month
Cox customer here in Virginia Beach for 35+ years inthe same house and I am now considering jumping ship to Verizon. Recommend you get a bag of popcorn before you read the below: It is a heck of a story: I recently upgraded from Premier service to Ultimate (300 Megs) about 2 months ago. My modem has/is a telephone modem as well. I installed the gigablast modem with no issues. My house wiring was udated about 4 years ago. Under previous Cisco modem, I constantly got 180 Megs download and was relatively happy with it. I upgraded to gigablast modem but speeds never increased about 200 megs download -- even though the promise was for 300+ Megs. I called tech support and they said my signals were weak across all 32 DOCSIS channels. They sent out a technician. The first technician (a subcontractor to Cox) came out to house and told me I needed to go to Best Buy and purchase a second modem for internet and use gigablast for telephone. I knew that was a crock since the help desk told me my signals were extremely weak across the 32 channels. This technician actually handed me a splitter with cables to "help" me install the recommended second modem. Sigh. He never tested any lines for signal loss and claimed that since his box could "see service" that everything was great. I called Tech support again... they said they were "stunned" at Technician #1's lack of technical acumen and would kick it up to the next level of support. We scheduled another visit of technicians they promised would be Cox folks and NOT a subcontractor. I took ANOTHER day of work off so the second team of technicians came out and told me the line from the street was causing weak signals, therefore they put in a work order to bury a new cable to the house distribution panel. They checked the pole and said the signal was great there, but not at the house so I thought we were going to find success. (This team was also a subcontractor team.) Sigh. After marking of the yard, the subcontractor That finally happened last week and -- believe it or not -- my speeds actually WENT DOWN with newly installed line from 200 Meg to about 180 Megs download. Sigh. I called back to Cox and explained how this escapade was panning out. They said they could clearly see "unacceptable signals levels within the modem and would have to send out another technician. Sigh. Indeed, I asked what differentiated this next guy from the previous guys and the phone guy said he would escalate it and get the "pros from Dover out." Sigh. A Third technician visit in less than 3 weeks happened yesterday and -- after three hours of wasting time -- installed an amplifier which only made speed go down even more. I asked... "doesn't an amp in this case just magnifiy errors if you dont find out where the signal is being lost?" (Silence). Of course , this technician didn't bring his device that helps him map where the cables are running within the home so he did it "the old fashioned way" which made me just roll my eyes at incompetence. Sigh When this third appointment in one month was over with, I gotspeeds that were even SLOWER than before my "Upgrade" to 300 Meg. Sigh I called back to Cox (have them now on speed dial) and explained about how the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. They said they would "Escalate" the issue and get more experienced techs out to my house this weekend. Sigh. The phone technician looked at my modem and said the signals were still unacceptable -- even with our amplifier and that we would have to get ANOTHER tech to the house... but he would escalate the issue to make sure the right guy came out. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So that's where I am now. Slower speeds than I started with.... an amplifier, taken how many days off of work to just get worse and worse speeds? Sadly that is what they told me the previous two visits. This will be Cox's last opportunity to retain a 35+ year loyal customer. Interestingly enough, I pay for the "whole home wiring" plan. No one has looked at splitters, signal strength loss within the house, etc. The tech support guys on the phone say they can clearly see the signal strengths are "unacceptable" but the technicians always ignore that inconvenient fact. The last one claimed my computer was the cause (hardwired) although it is a gaming rig that is fully capable. I also asked the guy on the phone, "How come you expect me to continue to pay OVER $300 a month for a system that does not work as advertised or as you promised it would? (crickets chirping here). Sigh. What do I have to do to save Cox from itself? Who can I speak to in the leadership chain that could possibly have a clue on how to fix this? My next door neighbor has Cox internet and gets 300+ meg download so I know the system is capable. Does anyone have the number for a competent supervisor for Cox internet tech support that would care about a long-time customer? Should I just cut my losses and go to the competition and get symmetric 1 GIG speeds and say goodbye to Cox after nearly FOUR DECADES?
chuck_m1
7 years ago Place Internet
3KViews
0likes
4Comments
Can we get answers to service issues and compensated for failures?
There are a lot of complaints about service availability on this forum yet no answers. The responses are all the same... "We are sorry, feel free to contact us, have a nice day.". I am beyond frustrated and entirely dissatisfied with Cox. I am trapped as Cox has a monopoly in my area. I have been having connectivity issues consistently over the past few months. Last night (I work nights) internet was down from 9:30 pm until 9am this morning. The only answers are we are aware and working on it. That's my number one frustration is poor reliability with zero consistent results In resolving and no accountability. Where else do you pay for service, not get it, but are still required to pay????. My second frustration is the service level. I pay for 900+G service but have never gotten much over 300G. It's like renting a limosine but getting a compact. I have never encountered amore dishonest company than Cox. They need to offer everyone their fastest service but prorate based on what is actually delivered. I can't wait until I can move away from Cox. Guaranteed they would be out of business with these unethical practices if they weren't a monopoly!
MrGizmo
4 years ago Place Internet
1.9KViews
2likes
9Comments
COX Rated WORST - No surprise there.
Consumer Reports released the results of their survey of telecommunication services. No surprise that COX is in the WORST category no matter whether you look at the "Phne TV Internet Bundles", "Internet Providers", "TV Services" categories. In the "Value" category COX is always the lowest score, and in "Customer Service", the second lowest score possible. Where "reliability" was a rating factor, COX scored the median or "average" value. Same with "speed". Why can a company with record (and increasing) profits sustain such growth with mediocre to poor services? UNREGULATED GOVERNMENT GRANTED MONOPOLIES! As in CA where COX hip-pocket politicians in the state legislature approved a carve up of the state into monopoly zones for telecom services among COX, COMCAST and XFINITY. This allowed COX for the longest time to keep its hip-pocket county commisioners from issuing construction permits to Verizon (local landline phone provider) to update their copper line to fiber which caused Verizon to abandon their services in my area to Frontier, a Chinese company that, because of Chinese law, has to make all communications on its networks available to Chinese military and industrial "intelligence" services without any type of legal review or check and balance. Why the Chinese interest in this area? It is fairly dense with high-tech companies with leading edge tech in medical, aerospace, military and civilian telecom, power generation and distribution technologies, the very areas Chinese spying has been penetrating and stealing for decades. FINALLY (probably due to anti-American Trumpists in the telecom regulating agencies from Fed to state level) Frontier was able to break the COX stranglehold on the permitting process and has just started to upgrade the local copper network to fiber, and in limited neighborhoods, offer high-speed internet via fiber. COX current response in an advertising campaign specifically calling out Frontier on speed based on their historical DSL service in order to be sure no one notices that they are transitioning to Fiber. In addition COX falsely claims a 99%+ up-time/reliability that I have not experienced EVER in Cox internet service, and in their TV service since the early 2000's. To bleed as much money out of existing customers before they discover there may be a more reliable and cost-effective option, COX has increased its customer abuse tactics. For example, charging for streaming services that are only available with a DVR-enable Cox receiver, while they KNOW you are only provisioned with (and charged for) non-DVR capable receiver (and stating when, called on the fact that their Web site says YOUR receiver IS capable of receiving the streaming service - i.e. HBOMax - that you need to upgrade to the DVR capable box at an addition $10 - 15 per month in order to use the service you are being billed for!). Another example: Initially signed up for the lowest internet speed package (at the time 100 mbps) when Verizon disabled my DSL by wiring in a new office complex between my home office and the switch so that the wire run to my house put me outside the DSL capable distance for their copper network. Subsequently I got (and saved) emails from COX telling me how I was getting a "free speed upgrade" to my existing internet service. Of course, these never appeared - at least not according to Ookla Speed Test. What did appear over time was a doubling then tripling of the "Ping" time over my DSL service which I believe is COX's interception of internet/website requests for purposes of privacy violating profiling and corporate throttling "for fun and profit" from data miners and corporations that want "priority" access to COX users. Then to rub salt into thw wounds, COX eliminated the 100 and 150 Mbps tiers, automatically "upgraded" those users to 250 mbps with an overall 40%+ fee increase, BUT NEVER UPGRADED THE ACTUAL SPEED OF THE CONNECTION!!! When contacted, they tried to tell my wife (take advantage of an ignorant woman, they thought - except she shares the same software engineering creds as I have) that in order to get these new speeds we would have to upgrade our equipment to COX "panoramic" (mesh) WiFi, which is total BS especially for a home with one computer wired to the router, and one light-use tablet connected to the internet VERY SPORADICALLY throughout any given day. (No social media accounts, little to no looking at videos, mostly email, some shopping, and some info research for non-digital hobbies.) When challenged, the excuse became, "well your modem is too old - you need to upgrade it". I've been using my own Netgear DOCSIS 3.0 modem since the beginning with COX, and the only problem is their frequent outages that sometimes the own up to as "maintenance" and other times as "outage in your area" always with the same predicted fix time of 6:00 am the next day. Despite knowing this was total BS on COX's part, I went to their web site and found a modem they claimed was DOCSIS 3.1 and compatible with their service. I purchased the modem from BestBuy, but when following the modem manufacturer's instructions for COX activation via COX web site, it failed (waited on activation to complete for several hours and gave up). I then called COX tech support number listed for Internet service activation, provided the tech with the MAC etc. and while waiting for the activation which he could not do, he tried to set up a "service call" by a tech with a replacement modem since the one I had could not be activated (despite all status indicators being normal). I told him that the modem was purchased from BestBuy and then he told me "UNLESS THE MODEM IS SUPPLIED BY COX IT WILL NOT WORK WITH COX INTERNET SERVICE". So, once again COX web site falsely advertises available services for specific hardware models! AND THEY GET AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE THEY ARE AN UNREGULATED MONOPOLY TELECOM PROVIDER!! AND THE KNOWINGLY CONTINUE TO MAKE FALSE CLAIMS AND "SERVICE ADJUSTMENTS" SOLELY TO INCREASE PROFITS WITHOUT IMPROVEMENTS TO QUALITY, QUANTITY OF SERVICE OR "CUSTOMER CARE". That's why, when talking to anyone about my telecom services I say, "COX - say it out loud - that's what you have to deal with - a bunch of....!
wmcole
3 years ago Place Internet
1.7KViews
4likes
3Comments
EXTREMELY Slow Speeds for 6+ months
Hello, Since February I have had extremely slow internet speeds and other neighbors have complained. I have had 5 techs come out to troubleshoot the issue and they don't know how to help. I was paying for Gigablast, and the highest DOWN I could get was 120Mbps, but more often than not I would pull below 5Mbps with extreme jitter. This is direct in on a powerful desktop PC. I have tried 3 different network cards. I have tried 3 different modems, tested speeds on the tap outside my house to rule out wiring or interference, modemsignal levels look normal. I have downgraded to 150Mbps and STILL get only ~ 5Mbps during peak. Techs have said the node I am is highly congested. They have also said it's not the node but some software issues in the back-end. It sounds more like they don't know how to solve the issue and are giving me excuses to move on to the next job - this is becoming increasingly frustrating as I work from home. I am reaching out for help before I switch to a different provider, but would really like to stay. Thanks for any support.
jcarothers
5 years ago Place Internet
1.6KViews
0likes
9Comments
Port forwarding
Where would I go to port forward, everytime i go on my routers site it tells me to come here and i cant see any section for it
Sandra_Arias
5 years ago Place Internet
1.6KViews
0likes
3Comments
So now the Cox email system is tagging email from the US White House as spam.
This is unacceptable. Cox needs to correct this NOW!
Taffeys
5 years ago Place Internet
1.1KViews
0likes
5Comments
Cannot send email using iOS devices when outside of US
For 8 days I was unable to use ANY IOS device to send emails while staying at a Marriott in the Caribbean. I had to use their POS web mail out of desperation to contact someone. My work office 365 app worked just fine. I have a VPN app on my IOS devices and that did not even work. What
bill64
7 years ago Place Internet
1.1KViews
0likes
1Comment