Forum Discussion

Destin65's avatar
Destin65
New Contributor III
6 years ago

** internet, may have found problem

We have been having terrible internet service the 8th, and I called to report it on the 9th. Nothing has been done, nobody has even checked outside wiring or the box that serves our small apartment building. Been getting inconsistent speed, half the speed we're paying for when it is working, massive packet loss, lag spikes, trouble streaming movies, can't stream to streaming services like Facebook Live or Twitch due to having no upload speed at all.

Have swapped out cables between modem and wall outlet, there are no splitters in the house as we only have internet and single cable from wall to modem. Modem is roughly 3 months old and has never displayed trouble before. It's not the modem. Internet worked fine for everything a week ago with no issues. First issues noticed on 8th with worsening service on 9th prompting tech support call. Have reset the modem more than 100 times to no avail. Disconnecting and reconnecting the modem will not fix the issue. There is never, ever, any valid reason to even reset or restart the modem, period. So please, stop and learn how to do your job. Also, ethernet cables have been swapped out with 3 different ones, still the same problem. We have multiple computers, all display the same problem no matter which is use to speed test or ping plot or trace route. 

This evening I decided to look at the hole in the ground that you call a connection box. There's no box to it. There is only a hole in the ground, full of dirt, leaves and water all over your antique cable equipment along with a dozen or more splitters and a rat nest of disorganized wiring of which only 2 are marked for the 8 apartments in our building. I have no idea which cable is supposed to be mine. Some of the cables are just laying free and exposed, some not even terminated. Some cables have splitters with multiple cables attached, but the other side connected to nothing and not terminated. 

There's also a large, roughly inch-round copper grounding rod driven into the hole apparently to serve as a ground for the equipment. BUT THERE IS NOTHING HOOKED TO THE GROUNDING ROD.  WHY???

These pictures you are about to see are awful. And it tells you all you need to know about how little Cox cares about us customers. I've seen better wiring jobs with telegraph wiring in the 1880s. There's no excuse for this filth in 2019.

I'm guessing this explains why everytime it rains that we have internet problems. Can you imagine how much corrosion is on that connectors and splitters? Everything is exposed to the elements. The building next door I thought might be better since they have an actual above-ground cable box, but it looks like it's been ripped open, door laying down, cables hanging out everywhere, theirs gets rained on too. 

And between our building and the building next to us, neither cable system is secured to prevent tampering or stealing of service, so for all I know someone has likely tapped into our connection and is stealing our internet service. 

I demand something be done about this and get this mess cleaned up along with giving us our internet service we're paying $85 a month for. And we better be getting deductions from our bill for our lack of service since it is no fault of our own and I've reported it numerous times over the past few days.  I may also have to seek a complaint with the Better Business Bureau is no serious action is taken to resolve our problems. It is not our modem. It's your lack of concern for your customers.

https://imgur.com/sDa9iJe


https://imgur.com/Wx1lPzP

https://imgur.com/F3qSjp4

https://imgur.com/N90GkLu

    • Becky's avatar
      Becky
      Moderator
      Hi Destin65, our maintenance team found ingress impacting your connection. A door tag was left in August explaining that we need home access to resolve it. If you still have the door tag, call the number on the tag to schedule an appointment. You can also email my team at cox.help@cox.com and we'll set up an appointment for you. -Becky, Cox Support Forums Moderator
      • Destin65's avatar
        Destin65
        New Contributor III

        And they are welcome to come by anytime in the afternoon. I'm retired, don't work. Rarely go anywhere. I only specify afternoons cause I like to sleep in. 

        All I ask is that they are actual Cox technicians and not contractors. I see this area crawling with third-party cable contractors and one guy parks his cable van right across from us a lot. No thanks. I'd rather it be an actual Cox person to see what's going on and why the connection goes out for a few days, then is fine for a long while. 

  • Destin65's avatar
    Destin65
    New Contributor III

    A couple of things I have noticed that might be causing trouble.

    You have me listed as having an RGI 6400 when I have an SBG 6400 modem. 

    Also, you are showing the wrong MAC address for my modem. 

  • I see that we have you setup for a service call. Please let us know if you continue to have trouble afterwards.

    Brian
    Cox Support Forum Moderator
    • Destin65's avatar
      Destin65
      New Contributor III

      Also, someone came by and left a note on the door, didn't knock or ring the doorbell as I was here the entire time. This being Saturday the 17th. Said they were working on fixing wiring. I presumed that to mean outside since there's no wiring they can get to from inside the apartment. Haven't heard anything since and as I said in my previous update a few minutes ago, everything seemed to be working fine so I thought maybe you guys had fixed whatever it was.

      Apparently not?

      • BrianM's avatar
        BrianM
        Moderator
        It looks like some type of wiring between the outside to the inside of the apartment is needing to be replaced and they tried contacting you to set this up but did not get an answer. Was there a contact number left on the door tag? if so, I would recommend contacting them as the work to fix your issue has not been completed as of yet.

        Brian
        Cox Support Forum Moderator
    • Destin65's avatar
      Destin65
      New Contributor III

      Just to add more info. For over a week everything seemed fine. I was able to send/upload pictures quickly and with no problems. Speed tests always showing 10-11 upload speed, modem even had all 4 up channels connected, working and all power levels looking great, which they still are...

      But now my upload speed is 0.43??? How does that happen when I've not touched anything??

      Also, the download speed seemed capped at 95 during all this time. It would start out on a speed test, any of the 6 or 7 I tried along with yours, and the down speed would always scream right up to 90 pretty fast but then slow down going past 90 and eventually hit a hard barrier past 94 and only go 94.5 to 94.9 speed. You folks sure I'm on the 150 speed plan? Seems to be exactly like the old 100/10 plan I've been on since forever.

    • Destin65's avatar
      Destin65
      New Contributor III

      Doing speed tests and it's now consistently over 10mb up speed.

      Also stream testing at 2000 bitrate and 3500 bitrate is smooth as silk. Not a single dropped frame or data packet.

      Just prior to 6pm it was varying between 50% to 90% framerate loss and packet losses, even on ping tests it would show 30% packet loss just from using ping www.cox.com -n 30

      Now the upstream seems flawless. Now do you believe me that someone was wrong for the past week?

      Still, as good as our upload is doing, our download is still only half what it should be, stuck in the 70s and 80s. And I'm a nigh owl, so it's like this even at 3am. Doesn't appear to be tied to traffic congestion.