Forum Discussion

BLAAAAAARG's avatar
BLAAAAAARG
New Contributor
4 years ago

Internet was always shifty when it comes to gaming, but it's getting to the point of dubbing it un-usable

Hi, hardcore online gamer and customer of 3+ years here.

I'm concerned about an issue that seems to be affecting me daily and would like to know if anyone else is having it this bad. My Internet was always shifty when it comes to gaming online, but it's getting to the point of dubbing it un-usable.

I upgraded my internet a little while back (Maybe a month and a half ago) from the grandfathered 300 Mb plan to the 500 Mb plan. I have always had a TON of issues disconnecting or my internet shutting off entirely while starting up an online game no matter what the game is. Where I'm at with this issue now since I have upgraded, the internet doesn't run consecutively smooth for more than a minute or two literally ever. And by 'smooth' I'd like to point out that I'm not cherry picking common lag issues considering that when it lags, my games become completely unplayable, all my friends and enemies appear to run into walls, I teleport all over the place, what I see happening before my eyes is not actually what is going on at all... You know, the usual stuff that happens when you hard DC. And for instance, some days I can't even play a full 2 minutes of a game before the whole house loses internet and is forced to reset. And what's even more insane is that I could wait for the internet to come back up and try to repeat the process and the SAME thing happens AGAIN. This will happen throughout any and almost every hour of the day. (I would also like to point out that I do prefer to hardwire my connection and do when the panoramic pods work, which also go offline several times every day no matter what! So yes, I also rely on wifi sometimes)

I have had a lot of work done for everything from running a new coax downstairs when I used to have an extender router, upgrading my hardware to the 3rd gen, to my post outside being worked on several times. Nothing has solved my problem as this has always been an almost daily issue. One of the Techs that worked on my post last had told me that I was at the tail-end of a node and that any problems experienced elsewhere on the way to said node might be amplified because I'm "at the end of the spiderweb". If that is true I would like to know why I am paying +$100 a month for a connection that barely works outside of browsing the web and meanwhile Cox can't seem to fix this issue and distribute the connection more properly in my area, of course, if that is to be taken as accurate information about the node. I don't know anymore, I've tried so much and have been so patient with support and I just don't know if I can afford to put up with this much longer. Any suggestions or troubleshoots would be awesome.

Thanks!

connection issues
disconnect
REPEATED PROBLEM
  • Jim3875's avatar
    Jim3875
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    I too am unable to reliantly game on my cox internet connection. When covid hit I immediately started noticing hard ping spikes and in general, high jitter. While games were certainly compromised, they were still playable, at least most. And because I knew it would take time for companies and people to adapt to the changing landscape I didn't complain, I accepted the issues with the idea that they would eventually get better.

    Fast forward to almost exactly a year later and the situation has degraded to the point I cannot enjoy gaming unless it's past midnight where I live (VaBeach). While the packet loss is minimal the jitter is on average 100-200ms and I am constantly kicked from any games that require a stable connection. The games that don't kick me still arent able to be enjoyed in any matter. I moved from a stable but very slow verizon DSL connection to a 150mb/10mb connection and was very happy for the first year with the switch. Then covid happened, which I understood would take some time to solve, but now a year has passed and despite getting emails from cox and messages on my door saying they were doing work to enhance the network in my area, IT HAS ONLY GOTTEN WORSE. I literally cannot enjoy my main form of entertainment. I game, it's my version of TV and I don't need insane amounts of bandwidth, just a stable ping. But especially the past, if not slightly longer, I cannot play from roughly 7am to 12am, leaving me with a 7 hour window at ridiculous hours to even get value from the service I spend $80 a month for.

    I'm longing for my old DSL connection as I never had to worry about my ping constantly fluctuating on an overloaded network. Is there no way for them have dedicated bandwidth to people who require stable, low ping connections? I'll glady give up 100mbs of bandwidth just to have a stable ping. What I currently have is useless to me, and the one thing that was supposed to make covid easier for me to handle than others for the past year being a homebody and gamer was supposed to be gaming and it's been nothing but stress for me, constantly seeing high ping and packet loss, getting disconnected, having to alter my hours around this to just be able to enjoy my form of entertainment. I'm beyond done at this point, I was more than patient but now I'm literally left with nothing else to do than voice my displeasure.

    • Allan's avatar
      Allan
      Moderator
      4 years ago
      @Jim3875, I recommend sending an email with your full name, address, and brief description of this issue to cox.help@cox.com. -Allan, Cox Support Forums Moderator.
    • SEL's avatar
      SEL
      New Contributor II
      4 years ago

      I am having the same experience.. I even went out of the way to get a nighthawk modem/router and the issues are still present. I was finally able to fix the IP after failing with multiple Cox panoramic modems, and yet the horrible ping spikes and packet loss continues to make this ISP terrible for gamers. 

      • Allan's avatar
        Allan
        Moderator
        4 years ago
        @SEL, I recommend sending us an email with your full name, address, and a brief description of the concern to cox.help@cox.com. -Allan, Cox Support Forums Moderator.
  • MichaelJ's avatar
    MichaelJ
    Moderator
    4 years ago
    Hi BLAAAAAARG, I am truly sorry to hear that you are experiencing any issues with your internet connection. For assistance, I suggest contacting us on Twitter at @CoxHelp, visit us on Facebook, or at cox.help@cox.com Please include a link to your forum message. You may also chat live with Tech Support online at www.cox.com/.../contactus.html We even have a toll=free tech support line, 1-800-234-3993 (24/7).

    Thank you,

    Mike J.
    Cox Support Forums Moderator