I live in Phoenix and have similar speed problems. I’m not nearly as tech savvy as you are but I feel like I’ve tried the basics to no avail. Sent an email to the Cox Help and haven’t heard a peep in 4 days. Please let us know if the tech is able to fix your issues.
He was! The issues have been resolved and I now have consistent ~950Mbps download and the 35Mbps upload. I had to call Cox support on the phone several times and insist on getting a tech to come out, it was a painful process. If you call the internet support phone #, ask them for the "CAG" team. They seem to be the escalation level people with a bit more technical depth, they also scheduled my tech onsite.
As for the resolution -
First, there was no issues with my equipment, thankfully. It was all wiring and connector related issues that I'm suspecting have just been getting worse over time. Hence the intermittent problems.
The short version is that there was a few issues with the coax wiring/connectors, both at the Cox box on the street, and the box on my house that goes inside. Once the tech upgraded the connectors and eliminated unneeded old components, everything worked great. I moved into this house in the middle of the pandemic (late 2020) and I believe they were not sending techs onsite for setup, unless required. So, I never had the wiring/connectors checked out until now.
Longer version -
The box on the street, where the main cable lines come in, had some old legacy components for phone lines, that was sending electrical current down the internet cable (this was bad according to the tech, creating interference). He removed that piece, which was a small resistor looking thing on a board that the coax connected into.
On the house side, pictured below, it also had legacy telephone junk in it. The main internet line is on the left, shown outside of its connector sleeve. The tech said it was barely in the connector and just pulled right out. He thought that was probably causing the majority of the issues as he couldn't even get his test device to fully connect from inside the house.
The line going into the house is on the right, with the connector that has a green stripe on it. This connector is some sort of signal reducer (booster?) that is not supposed to be used anymore and also causes signal/connectivity issues (I forget the details exactly). The tech removed that whole box and replaced it with a new one that simply connected the main line from the street directly to the house line. The lines were stripped and had new connectors installed, and also removed the signal reducer piece.
Once everything was re-done, it tested out fine on his device and we booted up the modem and my router. All looked good on the modem and the OFDM value was now way higher than before, so good catch widermouthopen. Speed tests with wired connection now look good in the 900Mbps range, upload still working as it should at 35Mbps.
Old lines and connections:
New line connectors:
Thanks for the update and congratulations for getting Cox to actually fix something!
Now that you have seen how a post can go, maybe make your own about the issue you are having? I would be happy to help. 🙂
Several years ago, I went through similar issues. I also, eventually, got a new coax line run from the pedestal in our neighbor's yard to the box. We also had some work done inside. I pulled all new coax for every important connection (we still had TV) and cox put new terminators and splitters on. I then mounted neatly to the wall. Everything has worked incredibly well ever since with only the occasional disruption. Glad you achieved a successful outcome!
had some old legacy components for phone lines
I believe that is called the NIU and can cause issues. It is standard procedure to get rid of them now. Looks like a nice neat job. Congrats and thanks for updating the forum!
