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Review by johnpd See Profile

  • Location: Green Valley, Pima, AZ, USA
  • Cost: $80 per month
Very Reliable; Good price for the speed.
DNS server issues
Good value for what you get
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have the "Preferred" service for $44.95/mo. Moved into a new home a little over a year ago. Got the bundled cable/Internet/phone services. I had no problem with the order and install process. I provided my own modem (Motorola SB5120). I had an initial problem for several months where the Internet would drop out on me and the only way to get it back was to power cycle the modem. I found out that the version of firmware in my modem was sensitive to noise and that a newer firmware corrected that. I called Cox Support and requested an update. The support agent said that Cox does not do that. Well several hours later, a firmware update came down from Cox to my modem. Except for that experience, I have had pretty good experiences with support. I have had some dropped speed issues a few times. That seems to be more common up in the Phoenix area. I suspect Cox was doing some work in the area.

Update: 01/23/2010

I have had very few issues with Cox now. I was upgraded to the "Premier" package (however it cost me an extra $10). Premier now costs me $59.95. Several months ago, Cox apparently upgraded our area. I noticed an increase in my SNR. I used to have signal numbers around 34-35. I now get numbers consistently around 37-38 with Download Power levels in the low single digits and Upstream Power levels in the low 40's. Those are the best signal numbers I have ever had. I receive download speed numbers many times in the low 30mbs at Speedtest.net. The one issue I (and a number of others) did run into was trouble with Cox's DNS servers. I would frequently get "page not found" errors even when I was within the same domain. I switched to OpenDNS and have had no problems since then.

Update: 12/15/2010

Several months ago I started having problems with my 4yr old SB5120 modem. I was about to replace it with another of the same model when I received a letter from Cox indicating they were about to upgrade the area to DOCSIS 3. I decided to purchased a SB6120 modem instead of a SB5120. After installing the new modem, I got an immediate improvement in speed. After a couple of firmware upgrades that Cox sent down and a router firmware upgrade I made to my D-Link router, my signals and speed are outstanding. Consistently getting 100mbps or over down and over 6mbps up on the Cox Arizona speedtest site. I am a happy camper. The "Premier" package is now $64.99.

Update: 7/10/2011

I still have Cox's Premier Internet service for $65. Several months back they gave us a "speed increase" from 20 to 22 mbps. However, they apparently cut back on the Powerboost which now lasts for just a few seconds. I was getting insane speed test results (130mbps +) prior to this upgrade but afterwards now get around the specified speed rate for the Premier service. Still very reliable.

Update: 7/25/2012

No real changes to my review. Same service (Premier), same hardware (SB6120). Have had no serious issues. Getting speed tests of 30+ Download and 6+ uploads.

Update: 2/26/2013

No problems to speak of. Our area was upgraded this month. With premier service I now have speeds of around 5o mbps up and about 13 mbps down. Can't complain.

Update: 2/16/2014

No changes since last review. Still have the SB6120. I have encountered no issues.

Update: 7/25/2016

I am still satisfied with Cox. I did run into a few things in the past few months.

The Good: I noticed one evening that my download speed had dropped to about 30 mbps when it had previously been at about 117 mbps. I called Cox and after the support person also noticed there was an issue with my connection, he contacted second level support. They had already noticed that there was an issue before I had called. Within about 10 minutes, they had resolved my problem and I was back to normal.

The SoSo: After a power outage, my caller ID was not showing on my TV when a call came through. I called Cox several times and they tried a few things but nothing worked. A tech person was scheduled to come to my house to check things out a few days later. He never came here but resolved it somewhere on their end. The power outage might have messed up some of their equipment.

The Bad: I normally get the MLB package to watch baseball games. I had received a post card from Cox indicating that I would be automatically signed up again this year. Before the free preview ended, I attempted to take advantage of the MLB At Bat option of watching games on my PC. I was unable to get that working after several days of calls to support to try to resolve it. One support person said that I needed to purchase an extra sports package to enable this, but that was never the case before. I refused. When the free preview period ended, I found that I was even unable to see MLB Extra Innings games on my TV. When I called again, they eventually found out that my MLB package had never been set up although the post card said it would be done automatically. Once that was set up, I was able to watch games on my TV as well as on my computer. This whole process went on for at least a good week. Somewhere along the line the ball was dropped. As I recall I had a similar issue the previous year.

Usually I find support pretty good. Hopefully that will continue.

member for 20.3 years, 6601 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.6 years ago

desaber
join:2015-11-04

desaber

Member

DNS Issues

Use OpenDNS's free servers: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. I've been a Cox customer for somewhere around 17 years. The service has always improved year of year. just about the only thing that has given me issues over the past 7 or 8 years is an actual service outage, which happens very rarely, or DNS issues. I switched to OpenDNS roughly 4 years ago and can now say the only issues I've had in the last 4 years were outages and an overloaded node.