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Review by .

  • Location: Chalmette, Saint Bernard, LA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
great speed
Random system outages at least once a month
Decent.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Decent service. Random system outages at least once a month, but if subscribed to SMS alerts, they notify relatively fast with status and ETA for fixing outages.

(review was emailed in)
lodged 57 days ago







Review by robbyarng See Profile

  • Location: Chalmette, Saint Bernard, LA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
great speed
Random system outages at least once a month
Decent.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Decent speed. Random outages at least once a month. If subscribed to SMS alerts, relatively fast notification on ETA of restoration of services.

member for 64 days, driveby review (so far)
lodged 64 days ago







Review by nativeson See Profile

  • Location: Chesapeake, Chesapeake City, VA, USA
  • Cost: $87 per month
reasonably reliable service
pricing and business practices are questionable
probably no particularly better or worse than alternatives
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

--- original review submitted May 2010 ---

I have been subscribed to Cox HSI service since October 2002.

Re: ordering and installation

> I had no particular reservations about the ordering and installation. I seem to recall about 5 days between ordering and having the techs come out to install. The techs actually worked for a company that Cox had contracted for field work. Actually I've seen just as many or more Cox contractors' trucks and people working around my area as I have seen Cox trucks and people.

Re: service

> Over the years I have had 7 or 8 times when I just could not get an IP address for hours. At one point in 2007 this lasted for several days and I called them to send a tech to troubleshoot. Since then I have noticed service outages once every 15 months or so but they are usually a few hours or less.

Re: business practices

> In the spring of 2008 a Cox HSI rep called me (the one and only time that's ever happened) and said they would be discounting my service by $8 per month. I thought they had put my account into some kind of customer loyalty program. About a year later I discovered that the rep actually had booked my account for a "verbal contract" -- had I decided to cancel in the following year they would have surprised me with a termination fee. I asked them to provide me with the terms of the contract agreement BEFORE I renewed it. They said they would send that to me AFTER I agreed to it. This experience has left me wondering what they will try to pull next.

--- July 2011 update ---

I called in to Technical Support because I wanted to change my modem out for another one that I had recently acquired. The tech support rep told me that the modem I wanted to provision was "in inventory" and that it would be easier for them if I had the modem's previous owner contact them. That first tech support rep apparently also did something which disabled my service so I ended up calling back a few hours later. The second tech support rep provisioned the modem that I had tried on the first call without any kind of fuss whatsoever.

--- April 2015 update ---

As a fairly light user a recent 10% increase in the monthly recurring charge for internet service is making the 'value for the money' questionable.

--- December 2015 update ---

Today is the day that I finally called into Cox Customer Service to cancel HSI service. The Cox CSR repeatedly asked me to explain WHY I was canceling service despite that information having little or nothing to do with his taking action to cancel service as I clearly stated at the beginning of the call to be the purpose of the call.

--- April 2016 update ---

My attempt to cut the cord unfortunately was short-lived as I discovered that I was too far from the tower for reliable LTE service. Reactivating Cox unfortunately was somewhat problematic. I could not figure out why the system required a $20 service activation fee for a self-install... did the Cox system already know that a truck roll would be required because Cox had deactivated the tap after the disconnection in December? In any case the system did not inform me that the tap had been deactivated at the time of ordering service, and I did not figure this out until I called in because self-installation failed. The truck roll took two days, and of course they did not inform me that that tap reconnection work order had been completed. After that the system then failed to provision the same modem that I disconnected in December, which took another 2-3 days to correct. Again of course they did not inform me that the work on the service call had been done. In the meantime before I've been able to access service Cox sends me the first bill for service. Here we are... together again.

--- December 2023 update ---

In the past year Verizon has laid fiber in my neighborhood, and I have decided to switch to their Fios service. To complete a cancellation of service via phone (because the Cox website does not offer any such option) the Cox rep left me on hold for over 35 minutes. So long Cox.

member for 15.4 years, 246 visits, last login: 37 days ago
updated 91 days ago


Review by BRiT See Profile

  • Location: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, OH, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Canceling the services at the store was a good experience.
The price. The services. Unreliable docsis infrastructure.
Avoid if possible. Friendly employees but bad Corporation.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Used to be good service decade ago, but has since turned into one of the worst there is. Company only cares about profits, doesn't care about the customer.

The nodes are oversaturated or the equipment is aging. Once every few months the service becomes unusable, taking close to a month to fix. Rinse and repeat this throughout the years.

Services are outrageously priced. They used to offer uncapped services, then they limited to 1TB caps nearly a decade ago and had not upped them until the pandemic. They added a mere 250GB more to be at 1.25TB. One needs to pay an addition $50 to be able to use the bandwidth over the low datacap limit of 1.25 TB.

Company uses borderline false advertising, as they market "fiber based infrastructure", but services are actually DOCSIS coax based in my area.

In order to get cheaper priced services you need to go through so many hoops that won't always work. Too many steps in that dance. It gets old. Company doesn't respect long time customers as they do new customers.

member for 1.8 years, 813 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1 year ago


Anon777f4
@68.102.110.x

Anon777f4

Anon

I agree whole hardely with the poor transmission from cox

Unfortunately they get away with it because they are the only game in town. I have been with cox for over 10yrs and have seen their service going south over and over again. right at this minute fast.com shows 40gps while i'm supposted to be receiving 250. It happens all the time after midnight. DA

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

15 years

I had cox for 15 years they are worse than comcast. Everyone sys comcast Comcast is terrible they are better than cox.
WAJ
join:2017-06-18
Omaha, NE

WAJ

Member

I also agree about Cox

A customer since the first week they offered it in this city in 1999. As cable subscribers disappeared, analog phone service was dropped, installations were outsourced, onsite support went from 'free if it's our fault' to $75 regardless, and worst of all, reliability of their internet has sprouted outages too often. Calling for support during an outage is fun - their customer portal has more data than their internet support reps...or sooner, at least. And the go-to instruction in their 'troubleshooting' script remains REBOOT. Reboot the router, the modem, the computer. Decidedly a "try this" approach.
rmoonin
join:2000-08-05
Newtown, PA

rmoonin

Member

Cox

Here is Las Vegas they are still using coax cable in the older homes. On a state of the art computer the speeds will actually hit 900/100 many times. Reliability could be better. Outages are much more frequent than before. I do not think they will ever bring fiber directly to the home like Verizon's FIOS product. My experience with tech support has been good.

intel1212
Premium Member
join:2008-01-17
Henderson, NV
Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway
ARRIS SB8200
Ubiquiti U6-Pro

intel1212

Premium Member

Cox in Henderson NV (Las Vegas region)

I have had Cox here in LV since 2007 as it really is the only option where I live. There was DSL from CenturyLink, but they are not offering that actually as of about a year ago to consumer accounts. WeLink has come into the area using Wireless broadband, but has limited geographic and capacity availability. Anyway, the service has been good for me, reliable. Very, very few outages in my area. Price is a bit high, but what else can I do? I am always looking at FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) from carriers, but that is not available yet for home service. Probably Starlink is the most practical alternative, but that too is not inexpensive for what one gets. I pay $139 for unlimited as I easily use more that 1.5Tb per month now. I only use Cox for pure IP services.
coxsucks
join:2023-08-18

coxsucks

Member

cox internet and data caps suck

i agree. corporate greed is the only reason why data caps or the unlimited data extortion fee exists. just because 1% of customers allegedly used too much data cox shouldnt slap the other 99% with penalties for "network management purposes"
rmoonin
join:2000-08-05
Newtown, PA

rmoonin

Member

Cox

Here is it many years later than my initial posting of Cox. They now selling non fiber speed of 2200. You need Cat 8 cable and a 2.5 network card and a router capable of handling 2.5 gig speed. And yes it is consistently good. The computer needs to be really high end too. The internet works like a bullet. Download speeds are pretty incredible. I do not know how Cox did it as I do not have fiber to the curb.

Anon77eb5
@68.12.15.x

Anon77eb5

Anon

Re: Cox

Cat 8 is NOT required.

according to the ANSI/TIA 568-2. D specification, Cat6 supports 250 MHz bandwidth frequency and 5 Gbp/s transmission speed at 328 feet (100 meters) and 10 Gbp/s transmission speed at 98 feet (30 meters). Cat6A cable must support bandwidth frequencies at 500 MHz and support 10 Gigabit speed to the maximum length that any Ethernet cable can be run (100 meters or 328 feet).

Also they use OFDM/OFDMA channels(2 downstream x 2 upstream) to provide the speeds outside the 32x8 regular DOCSIS 3.0 spec.

Review by kv2009 See Profile

  • Location: Kenner, Jefferson, LA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Nothing good about Cox around here.
Noise on line causing packet loss. Tech support clueless. Only an act of God will get you a bill credit.
Not even an FCC complaint will get anything done. It is my opinion that Cox cares about one thing - $$$.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

During the day, when everyone is at work, I will get the speeds I pay for - 20Mbps down and 2Mbps up. Every night at 10PM the speeds drop to a crawl...1 to 5Mbps down but the upload remains the same. Haven't really talked to customer support yet as I KNOW what I'm in for if I do...they're going to want to send a tech out to diagnose the situation. Nothing is wrong with my end...its theirs... It feels like they're overburdening their nodes and its just dragging everyone's speeds down. I don't know if that is a legitimate practice or what...or if its only temporary, or if they're even doing it....but it sure feels like it, and it is very annoying. I'm not getting what I am paying for.

Update: 12/8/2009

Nearing the end of the year and the problems have only increased. Now I'm not only dealing with slow speeds but I'm getting tons of packet loss and lag spikes. I feel like I'm on dial-up right now. Web pages take minutes to load, I can't play any online games, I can't watch Youtube, I can't stream anything and there's no end in sight to the problems. Since my first review I've had a tech out, talked with various people on the Cox HSI forum here, talked with Cox tech support numerous times and yet, the problems just get worse. And on top of all of this, Cox is jacking up everyone's rates in Louisiana. Can you believe that? As soon as there is a viable alternative to Cox in this market, they can kiss me goodbye.

Update: 12/22/2009

Thanks to a few truck rolls, and diligent testing for packet loss, it appears packet loss issues are because of a noise problem on the ingress to the node I'm on. Maybe once this is fixed my connection quality will increase. Will update.

Update: 1/17/2010

Packet loss issues had receded for a couple weeks, experiencing it very little. Now it is back with a vengeance - the internet connection has been completely useless all day long and it is only 7:20PM. This MAJOR PROBLEM! compounded with the INSANE node congestion we're experiencing is very unacceptable.

It is very sad that Cox has a complete monopoly over data services here in Jefferson Parish, LA. But I highly suggest that anyone looking to get service anywhere in southern Louisiana go for someone else. It seems that Cox Communications generally does not care about it's customers here. As it stands right now, as soon as a competitor (U-Verse) pulls into the market here I'm switching.

Update: 2/28/2010

To help clarify things here, I've been dealing with two problems...

1. Node congestion.
2. Packet loss

The node congestion started first, around late August of 2009, then came the packet loss a few months after. After going back and forth with engineers etc for months, my node was split on February 10th, 2010. I want to say thankyou to everyone who helped me with this issue.

However, after the node split, problems still persisted. Random speed drops (especially during peak hours) still occur and packet loss just kills my connection. On the weekends, particularly Sundays, the packet loss is most severe. I'm guessing its related to how much bandwidth is being utilized in my local area here, and there's a problem with the plant, but I don't know. I can't get out there and check it myself...if I could I would. And I can't go around my neighborhood asking for everyone's nightly internet schedule so I can plan my work around it all.

Remember what I mentioned about Sundays being particularly worse? Well imagine having 50% packet loss spikes that last for 5 minutes at a time, happening every 10 minutes. That's what I'm dealing with as I type this, every weekend, and randomly on weekdays/weeknights.

I haven't heard from my local contact with Cox in a week, and I haven't seen any Cox bucket trucks around here, so I don't know if they're just giving up on it or what. I'd like to think they're still investigating the issue.

Update: 3/5/2010

Got back in contact with local rep and we're working toward a solution. Will update.

Update: 4/12/2010

I should have updated this sooner but never got around to it. For a few weeks now, the problems seem to have disappeared. There isn't any packet loss or random drops in speed at random times of the day - the connection is pretty stable now, and fast.

Thankyou to everyone who helped me with this problem because it lasted for quite a long time and there were points when I thought it would never get fixed. But thanks to good local engineers/reps/techs, the problems have gone away. I hope it stays this way.

Update: 8/23/2010

Now I'm back to square one - seems like node congestion but according to a reply from an e-mail to a local rep, the high pings and slow speeds are due to Cox upgrading the network equipment in the area. Well that was told to me over a month ago and the problem persists. We're past the 2 month mark and moving into the third month of the issue.

I am now asking for help once again and I am expecting to be helped. My last e-mail to my local Cox rep has gone unanswered for quite some time now and I am hoping he is just on vacation. I will not tolerate this for very much longer. AT&T's U-Verse has finally gone live here and if I have to switch companies to get reliable service, it will be done. I simply will not deal with what I had to go through last time to get these issues fixed.

Update: 11-23-2016 Edit: 12-2-2016

So the issues with Cox were fixed after my last review and things went well for quite some time. I was happy, content, and never really thought about switching services, due to Cox having a vastly superior speed. However, starting a few months ago, my upload speed showed signs of being limited. How you say? If I'm uploading to a single source, server, client, what have you, I get minimal upload speed - usually between 500 Kbps and 1 Mbps. If I am uploading to multiple sources at a time, my upload speed increases and I can max out my upstream connection. But this only happens if I am uploading to between 6-10 servers at a time. So if I'm attempting to transfer a file between home and work, my connection is USELESS. If I'm attempting to get an important file to anybody, anywhere, my connection is USELESS.

Techs have been out before and claim my line status is perfect - the best they've ever seen - and then leave.

1 Upload Stream...
»[Cable Speed test: 153.09/0.87 50 ms]
»[Cable Speed test: 153.79/0.93 33 ms]

3 Upload Streams...
»[Cable Speed test: 154.54/6.56 30 ms]

8 Upload Streams...
»[Cable Speed test: 168.44/11.03 51 ms]

OH, and lets look back at my connection before Cox's 150 Mbps speed "upgrade"....before all of this started happening. This is ONE UPLOAD STREAM.
»[Cable Speed test: 114.34/13.52 42 ms]

Edit: 12-2-2016

After a lot of troubleshooting and investigation into the issue with which I'm dealing, I have a field tech scheduled to visit. Hopefully he or she can find some small problem somewhere and fix it. I do hope this is the case because if this problem is escalated to plant engineering, it will take week(s) to resolve.

This whole situation is unacceptable.

Edit:. 11-5-2021

Since my last review, service has been shoddy - a few months of good service then a month of garbage. This repeated until 2020 - two solid years now of noise on the line causing packet loss. Cox will not remedy the problem no matter what I do, and I've had it.

AT&T hooked up VDSL2 service at the end of October and although the download speeds aren't as fast as Cox, I get 2 Mbps more upstream at 12 Mbps total and the service is consistently reliable. And as a plus, it looks like AT&T Fiber will be live here within the next year, which will put the final nail in the coffin for Cox....forever.

If Cox could somehow repair their network in the next 30 days, I would probably stay with them until AT&T Fiber goes live here (I really need the download speeds), but the chances of that happening...well.. Let's just say we would all have a better chance of being struck by lightning, hit by a crashing airplane, and then finally vaporized by a meteor strike...all within a minute's time.

Update: 12-9-2022

AT&T Fiber went live here in May of 2022 and I have subscribed to that service since. Will not ever be going back to Cox. Good riddance.

member for 14.5 years, 2366 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 1.2 years ago


DataRiker
Premium Member
join:2002-05-19
00000

DataRiker

Premium Member

Hope it gets better

Recently, I have had some 10 minute connectivity issues. But they have seemed to have gone away at the moment. Hopefully cox can fix this.

I think the only reason they are investigating your issues is because you have been so vocal about it here on DSLR. Good work, otherwise they will just ignore you.

Good luck man !

Review by gavlois1 See Profile

  • Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, OK, USA
  • Cost: $117 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
  • Caps of 1280 gigabytes/month
Decent download speeds
Usage caps. Upload speed often unstable, dropping to 0.01 mbps
The only choice for fast internet, depending on your location
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

In Oklahoma City, Cox and AT&T are the main city-wide competitors. In my particular neighborhood, Cox is the only provider for fast internet, with AT&T offering 3 mbps connection since they don't have fiber here. Speeds are decent, but were definitely improved by getting my own modem and router equipment instead of renting the provided one.

I use their Gigablast package, advertised at 960/35 speeds. The download speeds are quite stable and rarely disappoint, but upload speeds are often an issue. I rarely get the advertised 35 mbps upload, usually hovering closer to 25 instead when it is working. However, once every few weeks, some infrastructure will break down and bring the upload speeds to under 1 mbps, going as low as 0.01, rendering even simple browsing like a google search unusable.

member for 1.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 1.6 years ago


Anon31311
@72.222.123.x

Anon31311

Anon

Gigblast: download speeds excellent, upload Speeds suck

Cox Internet service has been pretty decent, until now. But with the advent of Gigablast I must admit, Cox internet is disappointing, especially when one considers how good Cox service USED to be. When I compare GigaBlast to the type of service I'm used to getting from them (very long-term customer), I am very disappointed. I have always paid for their highest speed home internet package because my extended family uses internet heavily (work, gaming, streaming for family movie nights, etc). I used to be able to count on steady signal and speeds from Cox, inside and outside my home with the modem/router located in the center of the house, without boosters or repeaters (and it's not a small house). In fact, considering the wiring/installation here is nearly 30 years old, that's saying a lot.

Bottom line: I can't give a whole-hearted positive review of GigaBlast, mainly because of the upload speeds and unreliable upload signals, coupled with the much higher costs and data caps. And here's why.

I don't have enough internet signal, on terms of strength or stability, anymore, that allows us to work and game inside and in tje yard with one centrally located modem and router. But Gigablast does produce hella FAST downloads - just wish the uploads were reasonable. Or steady. Or there.

Gigablast advertises as 1000 mbps download/35 mbps upload. So okay. The download speeds are nearly @ 1000 gb as advertised and the rates are as steady as it they could possibly be. HOWEVER, I've never gotten 35 mbps upload speeds since my plan switched to Gigablast and it's worse with the new modem (see below).

So what DO I get? I'm lucky if I get 15 mbps for 30 minutes at a time. It's often much lower: the signal strength and upload rates are so unstable that within a 2 hour period, speeds can fluctuate wildly, from an average 18 mbps to as low as 2 mbps, or drop out completely, measured using speedtest.net every 5 minutes, and watching the my Kindle trying to maintain a connection to the Wifi (which it doesn't, all too often, when I'm within 10 feet of the modem doing this). I started checking regularly because, all of a sudden, I couldn't browse, I got all kinds of weird messages in applications, the games, the streaming apps on the TV (non cox apps), and even my phone and kindle could NOT stay connected because of signal loss.

Cox tech support said I needed to get a new modem to fix it, and hooked me up with the newest panoramic wifi modem- for a 'small' deposit and monthly fee, of course. I was skeptical, but agreed. After a couple of days, I can say I now have significantly worse service than I did this time a year ago, and certainly worse service than I had with my old modem (which produced half the current download rate), and - oh joy! - I have data caps now that I'm paying extra to avoid, after I SOMEHOW I maxed out my monthly allotment (that I didn't know about) in 10 days in June, doing the same things I've been doing for the last six years. That hasn't happened since I stopped using Dial-up (if you don't know what that is, it's cool - ask a grandparent).

So, I have a brand spanking new Cox-supplied modem, and I can't even get a steady signal. I have learned that either Cox can't seem to fix the upload problem, or maybe, doesn't intend to. My research shows it's something they've known about for a while, now, so I am not understanding why a company which was known for excellent service has gone downhill so fast, in terms of product quality and responsiveness to customer concerns.

I need them to fix this, because I don't want to switch providers; however, I have AT&T fiber optic service in the home to run for a dedicated multimedia computer that I don't want on my home network. Since it's so cheap, I've kept it for "backup". I just discovered that it's 1/2 the price Cox charges, with 500 mbps speeds, and 10x-15x the 35 mbps upload speeds I'm supposed to be getting with Cox. The signal strength is solid and stable, and I just found there are no data caps or throttling either, like Cox now has. I wouldn't have tried it for my other activities, but I have been desperate enough for stable internet that I actually plugged in to get though a three day period. What a difference from the days when DSL was what AT&T offered! I'm actually considering a change, as a result. I'm trying not to, because I've been a Cox customer (cable and internet) since the 90s). However, if this doesn't get better, I'm going to have to consider other options. The unreliable uploads are negatively impacting my ability to continue my daily routine activities.

Cox, what happened to you? I want my old cable/internet provider back!
sparky007
join:2011-08-25
Phoenix, AZ

sparky007

Member

Could be a bad modem.

Could be a bad modem.
Bill in Mesa
join:2008-07-21
Mesa, AZ

Bill in Mesa

Member

Truck Roll

Have you worked with Cox to have an on site technician visit (demand a Cox tech, not a contractor) to check your signal level at pedestal, demarcation point, at the modem.

Review by MikeLH See Profile

  • Location: Lakeside, San Diego, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
High Latency
Unstable
Value for money:

Cox here is decent when it works, but is frequently unstable with high loaded latency to the point it drops the internet connection. Not a wireless issue as it affect our device connect via ethernet as well. Rebooting the cable modem helps, but did not last today.

member for 1.8 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.7 years ago
lodged 1.8 years ago







Review by master_d See Profile

  • Location: Oceanside, San Diego, CA, USA
  • Cost: $89 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 17 days
It's Fiber
Provided router is not optimized for the speed
Great! (if you can get it)
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

My neighborhood has been wired for gigablast fiber internet for about 18 months but it has taken me this long to dip my toes in the fiber pool. I ordered service (online) the 2nd week of Feb but my official install wasn't until the 3rd of March.

About 10 days prior to my install date, I got a call from a Cox technician saying he was pulling the fiber from the pedastal to the side of my house. This was done without anyone home or able to answer the door.

On the install day, the tech came by around 8:15am to get it set up. After speaking with him, we decided it was best to install the ONT on the inside of the garage near the washer/dryer and use existing cat5e to wire from the ONT into the office where the provided router was installed (Netgear R6300v2). The total loop of Cat5e, which was previously installed by AT&T, is maybe 40-50 feet. He finished at around 10:30am after testing the line and deeming it working. I had to leave about 15 min prior to his finishing so I wasn't around to see for myself. He let himself out and closed the garage without issue.

When I arrived home I promptly ran a few speedtests and was slightly disappointed with the results. It seemed like my download was capped at around 400mbps and about 500mbps up regardless of the server I chose. Something didn't seem to sit right with me and so I investigated further. Luckily, I had an Asus RT-AC68U on hand with the latest asus firmware which I plugged in and initally got no signal on the WAN port. I had to clone my desktop MAC address for the ONT to pick up the new router... but after it did, the first speedtest I saw was in the 900 range up and down. Latency is in the single digits as well.

I've only had the service for 2 days but my router has shown no signs of any disconnects or loss of signal so far.

The webpage displays a 1TB data cap for "Gigablast" tier internet but when I go to the data meter site, it gives me an error stating "The Data Usage Meter is not currently available for your account. Overage charges for data usage will not apply." which leads me to believe that for the time being, the data isn't capped (YAY!)

Update 4-26-18: I updated my commercial Asus router to a Ubiquity Edgerouter PoE and Unifi AP Pro access points. The Edgerouter is vastly superior than the Asus was and can consistently get ~950/950 mbps on speedtest.net to nearby servers. Also, the service went down on 4-8-18 for about 2 hours around 1pm and was a neighborhood wide issue. Since the service was restored, I haven't had any other problems.

Update 2-18-20: Cox has updated it's ToS to enforce the 1tb cap even on fiber accounts. This is a bummer to be sure but with no other good alternatives available, this will be the new normal. Unfortunate for sure.

Update 8-20-20: Cox has so very graciously (::eyeroll::) increased its cap to 1.25tb. Also they've begun offering a 500/500mbps fiber package for $69 per month.

Update 11-19-21: Cox was offering 24 months of unlimited data cap so I jumped on the offer. Symmetric fiber with no cap is back to what I originally had when I ordered 4 years ago.

member for 22.6 years, 2438 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 2.1 years ago

lagunajim
join:2001-12-26
Newport Beach, CA

1 recommendation

lagunajim

Member

Gigablast in the OC

I've had Gigablast here in Newport Beach for a couple of months. It's consistent.

Test sites show 850-920, and I think they are simply incapable of testing me all the way up to 1Gb. Based on past experience with Cox, the speed is there just not "test-able" -- even with (or especially with) the Cox-provided speedtest server.

FYI using a Netgear Nighthawk X10 router and a hardwired 1gb enet cable.

Review by dlarkin_dc See Profile

  • Location: Alexandria, Fairfax, VA, USA
  • Cost: $84 per month
Internet speeds stable and consistely close to plan limit.
Personable but ineffective tech support, poor DTV quality (dropped after 1 year)
Okay for Internet.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

UPDATE 1/8/2021

Email has been rock solid for many years, wherever needed to be resolved in 2015 got fixed. I've also learned that new subscribers won't get email service. But so many have Gmail, etc., it's not likely to be a problem.

I switched from Preferred 50/5 to Essential 150/10 at $60 just for the 5mb upload increase. When I need it, that lowly 10 is still double. Since the upgrade Cox have moved the rates and prices up, 180/10 and $84. I don't have hardware or support fees, using all my own modem, router, mesh. Last I looked, a year of Cox's rental fees would buy all these items, and better ones too. At least Cox's is better than most ISPs hardware.

The internet speeds are always there when I run a test and ping times are acceptable, but jitter and lost packets are a problem - especially at peak load times, prime-time, when streaming service apps struggle with this issue. Some services are worse, but that their apps adaptability. Still, it's worth sharing and that over the last year this has been an increasing problem. Gaming over the internet is always annoyingly "laggy" because of the jitter and packet loss. I'm continuing my investigation in to this problem and I'll post an update.

For anyone new, moving into the area and starting with an ISP, Cox just doesn't make sense any more. For comparison, FiOS is offering 200/200 for $40 for a few years.

UPDATE 1/24/2015

Been on Cox Preferred internet plan for 12 years. The speed is now 50/5mbps. In tests I see a very steady 43mbps. The reliability of internet is great, outages are extremely rare... only two on the last 12 years. The speed and low latency makes for great streaming, Netflix HD (8.3mbps), VUDU HDX, Amazon HD never have an issue and should be capable of streaming 4K/UHD.

The Preferred plan data cap has been dropped from 300Gb to 250Gb, though I rarely go much over 50% despite streaming 90% of my TV viewing.

I can't say it's been all rosy with Cox e-mail service. That's been a roller coaster ride the last year, with outages, login problems, and e-mails delayed. It's flaky/patchy and I'm not happy with it - though it's never been a critical issue either. There's ongoing threads about these e-mail issues in the Cox HSI forum, but it's long past due being resolved by Cox.
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UPDATE 6/2/13

Been seeing Netflix Super HD on our devices and (after Neflix fixed some glitches) that has been working fine.

Also, about that free McAfee software... I've dropped it for AVG after McAfee let bad virus in and I found four others after rebuilding my OS.
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UPDATE 4/11/13

Just received a price hike on the internet, an extra $4 / month. I'm still on Preferred listed as 15/2 (SpeedTest.net usually tests 17-20/3 over the last few years) and I've never had bandwidth issues, even streaming Vudu HDX.
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UPDATE 1/31/2011

Dropped all television from my plan today and keeping the internet service only.

Why? Two reasons:
(1.) Picture/Sound Quality - I was fed up with the picture and sound quality issues due to compression and distribution problems. Shows from streamed or by antenna have crisp and clear picture and sound quality.
(2.) "57 channels and nothing on" Syndrome. Well, maybe 300 plus channels, but we watch a handful of shows a week. All but two are available OTA, the others are streamed online free or 99c an episode.

So that I guess that takes me to a 3rd reason...
(3) I'll be cutting $82 from my bill, a cost I don't need for my television viewing habits.

No regrets. In fact, I'm excited to be seeing shows clean and clear again, for free.
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UPDATE 11/8/2010

A month after finally getting a real body (a tech with a face, name and cell#) assigned to the ongoing PQ issues... nothing has been improved. In four weeks only one frequency/channel has been addressed and so far without improvement. All other channels are still experiencing minor but annoying problems.

As I now know how Cox address these issues, on a per channel/frequency basis, I am keeping a log of the channel/frequencies and PQ issues when they appear... six regular offenders and counting. l'll be a lot older and greyer before this is resolved at the rate Cox gets things done. My tech told me he escalated internally and suddenly things happened. That it had to get to that stage is a sad reflection on Cox field service/response in my area.

Simply put, there appears to be a significant distribution problem in my neighborhood for HD DTV services from Cox.

I expect I'll be switching to FiOS, or a combination of OTA/ClearQAM/IPtv in the next couple of months to get better PQ and save money to boot!

The internet has never been to problematic, so I'll probably keep that.
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UPDATE 9/26/2010

It's been a few weeks since the last tech visit, so far ABC/NBC/Fox and major network stations are always fine but I am seeing infrequent snow/microblocks on every other channel at any time of the day or week. The Wed to Sat picture quality degrading is just as bad but non-network stations, BBC/SyFy/WDC are horrible. The way-out-wacky jitter seems to have gone too, better for my VOIP.

I expect I'm seeing a band-aid solution to local newtork load/congestion. Or maybe the change is the neighbors migrating to fiber

I've shaved my ratings back to reflect the current situation.
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UPDATE 9/15/2010

On the internet I am seeing the same performance now for months, and it is acceptable, with a few caveats. Occasionally the DNS goes offline, I'm getting outrageous jitter so it's affecting my VOIP.

Worse still my DTV service is prone to breakups and freeze-ups on Wednesday through Saturday, 9am to midnight. The tech support has gotten very poor, a tech came out to my house said everything was perfect, but snipped off and remade every connection and then blamed the model of my STB. He said Cox didn't have any replacements but he'd get one for me when he could. So what... leaving me with unwatchable TV four days out of seven? Tech support on the phone will only reset by STB, and that does no good.

The service I'm paying for has gone from, "Eh, but I can live with it." in December to, "I am so ready to switch to FIOS." in the last three months.
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UPDATE 3/26/2010

Seems like the spotty performance is gone, and I'm now bonding 3 channels. Whenever I test I'm usually seeing data rates about 11/3 (the plan is up to 12/5) so it's carrying Skype and VOIP without any problems.

Calls to Cox... I still get some great phone staff on the phone, clear talking, helpful, great attitude, but the grouches are taking over 2:1, IME.
Call wait times have been getting longer too.

I have added digital cable TV to my plan 3 months ago. That review is still in progress... oh, so not smooth sailing.
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UPDATE 1/22/2010

In the new year I upgraded my modem to Surfboard 6120 and I'm seeing two channels bonded. Initially I saw snappier loading of web pages and large downloads are quicker. But,over the few weeks I have been seeing the up/downstream signal levels and SNRs drift about, sometimes close to acceptable limits. Sometimes I get nothing when a page should load and spotty performance. I am keeping an eye on this.
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UPDATE December 2009

Having called in to verify the costs, to compare to FiOS, for digital TV Cox offered same cost as I was at gateway, 2 tiers and a HD DVR. I snapped up that deal and took the plunge. So far the picture quality has varied wildly and the DVR performance is barely adequate. I'll post a full digtial television review when I'm done figuring it all out.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW

Been a COX HSI customer for close to six years... I picked up a modem/service pack (a Motorola Surfboard and 50ft of co-axial cable) at Circuit City. I just hooked it up at home, phoned Cox to activate the service and I've been online almost non-stop since - we've only had two short outages!

FYI - We're on our second Surfboard now, they do have a lifespan.

The COX support people are friendly but the tech support is best when guided by a geek (me, in this case) who knows what needs to be fixed otherwise you'll be chasing down blind alleys, but all tech support has gone that way it seems.

I think, when I started using COX HSI, the speeds were 5/2. COX always upgraded the speeds for consumers as the higher speeds became available. The currently cited speeds are up to 12/5 and that is what we usually see using Speedtest.net

The McAfee VirusScan Suite that you can get free as COX HSI subscriber is worth about $50 in software and $20/yr in virus scan updates.

I get the HSI bundled with the cable analog TV service from COX and the cost of the combination is begining to be be uncompetitive, at $103/mo. For a little more I can get Verizon Extreme HD and 50/20.

member for 14.5 years, 250 visits, last login: 1 day ago
updated 2.1 years ago


BackdatedInt
@cgocable.net

BackdatedInt

Anon

Reviews

I believe this Cox Communications Co. needs persons like yourself, keeping them up to date with products of Services rendered.

BackdatedInt,

dlarkin_dc
join:2009-08-24
Alexandria, VA

dlarkin_dc

Member

Re: Reviews

Yeah, at the rate I'm seeing neighbors switch to FiOS or dish, and with my own experience with what Cox can offer, in terms of product and service, I really don't think Cox care about the customer. Maybe they can't afford to address the hardware or tech problems to allow them to compete. Ironically, I get Cox junk mail 2 to 4 times a week... each one promising a brighter future if I sign-up to pay over the odds for a bunch services I don't need, and which Cox can't even compete on pricing, or quality.
jgantes
join:2002-06-12
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA

jgantes

Member

Terrible, Horrendous HDTV Quality - Internet is solid

So much compression and macroblocking it's absurd. Keeps getting worse too. I love that they offer 55mbps speeds now... uh... how about allocating some of that to HDTV.

DirecTV and DISH destroy the quality of COX. Might be switching soon.

dlarkin_dc
join:2009-08-24
Alexandria, VA

dlarkin_dc

Member

Re: Terrible, Horrendous HDTV Quality - Internet is solid

Yeah, the compression is not good, the lousy distribution in my neighborhood seems irreperable, and to cap it all off the tech support for digital TV is useless.

So I finally cut the television service altogether.

Review by Iggy_AZ See Profile

  • Location: Surprise, Maricopa, AZ, USA
  • Cost: $89 per month
Getting more expensive and less speed.
Expensive
Better than DSL
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Price is going up and speed is more limited.

member for 18.3 years, 1000 visits, last login: 65 days ago
updated 2.6 years ago


needforspeed59
Cruise Ship Just Passing Through
join:2001-05-02
La Place, LA

needforspeed59

Member

Look at your bill

I believe you are getting a $15 credit. I remember when this happened. The bundle customers were all switched from Preferred service to Premier and got a $15 credit to off set the increase bewteen the two levels. In essence, you got a huge speed increase for the same price as Preferred since you are in a bundle. If you don't like Premeir service, call and downgrade back to preferred.
sparky007
join:2011-08-25
Phoenix, AZ

sparky007

Member

Essential

I dropped cox down the lowest speed called the Essential. 3Meg down and 384K UP.
You get 50 Gig a month for overall allowance instead of 200 Gig with the more $$$$ plans.

With 3 Meg I still can stream movies and get decent downloads.

It's 39.99 per month after the 19.99 6 month trial.

Cox will tell you that this package isn't good for anything other than internet and email, but they just want to sell you the most $$$$ package.

Netflix works without any issues.
Iggy_AZ
join:2005-11-21
Surprise, AZ

Iggy_AZ

Member

Re: Essential

Thanks for the information.
I may do that but how can I find out how much I use now of the 200Gig?