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Review by bash29 See Profile

  • Location: Laguna Hills, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $599 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 30 days
$600 for Business Solution Package.
Tech Support
I can recommend it to anyone.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Read about my bad experience with Cox's tech. support here:

»I Don't Understand Cox (Orange County) Tech. Suppt

Once Cox read my post above, they called my boss about it!

member for 24.4 years, 90 visits, last login: 16.9 years ago
lodged 20.7 years ago


Jammy
Premium Member
join:2000-11-03
Pittsburg, CA

Jammy

Premium Member

Your link to the full discussion does not work!


I really wanted to read this!

Jammy
bash29
join:1999-11-05
Laguna Hills, CA

bash29

Member

Re: Your link to the full discussion does not work!

Jammy,

Try this

»I Don't Understand Cox (Orange County) Tech. Suppt

If it doesn't work, then try this
- Click on Forums on the left.
- Click on All Forums.
- Under Cable Support, click on Cox HSI.
- Look for my post with the subject
I Don't Understand Cox (Orange County) Tech. Suppt

I hope that helped,

Bash






Review by darthsith1 See Profile

  • Location: Las Vegas, Clark, NV, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
say what ????
everythin
they need competition real bad ( but like everythin else in las vegas they have monopoly)
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

i am gona use them for a couple of months then cancel ( only cause i bought the modem ... they said $99 .. i wont be surprised if i am gona be charged 199 though )
i got the 1.5 mb plan wich is $39.99 + $8.70 for basic(localchannnel only)
the thing that bums me out is the TRANSFER LIMIT ..... i dont donwload music or porn .. i use linux (gentoo) wich requires me to do "source installs" but with 7.5 GB limit i mightaswell get me netzero and use it to check my email ....

check this link »www.cox.com/LasVegas/HSD ··· cing.asp

enough said .....

member for 21.9 years, 63 visits, last login: 19.6 years ago
lodged 20.7 years ago


Time
Premium Member
join:2003-07-05
Irvine, CA

Time

Premium Member

yeah

I use the 3.0 mb service, it's great. You can also upgrade your service, I know I doubled my downstream bandwidth usage limit per month.

Anonymous_LV
@lvcablemodem.com

Anonymous_LV

Anon

Have you....

Have you in fact reached the transfer limit? And if you did...what did they do about it? Because they don't have an active monitor running on it as of yet. They say the do to scare you but they don't have a transfer cap yet. They will don't get me wrong. But not for a couple of months even then you will still have a few months after that if you do go over they will give you a warning, then another one then they will disconnect you. Just wondering....thanks

Plasticman
Will Work For Bandwidth
Premium Member
join:2002-09-06
Johnston, RI

Plasticman

Premium Member

Cox HSI In New England

Well I have the 3MBit connect and and I pay 39.99 a month. But I have all of their digital services. And as for my transfer limits... I am allowed 30 gigs download a month and 7.5 gigs of upload. The daily limit is 7.5 gigs down/1 gig up. I have had that in place since January of this year. But I have also exceeded it as you can see here with a log from my bw monitor:
DU Meter Monthly Report

Period (Month) Download Upload Both Directions
June 2003 41.48 GB 7.67 GB 49.15 GB
July 2003 5.34 GB 2.44 GB 7.78 GB

And now for Weekly:

DU Meter Weekly Report

Period (From) Period (To) Download Upload Both Directions
6/8/2003 6/14/2003 4.43 GB 140.79 MB 4.57 GB
6/15/2003 6/21/2003 20.17 GB 4.14 GB 24.31 GB
6/22/2003 6/28/2003 9.90 GB 2.20 GB 12.10 GB
6/29/2003 7/5/2003 11.91 GB 3.62 GB 15.52 GB
7/6/2003 7/12/2003 428.16 MB 9.93 MB 438.09 MB

Well I guess I am not doing too bad. Oh and as for my IP changing? I have had the same IP for almost 2 years now

Plasticman
[text was edited by author 2003-07-06 06:51:27]
darthsith1
join:2002-04-09
East Elmhurst, NY

darthsith1

Member

extra computer

thanx guys that gives me a little hope ..... can u talk a little about the extra computer issue ... do they mean they give u an extra ip for 5 bux or just install a network in ur house with 192.168.0.1 .... cause if it is about teh network it doesnt make sense ... i mean go to fry's or best buy theres routers all over the place (they should outlaw them )

Time
Premium Member
join:2003-07-05
Irvine, CA

Time

Premium Member

Re: extra computer

I believe they assign the extra computer an IP Address, not positive though. I have also heard that they may increase the upstream from 128 to 256 within the next few months. This is just great.
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3 to darthsith1

Member

to darthsith1
you can lease a second ip address for a monthly fee and use a hub to connect both machines to the modem.....you can also install a network....with networking if you go through cox there will be an install fee plus you need to buy the equipment from cox and have a one year networking subscription....after that year you can discontinue the networking subscription and keep your network....or you can install your network on your own....but if you discontinue the subscription or install it yourself you will not get support from cox....if you have a problem they will hook one pc directly to the modem and solve any issues with that.....anything more is your responsibility....after checking your link to the pricing page networking may not be available in your area in which case you can get a router and set up your own network but you won't get support for multiple pc's
hope this was helpful
[text was edited by author 2003-07-07 01:58:10]
EO2 Seabee
join:2003-07-08
Las Vegas, NV

EO2 Seabee to darthsith1

Member

to darthsith1
If you want to add a second conputer, just get your self a router, (I used a Linksys). Cox will see the MAC address of the router, and the router will provide internal IP's for your computers. Your speed will stay pretty constant for both computers, and you won't have to pay anything extra to Cox. Also, if you pay for the extra computer thru Cox, they just guarentee the speed to both computers.If you pay for a static IP, you just get the one IP.
EO2 Seabee

EO2 Seabee

Member

Re: extra computer

Another thing, I dumped Cox 'cause their prices were going up. I use KEYON wireless now, and I love it. Faster, and cheaper. The only "downside" is that they do not provide e-mail. If you use any of the free e-mail services this shouldn't really be a problem.

RCars2
join:2002-03-22
Phoenix, AZ

RCars2

Member

What a rip

wow u got ripped off on your service......i got the same plan in phoenix arizona and its only $30 a month......u really got a raw deal and im honestly supprized cox would do that cuz they are the best provider ive seen in the southwest.....and with the modem costing $199 thats a pile of garbage that they are feeding ya.....the tech that installed my package gave me a free NIC and modem (toshiba PCX1100U)......if i were u i would call up cox and b*tch them out big time
darthsith1
join:2002-04-09
East Elmhurst, NY

darthsith1

Member

spped test issue

»/speed ··· 58514712

i got the 39.99 plan 1.5 mb and 256 kbs but everytime i test i get this weird

2003-07-18 03:51:52 EST: 1422 / 1364
Your download speed : 1422664 bps, or 1422 kbps.
A 173.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 1364566 bps, or 1364 kbps.
Seems like broadband .. above the 1mbit barrier!

what should i do .. call cox .. i hate giving them anymore money .. they charge for everythin

all i want is get better download speed and downgrade the upload since i dont use it anyways

Review by haaserd See Profile

  • Location: Scottsdale, Maricopa, AZ, USA
  • Cost: $50 per month
You can cancel anytime, lots of service credits for lack thereof
very unreliable
sell your stock, Dilbert style management in charge
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Cox HIS is fairly priced and has great downloads speeds. If you are lucky
enough to have a trouble free environment, great, you will be happy with
the service. If you don’t, Cox sucks. I am on my way back to DSL after 6
months with Cox. During my six months tenure with Cox, I have had over a
hundred outages (really, easily more than a hundred) lasting from 10
minutes to 12 hours. I have been given billing credits for 36 days of
service.

When I switched from DSL to Cox, I was very happy. Cox had upgraded our
area a few months earlier to accommodate internet service and
some-time-in-the-future phone service. For less than I was paying for
640/256 DSL service, I could get better ISP service and basic cable TV
with two channels I couldn’t get from my attic antennae – WGN and TBS.
The savings would offset the installation fees and I anticipated breaking
even in less than a year.

The first omen came a few days after installation, a welcome letter and a
rate increase arrived in the mail on the same day! My modest savings were
wiped out and I was now paying more than I had previously. But the
service seemed fast and reliable and I enjoyed watching the news and
weather forecasts from my old home town of Chicago.

The first three months of service were good. Then the recurring
intermittent outages started.

The problem with Cox is their maintenance philosophy. Having retired from
a large company myself, I envision the top man in charge of maintenance
to be a complete moron, a perfect example of the boss in the Dilbert
cartoon. I think this executive may have spent some time in Marketing
before being transferred out of the way into the maintenance organization
many years ago.

The starting and ending philosophy of Cox is all customers are morons
equal to the previously discussed executive. Therefore, all customer
problems occur on the customer premises. Cox seems proud that they
dispatch trucks to the customer premises on every trouble call and telcos
seldom do (hence, my belief this Dilbert-material executive spent some
time in marketing). This philosophy may have been appropriate for the old
days of cable TV-only service. This does not work well for internet
service and it will not work for phone service.

There are reasons why telcos do not dispatch trucks to the customer’s
premises on every call. I would suggest: (1) it is expensive, (2) it is
stupid.

During my six-month service period, I have been repeatedly subject to
numerous, generally short, outages. The typical scenario goes like this.
I call the TAC center and report my problem. After the TAC rep answers,
we do a two minute ritual where I repeat my name, phone number, billing
address, a random question I should know the answer to, and the last 4
digits of my social security number. This is a great get acquainted
technique, after being on hold an hour it is fun to see if you can answer
all the questions without blowing your cork.

Typically the my service returns during while I am on hold, or during the
get aquainted routine. If it hasn’t, we do the unplug the modem, hold
your breath as long as you can, plug it back in routine (never has
helped). We get ready to schedule a service dispatch. The TAC
representative threatens me with a $50 charge should the problem turn out
to be my fault or due to a defective modem, but offers to insure me
against my own stupidity for a mere pittance, to be charged to my account
every month for my natural life. I decline, and accept the risk.

The next day, or maybe two days at the most the service tech arrives. I
was shocked, they even come on Saturdays and Sundays (but as you will
see, having service is nice, needing service, well, leaves you still
needing service). Contrary to the telcos doing their debugging at the
service box outside your home, the Cox service tech may ask to use your
PC in order to evaluate the problem. I have only seen them do ping tests
(start a DOS console and enter “ping yahoo.com”) and speed tests
bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/). Neither has been helpful.

Next (or first), they will go to the service box and check your db level.
Cox service techs are fascinated by db levels as they are never exactly
where they should be. (consider two people talking in a room – when one
talks in a normal volume, the other can hear and understand every word
perfectly. If the speaker raises or lowers the volume of his voice the
other person can still hear and understand every word perfectly through a
wide range of volumes. That’s db). Finding the db levels in need of adjustment or not,
they always clip off the ends of the coaxial cables and replace the
connectors. Sometimes the splitter is replaced as well and the nearby
distribution box is fiddled with. If the db specs or connectors were the problem, it
will be fixed, as the techs seemed to be well trained on identifing and replacing the connectors and splitters.

In my case, I have had a recurring short outage which probably effects no
more than 25 – 50 customers (my wild guess). The first hurdle is being
impacted enough by the outage to take the trouble to call. These are
usually 10 minute outages which always disappear by itself if left alone. It takes about 6 occurances in two days to get myself motivated to do the call. I
realized I had a network problem the evening after my very first tech visit. I happened to meet my neighbor out walking and we discovered that
we each had had Cox tech visits that day just two hours apart –-
different service techs.

My tech witnessed a 10 minute outage (I can stick my modem out a window 8
feet from the service box), said he suspected a problem upstream and
would “try” to get the second level guys to look at it. Of course, he
replaced the coaxial connectors and the splitter. My neighbor’s tech said
he was “sucking too much signal” with 4 TVs and 2 PCs and he needed a new
modem (which he purchased that very afternoon). The neighbor also got new
connecters and splitters, just in case. We compared downtimes and uptimes
and confirmed a couple of identical times and several more we both didn’t
notice because one of us wasn’t online.

A week later, having never heard back as to whether my problem made it to
second level, I put in a second call to Cox TAC, same symptoms. After
being on hold and the get acquainted ritual, my modem was once again back
in service by the time we got around to discussing the problem. The rep
mentioned that he could see that my modem was only in service a few
minutes. I said, gee, can you check my neighbors up time? After a minute
of clicking, he came up with a identical time for my neighbor and another
(unknown neighbor down the block), and a much longer uptime for another
(known) neighbor down the block in the opposite direction.

The TAC rep was quite excited at finding this clue to a small local
outage and spent a considerable amount of time copying and pasting all
this data into the trouble report. He then said the only type of trouble
ticket he was allowed to write would be the house call variety, but with
all the information he was putting in it would get kicked to second tier
very quickly. After the obligatory warning about the possible $50 service
fee we scheduled a visit the very next day.

Two guys showed up, one was the field supervisor, the other apparently a
trainee. They arrived blissfully unaware that I had had a service call
the previous week, that my neighbor had a service call the previous week,
or that the TAC rep had documented proof of a multi-residence outage.
When I suggested the problem was not on my property and that he should
look for the problem upstream, he stated that there may be a problem
upstream but they still needed to check out my service box and look for
anything that may be “contributing” to my outages.

The connectors were cut off and replaced, a new splitter was installed,
and after sticking my modem out the window the db level was readjusted to a
satisfactory level at the connector which connects directly to the modem.
The sup was appreciative of the fact that I used the screw on variety of
cable and not those push on kind. Speed tests were run on my PC. They
mumbled something about second level and left.

It felt good… just knowing I had the right db level going into my modem.
The sup even left his card with his cell phone number and scribbled on
the number of his counterpart who worked the field Sunday – Wednesdays.
He asked me to call him during an outage so he could get second level to
look at the problem while it was in progress. Intermittent outages can be
difficult to troubleshoot, he couldn’t make any promises for a quick
resolution.

Later that evening, I had another outage. I called TAC. Thinking it would
be helpful to document my neighbors modem status I asked the rep to check
the uptime on my neighbors modem. He refused, saying that was
confidential information. I said, then don’t tell me, just note I
requested it because of the recent local outages and write my neighbors
uptime on the trouble report for the Cox service tech. He refused. I
asked for a supervisor. The supervisor refused saying it was
confidential. I repeated, I didn’t need to know, the Cox service people
needed the information to find the cause of my outages – just look it up
and put it on the trouble report without telling me. He refused. I asked
for a manager. He promised one would call me back – I am still waiting
after two months, guess the manager has a long queue or short hours…

The next service tech arrived blissfully unaware that I had had a service
call nine days ago, that my neighbor had a service call nine days ago,
that the TAC rep had documented proof of a multi-residence outage on my
prior call nine days ago, and that I had had a second service call just
two days before. When I suggested the problem was not on my property and
that he should look for the problem upstream, he stated that if I didn’t
let him troubleshoot the problem from the “source” outward, the way he
was trained, he would have to cancel the trouble call and I “may” be
subject to the $50 service fee. Wow, I relented.

He did ping tests from my PC. Ping tests for an intermittent network
outage on a working-for-now network? Hmmm, I never would have thought of
trying that.

My db level was tested and my two-day old connectors and splitter were
replaced. At about this point I began expressing doubt that this was
going to fix both my problem and my neighbor’s problem. He responded that
there was a lot of work going on in the area to upgrade the Cox network
to handle voice. I had probably received a monthly schedule from Cox
showing the planned outages, I had probably thrown it away as junk mail
like most people, the people doing the work should be calling it in
before they take down the network, but they frequently don’t bother
calling it in, so the TAC support people should be able to tell me there
is a network outage when I call in a problem, but, they don’t know about
it so guys like him are dispatched instead for no reason at all, this happens
a lot.

I said, gee, who would buy telephone service from Cox? Most people want
dial tone all the time. He left. Two hours later he called back saying he
had talked to second level and they had found a problem affecting 20
customers. My connection may go up and down several times from then
through the next morning. That did happen, and I got a generic email from
Cox four days in a row advising me of maintenance work and probable
outages starting at midnight to and continuing to 6 AM. During this time
I made several calls to the two field supervisors for additional outages,
mostly I got their voice mail and they returned calls after service had
already returned. I never received any indication that my problem was
fixed.

After the fourth Cox advisory email, service was good for six weeks. Then
on a Wednesday, I noticed the network was unusually flakey with slow
response times. On Thursday I saw my modem lights go out and return to
normal after a few minutes. This happened several times. I called TAC,
but gave up after 10 minutes on hold. I called the local sup on duty and
left a voice mail message, no response, maybe he is on vacation. Friday
was more of the same, I called TAC a couple of times and gave up after
about 15 minutes each time. I talked to my neighbor, he was having the
same problems and had already signed up for the NetZero $10/month package
so he could at least get slow service during the outages. He had tried
calling TAC, but gave up after being on hold several minutes. Instead, he
called the phone number left by a previous tech – possibly the “sucking
too much signal” guy.

Saturday morning another outage occurred, I was leaving and gave up after
5 minutes on hold trying to reach TAC. Saturday evening (shows you what a
party life style I lead) I waited them out and completed the trouble
report transaction in only 70 minutes. Sunday morning there was another
outage and I called the other sup coming on duty at 6 AM expecting to
leave a message on his voice mail. To my surprise he answered – I think
he was still in bed. He promised to call me back after he checked it out
in the office. He did, problem cause unknown.

Monday morning I called Cox billing at 8 AM sharp and requested that my
cable TV service be disconnected and added to the service call scheduled
for 10 to 12. Unknown to me, the field supervisor had cancelled my
service call because I had told him my neighbor was having identical
outages (hooray, a thinking person who realizes the problem is not within
my service panel). When the sup called me at noon to tell me second level
was working on some kind of a problem in my area, I said my service guy
hadn’t shown up yet.

He said he had cancelled it, I said my cable TV was to be disconnected,
he said no problem I wouldn’t be billed and a service guy could do that
anytime without bothering me, I said the original installer cut the
connector off my antennae lead and I was hoping the service tech would
put one back on and there were several cables to choose from. The sup
offered to stop by himself and do the deed later that day, which he did.

While waiting for the sup to show up, I received an unexpected call from
another Cox representative apologizing for the "unscheduled outage" that
morning. They had discovered a piece of bad fiber that required
replacement. She seemed surprised to learn that I was having so many outages
that I couldn't tell which particular outage she was refering to. She
said about 40 customers were impacted by the unscheduled outage.

The sup showed up, and replaced the connector on my antennae lead. He was
as yet unaware that the second level guys had replaced a piece of fiber.
He said he appreciated that I had called him. He knew that I, my
neighbor, and a third customer a couple of blocks away were having
similar problems. He left hopeful that he had enough for second level to
take a look, and said he was going to check out what second
level had already fixed to see if that might have been the cause of the
outages.

There are other interesting tidbits that I have omitted; this note is
already too long.

In summary, Cox is business case material for a university management
class. There are many competent people lead by an incompetent management
who has yet to realize that the business has changed from cable-TV only
to TV, internet, and phone combined. The processes used to support
internet and phone customers in need of service must be adapted to the
new reality. Two way communication like internet and phone service where
every bit counts is a lot different from one-way cable TV. Cox has major
problems and they need to do a lot of work to put in the most basic
diagnostic and problem tracking procedures.

There is a lot of trouble reporting taking place directly between
customers and maintenance personnel outside of the of the formal TAC
problem reporting process. This is a huge problem as service levels
appear to be much better than they are to anyone looking at the number of
incidents recorded by TAC.

There is no formal feedback to the originating customer(s) regarding any
problem making it to second level support. There isn’t any process
visible to customers where problems going from first level support to
second level are numbered and tracked. There isn’t any feedback from
second level to a customer saying we acknowledge your recent problem and
have fixed it. There isn’t a process for keeping an unsolved problem
open after the tech’s truck leaves your home. There isn’t a process where
customers get to agree that a problem incident has been corrected and
should be closed. Customer hold times trying to reach TAC
are too long. TAC reps don’t know how long you have been on hold. The
recorded message doesn’t provide an estimated hold time. There isn’t any
web based incident reporting. I could go on and on.

Cox sucks. I am looking forward to being an ex-customer.

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!

member for 22.3 years, 13 visits, last login: 20.6 years ago
lodged 20.7 years ago

robfwb
join:2001-01-07
Mary Esther, FL

robfwb

Member

leave the local office alone

humm one rule of thumb you NEVER NEVER NEVER call the local office.. before you quit and give up send tier 2 a private letter stating your problem give him your last for digits of your social and your cox email addres and what he will do is put his foot down and contact your backbone and issue a trouble ticket

local offices are very stupid and i have never ever called since i found about this

»CoxTech1

rob
----
»www.cband.info - come and chat with us on IRC
robfwb

robfwb

Member

deceptive advertising

The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!

humm your still connected @ 56K - juno is deceiving all they do is open up a proxy which allows for "faster" downloads your upload speed is still the same + you need the software vs connecting straight tcp/ip.

rob
haaserd
join:2001-12-03
Scottsdale, AZ

haaserd

Member

Re: deceptive advertising

I have used Juno since 1994, first as free dial up email. It is brain dead easy. I use Juno for non-personal uses such as this, particularly anything that requires an email address for registration. I also use it for several chat lines. Juno hasn't dialed since about 1998, it uses my internet connection of the moment and is still free.

My personal email address went from USWest to NetZero to USWest to Quest to Yahoo. The move to Yahoo allowed my friends to skip my transition from Quest to Interwrx and from Interwrx to Cox. The only mail comimg to my obligatory Cox email address is generated by Cox. I use the free version of NetZero (now the same company as Juno) when Cox is down (again) and I need to check my Yahoo email.

Note the warning, I have only logged on to this site 3 times since December, 1991. Rather pecular warning, how often do I have to shop and review ISPs to not get a warning?

I also don't understand your recommendation to contact Cox 2nd tier. How does one obtain an email address?
robfwb
join:2001-01-07
Mary Esther, FL

robfwb

Member

well

well you have to contact cox to get your email address. second of all i have heard of 1,000's of success stories of people who have contacted tier 2 and have had there problem fixed. you should try it before giving up.

and with juno yes they are a good free providor if you like there spyware. there's an ISP that offers 10 free hours and you can connect with just straight tcp/ip »www.access-4-free.com (after that its $10 a month)

i had juno software installed and my pc had a few cases of "gator" and condor ad delivering software installed (baaaa!)

don't give up the ship yet!

rob
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3

Member

UNDERSTANDING YOUR PAIN

well as in my title i do understand your pain but let me help you with a few things that you have probably overlooked being that you are a customer and all customers are selfish by definition....you had mentioned that cox was upgrading in your area to accomodate phone service....this process requires much of the cable plant to be rebuilt and generally contractors do the work and in house cox construction and maintainence tech oversee progress and problems...but consider the number of people in your area being affected by this and the fact that they are all calling in to complain about similar issues....if your not in the reported affected area the support person has to do things as if you are the only person affected....checking another account at your request is a violation of confidentality but most usually the call center rep will make note that it's a possible street issue....secondly...the techs who were being dispatched to fix your problem would not know about any other techs being out unless the specifically checked for that which if i were you i would have insisted they do considering the amount of problems you were having...if you have a tech at your house for the second time and they can not tell you a definative problem and the steps they took to correct it you should insist on speaking to a supervisor and give that sup ownership of the problem until it's resolved....lastly i know you feel it was foolish to replace the connectors and splitters at every visit and i don't disagree but i can tell you why it was done....when a problem is intermittent and not occuring at the time of the call some techs like to change out all connectors for fear of possible ingress (signal leaking in) from outside sorces or defective workmanship...i personally don't follow this practice...if i can't say it's bad i won't change it....i'd rather identify a problem then possibly create another one...also signal is not measured in db...it is measured in db/mv but the delta is simply db and the modems need a specific signal range to function properly...too high or too low and you will get packet loss and connection loss...the modems also transmit a signal back to the UBR or CMTS which has to receive that upstream at a certain lever but the modem has a limit for transmit signal strength so plant problems and attenuation can also cause drops in service....i think you are very knowlageable to an extent as to what goes on in the back office but at the same time i think you should follow up with supervisors regarding your problem....if you have a tech back to your house try asking for them to set up a MRTG to monitor your modem's uptime packet loss and latency...also ask the tech that has this done to have one done for people living down the block in both directions from where you are and there is a good chance they'll be able to locate the problem if they have not already
i hope i was helpful
haaserd
join:2001-12-03
Scottsdale, AZ

haaserd

Member

Re: UNDERSTANDING YOUR PAIN

I think you need to look at the larger picture. But first a few points.

The construction work in my area was completed a year ago. After the tech told me I probably ignored an email, I emailed the contact-at-Cox address and asked for a schedule of construction effecting my area. The response was there was NONE.

After the first tech house call and after talking to my directly-across-the-street neighbor that evening, every tech visiting my house was made aware that with 100% certitude I knew the problems that I was experiencing were a multi-residence problem and that I wanted them to fix the problems in the distribution units upstream.

Every subsequent call made to TAC and the local sup made it very clear I knew with 100% certitude this was an area problem and I did not want another truck rolling to my house; I wanted the problem fixed. Trucks continued to roll to my house because it appeared that was the ONLY way a customer could get Cox to recognize there was a problem upstream. In fact, I asked for a daily 8:00 AM visit -- my request was declined.

The TAC employee who looked up my neighbor's modem uptime and documented it on the trouble report was probably reprimanded. I feel he should be rewarded. I have no complaint with any of the employees or supervisors I have come in contact with; they performed their job as they were trained to do and dealt with an upset customer very well.

The bigger picture...the huge problem...

I know multiple Cox maintenance personnel are giving out their phone numbers to multiple customers (I have one, my neighbor has another). In management terms: this is direct evidence that bottom level employees have recognized the deficiencies of the formal trouble reporting procedures and are actively circumventing the formal procedures by setting up one-to-one trouble reporting procedures in order to provide better customer service. They are to be commended.

Cox employees should be furious that an incompetent executive is allowed to collect a fat salary while making their jobs harder. It is as obvious as the noonday sun in Arizona that the entire TAC reporting, network diagnostic, and field maintenance procedures need to be revamped.

Understand the change in technology going on in Cox -- two way communication is different than one way cable TV. There is someone in charge who should be managing these changes (and they started happening a LONG time ago). The executive in charge of this is obviously incompetent and should be removed.

Rolling trucks to a customer's house on every trouble call is insanely stupid. Note my description of the second call to TAC above. I did not want a truck coming to my house, the TAC rep KNEW it was not a problem at my residence. Yet the truck rolled to my house anyway. Duh, this is a top management level issue -- employees must do stupid things because they are constrained by the outdated procedures established by their incompetent managers.

catseyenu
Ack Pfft
Premium Member
join:2001-11-17
Fix East

catseyenu

Premium Member

Re: UNDERSTANDING YOUR PAIN

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head to me.
It would be in Cox's best interest to listen to what you have said here and send you a consulting fee for pinpointing the weaknesses in their system.
So much potential, so many wasted resources...sad isn't it?
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3 to haaserd

Member

to haaserd
i do see the bigger picture as i am a field tech.
what you don't understand is that for the majority of the time and circumstances the outage procedure works very well...some of the practices and procedures i may not agree with but most of the time they do work and because of this to the pain of a few customers when this doesn't work it makes the process longer and more painstaking....i only mentioned the construction because you had mentioned it in your original post but sticking to the current issue did you ask the teck to have MRTG's set up for you and a few of your neighbors....this is a very good tool is identifying and pinpointing a problem and should have been done automatically as soon as it was suspected there was a problem in the area....there are alot of tools and software that can be used but the MRTG is the first step and the most basic....i'm glad that the techs and sups your have delt with were professional and helpful but the fact that you are posting here and are not happy with your service tells me that no matter how well they spoke to you they have dropped the ball somewhere and i am trying to help you in helping them to find and fix your problem....insist on the MRTG and that way in the future no one will have to make a trip to your home next time there is a problem and they will also know even when you don't when the problem has occured....maybe tell your neighbor the same thing and hopefully they will be able to fix this problem swiftly
rjw3683
join:2003-07-02
Phoenix, AZ

rjw3683

Member

COX DOESNT SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

as a cox hsi technician, i can tell you that you're one of a very small percentage of people who have problems with our service. Compared with other ISP's, our system is highly reliable, in fact so reliable, that we can carry telephone service (the FCC would'nt allow us to unless we had 99.9% system uptime) our service is faster than 90% of the other services that are out there, unless, of course you opt to pay a premium for faster service. Our service is up to 3Mb/sec for 44.95/month, other services are only 512Kb for the same price. Back to the original idiot's comments......Anytime a system is upgraded as you mentioned in your unnecesarily long posting, you WILL experience problems until the system is properly swept( balanced). This is the same for any service. Also in defense for Cox, CATV technology is light years ahead of TELCO technology, ,and can provide way, way more services over the same wire, but there is alot more that can go wrong, and there is nothing worse than a bonehead computer geek customer who thinks he/she knows how OUR system works. For anyone who knows anything about 2 way RF technology, they would understand how important signal levels are (DbMv's) that is why everytime there is a problem with your phone/Catv/internet service, Cox, and most other Cable companies will insist on rolling a truck to your house to verify forward and reverse levels to and from your Cable modem, and to verify that there isnt too much noise on the line (usually caused by push-on fittings, and bonehead customers who like to install there own CATV outlets using the finest radio shack cable, and gold plated push-on fittings, thinking that they are going to save themselves money by DIY, rather than just paying a nominal fee to Cox to have a trained professional do the work with high quality materials)
Also for those of you who like to piss and moan about the $50 service charge for a truck rolling to your house, keep in mind that you are only charged this if you dont have the service assurance plan, or if the problem ends up being YOUR housewire of hardware(splitters,fitting,etc.)Compared to other companies $50 is a steal for a knowledgeable tech roll on a tech call. The only good point that was made in the original posting is that Cox does need to work on it's interdepartmental communication.
robfwb
join:2001-01-07
Mary Esther, FL

robfwb

Member

Re: COX DOESNT SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

too bad i cant get a 3.0 meg/768 up speed residental plan. i'd cut digital cable just to get that

rob
----
»www.cband.info & »www.tvro.us

Smokey
I'd rather be skiing
Premium Member
join:2003-05-20
Wild West

Smokey to rjw3683

Premium Member

to rjw3683
I agree. I think that Cox ROCKS!!! I do like the speeds but also would like to get a higher speed tier option! I also love that they stick it to Qwest!! I waiting for them to bring phone service here so i can kiss Qwest goodbye
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn to rjw3683

to rjw3683
said by rjw3683:
Compared with other ISP's, our system is highly reliable...

Also in defense for Cox, CATV technology is light years ahead of TELCO technology...
What a riot... Since I have no idea if you work for Cox or not in reality (you claim to), I will honestly say that Cox has yet to live up to the reliability of my previous DSL provider.

As for that second statement... That depends on what telco technology you are talking about. If you are talking the less than ten year old coax coming to my building versus the 23+ year old copper coming to the building, well of course you are going to be on top... If I had the equivalent to current day, modern telco access mediums, which is suppose to be fibre, you lose.

Smokey
I'd rather be skiing
Premium Member
join:2003-05-20
Wild West

Smokey

Premium Member

Re: COX DOESNT SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

that’s not always true, Qwest has a lot of fiber around my town, but is nowhere near the quality that Cox has in the system here. When the City built its new yard last year Qwest said that it could not provide a t1 line or fiber to the yard because of "technical Difficulties" when they had a ds3 trunk 200 feet down the street. Qwest has also failed to deploy dsl in this area even though the have all this fiber in the ground. ( I think that is mostly because they sell that to the government offices around town) So think it comes down not so much to the technology in the area but the telcos priority in using it.
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

Re: COX DOESNT SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

said by Smokey:
tWhen the City built its new yard last year Qwest said that it could not provide a t1 line or fiber to the yard because of "technical Difficulties" when they had a ds3 trunk 200 feet down the street. Qwest has also failed to deploy dsl in this area even though the have all this fiber in the ground.
Qwest clearly has some SERIOUS management problems... I've heard of Telco's telling people they can't run a T1 to a location, but that's usually due to a distance problem.... And even then that's crap because repeaters can be used with T1 circuits.
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3 to bmn

Member

to bmn
actually the Cable technology is far more ahead of the telco's....to clarify your misconception fiber does not feed a house or a building unless they are a true T-speed connection and the cost of having fibre installed and tied into the plant (be it cable or telco) in way into the multi thousand dollar range so you wouldn't see that too often...telco's only run fiber between the CO's and in larger cities from CO to some sort of substation or local switch due to the fact that a telco signal can only travel 3.3 miles before it needs to be boosted but unlike RF over Coax a boosted telco signal cannot pass digital through a booster....which is why location limits DSL subscribers....cable companies that support digital services and some even before that feed multiple fiber runs from the main office to all their nodes in a system....the node is where the light signal from the fiber is converted to RF and split to the surrounding streets on coax which on average is amplified every 8 poles to ensure the quality of signal....telco's send your phone signal upto 3 miles on 2 little wires that can be effected by just about anything and that includes your DSL signal

catseyenu
Ack Pfft
Premium Member
join:2001-11-17
Fix East

catseyenu to rjw3683

Premium Member

to rjw3683
said by rjw3683:
Back to the original idiot's comments......
Wow, I don't know why I'm still surprised when I hear Cox personel with this kind of attitude but I am.

I'm Not Laughing.
.

charterengr
Premium Member
join:2002-03-09
Newnan, GA

charterengr

Premium Member

"CT FSR 3" and rjw3683 do not speak for Cox

Just to set the record straight, "CT FSR 3" and rjw3683 are not 'speaking' on behalf of Cox. I don't even know if they are actual employees. Please treat their posts as individual contributions, not Cox official posts.
charterengr

charterengr

Premium Member

Cox response

haaserd - It's truly unfortunate that you've had such a negative experience. Sounds like you've had substandard service and have had to put up with an inordinate amount of service calls. It also sounds like there is some type of serious and systemic problem in your area. Clearly if every customer experienced problems to that extent, we'd be out of business. We have 1.6mil high speed data customers and 750k phone customers - we couldn't have achieved these numbers with lots of those types of problems.

So is it too late or would you allow me to pull in some plant and IP engineers into the equation to squash your problem for good? I'd be willing to facilitate if you still have some patience to work with us. IM me if you'd like to pursue. Thanks. Coxengr (vp network engineering@Cox HQ in atlanta)
haaserd
join:2001-12-03
Scottsdale, AZ

1 recommendation

haaserd

Member

Response to Dilbert's Boss

(Sigh)

You don’t get it.

Cox customers do not want to fill a Rolodex with names and numbers of various Cox employees. We do not want to keep track of what days you work, what hours you work, or when you’re on vacation. We do not want to survey our neighbors to see if they are down too. We do not want to be held partially responsible for our own dilemma because we failed to call the right person, know the right people in second level, or IM the VP of Engineering at the appropriate time.

We want what you (Cox) promised.

We want to call a 24/7 toll free number, explain our problem, and get results.

We want to know when you think the problem has been fixed, so if it happens again we can call the same 24/7 toll free number right back, without having to wonder whether you are still working on the problem or not. If the problem needs escalation or special handling, we want you (Cox) to figure it out immediately at the TAC desk.

If, in the course of attempting to fix the problem, you (Cox) do something individually smart, but collectively stupid (like replacing perfectly good cable connectors 3 times in nine days) we want you to realize what you did, figure out why you did it, and what you are going to do to keep yourself from doing it again.

So, wrong answer!

If you want to keep me as a customer, you or a VP buddy, must take ownership of this issue and make TAC work better. Someone has to figure out why a whole bunch of very capable Cox employees, working together, and doing their individual jobs well, came off looking like a bunch of jerks. Are you up to that? (I doubt it, I think you will look for a fall guy in the local office).

If you think you are up to it, just call 800-234-3993 and stay on hold until someone answers. Then ask yourself, how are we doing so far?

charterengr
Premium Member
join:2002-03-09
Newnan, GA

charterengr

Premium Member

Re: Response to Dilbert's Boss

I'm sorry that you won't take me up on my offer as a last attempt to remedy your problem. As to your comments, your feedback is welcome and your issues have been taken into council far more than you'd probably be willing to believe.
FHCS
join:2002-07-29
Fountain Hills, AZ

FHCS

Member

I got one better

Another example of poor management: A year ago I ordered Cox Internet and to make a very long story short, It never worked. The Tech on the phone said "Sorry, but there is nothing we can do". Upon canceling the service, they wanted to know why. I told them because it does not work and the tech said there is nothing that can be done. They wanted my account number however, my home owners association had it and I did not know it. Cox refused to cancel my account for service I was not receiving. This is even after talking to a supervisor. Cox actually expected me to pay for a service that I was not receiving. Cox insisted that I needed that account number to start or stop a service. I asked the supervisor, how did I start the service without it. He told me "I don't know". It took a few weeks to get a hold of the right person at my Home Owner Association to get my account number and finally got the service canceled. Man what a nightmare. I decided to try again 1 year later and sure enough, it didn't work again so this time they sent a tech. The tech fixed the problem and said that all the previous techs had to do was to find the right box and that it could have worked a year ago. I asked what was done? He replied, "It was at a different box". I could have figured that one. Cox Internet works better than expected so far. Bottom line is that Arizona is notorious for businesses having the worst customer service in the United States. I really don't know why but even though Cox customer service is down & out, compared to other companies (IE Qwest) Cox does pretty good.
[text was edited by author 2003-08-31 14:32:07]

Review by etyrrill See Profile

  • Location: Irvine, Orange, CA, USA
  • Cost: $35 per month
Relatively reliable internet service
Started blocking port 25 on 6/23/03
Useless because I can't send email
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I have been a Cox internet customer since 1997, and overall I was pretty satisfied. The service over the last couple years has been very good. Before that it was spotty. One of the big reasons I was happier with the service is I stopped using the Cox email servers a couple years ago, and instead started paying for a web host/email service. Now that I am using an external providor my email goes down once or twice a year instead of two or three times a month with Cox.

But now Cox just started blocking the SMTP port, port 25. So I can no longer access my email server. This makes the Cox service unusable. I came here to broadbandreports.com to find a new providor.

member for 20.7 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 20.7 years ago


Jammy
Premium Member
join:2000-11-03
Pittsburg, CA

Jammy

Premium Member

Cox "is" the fastest around, still . . .

Good luck! DSL is much slower than cable but it does allow the use of Port 25 for SMTP (at least for now) or you could just upgrade to a low-end SOHO business account ($89 here in San Diego).

I have been to the Cox newsgroups and read and often entered into the fray which has been caused by the blocking of Port 25 by Cox. Go to cox.internet.discussion.email in your Newsgroups and read the arguments, both Pro's and Con's and many of the discussions for getting past the port 25 blockage issue.

Again, good luck in your search for another broadband provider.

Jammy
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

Re: Cox "is" the fastest around, still . . .

said by Jammy:
Good luck! DSL is much slower than cable but it does allow the use of Port 25 for SMTP (at least for now) or you could just upgrade to a low-end SOHO business account ($89 here in San Diego).
Speed isn't everything you know. I'd rather have 1.5Mbps, no port blocking and a loose AUP rather than a crippled 3Mbps, lame ping stability and ports blocked.

CoxTech1
join:2002-04-25
Chesapeake, VA

CoxTech1

Member

SMTP servers going down?

I saw your message on the boards and wanted to touch base with you regarding our port 25 block policy.

With the new policy, the only thing you will have to change or use is our SMTP server (used only to send mail). You should still be able to receive mail from the 3rd party provider. Did you specifically have problems sending mail to users? What sort of bounce back message have you received? What sorts of issues restrict you from using our SMTP server?

I know using Cox SMTP servers is not always an option for many individuals, for those that chose to use another SMTP server there are working alternatives. For instance, many domain hosts will provide you with a work around to access they SMTP servers. Have you contacted your host provider? Are you trying to connect to a work machine, many IT Admins can allow you to connect to their VPN and send mail through their servers?

If there is anything I can do to help you with your concerns regarding our service, please IM me. However, if you do decide that another ISP is your best option I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavor. Good luck.
dardin
join:2002-11-19
Tucson, AZ

dardin

Member

Re: SMTP servers going down?

Agreed. Sounds like a pretty uneducated person in regards to this minor change Cox made. The problem he describes is not even effected by this change. I'd also find it funny that he will change providers and soon after they they make this move as well because of the spam issues/problems.

CoxIsAwful
@cpucorp.com

CoxIsAwful to CoxTech1

Anon

to CoxTech1
While changing your outbound mail server solves the problem for "COX ONLY" users (i.e. someone who only uses Cox for Internet Service), what about business users that have a company laptop that needs to have the company SMTP server while at work (and in hotels and such). Do you expect executives and other "non=-technical" users to want (or be able) to make this change everytime they change from the Cox network to any other network.

I have never had a service provider block port 25 so that I cannot use the SMTP server that I pay for, in addition to the Cox charges.

Also, why should my third party have to provide a work-around for me to access their SMTP server, over a port that should not be blocked in the first place.

The Cox policy to block port 25 to reduce spam sent from their network is like killing a mosquito with an atomic bomb, major league overkill.

I have been a network administrator for over 15 years and I have NEVER had an ISP block port 25.
chaluppa2
join:2002-10-19
Las Vegas, NV

chaluppa2 to CoxTech1

Member

to CoxTech1
You would think that he would be somewhat happier although a little inconvienianced to change a few settings.... at least it shows that cox is at least trying to take steps to slow down spammers..

CoxBlocked
@cox.net

CoxBlocked to CoxTech1

Anon

to CoxTech1
First off, blocking port 25 is NOT going to end spam or even slow it down significantly. Spammers can run their own SMTP servers on any port they wish. There are plenty of ways for a spammer to get around it.

On the other hand, this is a ridiculous inconvenience to Cox's paying customers, who had our mail service blocked without any sort of notice or warning. I had to call cox support twice and get on their support chat 3 times asking the same questions before one of their level 1 support chimps would even tell me they were blocking this port. When I began asking why and didn't they realize how this would affect their users, the guy got extremely rude and began feeding me scripted answers about how it would only affect .1% of their users. I have no idea where they came up with the idea that only .1% of cox cable users are using non-cox smtp servers but it sounds like an outright lie. Worse yet, they are basically saying "You, our paying customer, are insignificant to us."

The typical excuse is "Just use Cox's smtp server." However there are some important objections to that solution that they are counting on their consumer base overlooking:

Privacy
By using Cox's mail server, you are providing them direct access to every email message that you send. This might be fine if it were voluntary, but because it is now mandatory they are bullying their users into trusting them with all of their private email communications. Would you trust someone who just tore your mailbox off your house and explained to you that you must now give all of your outgoing mail to him?

Anti-Competitive Behavior
Cox is effectively enforcing a monopoly of SMTP service on its users by denying them the option to use a competitor's mail service. Even if they never decide to charge a fee for it, their users are forced into whatever rules govern their own stmp server. For example, Cox could decide to block all email messages larger than 1 MB, or going to or from a certain domain, or any other rule they see fit to set up. If you don't like their privacy or usage policy, you are not free to use a competing service with more agreeable policies.

Precedent
Blocking outgoing access to a port in order to control the way consumers use the internet is, as CoxIsAwful mentioned, an unprecedented abuse of an ISP's power over its users. Cox has already been blocking incoming connections to port 80 under the guise of protecting their users from CodeRed. The real effect, of course, is to prevent their users from hosting websites on their own machines. The fact that they have now gone a step further seems to indicate that they are seeing just how far they can go. How long will it be before they decide to block ports used by, say, P2P clients, or any other type of network communication that they don't approve of for one reason or another?

Futility
As I mentioned before, blocking ports will not solve the problem of spam because port 25 is merely the most commonly used SMTP port. If, as CoxTech1 suggested, ISPs offer "a work around to access they[sic] SMTP servers", what would likely happen is ISPs offering SMTP on an alternate port. Once that happens, the spam prevention aspect is defeated anyway.

Killing a Mosquito with an Atomic Bomb
Cox has decided that the best (or at least cheapest) way to stop spam email is to block ALL email. With that kind of logic one might decide it would be a good idea to block outgoing connections on port 80 to prevent popup ads. (Of course you're still welcome to browse Approved Websites through Cox's proxy browsing server, right?) I see this as irresponsible, unnecessary, and largely ineffective and it's prompted me to search for a new broadband ISP.
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3

Member

options

well i can say this....COX has one of the fastest downstream speed and probably the fastest upstream speeds for basic residential service....as far as your port 25 being blocked you should still be able to retrieve emails no matter what service you are using and your SMTP port is your outgoing email port that uses port 25....i would suggest either logging into your host remotely to send email or like the other tech said just use your cox server for outgoing and rewrite your return address so a reply will go to your host email account....also you are able to modify your default smtp port to use something other than 25....try coordinating with your host provider to use a different port so you'll be uneffected by this.....hope this helps
duomenox
Daren
Premium Member
join:2001-06-14
Tempe, AZ

duomenox

Premium Member

Re: options

COX does not have the fastest upstream. They don't even come close. I can get ADSL 1500/768 for $87.00 in my area (Tempe, AZ) where COX only offers 256 up. Even at my office where I take care of our networks, COX does not offer any higher upload! I was shocked to find that their Business Services only allow max upload of 256 unless you go with their 10Mbit connection. We are switching to an SDSL provider at the office because of their poor upload options. Also, all of our employees will be switching from COX to an RADSL connection so they can reap the benefits of a larger upload. I am fortunate enough to have our company pay for Every employees Internet connection. Since all of our employees are required to have a VPN at home this upload cap of 256 is causing a problem. If I have 7 VPN connections and they all are downloading files then that is 256/7 = 36.7 kilobits per second per connection! That turns into 0.035 Kilobytes per second. That transfer rate sucks! This garbage about blocking port 25 is really idiotic! What kind of administrator would block such a commonly used port? Whomever decided to do this one has his head up his ass (or her ass... gotta be politically correct) I thought COX had the best thing going, but with this, plus the major security problems that a broadcast network has is just too much! I mean, when your next door neighbor can get your credit card number you use to purchase a mothers day gift online simply by downloading a script from a hacker website then you know you have issues! SSL encryption means nothing on a broadcast network. COX just turned away a major portion of their home business users by these problems!
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3

Member

Re: options

well if you had read my post you would see that i said nothing about business...i was talking about basic residential service and your example was twice as expensive and only a little more than twice as fast on the upstream...your downstream is half the speed of cox's....as for business...cox offers alot of different options...they have 256 symetrical 384 sym. 1.5 sym 3.0 sym and 10m sym.
and lastly the reason for blocking port 25 is to limit spammers from inside the cox network...people have full access on port 25 to the cox servers but not off cox servers and this was done because of customers complaining so make sure if your gonna give a factual argument that you know all your facts
[text was edited by author 2003-06-27 01:14:41]
Q_ball
join:2001-09-28
Santa Ana, CA

Q_ball

Member

Cox and its bad history with me...

I used to have Cox Cable internet down in Mission Viejo, I'll be moving into Irvine soon, and my apt complex says they will give me all kinds of install breaks if I don't use another provider. So I'm seriously considering it... Stupid question though... I ended up dumping cox because of the inability of their service to maintain a decent ping time during peak hours.... is this still the case? Download speed is great, but ultimately I want good peering over supposed raw download speed. I went with Pacbell before when I was in Irvine, and was very happy with it (solid and almost 100% of maximum speed all the time, plus no ping problems).

I still fear this service as I have very bad memories of 56k ping times across to various servers around the country with no real reason.

Thx if any of you can help.
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3

Member

Re: Cox and its bad history with me...

peering
the cox peering points have grown alot in the last few months...i'm in new england and i remember that i used to get to georga before peering off the cox network and now they have peering points in RI virginia georgia texas or oklahoma (i forget which)and ca so there are plenty of peering points now with more being added
Q_ball
join:2001-09-28
Santa Ana, CA

Q_ball

Member

Re: Cox and its bad history with me...

Yea, but I really feel that latency is still not good. I know as shortly as a year ago Cox here in Irvine California (Southern Cal) was piss poor still. I've seen fairly recent posts of problems still present here in this marketplace, so I'm very fearful of their offerings in light of my bad experiences. Not to mention their tech support is a joke in most cases. No worse than any other though i suppose (Although verizon's NOC support in Long Beach was friggin excellent!).
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3

Member

.

.
[text was edited by author 2003-06-27 01:17:38]

Omaha Long-time Cox

Anon

Rest of the SMTP story

There's a bit more to the Cox SMTP blocking than is being said. While I've seen some good comments on a few boards about how blocking outbound SMTP to non-cox.net mailservers really does not begin to deal with limiting spam, these comments may also miss the mark.

In a user group discussion with one of the cox.net router engineers in Omaha Nebraska, he was more candid about the rest of the story. Cox apparently feels this is a good first step to clamp down on unauthorized commercial use of their network. To Cox, VPN, access to company SMTP and other forms of remote access is "business use" and is perceived as lost revenue and even network abuse.

Expect to see further application-level policy from Cox as the expand their definition of what programs you may and may not run; no longer should Cox be considered broadband Internet. They view their offering clearly at level seven of the OSI model - almost a "high-speed AOL" rather than IP provider.

- omaha customer & ip engineer
CT FSR 3
join:2003-06-25
Manchester, CT

CT FSR 3

Member

Re: Rest of the SMTP story

yes you are correct about the smtp port limiting but not the reasons.....cox customers connect to their company's vpn's all the time there is no issue with that....cox does not want people running mail servers in their network unless they are paying for a business account....also they don't want people using an outside mail server to send spam from within the cox network.....people can spam all they want using the cox servers but then those people would be identified....as far as the spaming i am mostly speculating but the underlying issue is the preventing of mail servers....i don't think they will be limiting any programs you may or may not run but if something like that were to come i think it would be in the form of service tiers...they only have one tier now and the full service is meant to compete with DSL so i don't think you'll be seeing that happen anytime soon

Review by djramware See Profile

  • Location: Mesa, Maricopa, AZ, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month
  • Install: about 96 days
I have not had any downtime with Cox
They restrict what you can use and see on their network
Cox network is good if you wish not to use any service outside Cox netowrk
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

You are unable to connect to port 25. If you wish to send or receive mail, you must use their email services. They also limit what site you can see, and how much bandwith you can use per month.


member for 21.7 years, 50 visits, last login: 17.6 years ago
lodged 20.7 years ago







Review by highdef24 See Profile

  • Location: Las Vegas, Clark, NV, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month
  • Install: about 4 days
Good installation techs (independent contractors)
Horrific billing problems, unreliable speeds/connections, junk mail in bills
IMHO, a dishonest company in need of some real competition
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Cox Communications is a company with a serious lack of business ethics. First they lost a class action lawsuit over excessive late fees ($15 on a $35 cable bill, IIRC). The lawyers won millions and everyone else received a free movie, (that is IF you had a cable box, which I didn't). And somehow they were still allowed to keep charging the same $15 late fee.

So I signed up for automatic billing and eventually bought a cable modem after being lured into their 256K service for about $28, which was a good deal at the time. Later, I upgraded to 3 mb/256 service, but was rarely able to obtain these speeds on the internet for a variety of reasons unrelated to Cox.

Since my monthly bills for cable TV and Internet were running close to $90/month, I asked if I could be placed on a 1-month vacation hold. Sure, no problem they said, just a $15 reconnect fee.

After returrning from vacation, I was surprised to find my checking account overdrawn almost $500. Why? Well, it seems Cox automatically slaps a $199 cable modem fee on "disconnects". Never mind that I already OWNED the cable modem! And never mind that it WASN'T even a disconnect! "Computer glitch" I was told, and just to make me feel better, they said I'm not the only one this happens to. Eight checks bounced @ $32/check, and with "continuous overdraft" charges, it amounted to almost $300.

I was so angry that I went to see a lawyer. But Cox knows there's really nothing you can do. Instead of agreeing to reverse the automatic debit card charges, the best they could offer was a refund check. From Atlanta. Oh and BTW, it usually takes a couple of weeks to issue. After I mentioned the lawyer, the time improved to 72 hours and NSF fees were also refunded. My bank later told me they had never known NSF fees to be refunded and that the bounced checks would still stay on my account record for a year. Cox is also the only utility I've ever known to include unsolicited junk mail in their billing statements.

Anyone know of reasonable, reliable DSL service in Vegas?

Update: right after I wrote this review, service went down AGAIN for about 15 minutes. This has now become a regular occurence. I just did a speed test on my 1.5/128 account. Tweaks are all fine - any guesses? How about 45 kbps DOWN, 105 up. Cox is truly pathetic. This is what a lack of competition brings.



member for 21.8 years, 19 visits, last login: 19 years ago
lodged 20.8 years ago


notsean
@cox.net

notsean

Anon

Alright

Have had Cox for 2 1/2 years. Have infrequent outtages, but 3 in the last month. They offer no dial up back up.
Has mostly been reliable 1156/766 at this moment.
Tech Support is 24hr, once you get them on the phone are usually quick to send someone out (often same day).
If you bother them enough (and split the cable modem line with a TV), they eventually gave me a free signal amplifier.
You gotta ask who do you hate more? The phone co. or the cable co.? With the cable co. and Vonage with cell phone back up, you can bypass the phone co. (I haven't tried this).

wmwvabeach
@cox.net

wmwvabeach

Anon

Re: Alright

signal amplfier does nothing but hurt your modem. it aplifies the rf input but kills your return.

Review by lonewf See Profile

  • Location: Centreville, Fairfax, VA, USA
  • Cost: $48 per month
  • Install: about 14 days
Web surfing fast
Gaming horrible (UDP)
Gamers get DSL instead
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

I'm in the Old Mill Development in Centreville, Va. After having the 'service' for 6 wks I called their 'Tech Support' to complain that gaming (UDP) is really bad, WORSE than 28.8 DIAL-UP. I was told to reboot my cable modem, which I did. I then told the guy on the phone I was a Network Engineer and asked him what he expected that to accomplish? .Tech support told me there are 80 people on my neighborhood hub, that it will get better when the digital upgrade is complete. I told him that my connection was mainly for gaming and it is not useable Fri (8pm) thru Sunday (11:59pm). My pings in games (UDP) start at 120 and rapidly rise to 999 (beyond the games ability to display it). I asked what they would do for me as spending $50/mth for a connection I can not use 1/3 of the mth was not a good deal in my opinion! I was offered nothing, just told to wait for the digital upgrade. I'm looking for an alternative, COX just doesn't get it!!!!!!!!!!!

member for 20.8 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 20.8 years ago

bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

You too huh?

said by lonewf:

I then told the guy on the phone I was a Network Engineer and asked him what he expected that to accomplish?

To Cox it doesn't matter if you invented the router or know TCP/IP backwards and forward it seems, they tend to treat the people on the phone the same regardless of your qualifications... And yes, that is annoying using an ISP that's not power/educated user friendly. Especially when you can call and tell them what router is on the fritz four or five hops away and that its not your connection, but they honestly think that rebooting the modem will help.

oxtech
@cox.net

oxtech

Anon

Re: You too huh?

First thing to look at is the cap rate of your modem. 9 out of 10 gamers complain of high pings when gaming. When you push the modem past its ability it will drop packets bad causing your pings to skyrocket.....most likely what is happening is that the network traffic is exceeding the cable modems rate cap, and the cable modem itself is dropping packets not the service. Also, the games network traffic is exceeding the game servers per-client rate cap.....a mechanism which can be used by server admins to limit the natural advantage that cable/dsl users have over slow modem users. For instance, Barrysworld servers set a rate cap of 10000 bytes per second. Tweak the game down to the safe throughputbof your upstream connection like for instance a 128kbps upstream can sustain only about 12000 bytes per sec beforerate capping begins to take effect.there is no point in trying to go over 10000 bytes per sec.

thanx
cox hsi tech

gabhart
I Love This Place
join:2002-06-29
Fredericksburg, VA

gabhart to bmn

Member

to bmn
Do all you "Network Engineers" understand the HFC plant that carries your beloved UDP packets?

Do you understand the compression and combining that must be done?

Do you understand the effect of poor upstream and downstream SNR levels?

The plant that carries your packets back and forth from your modem to the CMTS and to the backbone is a little different than your hubs, routers and CAT 5 cable......
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

Re: You too huh?

Yes. Yes. Yes. and Yes.

In fact, I've taken enough time to learn and understand cable concepts better than most network engineers I've dealt with.

Nice try though...

gabhart
I Love This Place
join:2002-06-29
Fredericksburg, VA

gabhart to bmn

Member

to bmn
Nice try............
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

Re: You too huh?

Your post sounds like a broken record... *yawn*
bribri6
join:2003-05-19
Hephzibah, GA

bribri6 to bmn

Member

to bmn
DID U REALLY THINK WHEN U TALKED TO TECH SUPPORT THAT U WERE GOING TO GET SPECIAL TREATMENT AND SPEAK WITH AN ENGINEER FROM COX- u are only talking to someone that is trained to be nice on the phones and that is trained to look on the outage page and tell u what u could find out on the customer support page under system status(If u could connect to the internet) so when u call just be nice cause the person at tech support only is telling what they know and not to dispute what u know and also to give a credit if u ask-so instead of customers calling to say that they are pissed and want something done-be nice and then if there is a problem that the engineers dont know about then the person u talk to at tech support has the capability to let them know or make a trouble call-but who wants to do anything for that yelling customer expect hang up in their face
lenroc
join:2003-05-22
Tempe, AZ

lenroc

Member

Re: You too huh?

Except that in Phoenix, Cox has a bad record of ever putting things on the Status page (status.cox.net).

In fact, I got through to a tech today during an outage (that was affecting Tempe and Phoenix), and I was told that there were currently no outages.

cableguy619
@cox.net

cableguy619 to bmn

Anon

to bmn
alot of people do not understand how cable works or even dsl..alot of what goes on and what you expect is from what you have to work with..if you have poorly installed lines phone or cable what do you thing you can expect...cable issues and spped/dropping out what ever..alot comes into play because many customers like to add their own lines..split cables at will..yea it still wokrs but you really start screwing with levels and mess with your sppeeds..

as well as for down times, things happen..upgrades happens outtages happen...anything mechanical will fail...biggest thing is if u dont like get rid of it..there are no contracts with cox

Plasticman
Will Work For Bandwidth
Premium Member
join:2002-09-06
Johnston, RI

Plasticman

Premium Member

Well they ain't that good

I know from experience. On this past sunday I watched my dl speed from a 100 mbit server go from 370KB/s to 1 KB/s. It took three phone calls in the morning to their tech support before they sent me to Teir 2. At which time I was told to reset my modem and computer. I informed them that I had already done that. While on the phone with them I did a simple trace route and found that they had 4 bad routers on my hub. It took them all day to get it fixed. But with my contstant bitching at them to get it back up I did harrase them enough to give me 3 days credit for about 12 hours of non service.

Plasticman
jljohn0605
join:2002-12-30
Arabi, LA

jljohn0605

Member

Re: Well they ain't that good

Sorry to hear about all the troubles ya'll are having. But, that is the world of COX HSI. That is also why I didn't get them and stayed with my DSL.

The warning: If you have a choice between DSL and COX HSI---go with DSL!!!
psibri
join:2002-10-17
Chula Vista, CA

psibri to Plasticman

Member

to Plasticman
crazy if you get dsl...unless you like downtimes and abusive service reps and tech support that dowsn't know what the hell they are doing.

Just left the company, could not handle it anymore...
bribri6
join:2003-05-19
Hephzibah, GA

bribri6 to Plasticman

Member

to Plasticman
well of course u have to know that everyone there has a job and when u call tech support u arent talking to an engineer or someone that is in the field with the field techs-u are talking with someone that has been trained to look at an outage page that is put out by their dispatch and those at tech support that u have the number to probably dont even know about the routers and ping times -they are just there to take the bs from the customers while others that work on that end of cox are trying to get the customers up and running- so the only thing u can do is ask for a trouble call and ask for some credit
THEY ARE JUST TRAINED TO BE NICE TO ALL THE A-HOLES

sanzman
join:2003-05-14
Escondido, CA

sanzman

Member

Great Service

Cox High Speed Internet is the best choice that is possible. I used to have DSL provided through SBC before Cable and my download speeds were about 600 KBPS and upstream was about 160 KBPS. It was the worst service possible. We had frequent disconnects and sometimes there were periods that the internet was out for a day or two. It wasn't reliable! For all those who say that the COX high speed internet is not good are wrong. After switching over to COX we have saved about 25 dollars per month just on internet. The downstream speeds with COX are usually about 2000-3000 KBPS. The upstream speeds are solid at 256 KBPS and it is the best service ever! Never once have we had a problem yet and it always is always there. Never are we disconnected from the server for days. If you are looking for a broadband provider go with Cox high speed internet for fast, reliable service and great customer support. Could not ask for anything better.
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

Re: Great Service

Maybe in California where you live, but not in Virginia where this person lives... It makes a HUGE difference where you are on Cox's network.

sanzman
join:2003-05-14
Escondido, CA

sanzman

Member

Re: Great Service

My whole point of that post was to list some facts to help give people who are thinking of getting a broadband provider within California a look at cable. I didn't say anything about Virginia and I understand that it might be worse within that state but that goes beyond the point of my comment.
bmn
? ? ?

join:2001-03-15
hiatus

bmn

Re: Great Service

I'm not denying you have great service in California cause I don't know what its like out there... But, if you are going to be looking for service in California, why would you pay attention to a review from Virginia?

I thought so.

sanzman
join:2003-05-14
Escondido, CA

sanzman

Member

Re: Great Service

I wasn't- I was posting a Comment for COX high speed internet not just the service in virginia -

Plasticman
Will Work For Bandwidth
Premium Member
join:2002-09-06
Johnston, RI

Plasticman to sanzman

Premium Member

to sanzman
Just wait... You will meet the outage bug. For the last 6 days my service was interupted 4 times lasting more than 12 hours each time becuase Cox can't get it right. And as for their tech service. When I signed up I was told I would have a tech at my house with in two days. Well no tech showed up untill I placed my first service call. For four months I had a tech at my house two times a week every week for four months. They kept on saying there was nothing wrong with my lines and could not explain why my cable modems were dying. In August of last year I can across a little program that let me look at my modem and see the signal levels while I was online. I saw the signal to noise ratios where way out of line. When I confronted cox with this they sent a Senior tech out. He realized that I had the wrong cable feed coming off their pole. The cable line was 10 years old and I was sharing a juntion box with a multi dwelling unit. The tech informed me that with having all three digital services they should have strung me new line from the pole and set me up with my own junction box. Well the tech did give me my own dedicated drop from the pole. They then told me if I requested another truck I would have to pay a truck charge the next time I had a problem. Well I did have a problem and video tapped it. I called them up and told them the problem. They said their would be a truck charge. I told them no they will not charge me cause I video evidence. So they sent engineers out. The engineers that they sent out could not solve my problem. I ended up solving it with them here. It turned out that there system was not compatible with some of the new software that was on the market.

chrisf8657
join:2002-01-27
Glendale, AZ

chrisf8657

Member

Not again...

I think many ppl in Virgina are having alot of problems with Cox, check the CoxHSI forum - there are many with the same problem.

Sorry it happened to you

atarigreg
@rr.com

atarigreg

Anon

Re: Not again...

Is this the Chris from Roch NY

Review by azinator See Profile

  • Location: Alma, Crawford, AR, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
Fast Activation
None that I can think of yet
Not bad for getting on at first delpoyment
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Waited around 5 months for Cox Communications to lay new fiber, install new boxes and finally turn on my node...On the day it was turned on....went down to the Local office with all my material (bought my own modem), signed up, drove home (around a 15 minute drive), and started surfing like I had been on for months...I love it, no software to instal like DSL, and haaven't had a problem yet.

Update: It's been almost a year since I first signed on and still no problems to date...now I just wish they would give some more speed...!!

member for 23.6 years, 9593 visits, last login: 172 days ago
updated 21 years ago


chadrob30
Howdy
Premium Member
join:2002-04-24
Fort Smith, AR

chadrob30

Premium Member

lol @ more speed!!

Hey Azor, I too live in Ft Smith and used to work for Cox..and there are NO plans to increase the speed of their network. Sucks I know, but they are going to milk the new customers til they can't get anymore on a node then maybe someday will increase speed...anyway, have a good day...

Review by Sc00terex See Profile

  • Location: Snyder, Scurry, TX, USA
  • Cost: $59 per month
  • Install: about 1 days
better than dialup .. unless you game online, my ping has been up and down from 80 to 6,000-8,000 ms several times per minute
just ran a speed test of 43/46... need I say more? Cox charges $10 more for service in my town than in any other in my area...
when I call to talk to someone about this.. no one seems to care.
Pre Sales information:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

Cox basically is dragging thier feet fixing my crappy DL speeds since they are the only game in town.

Ran packet loss test, losing 50% at maximum ping of around 3000 to test server. The tech support (supposedly level 2 whatever that means) monitors my connection and tells me everything is fine I should not be having any problems. They still don't care.

member for 21 years, 32 visits, last login: 18.9 years ago
updated 21 years ago







Review by lwaster See Profile

  • Location: Jonesboro, Craighead, AR, USA
  • Cost: $39 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 1 days
easy set-up, freindly tech support,Express (1024 down 128 up)
Frequent disconnects, no bandwidth, packetloss, slow news service, 2 years worth of problems and yet no solutions
not worth the money for the express service and slower the a 56k modem during peek hours,
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

ive been with cox since the beta test started in the jonesboro area,,at the start the system was rock solid and very dependable, the same day the beta testing ended the system became unstable and suddenly overbooked and has continued to be that way even now, during peak hours bandwidth checks range from 6kbps to 60kbps and the system has extencive packetloss making online gameing imposible

all in all the system doesnt seem to be worth the money, the local tech department is filled with old cable tv installers who have almost no computer or network experiance but i will say they are freindly, curtious and try to be helpfull although they are still in the learning stage at this point , as stated above the express service is nonexsistant i have not reached the 512kbps threshold since beta testing ended, if your going to use this service get the low end package, and i would suggest this service is for the light web users due to no bandwidth at this time

as of 27 feb 2001 i have been told by the local office that if i continue to complain about my bad service i will be removed from there service,,i will not stop writeing my reviews of this substandard provider nor will i back down not one inch,if i loss my isp then i will go bad to dialup and still continue to monitor there activity,,this truely is one horable service that my town has,,rather then fix the problem they would rather make people shut up about it

now here we are,,its 2001,,nov,,,this system still sucks so stinking bad i cant beleive it,,still no dsl in my area to far from phone company

the latest problem is flucutating pings,,they range from 40ms up to 2000ms,,to make matters worse,,,to ping my isp i use a differant route then i do to ping the internet,,go figure,,how did sucky cox work out this one?

so now you call tech support to tell them your internet is slow,,laggy anf has packetloss,,they ping you and say,,WE DONT SEE ANYTHING WRONG,,then you ask them about the 2 differant routes and they put you on hold and when they come back they say,,WE HAVE TO DISCUSS THIS WITH OUR SUPER BRAIN TECHS,,well,,its been 2 years now,,,YOU STILL SUCK COXS

ok, here we go,,welcome to 2002, still no bandwidth,still packetloss, docsis still not in my area, cox should not be in the internet busness they dont know what they are doing, ive read the newest reveiws and cox is having major problems in what seems like every city tech support is still suck city they refuse to adress problems,now they tell me they know of the problem and are still trying to figure it out,,now ,,its been 3 years,,,what am i supposed to do , move for the sake of dsl?

19 march 2002

latest news from cox,,,still the same problems,,,packetloss,,disconnects,,now the system is so degraded i cant do any online gaming at all,,,,i run another computer on a router and i cant load web pages at the same time on them,,,bandwidth checks great on downloadside,,and appears to be getting cut in half at 3 pm,,,,in half again at 6pm and half one more time at 9pm,,,so i drop from 128kbps to 24kbps on my uploadside by 9pm,,and it stays that way untill after 2 am

the docsys beta program failed here and has been set back till the last half of the year,. last tech call i had to my house,,they checked signals and saw a problem and they fixed nothing,,all they said was "yeap,,you seem to be having the same problem everyone on your teralink has" then they left,, no solution,,no suggestion

typical cox

i call tyler tx and they cant beleive this is going on in my area,,i dont blame tyler,,the blame seems to be in my local office and local area

June 13 2002

i finnaly got to try out the docsys system,,,according to cox anyone with a weak signal will not be getting docsys modems,,,,,i have a weak signal according to them,,when asked who is responcible for weak signals cox had to respond that they where

at that time i told them give me docsys or give me a 3 year refund for having a weak signal, (now that i finally got them to admit to substandard service)

they brought the modem and a signal booster

now that ive had it for a week now i do have to say that the majority of the problems i have been seeing ARE from there substandard set up on the whole system from the terralinks right down to the cables strung thoughout the city,and the local tech admits to it also,,,at one point i was told it would be a year or more before i got a shot at docsys due to the rebuild they need to do in my area

i said it before ill say ti again,,cox has been lieing about there system and its problems and finnally i got them to admit to it

oh yeah,,the docsys,,well it works and my disconnects have stoped and my lag spikes have stoped,,nwo the only problem i have is in the routing i go thru texas about my 8th or so jump and at some times the ping is in excess of 400,,probably overbooking in that area

the only other problem i see is im still caped at 128 and at night time they seem to reduce the bandwith more,,my upload side goes as low as the teens at some points at night

one more time,,ill say this,,,if you can avoid useing coxs do so,,for youre own sanity,,before they admit to anything they will have you runing in circles,,they will blame your computer,,,your nic card,,,your router,,,anything but themselves

im my case,,i do beleive i have finnaly gotten to the source of my problems,,poor workmanship and old used equipment

they wanted to get on the high speed band wagon and wanted to make a fortune at it

21 mar 2003

moved from one side of town to a more central location, and once again i see the old monster raise its ugly head, packet loss high ping times it all amounts to line noise issues in this area and bad routeing throu at&t servers in missori, noise issues they will have to track down, they are hard to find like a needle in a hay stack, bad routeing, well again,,they say what at&t does or the problems they have arent cox's problem, well thank freeking heavens i am finnaly close enough to the telco that i can get dsl,, i orderd it on monday and received my startup package on thursday and was runing in about an hours time,had one problem,,it was my mistake with a setting on my router, thats problems gone and i seem to be rock solid, speeds are well above cox, games run smooth, heck life is back to being simple again

i said it in 2001 ill say it again,,if you have no other choose then by all means use cox cable internet, but if and when dsl come avalable in your area by all means switch over, its more reliable,dependable and dslreports has online tech's right in the sbc forum to help youwith most your questions,,also on a one year package,im paying 10$ less a month then i had to pay for cox

good bye cox,. i hope eventually people start checking your service as hard as i did and see they arent getting what they paid for, well im out,,on my way to post a great reveiw for my new service SBCGLOBAL



member for 23.1 years, 546 visits, last login: 9 years ago
updated 21 years ago

mjarecki
join:2001-01-05
Rogers, AR

mjarecki

Member

I'm with ya man

same here, i live in Rogers (northwest corner of arkansas, benton county) i have cox cable as well, the ads say 30x faster than 56k modem, well, most have flamed me for my review of the ISP but i get the same crap you do, sure their nice, but they dont do anything, i've consistently been getting packet loss, drops, and usually get around 150-300kpbs downstream offpeak hours, this is so pathetic, i recently(today) had a tech support guy come and look at my cable modem, he tested for line noise and my sigal being off and said it was ok, then i showed him the speed tests of me getting 150kpbs downstream and he said "theres nothing i can do about it" then when he left he started complaining about how this is the third time hes had to come over during his lunch and not gotten a lunch, they are truely top notch assholes.
System

Anon

not any better in Georgetown tX

Consistant outages, poor bandwidth.

Anon

Re: not any better in Georgetown tX

I just bought a house in Georgetown and will be moving there in less than 2 weeks. I have RoadRunner now, and most likely Cox after I arrive. Has service gotten any better since your last comment?
Any suggestions?
ConCashPro
Concash Customer
join:2000-10-23
Little Rock, AR

ConCashPro

Member

broken record

I hate to remind you, but you live in ARKANSAS.

I'm starting to think Clinton coulda done more to bring some venture capitalists and more tech development in this backwards state.

--still waiting for cable modem service in the largest city and capital of Arkansas--Little Rock
pwheat
join:2001-01-24
Manor, TX

pwheat

Member

And in Pflugerville Texas

Not any better here. Fortunately it looks like SWB has finally fixed the phone lines around here - so I'm signed up for DSL. I'm off Cox as fast as I can.
System

Anon

COX Elite isn't any better!

I am in Amarillo, TX. I have the COX Express Service for a while ( 1024 down/128up ) but wanted more speed, and a static IP address, so I got COX Elite Service ( 1024 down/256 up ) plus 5 email accounts, static IP, and ability to run a FTP Server.

I was happy with the service until they started to disconnect me all the time, or I would lose packets left and right (pinging ftp.tyler.net).

Right now it seems they have everything under control again, but it always does! then boom, it crashes again.

I have been waiting for them to get the docsis modems here, they have been telling me they were going to upgrade the system to that for the past two years, everytime I call, it seems they say its another year away, just a bummer.

I would go to DSL, but every company here has horrible reviews for them, plus the CLEC SWB sucks too... I don't know what to do.
mjarecki
join:2001-01-05
Rogers, AR

mjarecki

Member

Re: COX Elite isn't any better!

umm if you dont like arkansas then move, regardless if its arkansas or not, its no excuse for bad service. They are pretty useless, their discontinuing the terayon modems and switching to docsis and the technician i talked to said they would be charging extra (the way it stands now, they might change it) when i had my faulty network card that they installed removed and they put in another they actually charged me for it and that pissed me off considering they gave me a whack NIC card in the first place.
ConCashPro
Concash Customer
join:2000-10-23
Little Rock, AR

ConCashPro

Member

Re: COX Elite isn't any better!

i am moving as soon as i get out of grad school

to TEXAS

probably to houston or dallas
Nanoblaze
join:2001-06-08
Tyler, TX

Nanoblaze to mjarecki

Member

to mjarecki
no xtra money for me to have DOCSIS, and its faster...
System

to Anon

Anon

to Anon
Well, I am in Texas. And yes, they have been telling me there were changing from Terayon to Docsis for almost 2 years now, and still have not done it.

However the tech I talked to said when they got Cox @Home here with the Docsis, that it would be 10 dollars cheaper a month
Gilean the Grey
join:2001-02-03
Bryan, TX

Gilean the Grey

Member

Re: COX Elite isn't any better!

Here in Bryan/College Station Texas they're doing the changeover from Terayon to Docsis now. I've had a few problems with them, disconnections, packetloss, etc., in the last couple of months. Supposedly there was some modification they did back in Nov that just never worked right, and every "fix" they executed just caused different problems, so they finally went back recently to the settings they had in Nov 00, and I haven't had any problems in the last couple weeks. I'm using the Cox Express by the way.

pickoneformeplease
@phe-pa.concentric.ne

pickoneformeplease

Anon

Read This Important message cable users.

Microsoft Windows utilizes a default RWIN of 8760 bytes. This is perfectly adequate for both LAN and dialup connections which have a b*d=~2KB. However, the default RWIN is completely inadequate for high speed Internet connections like cable which have a b*d=32-64KB. This is the main reason why most cable users are getting much lower speeds then advertized. If there is a high delay between you and the server and your RWIN is set too low, the remote server will only send small bursts of data and the rest of the time it will be idle, waiting to receive your acknowledgements.

Connection Type Bandwidth (Bytes/s) Typical delay (s) b*d (Bytes)
Dialup 7,000 0.300 2,100
LAN 1,250,000 0.002 2,500
Cable/xDSL 182,000 0.200 37,500
Satellite 62,500 1.000 62,500
Go to »www.mynetwatchman.com/kb ··· elay.htm to lower your RWIN settings.

Alex_Chausson@hotmail.com

nwspmp4
join:2000-12-23
Bryan, TX

nwspmp4

Member

I'm sorry for your connections....

To everyone here,
I'm truly sorry about your connections. It must be something based on the node your on or something. I live in Bryan, TX and have the Cox Express (1024/128). We did just upgrade the modems from the Terayons (Where I'd get about 600-750kbps) to the Best Data DOCSIS modems. There's no more 'ramping' downloads (starts low then gets higher), but rather it's good from the get go. Now I'm averaging between 900 to even 1200 kbps.... I do agree, Cox does suck for the most part, but when they aquired TCA Internet here (which had it's stuff together), they've been doing good here. Maybe it's just my area or just some areas are bad or good.... The tech support I've had to call into (and I should know about this type of stuff with the exception of one person (No, winipcfg does not run on Linux...) have been quick and courteous and have worked to get it running. In the whole time I've had it here, I've have three downtime instances, two of which I was about to leave and it didn't affect me, another was resolved in ten minutes over the phone....

fosfate
@150.208.x.x

fosfate

Anon

Cable does not equal DSL

I am currently on the Cox Comm. Express internet Service... I have also been w/ the since beta testing & the speed has dramatically dropped... I am on the express & @ first everything was fine, then one day all my d/ls averaged bout 5-15 kps & 25 when i was lucky... Then i started analyzing the situation & i found out that:

1. Weither your running windows 98, ME, or XP u must reboot once an hour 2 get optimal speeds w/ the terayon modems.
2. If you r using xp disable QOS Scheduler b/c it will slow down your transfer rates.
3. Diable Automatically Detect Proxy Settings
4. Sometimes in order 2 get optimal speeds u must set your network card from autodetecting speeds to 10 full duplex mode.
5. Every so Often you must disconnect the modem or it will lag.

And even after all this i still got disconnected... What i have noticed from the technicians is that they are not really qualifed to diagnose the problems or well in Jonesboro that is... The techies they send out are just cable techies & are amatuers to say the least. They hav replaced my overhead & aerial lines, underground lines & lining into my house, & ever so often i would still get disconnected... Even worse, when they replaced my modem i had found out from a techie that i had reached 10,000 errors in approximately 1 day & it took telephone techs to realized that their was a problem... Ever since than i have been sceptical about their service. Once in a while i will find a few that are decent but my overall experience with the service is what you could say mediocre...

If you are looking for service, wait till they have the Docsis modems in place. To my understanding, it seems 2 solve many of the problems that i am describing 2 u right now..
Nanoblaze
join:2001-06-08
Tyler, TX

Nanoblaze

Member

Ahem.

Well, the 512 cap should be 1024 first of all, and they've been having issues with at&t recently, if you're still having problems, connect on their online service at www.cox-internet.com the techs that are on that tend to be knowledgable about everything and can get most stuff figured out, wether it be on your end or otherwise, also if you're still using a terayon modem you should upgrade to docsis, they're much better, generally speaking.
Softbear1
join:2002-01-27
Oklahoma City, OK

Softbear1

Member

Hey Guys

Thinks about what is going on right now. Most of you all know what a computer is and know what to do with them. The other 350,000 people don't know where their cdrom drive is let alone what to do with a computer. I know since I'm one of the poor folks that these people have been calling wanting to know why and how to set up their email accts. That the reason its taking over an hour to talk with a tech. They have not bothered to even look at the books that came with the kits and call in wanting someone to hold their hand while they set up email accts on their computers. Since they can't do it themselves. I've had people that called in not knowing they have a cdrom drive or where its at. I do tier1 support so thats where you call first and now since they did the conversion all calls from all over the country come to us first. I agree this has not been a very smooth transition from @home. The company that wrote that CD didn't have the time needed for testing before they had to send it out and it has messed up computers that have their versions of Windows so unstable that the cd sends them over the edge. I see the same issues with speed and hope Cox gets that fixed soon especilly with the news servers. Those are just a mess with the slow speed and fragmented headers. As for the problems with latency in games they know about that and I hope they have a plan on getting that problem fixed soon. If you get one of us that is rude to you I agree they shouldn't take out their frustrations on you, I never do, but think if it were you at the other end and you are having people calling in screaming at you because they don't know how to setup their email acct or anything else about their computers and blameing you for their stupidity with not learning their os thats the reason. I just hope that soon Cox with get the bugs out of the system and hopefully be better then @home. At least when there is a problem they won't have to depend on a third party to fix it.
thornnnn
join:2002-02-14
North Kingstown, RI

thornnnn

Member

heh sorry

typical cox..

1. deny everything
2. blame others
3. belittle the customer

customer satisfaction is giving the customer what they want
they leave with a smile

not sure cox goes about it the right way

yeah your a bit overwhelmed
yeah u got to defend a network that is unstable

denial/blameing others issnt gonna help anything
Finger2208
join:2001-04-07
Lindale, TX

Finger2208

Member

Cox Anyone??

Yeah, they really rock in the Tyler, TX area, huh. Tonight I'm getting a whopping 312 down on my "Elite" package (256/1024), and latency out the you know what. Just like every night. Well, I must admit that this system did work right 5 nights last week during peak usage. But that's only 5 nights of decent service, combined with the other 5 weeks of hell that they've put us through. I'll have to disagree with Nano, though. Either the chat techies or the phone version know almost nothing. It's a complete waste of time to even bother contacting them. For instance, I sent them trace routes comparing traces at 9:00 P.M. vs. 6:00 A.M. yesterday. Times on hop #4 went into the 400 ms range in some instances, and were never below 200 ms at night, compared with the teens during morning. Cox response?? Well, those crappy times show nothing, and are within range for the system. ROFLMAO!!! And the 250-400 pings in UT between 6:00 and 10:00 P.M. should be as well. Even though pings in UT with their competitor's dial-up are in the 230's during this same time frame??? And that's connected at a whopping 26.4K. I think the real thing happening here is now that Cox is "managing" (lol) their own pos network, they have been skimping on bandwidth bigtime. Nano says it's a problem with AT&T. Well, 2 weeks ago, it was problems with Level3, and I'm sure in another 2 weeks it will be another lame excuse....and the system is working fine. It seems when they were buying bandwidth off of @home and UUNet, we didn't have these never ending problems. I realize that @Home is gone, but why didn't they stay with UUNet?? I have no idea, but I would bet it involves them saving $$$ If they want to kick me off....then fine. But click below to see my lag-out-the ... and this is a good night too!! Just click the second link to check a really good night.

»/quali ··· l/663329

»/quali ··· l/653415
Nanoblaze
join:2001-06-08
Tyler, TX

Nanoblaze

Member

Re: Cox Anyone??

Tyler isn't lindale, lindale is runn on the mineola system, and yes, Tylers system runs great, i get my full 1024/256 all the time. Go figure.

jaba
@cox-internet.com

jaba to Finger2208

Anon

to Finger2208
i also live in tyler and have flawless service, the only time mine was down, the cable was out completely due to an ice storm that also knocked the electricity out for 3 days.
Finger2208
join:2001-04-07
Lindale, TX

Finger2208

Member

Re: Cox Anyone??

I must admit that mine is running better now than what it was at the time of the original post. However, it still has occasional glitches, but at least now they aren't every night for 4 plus hours. Mainly only occasional latency and timing out on the mail server. I am curious though as to how you guys in Tyler avoid the latency bug, which appears at a router at AT&T in Dallas?? I have ran trace routes from a friend's machine in Tyler during one of these "lag-outs", and he can't seem to avoid this router in Dallas, either . I guess if you're using your cable modem for chat and email it would probably go unnoticed. But at least it has improved from a few weeks ago.

starwind
@66.76.x.x

starwind

Anon

um my connection works great now

Um for the first 11 months my connection was mixed till last decmeber when they asked to swap cable modems and they started connecting me to a diffrent spot and my connection rocks now. I get like 120K a second down and 16K a second up.(kilobytes no bites) and i only pay 42 bucks a month. and i live in nacogdoches texas.
with only like one problem every 2 weeks now.
Cox_Sucks8
join:2001-12-02
Anaheim, CA

Cox_Sucks8

Member

cox should not be in the internet busness they

cox should not be in the internet busness they dont know what they are doing.

You have that right.

I hope you get you broadband connection fixed soon.

good luck
Anon
Anon

Anon

Anon

Sux Cox and so does Arkansas!!!

Cox has got to be the worst ISP on the face of the planet! We (in Walnut Ridge area) are still in the 56k dial-up game, with no hope of DSL or Cable in the future. The Internet was in existance for 3 years, before we ever got any type of service. We are supposed to be at 56k modem, but it's more like 33.6, that's how bad it is. I've rewired the whole house and it helped a bit, but still can't hit full modem potential! Probably never will!!!

Earlier someone said Clinton should have brought better industry/technology here, he couldn't have been more right. Arkansuk is at lease 20 years behind in everything. The economic situation is even worse here. If you are lucky enough to find a job you get laid off in 3 months (ever try feeding a family for three months out of the year?) and it's pretty much a cultural vaccum.

Sad but true. Grab your computer and go to a better state!!!

EvilKernel
Here's Johnny
join:2000-08-29
Miami, FL

EvilKernel

Member

Move...

Move to a Metropolitan City... You can't leave in a farm and expect OC3 speeds
randysavage0
join:2002-04-16
Fayetteville, AR

randysavage0

Member

heheh

The job situation isnt bad here in J'town...

We have dsl (available to many, but because of line sharing regulation, isn't deployed)... we have cable... and wireless....

I am hoping they open up the dsl booster stations and let me get some sbc action.

I am on Cox right now... it is basically the only broadband provider I can get... Speeds about 750/110 at the best... Which is really funny considering you can get "up to 30x 56k" when in fact it appears most people are capped at the 768 point. The latentcy is a joke. I haven't been able to play online games for close to a year. That basically means that you have too many subscibers for the amount of bandwidth you have.... When i ping 1000-5000 on servers in texas, there is a big problem. OMG the packetloss! I get constant pl... sometimes I have to hit reload on a webpage 3 times. In games that have a statnet utility, they show constant pl, 1%-4%.

Wireless is even more of a joke.... you gotta have perfect line of sight in order not to get total packetloss. Even when it does work, it aint that fast.... it sure isnt 750k.

I'm just hoping for some SBC.... as soon as it is offered, I am there. I'm guessing my speeds wont increase too much, but I bet they have less packetloss and better latency.
randysavage0

randysavage0

Member

bandwidth upgrade?

as of june 19, cox has its crap together! I have been getting sub 100 pings to many parts of the US... I dunno what they did.. but it's working! I just hope it lasts a long time.

might wanna try gaming again!
randysavage0

randysavage0

Member

Re: bandwidth upgrade?

FALSE ALARM. BACK TO CRAP AS OF SUNDAY JUNE 23.