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1. General
2. Terminology
3. Service Settings4. Networking and Sharing
5. Hardware7. Troubleshooting
9. Forum Tips1. General
 got feedback?Cox is offering speeds up to 55mbps down / 5mbps up in certain areas for $89.99 a month. Utilizing DOCSIS 3.0, it is guaranteed bandwidth according to Cox. I also can confirm that the bandwidth is guaranteed with this plan, and it frequently goes higher than 55mbps on most downloads. 2010-11-19 02:48:11 The answere to this question is a cop out. We know they offer multiple tiers. A better answer would be;
Essential pkg (upload up to 3 Mb/s) expected to be between ____ UP, ____DL and ____ UP, ____DL.
Prefered pkg (upload up to 15 Mb/s with powerboost) expected to be between ____ UP, ____DL and ____ UP, ____DL.
Premeir pkg (upload up to 28 Mb/s with powerboost) expected to be between ____ UP, ____DL and ____ UP, ____DL. 2010-07-08 15:07:46 Extremely out of date. Cox is offering 25mbps/2mbps w/ powerboost to 30mbps. 2010-08-06 01:42:33 Omaha's ultimate is $99.99 not $89.99 2011-12-02 16:33:08 (ajwees41 by redxii The Subscriber Agreement can be found at: http://ww2.cox.com/aboutus/policies.cox#sub Here is the information regarding customer usage limitations: http://ww2.cox.com/aboutus/policies/limitations.cox
got feedback?URL has changed. It is now: http://ww2.cox.com/aboutus/policies.cox#Acceptable_Use_Policy 2010-03-04 12:02:31 (angrykeyboarder by PapaSmurf got feedback?I used to be able to use the Cox newsgroups with news.west.cox.com. Can someone tell me how to connect now. I'm using Newsbin.
iplunger@gmail.com
Appreciate it John 2010-11-23 20:33:41 by scavio got feedback?you want dynamic ip address because this will prevent more viruses/computer attacks in the future 2013-01-05 00:25:00 I'm not sure about COX in other areas, but in the Hampton Roads area, COX HSI uses a DHCP scheme where DHCP is used to provide a static address which is provisioned based on the MAC address; It is very, very rare for your IP to change, and tends to happen only under rare unknown circumstances or replacement of hardware, such as the cable modem or router. In almost 10 years, my IP has changed only twice. Pretty good for DHCP. It would seem that COX uses a static allocation scheme but provides it via DHCP for ease of configuration on the user end (as DHCP provides the user with a very simple plug-and-go setup of their computer or router). 2010-05-25 10:23:23 by redxii "Cox Communications No Longer Offers Personal WebSpace Effective December 6, 2011 Cox has discontinued offering Personal WebSpace to our customers. Declining usage of the Personal WebSpace service has highlighted the need to focus our resources on other priorities, such as increasing our Internet speeds and providing new services such as Cox Secure Online Backup." »ww2.cox.com/residential/northern···0000000}
got feedback?by scavio For non-DOCSIS 3.0 modems: Downstream power level (Receive): -15dbmV to +15dbmV A value of -15 or worse indicates a poor downstream signal path. A tech would aim for a value close to the optimal 0 dBmV, but a good cable modem should be capable of working within the broader range of -15 to +15 dBmV, provided the downstream Signal to Noise Ratio remains good enough. Upstream (Transmit): 35-52 dBmV. A value within the range +35 to +52 dBmV is within spec with the low to mid 40's the most common. If the cable modem is going offline, and the upstream signal strength is at or above +52dBmV, then a poor upstream path is probably the problem. Carrier/Noise Ratio: 35 db and above The downstream Signal to Noise Ratio must be 35 dB or higher. The lower ratio the more noise and the poorer the performance. The Cable Modem will have to keep requesting retransmissions of packets with uncorrectable errors. DOCSIS 3.0 modems: Downstream power level (Receive): -15dbmV to +15dbmV A value of -10 or worse indicates a poor downstream signal path. A tech would aim for a value close to the optimal 0 dBmV, but a good cable modem should be capable of working within the broader range of -10 to +10 dBmV, provided the downstream Signal to Noise Ratio remains good enough. Additionally all downstream channels should be within a +/-2db window with respect to each other. Upstream (Transmit): 40-52 dBmV. A value within the range +40 to +52 dBmV is within spec with the low to mid 40's the most common. If the cable modem is going offline, and the upstream signal strength is at or above +52dBmV, then a poor upstream path is probably the problem. Carrier/Noise Ratio: 35 db and above The downstream Signal to Noise Ratio must be 35 dB or higher on each channel. The lower ratio the more noise and the poorer the performance. The Cable Modem will have to keep requesting retransmissions of packets with uncorrectable errors.
got feedback?I would suggest that the requirement for allowable channel signal level unbalance for D3 connections be added to this FAQ answer. 2011-06-23 19:35:47 (gwm My job is testing and refurbishing cable modems with docsis 3.0 for a major cable company. Our tests look for a downstream between -15 dbmv to -9 dbmv and an upstream of 50 dbmv to 60 dbmv. Anything outside these ranges can cause connection problem and packet loss. 2013-03-21 08:20:43 by redxii Then go to the DOS prompt and enter: ping -n 50 xx.xx.xx.xx) The pings to your first hop should normally be under 30ms with an occasional ping in the 60-70ms range. Disregard the first ping. If you see high pings or a high spike and are running Win9x/ME hold down Ctrl/Alt/Del and "End Task" on all programs except for Explorer and Systray. Then try the ping to your first hop again. If they look normal now that usually indicates it is a program running in the background that is causing the problem. Reboot and try disabling programs loading at start up to find the one causing the problem. If the pings remain high or high spikes after closing all programs except Explorer and Systray, then you can eliminate the possibility of a background program as a cause.
got feedback?by PapaSmurf That said, participation by employees is voluntary. We don't tell anyone they have to do this. Thus, you'll find some markets have great coverage while others may not be directly represented. Likewise, we have a lot of folks that opt not to post. Instead, they frequently "lurk" in order to stay in touch with the feedback we receive here. Final disclaimer: This forum is not a replacement or substitute for our official call centers and support web sites. Now that we've dispatched with the "batteries not included" formalities, here's the list of Authorized Cox Employees posting in this forum and their system or area of expertise: All Things Cox: PapaSmurf  Las Vegas: CoxVegas Cox_LV_Eng Residential Tech Support in All Markets: CoxTech1 Cox_Beck CoxTOC1 CoxTier2CB Cox_tiff KipAtCox Abuse Issues: CoxAbuse Provisioning/DOCSIS/Engineering: Cox_BEng odog EMail Issues: gmb42 MailMan72 Product Issues: CoxInfoGuy Florida/Georgia: PapaSmurf Arizona: AZHSISupport AZHSISUPPRT2 CoxAZTech1 CoxAZTech3 CoxAZTech4 CoxTechAZ CoxAZ Baton Rouge/New Orleans/Greater Louisiana: LAHSIhelp Hampton Roads: tekjunkie CoxTOC1 TOC_HRD New England: ridataguy EJW_CoxNE NOVA: CoxNVAHSI Tulsa: cableok San Diego: CoxSanDiego SDKiwi BTD qweenk gcruz JoshuaCA KimSDCox sdcablegirl Significant Lurking Parties: CoxJimR
got feedback?by PapaSmurf Speeds are: the non power boosted speeds, dependent on market, and not all tiers/speeds are available in all markets. Accurate as of 1/25/11 Economy/Lite/Basic 512 or 768 Kbps / 256 Kbps 30 GB Starter 1 Mbps / 256 or 384 Kbps 30 GB Value 1.5 Mbps / 256 Kbps 50 GB Essential 3 Mbps / 384 or 768 Kbps 50 GB Preferred 9, 10, 12, 15 or 16 Mbps / 768 kilobits, 1, 1.5, 2 or 4 Mbps 200 GB Premier 15, 18, 20, 22 or 25 Mbps / 1.5, 2, 3 or 4 Mbps 250 GB Premier Plus 25 Mbps / 2 Mbps 400 GB Ultimate 50 Mbps / 5 Mbps 400 GB Taken from: »ww2.cox.com/aboutus/policies/limitations.cox Thanks to XIII for this FAQ.
got feedback?by XIII Thanks to CoxJimR for this FAQ. got feedback?by CoxJimR
got feedback?by CoxTech1 2. Terminology
got feedback?by PapaSmurf got feedback?by PapaSmurf got feedback?by PapaSmurf got feedback?backbone routers are those router whose atleast one interface is in the transit area(backbone area,area 0) ,there can be more than one backbone routers. 2012-03-09 14:29:28 by PapaSmurf An HFC network works consists of a headend office, distribution center, fiber nodes, and network interface units. The headend office receives information such as television signals, Internet packets, and streaming media, then delivers them through a SONET ring to distibution centers. The distribution centers then send the signals to neighborhood fiber nodes, which convert the optical signals to electrical signals and redistributes them on coaxial cables to residents' homes where network interface units send the appropriate signals to the appropriate devices (i.e. television, computer, telelphone).
got feedback?by redxii got feedback?by redxii got feedback?by redxii
got feedback?by redxii As more computers moved from temporary connections such as dialup to permanent connections as we have today, it became common for virus and trojan writers to include a mechanism to search for nearby hosts via ping in an attempt to locate more systems to infect. The net sum of having to manage this additional flood of ICMP packets was that routers, firewalls and other network devices could become so busy responding to pings that they were rendered ineffective at actually sending real traffic...what is known as a denial of service attack. This is why it is now common practice for engineers to setup their devices to treat ICMP with the lowest priority, if now downright ignore it (my Juniper firewall at home is set to ignore ICMP and thus can't be pinged) This is what is often called "de-prioritization" here and helps to ensure that 'real packets' get through before the fluff. This is what you are seeing when you do a traceroute and one hop is showing loss or high latency while the next is just fine. You can tell it is just a case of the host in question taking its time to respond because if there was real packet loss that host would impact all the other hops because it sits between you and them. and there it is in a nutshell, albeit a lengthy one Explanation provided by bbeesley
got feedback?by CoxTOC1 3. Service SettingsIf your computer is already part of a network, you must modify the network configuration on your computer in order to connect to Cox High Speed Internet. This involves one of the following actions:
following items:
For more information:Equipment setup, networking and other FAQs
got feedback?by redxii East = CT, FL, GA, LA, NC, OH, RI, VA Central = AR, IA, ID, KS, MI, NE, OK, TX, UT West = AZ, CA, NV Email (POP) pop.east.cox.net pop.central.cox.net pop.west.cox.net Email (SMTP) smtp.east.cox.net smtp.central.cox.net smtp.west.cox.net Note: edited to remove news server references. got feedback?by PapaSmurf got feedback?by hotshotDJ 4. Networking and Sharing
"I think it's pretty safe to point out that the option "enable WAN requests", if your router has that option, makes your router pingable, and thus can be troubleshooted by a Cox tech. It'll simply appear as the primary machine on the network." Thanks to MetalMorph for that.
got feedback?by scavio Cox will not support the network directly or the hardware associated with it (hub/switch etc). To troubleshoot problems that arise with this the modem must be attached directly to all PCs individually. Troubleshooting of the LAN hardware itself is generally left up to the manufacturer of said hardware. The cost is typically a $9.95 one-time setup fee and $6.95 per month per IP. This price may vary slightly from market to market but can be used as a general guide when determining the best multi-pc solution for your individual situation.
got feedback?by dustedpuppy A complete list of blocked ports and rationale is at: »ww2.cox.com/residential/support/···00000000 got feedback?by NoVA_CoxUser If you are in such a situation that you are away from home, say in college, there are two ways around this: -Use Cox's webmail -Specify an alternate SMTP server, that you have access to such as your school's mail server, in your e-mail client. You will probably prefer to use an e-mail client. The incoming server will not change, but you will need to consult your network administrator on getting details for changing your SMTP server. got feedback?by redxii For Phoenix: Name: ns1.ph.cox.net Address: 68.2.16.30 Name: ns2.ph.cox.net Address: 68.2.16.25 You can also find them fairly easily w/ DOS' NSLOOKUP command following Cox's DNS server naming convention. e.g. NSLOOKUP ns1.xx.cox.net and NSLOOKUP ns2.xx.cox.net where the "xx" is the local area's two-letter code. (or taken from »Cox HSI Router Abbreviations »What are the Cox Router Abbreviations? )
got feedback?by stanley_qaz 5. HardwareA list of approved modems can be found at: »support.cox.com/sdccommon/asp/co···e87bd537
got feedback?The link to the list of approved modems is broken. Here's a link that works:
http://ww2.cox.com/residential/omaha/support/internet/article.cox?articleId={b2ec95d0-7ef9-11df-5590-000000000000} 2011-03-17 07:05:02 (maxwil by scavio Supported modem list. got feedback?by redxii 7. Troubleshooting
All that said, it really helps to have someone express what service (e-mail, news, web surfing speed)is affected and how. Saying something like, "My e-mail is slow," doesn't give us a lot to work with. It would be best expressed if you said something like, "My e-mail keeps timing out," or "I can't get to my personal web space, it keeps giving me error x." That's sufficient substance to know where to start trouble shooting, and it's a universal language most tech support professionals understand. On speed tests, that's an imperfect science as well. Since the packet(s) being measured leave the Cox network(at some point), traverse the Internet and then return, your results are likely to be scewed if you only test once. In my humblest of opinions, the best measure comes from running the test at the same site at different times over a number of days(making sure you clear your cache after each test). This establishes a trend of peaks and valleys, and can give you a better indication of your particular connection's performance. Yet, even this method has it's down side. Once you leave the Cox network you'll likely pick up those Internet dust bunnies (external latency, slow or congested servers, etc.) that can return slower speed results that what you're actually getting through the Cox network. Again, multiple tests over a period of days can minimize the impact of this. Back to the gospel thing, there are some really good tools here at this site. On occasion, we have been able to help customers just by interpretting the results they've posted here. There are just some obvious things that jump right out. However, what we've found is that a blend of tests work best. In most cases we revert to following up on ping tests and the findings of tools here with our own internal diagnostic tools. That way, we have as much data as possible and can better determine what things to look at and solutions to try.
got feedback?by PapaSmurf got feedback?by PapaSmurf Next, pinging the network and trying to correlate packet loss as the cause of your specific problem falls a bit short of the mark. Latency could be a result of the ICMP packets being held while higher priority traffic gets passed. Some devices will even discard ICMPs and give a false positive reading on packet loss. Furthermore, networks are loaded with electronic devices that will experience hiccups (for lack of a better word). That you saw a ping spike or two in a twenty four hour period is probably not an indicator of a problem. To all that, pinging to a specific interface can give you inconclusive results. You should try to ping through the interface to a known device on the other side. Also, it's not uncommon to see that a ping coming from the ingress side of an interface yields a different result than one coming from the egress side. For example, someone in Middle Georgia, pinging to an interface on the Atlanta network(pinging from egress point)might see packet loss, where someone from Phoenix pinging (ingress)that same interface would see none. So, what do you do? Well, don't discount packet loss or latency completely. This may indeed be an indicator of a problem with a router or interface. Do post the results of trace routes and ping plots, just remember to further quantify the problem by telling a little bit about what drove you to start trace routing in the first place (i.e. - slow download speeds (under 1 MB), frequent disconnects, modem losing sync, etc.) Secondly, check all the obvious things -- your cable connections, RWIN settings (see the Tweaks forum here), look at the modem diagnostics if you have access to it, make sure you have all the latest patches for your browser, e-mail, and news client, etc. Check »support.cox.net for details on technical problems and service configuration. If you're an online gamer, check the gaming forum here. Lots of pros to help you ensure your game and PC configurations are correct, and that you get the most out of the experience. Also remember that the more info you can provide about your problem in the post, the easier it will be for other participants and tech support to assist in getting your problem resolved.
got feedback?by PapaSmurf got feedback?http://test.lvcm.com/
Cox tech support provided the above site. The speedtest is for inside Cox's network, so you can compare those results with dslreports.com to determine if the congestion is local or on the other side of their gateway routers. 2009-04-21 14:58:56 Cox customers in the state of Arizona have a dedicated speedtest site: http://azspeedtest.cox.com/ 2010-04-04 16:22:57 (haggishelper Spoke with a cox support tech and they provided an Arizona Cox hosted speedtest site:
http://azspeedtest.cox.com/
It's interesting to run and compare to speedtest.net since all the traffic is kept local and doesn't have to go through any peering points.
Fowler
dslreports@hotzona.com
2010-04-27 12:48:30 Actually Cox has recently implimented an "official" speed test site for each of their markets. It can be accessed through "interent tools" on the Cox website. Note that this requires log in via your Cox username and password. 2011-11-30 12:13:07 by PapaSmurf The first time A wants to send an IP packet to B, it initiates a conversation like this: 1) A -> FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF, ARP who has 10.0.0.2? This is a broadcast ethernet frame. It goes to every computer connected to the segment. 2) B -> A, ARP I have 10.0.0.2. This reply is directed specifically to A. Now A knows that B is on the same segment as itself and the ip address 10.0.0.2 is associated with the ethernet MAC 00:00:00:00:00:02. Any traffic bound for 10.0.0.2 is then addressed to 00:00:00:00:00:02. It caches this ARP entry so it doesn’t have to rebroadcast every time it sends a packet to B. The same principle applies to a CMTS. All the computers connected to cable modems registered on the CMTS are on a virtual ethernet. When the CMTS receives an ip packet, it sends out a broadcast ARP request to every computer attached to the interface for that subnet to find out what CPE MAC is associated with the IP. Most (all?) markets are now using ip bundling, which means that subnets span multiple interfaces. Because of this, each bundled interface has more customers on it, and thus they see a good deal more ARP traffic than they did back in the @Home days. An ethernet ARP packet is only 60 bytes long, so the extra traffic does not affect the customer’s service in any way. So to sum it all up: 1) It’s normal for customers to see lots of ARP requests 2) It’s normal for customers to see ARP requests for ip addresses on subnets other than the one their computer is currently on 3) The ARP traffic is harmless. (SPECIAL THANKS: To the Cox abuse department for this input) UPDATE: ARP traffic is INCLUDED in your data totals for your connection usage and does count against the amount specified in the Cox usage limitation policy. It is estimated that approximately 1GB per month in traffic to your connection is ARP packets.
got feedback?by PapaSmurf The various network devices between the head-end and your cable modem have backup power available to keep them running during comercial power failure. Most distribution systems are actively monitored and will continue to operate on batteries for a number of hours. In this scenario, as battery capacity starts to dwindle below a certain standard, a technician is dispatched to the power suply and a portable generator is connected -- thus, keeping the connection alive. Other systems have backup generators which can maintain operation of the system as long as there is a fuel source.
got feedback?by NoVA_CoxUser UCD's are Upstream Channel Descriptor. These messages are sent from the CMTS on the downstream path basically telling a modem what upstream frequency it needs to be on. The next error "Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request,..." is known as a T4 timeout. This sort of timeout can sometimes indicate possible upstream issues such as contention (competition for bandwidth with other modems). Periodically, the CMTS will send out "keep-alive" messages to the modems during their maintenance cycles. The error indicates that it received that broadcast packet, but due to unknown reasons it was not able to transmit a response (But no Unicast opportunity received). Sometimes this can be due to the amount of traffic on the upstream channel, upstream utilization, things of that nature. There are numerous possibilities as to why the modem was not able to transmit back. Once a modem encounters 16 T4 timeouts in a row the modem will reset its connection. The next message is a normal message regarding the Organizaional Identifier (OID). ToD stands for Time of Day. When the modem has established communication with the CMTS it accesses a TFTP server (Trivial File Transfer Protocol server) where it will obtain an IP address from the DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server and syncs its time with the CMTS, hence the Time of Day request. The next log entry "DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid response," sometimes will occur during a DHCP lease cycle. DHCP clients request an address on startup and when they are approaching the end of their address lease period. When a client does not have a current lease, it broadcasts a DHCP discover message on its local network segment. All DHCP servers on the network segment copy this message, and respond with a broadcast message announcing that they have an address available. The requesting client chooses one of these offers, usually the first one it receives, and broadcasts a DHCP request message indicating that it has selected that server's offer. While a server is awaiting the client's selection, it can (and should) reserve the offered address so that it is not offered to another client in the meantime. The DHCP server then replies to the request message with a DHCP acknowledgement message which includes the client's IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and other configuration information. DHCP provides option fields to allow the client to request and obtain vendor-specific configuration information from the server. This error indicates that one of those options fields were invalid. The last log entry to address is the "SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol timing and FEC Synchronization Framing. The CMTS periodically broadcasts a basic set of instructions used by all modems. This instruction set must be used by the modem to enable any further communication with the CMTS. QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) is the form of digital modulation used primarily in transmitting downstream data signals. During its scan, the modem must locate and synchronize with the QAM-64 or QAM-256 carrier that contains data necessary for modem operation. This synchronization is commonly referred to as QAM lock. FEC (Forward Error Correction) places overheard or parity bits in the data stream to help identify and correct errors that may occur when data is transmitted through the network. During the modem's initialization process it must synchronize with these FEC protocols so that the FEC system can correct errors. Cable receivers also use this method of error correction. This can also be associated with PreFEC BER (Bit Error Rate[or Ratio]) and PostFEC BER. So to sum up many of these errors are common which you will see frequently. The main errors to watch out for in my opinion would be the T3, T4, QAM/QPSK symbol timing and FEC synchronization framing. These could potential point to some signal issues which most likely need to be addressed by a technician. Descriptions, courtesy of AZHSISUPPRT2
got feedback?by No_Strings 2) If you do post, please give details. While one might consider "my connection sux" or "this Cox stuff don't work" as a keen, fact filled observation, it does little to explain the problem in enough detail to help. Think about giving the OS, modem type, or whatever info you can that may be helpful in diagnosing the issue and determining the solution. That said, make sure you also read www.dslreports.com/faq/4313 in this FAQ. It explains a bit about latency and packet loss and when you should really be concerned. 3) For connection, packet loss or latency issues post a ping plot (download free from pingplotter.com or an equivalent. A picture is indeed worth a thousand words and can speed up the process of getting you going again. Also try visualroute.visualware.com 4) Check previous threads. There may already be one going on your particular issue. 5) Try to find a fix on the Cox knowledge base at www.expressresponse.com/cox_isp or poke around support.cox.net. You'd be surprised at the number of people who've encountered your exact trouble and we've got the resulting fix posted in one of these locations. 6) Check out the tweaks forum here on this site. Loads of good tools to help you optimize your connection as well as FAQs on how and what to tweak. 7) Have a home network? Cox is in the process of launching a fully supported home network product. Additionally, for the do-it-yourselfers, while Cox doesn't officially support your home grown networks, there's lots of knowledgeable help here in this forum and in the Networking forum.
got feedback?by PapaSmurf | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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