US Cable Support > Cox HSI > [VA] Frequent, Short Disruptions in Connectivity

[VA] Frequent, Short Disruptions in Connectivity

• - If browsing the internet, there will be a 10 second delay before a page loads, or occasionally an error.


• - When gaming, there is a 10 second "Reconnecting" message, which tends to occur at critical moments leading to characters getting killed.


• - When it happens, we do not observe any changes in indicators on our modem (Motorola SurfBoard 6141).

I'm not seeing any obvious problems from this end. Have you done any troubleshooting on your end yet?

I've checked the logs on the router and modem.

I've rebooted both.

I've gone through automated troubleshooting with cox several times. It always says "The signal on your modem didn't come back right. I'm going to reset it." After resetting the modem, it tells me all is fine.

I've spoken with a cox support representative twice. Same thing happens: at first, they said they cannot get to my modem. Then, they tried a few things, eventually say the reached it "through a different system" and it has no errors.

The suggestion is always that it must be a problem with my router.

Super frustrated!

My modem is relatively new. If I gave you my MAC address, would you be able to check anything else?

I already have the MAC, that's how I was able to check. We may need to have somebody come out and take a look.

I called in again. Got another support rep, who was concerned about T3's and possible power level adjustment flags. They set up an appointment for me for tomorrow.

reply to caa100
Tech not here yet, but I have new info.

Using Net Uptime Monitor, I have determined that I have a 5-6 second failure every 13 minutes.

I have been able to measure this consistently through my router AND when directly connected to the modem.

The failure occurs every 13 minutes like clockwork, EVEN IF the modem was powered down for part of the time in between failures.

While this doesn't definitively rule out the modem, I think it points to something external to me.

Does anything take place over the network on 13 minute intervals?

(PS - I have NetUptimeMonitor running a ping every second. It rotates them among 3 servers, and logs failures when the responses exceed 200ms)

reply to caa100
Do you have a SB6141 or a Netgear CG3000?

Can you PM your modem MAC to me?

I've got a Motorola, but there is a tech here who's got a Netgear plugged in right now. I'll wait until they're done to PM you.

Tech is gone, but i've still got a 4-8 second disruption every 13 minutes or so. (My Motorola SB6141 is back online.)

Tech did not trust Net Uptime Monitor, so I've switched to simply pinging Google.

About every 13 minutes, I'll get a "request timed out" followed by a ping that takes around 2800ms. (According to MS, a timeout is 4 secs, so this is my same 6-second disruption.)

If anyone has advice on how to talk to Cox about this, I'd like to hear it.

Their position is that my line is clean, my latency is good, and my speed tests are good.

Indeed, if you run a ping for half an hour, as they did to prove this, the averages look good. But 2-3 times during that period, there will be a timeout or two, followed by a ping of extremely high latency -- adding up to 4-8 seconds.

That wont show up in the average, but its enough to cause a game server to disconnect or a web page not to load. And it happens about 4 times per hour.

reply to caa100
I pinged you for about 30 minutes and didn't drop a single packet?

64 bytes from 10.5.195.236: icmp_seq=2056 ttl=60 time=7.34 ms

--- 10.5.195.236 ping statistics ---
2056 packets transmitted, 2056 received, 0% packet loss, time 2055525ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.740/50.906/7436.350/465.932 ms, pipe 8

About the only thing I saw was small blips of latency which is normal when someone is using the internet and or downloading things.

If you're still seeing a problem we'll need to start digging deeper and isolate the problem.

How are you connected to the modem? Do you have a router? Are you using wireless. Have you tired going hardwired? Have you tried taking the router out? etc etc etc.

Yes, I saw you pinged me for 35 minutes, and thanks!

I get a latency problem every 13 minutes or so, long enough that for 6 seconds, I cannot access the internet.

I have tested this in a number of ways:
- Wired to my Airport Extreme router
- Wired direct to the Moto SB6141 modem
- Wired to the tech's Netgear modem/router combo instead of my own router & modem
- Wired to tech's Netgear modem/router with Carbonite disabled
- Wired to tech's Netgear modem/router with Norton Disabled
- Wired to tech's Netgear modem/router from a laptop that does not run carbonite or Norton
- From a Mac instead of a PC

I should mention that I have used both a program that cycles its pings through a set of servers, as well as the tech's preferred method of simply pinging google from the command line.

In call cases, about every 13 minutes, I lose connectivity long enough to not be able to load an internet page. Some of these pings come back, but latency is so high that for 6-8 seconds I am effectively disconnected.

My son keeps getting dropped for Leauge of Legends server, and his team is ready to kick him out.

The tech that visited has promised a to set up a check from a plant supervisor, but I have not heard anything.

ps, look at your max when you pinged me, that was almost 8 seconds.

reply to caa100
Try this.

Open up a few command prompt windows. Setup perpetual pings to the following IPs

the internal gateway IP of the Apple router

the public default gateway IP(the gateway of your WAN IP in the router)

192.168.100.1

google.com

then after seeing the issue, connect one computer directly to the modem and try it.

Hey, just noticed a Cox truck across the street. My neighbor has been getting disruptions during phone calls, about every 15 minutes. (Sound familiar?)

This is their second truck roll, a tech yesterday told them it was fixed.

Just relayed that info to the tech who visited me today. His supervisor is going to come out and check our node tomorrow.

The every 13 minutes is the weird thing. Normally plant abnormalities don't do stuff like that.

I suppose it could be ingress from someone on your node, but every 13 minutes on the dot?

Agreed, thats why I was open to the idea that Carbonite or something on my computers may be causing it. But we've ruled all that out.

Just talked to the technician who was working across the street. He's also set up a visit to our node. His theory is the same as yours -- that there is a house somewhere on our node where some sort of home appliance is introducing interference back out to our node.

Thanks for your interest, I will certainly post back whatever happens.

Just an update in case anyone with similar issues is following this thread.

Every 12-13 minutes, for a period of about 6 seconds, my latency spikes as high as 8 seconds. Pings will come back, if wait time is set long enough. (See example below.)

The field service contractor returned to my neighborhood 2 days after the first visit, and replicated the problem by connecting a modem direct to the node at the pedestal in our area.

They have finally agreed to escalate this as it is clearly a problem outside the house. (Something they promised to do 2 days ago.)

As it is the day before christmas, they said not to expect any activity until Wednesday.

Sample Ping:
=========
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=10 ttl=48 time=27.490 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=11 ttl=48 time=24.427 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=12 ttl=48 time=23.951 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 13
Request timeout for icmp_seq 14
Request timeout for icmp_seq 15
Request timeout for icmp_seq 16
Request timeout for icmp_seq 17
Request timeout for icmp_seq 18
Request timeout for icmp_seq 19
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=13 ttl=48 time=7530.234 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=16 ttl=48 time=4528.144 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=17 ttl=48 time=3527.409 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=18 ttl=48 time=2526.372 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=14 ttl=48 time=6530.137 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=15 ttl=48 time=5529.069 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=20 ttl=48 time=524.995 ms
64 bytes from 173.194.73.104: icmp_seq=19 ttl=48 time=1535.224 ms

Field supervisor duplicated problem at the tap, 3 days ago. Multiple calls to Cox, multiple promises that someone will call me back, still no progress.

Neighbor experiencing same runaround....

Wife calling Verizon....

Problem was fixed sometime yesterday. What a relief.

Thanks to those on this thread who offered help and suggestions.

To those with similar issues: stay at it, keep calling, and dont accept "this is normal" for an answer.