US Cable Support > Cox HSI > [OK] Another day, another Cox outage

reply to bchandler02

Re: [OK] Another day, another Cox outage

reply to bchandler02
Well we're back to complete shit service again. 3 times in the past 2.5 hours I've lost connectivity for 10+ minutes each time, yet nothing changes on the modem.

The most recent time I called tech support. She reset the modem remotely and it came back on shortly after rebooting. This tells me that the modem is maintaining connectivity into the Cox system, but is not routing any traffic.

What explains this?

reply to bchandler02
Bad things happen suddenly and convincingly. It makes no diff if the cable is one day old or 600 years old. Have a drop put in and keep it for a week to test it. If it not the cable, the next place for them to look is in the pedestal. It is not rocket science. It is a company that does not want to spend money or your problem even though they are causing it. It is all about the bottom line, the Bored (a pun) and the stockholders. It is about not giving you one I bit of help, or one bit of bandwidth that might solve the problem.

reply to linicx
I should have added that varmints like moles and squirrels love to chew! You may have one, but, as the engineer pointed out, there may be a pinprick in the cable sheath -- and that's enough to cause a problem. I can attest to the hell one broken wire can cause too. As he said, "There are so many things that can go wrong, and the intermittent problem is almost impossible to find. "
One has to be very patient and very determined to find it. Running you in circles and claiming it is in your house, and therefore your problem is not how to pin the tale on the donkey. Persistence usually prevails. It the drop doesn't help, it may take a year to find IT. Maybe the problem is the pedestal again.

Your next steps would be to call an old electrician .. the guy that has seen all the goofy things that go wrong in a house when it all "looks" perfect to do a whole house wiring inspection. And the phone guy to do a inside phone wiring test and inspection. I had a phone jack that looked wonderful -- until one day I moved a phone line and it fell out of the jack. Go figure. Jack broke.

reply to MarkRH
Yes, it was in a PVC conduit. When they were here they did check for voltages and such on the line and everything was perfect.

It's also odd that this went from none to a huge problem in 24 hours. To me, that points to component failure somewhere.

I am testing a theory right now.

reply to bchandler02
Maybe some critter chewed up the cable. When they buried the line, did they just plop the cable in the ground or encase it in PVC pipe or anything? Perhaps the recent changes in weather conditions wore something out with the heat/cold cycles.

One weird thing happened at my folks house in Edmond.. they were having all kinds of weird phone problems.. turns out it was being caused by a faulty doorbell ringer power module sending out RF interference. Have no idea if something like this would affect cable systems with the shielded cables.

reply to bchandler02
Engineer says the only way to test it is for Cox to install in a temporary drop from pedestal to your house.
--
Mac: No windows, No Gates, Apple inside

reply to linicx
Ok, is there a way to test it? The cable is literally 6 weeks old and I watched him bury it to make sure there were no splices, etc.

reply to bchandler02
I'm talking to my systems engineer right now. I read him the conversation between you and Cox tech. This is what he says:

"The drop to your house is most likely defective - perhaps happening in the last 24-hours when you first noticed it. The modem looses connectivity to the Headend when your outage occurs. Why this happens is a million dollar question. It is most likely a cable problem between the house and the pedestal."
--
Mac: No windows, No Gates, Apple inside

reply to bchandler02
I think we need to go where the evidence leads us which at this point appears to be your residence again. These types of issues are particularly frustrating due to their intermittent nature.

reply to bchandler02
That's just downright freaky with everything being new here, and installed by a line tech, field tech, and field supervisor as well as myself overseeing. I also watched the burial of the new cable to make sure it was never harmed and it wasn't. Also, this problem just started in the last 24 hours. Prior to this, I was fairly stable.

So, what do we do next?

reply to bchandler02
If that were happening it would be more than just you noticing problems. I observed the problem myself when you reported it where your modem wasn't reachable by IP but all of your neighbors' were just fine.

reply to bchandler02
Exactly! It's strange because nothing on the modem indicates problem or even a timeout. It's as if someone is disconnecting fiber somewhere upstream from me - I stay connected to everything, but there's no actual routing path behind it.

reply to bchandler02
That is very strange indeed. Something appears to be taking down at least layer 3 connectivity to the modem.

reply to CoxTech1
Nothing connected. See above where I detailed out what my run is. No surge protectors, no TVs, no splitters, nothing. I am an HSI customer only.

reply to bchandler02
My experience with OK connectivity issues began in early 90s when I lived on Grand Lake and bought my first computer. It is amazing that it has improved little in 20-years. Take heart! It has not improved anywhere in rural America. OK, MO, AR, IA, and all of IL outside of Chicago is considered rural.

This does not address your immediate issue.

I have a wireless router. When all this nonsense was going on -- and it is not over yet -- my modem lights flashed like crazy. I knew I had to reboot; most of the time it was router and modem and often the computer. Now everything looks normal and most of the time I only reboot the modem. This is progress.

My engineer friend says the reason I do not see trouble in the logs is because the problem is not between the computer and the router. I connect to a converter box. The fact I can get online indicates I do not have computer to converter issues. It is the network. It is in their system. It may be in the office in the rack of routers. It may be a router going bad. It may be a system wide problem. My provider recently took 10,000 customers off line with bad software they uploaded to their new digital telephony devices. (After Vonage I will never have one of those device as long as I can possibly avoid it.

Most of the excuses all the companies use to sell poor service is ridiculous when they can deliver 25/25 FTTH to parts of Dallas, 40/40 to Las Vegas and 100Gbp to Paris and London. These are all cities with a dense population. Neither OKC or Tulsa has it.

What Texas has is a has legislature that does not let these companies get by with bully boy threats. I was in OK when the state legislature passed a law requiring AT&T to share their phone lines. It never happened -- which is one reason Sprint went to wireless and dropped a really excellent LD service. I can tell you lots of stories about OK and the Internet, but this is probably not the place for it.
--
Mac: No windows, No Gates, Apple inside

reply to bchandler02
I don't think there's any more need for proof at this point. We're well aware that you're experiencing problems it's just a matter of determining what the issue is at this point and why it seems to be isolated to your residence.

Can you share for an inventory of what devices you have connected to coax cabling in your home?

reply to bchandler02
What can I do? 3 outages in the last 30 minutes, I can post pingplotter screenshots if needed for proof.

This is BS.

reply to linicx
Thank you linicx. You are absolutely right.

I've had 18 months of hell, although it got ALOT better late last year after my executive escalation. They went above and beyond on that and did not even charge me for my modem, which I would have happily paid for if that was the problem (which it was only a precautionary swap). I'm not sure I can take much more of this. The only problem is my ONLY other choice is AT&T 3MB DSL, which is crap speed, but Cox is slowly teaching me to accept stability over speed.

I, like you, would have a much higher level of respect for a company that would just step up, admit a problem, and tell me what to expect between now and resolution. I can deal with that. But what I can't deal with is the lies and denial of a problem, especially when 100% of my equipment is new. With everything they replaced, I am anxious to hear CT1's answer on what else the problem could be that is specific to my house but not my neighbors. (For the record, I think CT1 does everything he can to help and cut out the BS, but there's only so much you can do from an office.) I'm also trying to figure out how it is possible for me to lose connectivity but it not be reflected in any modem logs, resets, or flashing/out lights on the modem during the outage.

reply to bchandler02
Unless there's some bizarre problem at the tap itself logic would dictate that the problem is specific to your residence. What all do you have connected to your coax cabling?