cox amusements

[Bob George]

"der.hans" <PLUGd@lufthans.com> wrote:

> I'm in the midst of signing up for business services. Really not too bad
of
> a deal if you can live with 256k down *and* they aren't having probs like
> this.

I haven't noticed any change in my downstream (still > 1Mbps on a good feed)
and 256Kbps UP.

> Does the business service use the same frequency as home stuff? All the
same
> routers, etc.?

I'm not sure about specific frequencies, but I think I'm sharing network
infrastructure with the rest of the homies. Here's a traceroute to PLUG's
address from here:

# traceroute  plug.phoenix.az.us
traceroute to plug.phoenix.az.us (68.14.224.189), 30 hops max, 40 byte
packets
 1  10.113.128.1 (10.113.128.1)  20 ms  31 ms  9 ms
 2  ip68-2-6-25.ph.ph.cox.net (68.2.6.25)  9 ms  9 ms  12 ms
 3  ip68-2-6-18.ph.ph.cox.net (68.2.6.18)  15 ms *  15 ms
 4  wsip68-14-224-189.ph.ph.cox.net (68.14.224.189)  20 ms  26 ms  23 ms

The only difference they've mentioned is three fixed IP addresses, no fuss
(nor blocking) over servers on my addresses, and a quicker response time for
problems. The latter came in handy a week or so ago when someone ran over
the cable box in my neighbor's yard. After an hour of advanced diagnosis (I
spotted the wreckage as I left for work), the cable TV folks were saying
they'd get someone out sometime the next day. I called back on the bizserv
tech support line and made a fuss about the higher level of service I was
supposed to get. The TV was back in three hours, along with data. My kid was
home sick, so that was a nice touch. :)

Despite the intermittent problems, my overall feeling is that it's as good
response-wise as it ever was (primary benchmark being my kids' ability to
dominate in online gaming sessions) and VASTLY improved over the latter part
of last year. I'm a "mostly satisfied" customer.

- Bob