cox connectivity issue

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2005-10-07 at 08:15 -0700, Darrin Chandler wrote:
> Steven Crandell wrote:
> 
> > Hey all. 
> >
> > Nobody at cox seems to be able to figure out what's wrong with my 
> > Internet connection. 
> > Thought it wouldn't hurt to throw it out to you all just for giggles. 
> >
> > Here's the situation
> > -I used to be a cable america customer.  The network in my 
> > neighborhood would drop out from under me all the time, which was the 
> > reason for my switch to cox, -however- when the connection was up, the 
> > speed was great.
> > -I made the switch to cox and signed up for their 256k up and down plan. 
> > -I have the same internal coaxial, same internal catV and hubs, just a 
> > new drop to my house on a new provider network.
> > -Once on the cox network, I found myself pulling a maximum of about 
> > 30-40k regardless of what site I was downloading from and regardless 
> > of the time of day.
> > -When I'm downloading something at these speeds, my connection behaves 
> > as though it were totally saturated.  For example, my ping times jump 
> > from ~90ms to ~2000ms.
> > -A cox field tech came out to my place and decided that the problem 
> > was a result of the fact that I had an older surfboard modem which 
> > could not be automatically updated by cox.
> > -I bought the latest-greatest modem, and like magic I was instantly 
> > getting download speeds well in excess of 256k.
> > -The next day, I was back to 30-40k max and have remained there ever 
> > since.
> > -I have reproduced these results on three different computers, one 
> > inside my network (linux), two directly connected to the cable modem 
> > (linux and XP).
> > -I get a full 10meg on all traffic inside my network.
> > -I have asked one of the two level 2 techs that have worked on this 
> > issue to verify that my connection speed is actually being throttled 
> > down to 256 and not 56.  I'm told I'm definitely at 256.
> > -When I use internet speed tests (toast.net <http://toast.net>, 
> > bandwidthplace.com <http://bandwidthplace.com>, etc) my speeds always 
> > come back in the 256 neighborhood.
> > -I am not running any kind of a proxy on my network and have tried 
> > flushing all iptables rules from my router box.
> 
> 
> I eventually dumped Cox due to similar performance degradation. The 
> problem was diagnosed several times as a signal strength issue, and 
> supposedly fixed. It was never fixed for long, though.  And Cox kept 
> trying to charge us for a service call even though it was obviously not 
> a problem with my network or computers, but in *their* network or 
> installation. Now I'm using Qwest's DSL, and while it's by no means 
> perfect (their DNS servers stink), I rarely have any speed or 
> connectivity issues.
----
that's jumping to conclusions.

The surest way to find out is to change the device that you are testing.
I don't know if you are using a Linux system as a router or have a
different router and that may have everything to do with it. Perhaps if
you want something other than just pure speculation from us, you should
acquaint us with your setup.

As for Cox not being able to figure out what is wrong - that is to be
expected...heck, they only work from a scripted set when they
troubleshoot Windows issues and are thoroughly discouraged from engaging
in their own independent analysis and are not at all equipped to deal
with various routers and operating systems.

Craig


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