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Cox Internet Was Screwing me!

J

johnpombrio

Member
Listen to this. Saw an ad for AT&T U-Verse for 20 Mbps download service. That sounds great! So ran PC Pitstop to test my Cox communications Cable modem speed. 5.6 Mbps download with 180 Kbps upload. The usual, what I have been seeing for years. Oh look! I can get 20 Mbps with Cox for $10 more a month or go with AT&T. Go to sign up for the service and ...Wait a Minute! ... I already signed up for Cox Premier service 3 years ago! Where is my 20Mbps download? Where is my "SpeedBoost"? Where is my 2 Mbps upload?
I unplug my modem, bring it to the Cox office and complain to the lady behind the counter. ?You have the Premier high speed service, Sir!? she says. ?I most certainly do not!? I say, adding ?ATT U-Verse does tho!? ?Call the service desk, they will help you out.? Grumbling, I leave.
I plug my modem back in, and for grins, decide to run my PC Pitstop test again. 20 Mbps! WTF? The upload speed is also bumped to almost 2Mbps. You got to be kidding! Those sons of bitches! $360 wasted because I never complained.
I called Cox tech support. ?I show no signs of ANY changes to your service, sir!? Well, my service mysteriously just quadrupled in speed then due to the magic of pixie dust! Solar flares! The God Google smiling upon me!
If you have premier service with COX and DO NOT show at least 18Mpbs download speed, complain! Immediately!
Sons of Bitches?

PS I had my bill completely bundled into a lump sum (cable, phone, internet) and was paying with direct withdrawal. I should have noticed that I had premier service but it started at only 10Mpbs back when I first signed up. Just never paid attention.
 
Congrats, you reset your modem (hard reset meaning without power for at least 60 seconds) and you got the correct settings.
 
Meaning he didn't reset the modem for three years? Must have the most stable electrical grid in the U.S. 🙂.
 
well if there "SpeedBoost" is anything like comcasts "PowerBoost" then you don't really have 20Mb/s it just bursts for a bit then throttles down.

And he doesn't have to have the most stable electrical grid in the US, just a large UPS

I live on the same circuit as a Supermarket, so my power is never out for more then mabey 15 minutes.
 
Nice try! If you REALLY think that resetting a modem would cause speeds to increase by a factor of 4, word would have gotten around! Yes, I DO have a UPS on the modem. However, my router broke last month and I did a lot of troubleshooting, including removing the modem from the power and system for a couple of hours while I moved things around. That was last month and I have reset the modem or unplugged it many, many times in the past 3 years. And would you NOT think that Cox would occasionally reset my service (especially after a cable outage). And why would it JUST happen that I remove my modem and JUST happen that my service quadruples after I JUST happen to complain to COX that my service was way too slow?
BTW, the service tech IN NO WAY mentioned anything about a "hard reset" to the modem and I did tell them that I removed it.
AND I worked for HP for 25 years and fixed the DOCSIS cable modem testers so I know what and how cable modems work and a hard (or soft or factory) reset in no way affects what happens in the headend CMTS. Cable modems are DUMB and the smarts are in the racked headends at the cable company, including the all of the settings for download and upload speeds. The modem just recieves this info when it handshakes to the front end. The ONLY important information that the modem sends is its MAC address and its physical limitations.
 
Originally posted by: johnpombrio
Nice try! If you REALLY think that resetting a modem would cause speeds to increase by a factor of 4, word would have gotten around! Yes, I DO have a UPS on the modem. However, my router broke last month and I did a lot of troubleshooting, including removing the modem from the power and system for a couple of hours while I moved things around. That was last month and I have reset the modem or unplugged it many, many times in the past 3 years. And would you NOT think that Cox would occasionally reset my service (especially after a cable outage). And why would it JUST happen that I remove my modem and JUST happen that my service quadruples after I JUST happen to complain to COX that my service was way too slow?
BTW, the service tech IN NO WAY mentioned anything about a "hard reset" to the modem and I did tell them that I removed it.
AND I worked for HP for 25 years and fixed the DOCSIS cable modem testers so I know what and how cable modems work and a hard (or soft or factory) reset in no way affects what happens in the headend CMTS. Cable modems are DUMB and the smarts are in the racked headends at the cable company, including the all of the settings for download and upload speeds. The modem just recieves this info when it handshakes to the front end. The ONLY important information that the modem sends is its MAC address and its physical limitations.
Click to expand...

Actually it could cause it, docsis files (basically a modem config) is downloaded when the modem is powered up so if it werent for you resetting this could have been a viable solution to the question
 
Well, then thats great, Cox screwed you, And you fell for it for as long as you had it with out the paid speed.
I'm sure that this is somewhat common in ISP's when i upgraded to Road Runner business class they had to install a new modem, but when they did they just moved over the old 7mb/512kb bin file. If i wouldnt have called and bitched they would have never put the right Business class Bin on there, 10/1

If you called and raised hell they most likely looked at your modem and saw that it was wrong, so they allowed you the right bin file, then when you reset it, it took effect.

But, is this really Cox's fault? Its a simple mistake. You should have checked to make sure you were getting what you were paying for. Let this be a lesson.
 
<sigh> Too true. "Let the buyer beware". Yet the lady at the desk AND the technician both said that "everything is fine" and "no changes have occurred to your account in 3 years." Blame for mistakes goes both ways! If they had screwed up, I would expect them to own up to it and refund me the difference.
As for resetting the modem, the initial handshaking is what gets loaded into the cable modem EVERY time you reset it. Its not a computer with a hard drive, it has NO memory that has to be wiped, formatted, or "hard reset". No handshaking and passing of parameters, dead modem, plain and simple.
BTW, I just topped 31,000 kbps on PC Pitstop, 5 times faster than ever before.
PS. And when it comes right down to it, I never noticed any lagging or said to myself "this is really slow!" The pages do come up faster, but not REALLY noticable. I guess I will have to download something huge!
 
When Cox upgraded our area to higher speeds, they didn't bothering telling anybody that you have to reboot the cable modem to establish the new, higher speed. You do.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Congrats, you reset your modem (hard reset meaning without power for at least 60 seconds) and you got the correct settings.
Click to expand...

+1

When I upgraded my TW service to Pro, they told me to power cycle the modem and POOF! my speed more than doubled in less than 5 minutes.
 
Agree totally. "Cycle power and reboot" is my mantra. Just ask my kids! First thing I thought of and DID that before going to COX. Made no difference. When the service changes, you have to redo the handshake to let the modem download the new parameters. Old hat to me.
 
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