On 10/7/05, Darrin Chandler <dwchandler@stilyagin.com> 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.
--
Darrin Chandler
dwchandler@stilyagin.com
http://www.stilyagin.com/
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
I had the same experience occur twice, for different reasons though.
First time, it was my cable modems power supply. I just happened to
have another power supply with the same ratings, and tried it. It
worked.
Second time was about 2 years later. I went through everything you did
with Cox, then I decided that Cox and their techs had no clue. I
borrowed a Fluke Meter and connected it via a 3 port tap to the outlet
where my Toshiba modem resided and fired everything up.
The Fluke showed that the Capacitance and resistance on the line were
way off -resistance was over 400ohms. I walked way mulling this over
and came back to check on it before bed. The Fluke showed the
connection had returned to normal.
The next morning I changed the Fluke over to TDR mode, it showed what
looked like 5 different splices on the line. The connection for the
Cable Modem is supposed to be a single cable all the way back to the
box outside. So I started checking out the cables. What I found was
that the cox tech had stapled the cable under the eaves and punched
through the exterior wall and dropped the cable down the inside of the
wall.
Stapling a cable alone is a no-no, but then I got up on the roof. I
found 2 different 4 way taps completely rusted out with 2 mangled
cables beside the other 6. Cursing Cox, I went to Frys' Electronics,
bought all the cable and adapters and fasteners for about $120 and
re-cabled the entire house.
That evening when I was finally done, I went and started the download
again, It started at about 120k, which made for a little frustration at
first, then I remembered about the Fluke, I disconnected it and the 3
way tap and tried again. This time it started at about 340k and
increased to about 480k. Just to make sure it wasn't being cached
somewhere, I tried a second download (fbsd iso) and it hit 520k.
It would seem that the corroded taps on the roof were causing the
problem, especially during the day when they were in direct sunlight.