question about Cox "Ultimate"

[pete424]

I have Cox Ultimate internet and I have a question about expected speed and realistic speed. I had been using a Surfboard SB6141 docsis3 modem. I didn't realize nor did Cox tell me that this modem was not capable of sustaining the speeds expected with the Ultimate tier of service. My connection had been pretty consistently in the mid 90s down and I was not totally unhappy with that. However my connection had come to be a bit erratic and began dropping out particularly when streaming Netflix. They ran some of their remote tests and suggested I might need a new modem or router. My router was an Amped|wireless R20000g and I had a Amped|wireless AP20000g access point in another part of my house both of which had operated very well, I thought. Off I went to Bestbuy and I bought a lower priced Netgear modem. When I called to give them the MAC address of the new modem I was told this modem was too slow for my connection. I returned that modem and purchased a $200.00 Netgear C7000 24X8 modem/router. This was one of 4 that Cox recommended to me. My speeds were way off. My mid 90s connection was now in the mid 70s. I had used a phone modem and my cable was split in the house, 1 lead for the data and the other for phone. We hadn't used the phone modem for well over a year but it was still connected but shut off. My wife was told our bill would go up due to a bundled price, if we shut off the phone service. When I called Cox back to turn on the new Netgear modem/router combo my speeds did not improve. I was told that a 150 down speed should be happening. They sent out a service guy and he took the splitter out and put in what I call a butt connector. He then made a call and mumbled quietly with his supervisor and told me my speeds were very good (mid 70s down, mid 20s up) considering the number of devices I had connected. It was at this point I learned the Ultimate tier had recently been doubled from up to 150 to 300. I lost it. After their tech left I talked to support. I was over-the-top pissed. They said they would send out a supervisor. He has not yet shown up. At this point I added a $125.00 Netgear EX7000 in the other room. The number of devices I have on my LAN has not changed so at the very least shouldn't I expect the mid 90s I had before?

[mudmanc4]

Looks as if things have straightened out for you

[pete424]

Yes, dramatically! After all the time I (and the Cox support people) spent trying to figure out what was wrong, one of their tier 2 support people re-provisioned the new modem/router and bang, it took off. The old modem was giving me consistent mid 90s and now the new modem is pretty much always above 200. It has been as high as 400!

I'm not sure what a re-provisioning does that a simple reboot doesn't but I'm a believer. I can't stop running speed tests!

 

https://testmy.net/stats/?&t=u&l=250&q=pete424

Edited December 30, 2016 by mudmanc4
Added live graph

[mudmanc4]

The way I understand this, re provisioning will erase any specific data on the modem which controls many aspects of your account, one of such would be how your throughput is allocated in the boot file. More or less this would be the gatekeeper on 'bandwidth' set for your agreement with the ISP. I'm certain there are quite a few other available settings involved, the issue could have been in any number of these.

 

Glad to see things are straightened out, except for that early afternoon thing, where it might prove to be heavy load times for their network.