22 Days and Counting -- Cox Cable Woes

That's how long it's been since I've had good internet access with my Cox Cable. Renewing my IP address every ten to twenty minutes is getting really old, especially when filling out forms or trying to ftp articles onto the web.

Yes, I am about to change providers, but can we say monopoly? The only other choice is going the DSL route, which I understand is not quite as fast as Cox used to be for me!

Here's the story:
One morning, all of a sudden I couldn't send emails, couldn't access certain sites. Big ones, like eBay or Disney. I could get most places, but not to them. I figured maybe it was a temporary problem. Nope. Later on in the day, I still couldn't access those sites, could not do anything that was interactive on any site. Stuff like a search, filling out a form or even sending an email from my Gmail account.

After spending almost two hours on the phone with several tiers of Cox support, nothing worked and by the end of the day I couldn't get on at all. Nada, nothing, zilch. No problem support says, we can have someone out next Tuesday, this was on a thursday. So much for quick service.

Thank God for AOL dialup, it was the only way to update my web site, publish my newsletter or make reservations for an upcoming trip. But it was slow, very, very slow. It took almost an hour to make two hotel reservations. Yikes, did we do that all the time?

But I digress.

Tuesday finally rolls around and tech support arrives. HIS computer does the exact same thing that mine does, that both of mine do as a matter of fact. Whew, it's not my computer. But he can't figure it out. He spends a couple of hours here, finally calling in his boss, Cox Field Operations Manager. Between the two of them, they install a new modem (doesn't solve the problem), hook a line up direct from the outside cablebox direct to the computer. At times the service works, but then quits again. It's time for the experts to come in.

On Friday the specialists show up. After checking stuff out and messing around a while, they decide to install a new network card on the computer. It works for a while -- on and off. By now I have a new wireless router, new modem, new network card and, just for fun, a new battery back-up in case it was an electrical problem.

It's still not better. I have run multi-virus programs, ad aware, spy software and it's coming up clean. Meanwhile Cox says, everything we have shows you are getting service it can't be our problem. I'm told to re-format my computer. No way, not unless it's proven it's the computer. SO out of frustration I tear apart the computer connections, the big desktop, and take the whole thing to someone else's house that uses Cox Cable. Someone in a different area than we are.

It works perfectly. No problems. For six to seven hours the service is not interrupted one time. Not one time. Perfect connection. So, does this tell us something? Apparently not to Cox. Right now I am still having to renew IP address before I post this.

I am also going to try Cox Business services for a few week and see if that helps, but apparently they are pretty slow on getting that set up for me. It's been a couple of days and nothing happening yet.

Meanwhile, I asked how about a rebate on the month's service. No way.. I was told, you are getting service. Unfortunately it's only ten or fifteen minutes at a time.