More Cable Modem Ranting
It seems that several others believe that they are experiencing similar slowdowns in the speed of their Cox cable internet access, judging by the comments on my previous post.
As a follow-up to that post, I'd like to point to a seemingly objective resource for quantifying your connection speed (this works for all internet connections, by the way...not just Cox or just cable). Bandwidth Place performs a free test and provides results showing your communications speed in terms of megabits per second, download speed (kilobytes per second) and assigns a subjective rating of your overall connection speed. While you once could run an unlimited number of tests for free, the service now limits you to three free tests per month, unless you pay to upgrade to "premium service." (There's that term again.)
Anyway, I ran a test this morning and my storage speed was 182.8 kb/sec. It's been a year since I've done this test, but the last results were consistently between 250 and 350 kb/sec. This is a significant degradation in connection speed, especially considering that I'm paying the same price as before (if not a little more; who can really figure out their cable bill?).
My parents have a wireless internet connection in Fort Stockton (not exactly the center of the bandwidth universe) and, skeptic that I am, I ran this test on their connection about six months ago when it was first installed. It consistently gave readings in excess of 350 kb/sec.l
Realizing that connection speed is dependent upon many different factors in addition to the internet provider's infrastructure, this is still an issue that bears further monitoring. If any other Cox users want to begin checking their connection speeds and keeping track of any changes, feel free to let me know about the results. At some point, perhaps we'll accumulate enough data to warrant contacting the company for an explanation.
I second the recommendation for dsl reports..
This page specifically:
yeah, we use cableone and it's been dragging the past 2 days..thought it was cause my pop up blocker is loaded and somehow causing it...anyway blocker is letting more and more through, too
Posted by: Lucy at April 27, 2004 09:31 PMI checked out dslreports.com and it does have some good stuff. Also, after discovering that the "premium service" for Bandwidth Place is a whopping $1/month, I signed up for it and found that it has very similar tests and comparisons to the DSL Reports page...but it appears to have a larger database for comparisons.
Anyway, thanks for the tip...it's a good site to bookmark and visit from time-to-time.
Lucy...I was wondering about cableone (and also about Grande Communications)...whether those users are seeing the same phenomenon. I guess it helps (a little) to know that the problem seems to be widespread...but I think Cox users have been seeing the slowdown over a longer period of time.
Posted by: Eric at April 27, 2004 10:17 PMThree letters sum up the problem...C-O-X. The company that has brought you a plethora of useless TeeVee channels while raising rates over 100% [since I started having to use it, anyway].
FYI: I'm going with T3Wireless in my new offices with a completely wireless network inside the offices. With only 4 machines on the network, and me usually the only one online.....it oughta' hum! Oughta....we'll see.
Posted by: Wallace at April 27, 2004 10:21 PMWallace, I can't really fault Cox for the programming...they're just the middleman (and I do agree that the programming is, on the whole, worthless). The rates are another story.
Good luck with T3. I've been fairly impressed with them as a webhost for a few of my clients, and I'm seeing a number of people drop Geospectrum in favor of T3, so they must be doing something right.
Posted by: Eric at April 27, 2004 10:39 PMIt wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out that a cable provider sunk to the level of slowly reducing available bandwidth and speed in an attempt to coerce customers to subscribe to a more expensive upgrade. I'm surprised it hasn't happened to me....BUT I've had my cable modem for a couple years now and the service has only gotten better in general and the speed is still rated as "AWESOME" by any number of sites that I've had it tested on.
Clarence, I'm glad someone is still happy with their cable service. Enjoy it, and think of us poor souls who are not as fortunate!
Posted by: Eric at April 28, 2004 11:16 AMAs a fellow Cox subscriber your dilemma has my concern piqued, although I haven't noticed any particularly deep dip in speed. I tried your suggestion of Bandwidth Place on my connection at work (a T1 network)--it clocked at 1.1 megabits, and 135 kb storage speed. The latter is lower than what you reported for your Cox connection, so I'm really curious to try the test on my Cox connection at home. Sometimes I think I notice what seems to be a slight sluggishness when using the Internet at home, but usually attribute it to the activity of security ware. Maybe it's the cable, though. I hope not. But even if the speed on Cox is under 200 kb, it would be as good as what we have at a major research university--but not worth $40/month!
(And thanks for the comments to my two posts about Total cereal and Diet Coke. You're right about the former being TMI. And I'll try the latter in vanilla.)
Just ran the test and this is what I got (on Cox)…
Communications 2.3 megabits per second
Storage 281.7 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 3.6 seconds
Subjective rating Great
Gene, that blows my connection away...I just re-ran the test and didn't come anywhere near those speeds. Perhaps my neighborhood has a problem (besides the fact that I live in it, that is!)...
Posted by: Eric at April 28, 2004 11:26 PMWell, it was 11:30 PM when I ran the test. That might have something to do with it. However, I am upset with the price increases. You guys do have a legit concern and I’m on your team. Let’s riot! Maybe we could burn cable modems. Egg their office. Or raise squirrels that will chew cable lines. Oh, pardon me I sort of got out of control.
Posted by: Gene at April 29, 2004 09:23 PMAbout the publisher
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Tech Support That's Out of This World
Flower and Butterfly
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Recording History
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Redefining a Bust
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Farewell to Abbye
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Dang, that's bad.
Let me recommend dslreports.com once again. They have speed tests, latency tests, all sorts of tests for broadband, plus you can check what other users in your area are reporting AND dig around in their forums for useful, current info about various providers.
Posted by: kevin whited at April 27, 2004 11:25 AM