Why I HATE COX internet. (The desperation of a failing company)

  1. I recently from a location that had a choice of ATT Fiber internet and COX gigablast. At my old home, I received COX mailings that said "Come back to COX and we will give you a 2 year worth of gigablast internet for 69.99 a month with no modem rental involved (Pano modem for free). So when I knew I was going to move to a place that only had COX for an internet option so I referenced that mailing to get the offer. They informed me that that offer was not available for that address. I informed them that you are not offering that deal to the address but to the consumer. So I asked them what if I was to get the offer to the old address that I was getting ready to move away from and they said sure, let’s sign you up. (no problem) Then a week later I was able to transfer my new service and keep the promotional rate. What this proves is that although it was the same market that I was moving my service to. COX purposely excludes offers to areas that they know that they DO NOT have relative competition (ie ATT GIG Fiber).

  2. COX pano modem - This device does not work for me. “WHY?” you may ask. Well here is why. COX Pano modem is a modified Docsis 3.1 modem that takes away the guest network function of the modem and turns it into the COX HOTSPOT feature for others to drive by and utilize your internet service with the use of a COX username a password.
    Access Cox Hotspots - On the Go, Nationwide | Cox Communications
    A couple of points in regards to this is…
    A) For someone who doesn’t take password security seriously and has a weak password this allows for a compromised COX account to log in to the COX HOTSPOT guest wifi of your modem and go to town. To my understanding, it is doing nothing to your internal network in your main wifi other than sharing your wifi bandwidth. By default, the COX HOTSPOT feature is turned on and very little is said about it and COX does give you the ability to turn this feature off. But to the average person, they would not understand the fact that as you are on metered internet someone could come by and jump on your bandwidth and go to town.
    B) The modem’s wifi password is store in the app and if you ever have to reach out to tech support that info is readily available to them and to anyone that has a compromised user name and log in. In the days of IoT and financial security and the reasons to keep your network private to the user, you do not want that info floating out there for other people to use. You don’t want that info to float in front of some tech support person that could find an opportunity to exploit that information. Your WIFI password would not go past your router login.
    C) Needing the option for a guest network for visiting friends is important. I mean on my main network I have my home automation set up on the main 2.4 and if I was to give up my main network password (which is the only option for the COX pano modem) What if I wanted to change my password? Then I would have to change all my passwords to my streaming devices and IoT devices. Anyone that knows this experience understands that it is a tedious all-day job if you are a connected home. And then you spend the next couple of weeks finding connected things you have missed to get them working, With that in mind, I went to Best Buy to buy a 3rd party modem so that I would have the configuration options and privacy that I ask for in my home network. As I said earlier I was able to transfer my promotional price to my new location and as I found out the limitation to the modem and decided to supply my own device. I end up calling COX to supply the information to the new modem. The first modem (which was a DOCSIS 3.1) did not give me gig speed. Keep in mind when they installed the service into my home they installed a new drop to the home and a new outlet giving me a clean shot from the tap to the outlet to the modem. Using all the same wiring that the tech provided, with a finger tight connection to the modem, I was not receiving the speed I was expecting. I called COX tech support and I obliged them by going through their basic scripted routine of doing this and do that. Then it came to the part when the tech said “let’s send a tech out.” Then I was informed that if it is my equipment then I would be charged a service fee of so god awful amount UNLESS I subscribe to their “COX SERVICE PROTECTION PLAN”
    Service Protection Plan Terms and Conditions | Cox Communications
    This was foolish to recommend to me so I respectfully declined the service and went out and returned the modem and bought another one (Arris Docsis 3.1). When I was ready to call in that modem info I decided to use COX tech support via text and supply the modem info that way. That support agent informed me that if I was to change off the PANO modem to my own I would lose the promotional pricing. I said to myself HELL NO. And so I called in to provide the info where that tech said nothing to the fact that if I changed the modem to a 3rd party modem I would lose my promotional pricing. So this was shady as all get out to force me to utilize COX’s inferior equipment. I changed it anyway because I need the option for configurations and security.

I know this was a long rant but I wanted to let people know about the shadiness of OLD SCHOOL broadband. Companies that refuse to invest in their infrastructure to provide better service and also lobby Federal, State, and local governments to prevent the expansion of competition and better service to the people are screwing us and the future of the connected home. Over the past year, we have learned that broadband is VITAL to communication, health services, and education services also. I don’t want to hear of another parent that has to drive their kid to a Mcdonald’s parking lot to do their homework. Or of someone older parent with no ability to contact their family because of some quarantine to prevent them from getting sick or with no ability to connect their doctor when needed. GOD BLESS we are better than this. PLEASE ATT FIBER, PLEASE HURRY UP your billion dollars worth of infrastructure upgrades and for COX to blink. I am waiting to sign up and give COX the Johnny Cash Middle Finger salute to their service.

I would NEVER use an ISP provided router in my network. What traffic passes internally on my network is none of their business. You would be better off supplying your own router, and then you can manage your own guest password(s). (My ASUS router has 9 guest passwords, 3 for each of the 3 types of WiFi (2.4GHz, first 5GHz band, second 5GHz band.)
PHolder2021May23_NineWiFiGuests

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My provider router is just working as a modem in passthru mode. I have my firewall and switch behind that and a pair of WiFi access points.

Edit: If Cox is sharing spare bandwidth, I don’t see the problem with sharing WiFi, as long as it gives your main network QoS priority. It will be very rare that you will actually be able to keep a constant 1gbps saturation of the Cox connection. On the other hand, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with them running over the same router as my house WiFi and cabled network.

That is why I have a dedicated firewall and access points behind the provider supplied router - I disabled WiFi on it and put it in passthru mode. I then set up the networks I want internally; for example, I have the main cabled network, a guest network, an IoT network and a house WiFi network. That gives me a lot of flexibility to segregate devices I don’t trust (IoT and visitors) to separate segments that are firewalled from one another. Obviously, that means I am using business class networking gear to get the VLANs going, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

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