[Nolug] Cox Problem

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:41:10 -0600, John Souvestre wrote:
Hello Charles.

Details? Did you read the messages on DSL Reports? They seemed pretty
detailed to me. They included PingPlotter results showing the routes and the
packet loss. Specific servers with the problem were listed.

The servers had to be listed by IP because Cox only sets up reverse lookup for
about half of their routers. But that's another issue, though it does
complicate troubleshooting. Indeed, your support told one user that the
router two hops out from him was in Atlanta, not New Orleans.

The routers I see with the problem are 68.11.12.169, 68.11.14.14, 68.11.14.18,
and 68.11.12.82. Simply do a continuous ping to any of them with the interval
set for 0.5 seconds and observe the periodic packet loss every 20 seconds or
so.

How do I know that Cox is ignoring the problem? Did you read the messages on
DSL Reports? Did you notice how old they are? In addition I've talked with 3
users who reported the problem and all were told there was no such problem.

And then there was the call I made to you a week ago. This was when I first
learned about the problem. I made a courtesy call to you. I got your
answering machine so I left a message. No reply.

Since then I've learned of other Cox users with the problem, not to mention
the messages at DSL Reports. And since my post here, I've learned of 3 more
Cox customers all seeing the problem. Two of them had reported it only to be
told they were wrong. So, all of this is why Cox is ignoring the problem.

BTW, the Cox network does indeed allow residential customers to use other (non
Cox) mail servers including to relay through them. Out mutual customers do it
all the time. Perhaps you didn't realize that ports other than 25 could be
used for transferring mail.

So why do I care about any of this? Besides just trying to be friendly and
help out a fellow ISP with a problem, I'm growing tired of Cox customers
having problems getting to my servers because of the problem and calling me
about it. At least now I know what to tell them.

Regards,

John

    John Souvestre - Southern Star - (504) 888-3348 - www.sstar.com

John,
Thank you again for the information and your concerns. I will not go into
specifics here as I cannot comment on specific customer issues or related
details. I can tell you that the information your referenced on DSLReports is
being worked. I have one of our engineers working directly with the customer
involved.

And again while not going into specifics, if you are relying on "pings" to tell
you a true picture, that will not work 100% of the time within or into the Cox
network. All routers on our network (and especially in New Orleans) respond to
ICMP traffic as the "last" priority type of protocol and or traffic.

Also, if you are doing a continuous pings into our network our security devices
have caught the activity and.... (well, I won't say what they are programmed to
do when possible perceived ping floods are detected). I'll have to check the
logs for your IPs.

John, I really do appreciate your concerns and attempts to help all involved.
And yes our entire team in New Orleans is dedicated to resolving real customer
issues. While the number of complaints you reference may seem like a small
number compared to 90K + customers in New Orleans they are still important.

If the management team in New Orleans wasn't concerned with customer service we
would not have moved our Tier I and Tier II troubleshooting teams in house into
the New Orleans Offices. We no longer rely on our call center in CA for primary
troubleshooting.

 
Thank you,
Charles Jouglard
504-417-3627
 
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Received on 03/14/05