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Time Capsule won't work on Cox Cable network in Omaha, NE

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herkamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2010
7
0
As of last tuesday, I haven't been able to get an internet connection using my Time Capsule on the Cox Cable network in Omaha, NE.

At first, Cox told me that this was my problem, and to take it up with Apple. Now they are telling me that no one with Time Capsules has been able to connect to their network for about a week. They say that they are working on it, but it isn't a priority because they "don't support routers."

Apple support isn't much help because the device is working fine and there's really nothing they can do to fix Cox's problem.

So, I'm hoping that some of you might be able to give me some advice and answer a few questions...

Is anyone else on this forum affected by this kind of problem- either with cox in omaha, or another ISP somewhere else?

Any suggestions about a workaround such as plugging in a different brand router b/t my time capsule and my cable modem so that I could still use my time capsule for wifi and backups?
 
T

Tulsacoker

macrumors newbie
May 4, 2010
17
0
I guess you could try a differnt router but I have a feeling you will run into the same problem. What's happening with you plug the ethernet cable in to the WAN port on your TC? When you open up Airport Utility and try and set up your TC does it not find your connection?
 
H

herkamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2010
7
0
Tulsacoker said:
I guess you could try a differnt router but I have a feeling you will run into the same problem. What's happening with you plug the ethernet cable in to the WAN port on your TC? When you open up Airport Utility and try and set up your TC does it not find your connection?
Click to expand...

Non-TC routers work fine- I'm on a linksys right now.
Basically, from the little that Cox has told me, there are a few different things going on, all of which prevent the TC and cable modem from talking to eachother. So far, they've told me that the the cable modem/ISP won't give a 24hr lease to the TC and instead defaults to a 2 minute lease which is then rejected by the network, that the TC can't get a valid IP from the ISP, the modem doesn't recognize the MAC address of the TC and defaults to something else, and the ever popular "Apple just doesn't know how to make routers that work with our system."

I can connect to the TC just fine, wired or wireless, and am trying to figure out how to connect my cable modem to my non-tc router to my TC to my computers at home-
 
B

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
You can set the duration of the lease in the time capsule so that doesn't make sense. Mine is currently set for 4 hours, but I can put in a number and select "Minutes", "Hours", or "Days" as I wish.

Their explanation doesn't make a lot of sense.
 
J

johnboyfru

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
6
0
It works in the Apple Store!

Mine failed about a week ago. After tweaking and confirming it wasn't just dead, I hauled my TC to Apple Store, where they predicted it would work and proved that it would; ON THEIR NON-COX CONNECTION! The Genius I worked with had experienced same problem as me on his personal TC. Suggested I report to Cox, but of course they don't support routers. Hope for the best?
 
B

brentsg

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,578
936
If I had a provider pulling the "we don't support routers" card in this day, I'd be finding a new provider.
 
H

herkamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2010
7
0
brentsg said:
If I had a provider pulling the "we don't support routers" card in this day, I'd be finding a new provider.
Click to expand...

Not likely as there is a monopoly on cable internet in this city (most cities, I believe). I could switch to a dsl provider, but that would just be trading one set of headaches for another.
 
H

herkamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2010
7
0
johnboyfru said:
Mine failed about a week ago. After tweaking and confirming it wasn't just dead, I hauled my TC to Apple Store, where they predicted it would work and proved that it would; ON THEIR NON-COX CONNECTION! The Genius I worked with had experienced same problem as me on his personal TC. Suggested I report to Cox, but of course they don't support routers. Hope for the best?
Click to expand...

I had a similar experience with Apple when I asked them if I could just return my TC for another because of this problem.

Got a call from Cox this morning telling me that they have tested 2 of their own TCs on their service and could not replicate the problem. Now they're pointing the finger back at Apple.

I'm thinking about calling up a local news outlet to promote a little PR pressure - I'm sure that kind of thing on a local level wouldn't be a big problem for Apple, but Cox has a local PR presence.
 
T

Tulsacoker

macrumors newbie
May 4, 2010
17
0
Now that I think about it my father in law has Cox for his internet service in OKC. From the cable modem he has it connected to router (don't know the name of the router) and then from there connected to the Time Capsule. Based upon what you have stated and the way my father in law's set up it sounds like a cox modem or cox internet issue.
 
J

johnboyfru

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
6
0
Cox complaint route?

herkamer said:
I had a similar experience with Apple when I asked them if I could just return my TC for another because of this problem.

Got a call from Cox this morning telling me that they have tested 2 of their own TCs on their service and could not replicate the problem. Now they're pointing the finger back at Apple.

I'm thinking about calling up a local news outlet to promote a little PR pressure - I'm sure that kind of thing on a local level wouldn't be a big problem for Apple, but Cox has a local PR presence.
Click to expand...

Do you recall how you got that far with Cox? I was basically dismissed and never got to the point where they at least registered the problem. I'll then call the Apple Store and at least advise the genius who owned the TC personally. Slow and steady; it must be some little glitch with this unintended consequence. Btw, I've tried many different configs, including, soft, hard and factory default resets. Basically, the Airport utility says it doesn't get an IP address from the modem. Obviously I'm using DHCP.
 
L

louie992

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
3
0
Cox is the culprit!

Herkamer you pretty much have all the same details I obtained from both Cox and Apple today. After spending 6 hours going through the whole restart, plug in directly and all the other ridiculous steps that clearly weren't going to resolve the issue, I was told it is a known problem since last Thursday. It would have been nice to have those details at the beginning of the day! My question is, why did it impact me just today? The reason I am calling Cox out as the culprit; there have been no changes to my Airport Extreme as of late. We will obviously never know what changes Cox made to their network causing this issue. Cox did also tell me that they have received an Airport Extreme from Apple and have not been able to replicate the issue. I am supposed to be contacted by the Network Technician (Cox) working directly with Apple on this issue. Additionally Apple speculated (off the record), that all ISP's restrict the number of devices that can access the network to prevent hacking. I don't understand what this means, and inquired for additional information. All Apple would tell me was that Cox should add the MAC address of the AE to the "safe device list" for my account. Ummmm....ok. I suppose I'll bring this up when I talk to the Network Technician. The short of it is.....this is BS! :mad:
 
jayhawk11

jayhawk11

macrumors 6502a
Oct 19, 2007
775
283
It's been a known issue since last Wednesday. They rolled out a software update as part of the DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade in Omaha that has made Airport Extreme/Express/Time Capsule inoperable. Two very good friends of mine work at the Apple Store in Omaha and they spent nearly 3 hours on the phone with Cox's level 3 support trying to get a solution figured out.

As of right now they still don't have a solution. Buying a new modem doesn't help, and Cox's solution (from multiple phone support personnel) is "Well you can just plug directly into the modem for now". Not a solution in my book.

As others have stated, we'd all love to switch but Cox Cable keeps lining the City Council's pocket. There was a mini-scandal a few years ago when a couple councilmen got busted golfing with some Cox VP's. We don't have any other options except this sh*thole provider. Such is life, I guess.
 
L

LAK3RS

macrumors newbie
Apr 28, 2010
24
0
I have Suddenlink, which used to be Cox a while back. It is by far the fastest internet to get in my small Texas town. I have the business connection at my house, which is the fastest connection one could possibly get. I've gone through so much crap with them over the years beginning with them when they were Cox, and even leading up to Suddenlink. I've had the damn poles outside of my house replaced a few times, wires re-ran through the whole damn house, routers replaced, modems replaced, and the works. The end result was the company themselves. It was their service that was being sketchy, and messing up! I would pay some major coin if I could just snag a different connection that was quicker than my current cable connection, but I can't. I know the TC's have had some problems, and I'm completely new to the whole Mac scene, and have only owned my 13" MBP for a week now; but it's them, no doubt about it.....
 
J

johnboyfru

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
6
0
From a husker to hawker

jayhawk11 said:
It's been a known issue since last Wednesday. They rolled out a software update as part of the DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade in Omaha that has made Airport Extreme/Express/Time Capsule inoperable. Two very good friends of mine work at the Apple Store in Omaha and they spent nearly 3 hours on the phone with Cox's level 3 support trying to get a solution figured out.

As of right now they still don't have a solution. Buying a new modem doesn't help, and Cox's solution (from multiple phone support personnel) is "Well you can just plug directly into the modem for now". Not a solution in my book.

As others have stated, we'd all love to switch but Cox Cable keeps lining the City Council's pocket. There was a mini-scandal a few years ago when a couple councilmen got busted golfing with some Cox VP's. We don't have any other options except this sh*thole provider. Such is life, I guess.
Click to expand...

Thanks, at least comforting they're aware and working on it.
 
H

herkamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2010
7
0
louie992 said:
The reason I am calling Cox out as the culprit; there have been no changes to my Airport Extreme as of late. We will obviously never know what changes Cox made to their network causing this issue. Cox did also tell me that they have received an Airport Extreme from Apple and have not been able to replicate the issue. I am supposed to be contacted by the Network Technician (Cox) working directly with Apple on this issue. Additionally Apple speculated (off the record), that all ISP's restrict the number of devices that can access the network to prevent hacking. I don't understand what this means, and inquired for additional information. All Apple would tell me was that Cox should add the MAC address of the AE to the "safe device list" for my account. Ummmm....ok. I suppose I'll bring this up when I talk to the Network Technician. The short of it is.....this is BS! :mad:
Click to expand...


Apple told me that same thing about the MAC addresses- but when I asked the Cox reps about it they all told me that was a bunch of nonsense and that they don't use MAC addresses that way on the Cox network because, among other reasons, it would be too much work to manually enter all the MAC addresses of the users.

I wonder if this has something to do with Cox's plan to offer a faster internet tier- they've been advertising it for weeks. I have heard from friends who work in this field that Apple routers are very "chatty" and tend to use network resources inefficiently. I don't know if that's true or not, but is it possible that, in the process of streamlining their network in preparation for a faster service tier that they've (deliberately or accidentally) excluded Apple routers from their network?
 
H

herkamer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 24, 2010
7
0
jayhawk11 said:
It's been a known issue since last Wednesday. They rolled out a software update as part of the DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade in Omaha that has made Airport Extreme/Express/Time Capsule inoperable. Two very good friends of mine work at the Apple Store in Omaha and they spent nearly 3 hours on the phone with Cox's level 3 support trying to get a solution figured out.
Click to expand...

Where did you hear that about Cox rolling out an update that caused all of this? I don't doubt it, but I just got off the phone with Cox again and they referred me to Apple again after repeating (over and over) that they're not at fault and are not working on this problem anymore.
 
J

jpyc7

macrumors 6502
Mar 8, 2009
276
0
Denver, CO
Herkamer,

Just curious, did you find a work-around? I would expect that putting a different router in-between would work, but that you would have to configure that in-between router correctly. If you had a two ethernet port Linux box, you could set up static routing on it so that traffic would go between the TC and the modem via the Linux box. You would also probably need to setup DHCP on the Linux box to serve the TC with the right DNS server.

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any consumer level routers that will do this correctly automatically.
 
jayhawk11

jayhawk11

macrumors 6502a
Oct 19, 2007
775
283
herkamer said:
Where did you hear that about Cox rolling out an update that caused all of this? I don't doubt it, but I just got off the phone with Cox again and they referred me to Apple again after repeating (over and over) that they're not at fault and are not working on this problem anymore.
Click to expand...

That's straight from Tier 3 tech support. There's no possible way that it could be the routers because as we have all seen, when you try it with a different provider (like in the Apple Store, which has a T3 line from Qwest Business) they work just fine. It's a Cox cable issue from the get-go.

I'm right with you on these issues. If Qwest could get their @$$ in gear and lay fiber throughout the rest of Omaha I would switch in a heartbeat.
 
J

johnboyfru

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
6
0
Yay. My TC works this morning, anyway

Cautiously optimistic. After holiday, system hooked up again and seems to be working. Thanks.
 
L

louie992

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
3
0
Good news.....

It would be great if we found out some information about the fix. Assuming it is on the Cox side as you didn't mention new firmware, etc. I'm in between residences so unable to verify.
 
J

johnboyfru

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
6
0
Must be on Cox side; I've changed nothing.

louie992 said:
It would be great if we found out some information about the fix. Assuming it is on the Cox side as you didn't mention new firmware, etc. I'm in between residences so unable to verify.
Click to expand...
Other than yank all the cables, trundle out to Apple store to find out it worked just fine there, I changed nothing except reverted to factory default and reconfigured. Yes, it would be nice but we're just a few users out of millions.
 
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BarnacleGrim

macrumors newbie
Apr 18, 2010
24
0
Should it really matter whether they support routers or not? They should be supporting their PPPoE (or whatever protocol they use) service, which they obviously aren't doing properly. I hope you guys are holding your payments.
 
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louie992

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2010
3
0
Agree, but not withholding payments....

I wish I had some leverage to withhold payments! This whole thing reminds me of interactions with System Admins. "Hey SysAdmin the application is down"..."hmmmm, check it again" "Ok, it's working now, what did you change?" "Ummm, nuthin......" :D
 
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