Slow down issues
Those are, if I remember correctly, the names people have given to the various servers that are routing the information. Cox is running stuff through three different servers, from the time they get it to the time it gets to your connection. Zayo.com is another one. It was common, once upon a time, to make up fantastical or nonsensical names for servers (hence, dead beef and dead beee...I would not be surprised to learn that there was also a 'dead beed' or 'dead beeg'...or even a whole series of 'dead bee*' servers where the different machines were named on the basis of changing only the last letter of the name...)
But if you've got one timing out, or running slow, that's your culprit for your slow connection...or one of the culprits. Think of it like trying to access a 4G wireless signal in a really crowded area...because the service is trying to parcel itself out to so many people, it takes longer to complete any given task. Hard-wired connections suffer the same drawbacks, if they're getting hit by high demand...or if one particular node is having hardware issues. Enough data will get through to prevent networks from rerouting around them...but not enough to prevent a noticeable lag in response time.