Basically I have a (supposedly)2mb broadband connection (though it's downgraded to 1MB as I have never had 2mb, I'm told due to distance from exchange) that keeps dropping out. Most often it starts at about 5:45 almost every evening, but also at various times over the weekend (rarely during the day). BT say there isn't a fault on the line (they've checked it about 6 times now as I keep insisting there is a problem. My isp is UKOnline, they've got me to change my equipment and try allsorts, but they keep saying all they can do is report it to BT, who then say there isn't a fault, so I've been going round and round in circles for the past 6 weeks and have now started to have phone rage!
I have changed modems, microfilters, eliminatated the network as a problem by attaching just one PC directly to the modem(s), changed every cable, made sure there is nothing interfering nearby by switching off almost everything in the house. I am not particularly bothered by any slowness that might occur when other people come online (to be honest, we never really noticed any) but these are proper dropouts, the internet light on the modem goes out, then turns red, then comes back, usually takes about a minute, sometimes 2 or 3. Over a period of an evening it can drop out about 60 times. NOTE: this only started to happen abput 6 weeks ago, it has been fine for several years.
Does anyone know of any diagnostic kind of software I can run to prove these dropouts please?
Incidentally, BT tell me they can't guarantee anything because of the distance from the exchange but my neighbours have good 1.5 meg download speeds. I feel cheated that I'm paying for a service that is very low quality but I'm hitting a brick wall and don't know what else to do.
If anyone has any suggestions , please let me know. I'll be back online after work tomorrow and will try anything anyone can throw at me.
Thanks in anticipation