Internet connection keeps dropping

[LinLin]

Very happy to be back with Idnet after a stint with BT.
My internet connection with BT would often drop out for anywhere from 1 to 30 minutes. I thought it was due to traffic shaping and that switching to Idnet would eliminate them. But the outages are still happening. They are shorter, usually under 5 minutes. But it will happen 1-5 times a day, which is very annoying and makes work calls via Skype impossible.

Any ideas what might be going on and if it can be improved?    I use a Netgear router connected to a Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS). When the connection is gone, the Netgear internet connectivity light is yellow and the AEBS utility shows no internet connectivity.

A second, separate problem is that after the connection is reestablished (Netgear light is back to green), about 20% of the time I have to reboot everything to get back online.

Thanks,

LinLin

[Steve]

Sounds like your losing Internet connectivity, usual source is noise interference on your line. It's important you eliminate any cause your side of the master socket. If you have the modern style master socket remove the lower faceplate and using a new filter connect via the test socket, this bypasses any connected internal wiring. If this solves the problem look for causes ie Bell or ring wire still connected. If still disconnecting on test socket I would advise a router swap to check whether this is a possible cause of the instability.

[LinLin]

If you have the modern style master socket remove the lower faceplate and using a new filter connect via the test socket,

Two questions:
1. How do I know if it's the modern style? Am assuming so but am not sure. The house was built in the 1970s and totally refurbished in the last 5 years.
2. What exactly is the 'filter', where/what is the test socket, and how exactly is this done? Is there a YouTube video showing this?

Many thanks!

[andrue]

I'll second Steve's comments. Sounds like REIN or some other line fault. Changing ISP is unlikely to have any impact on line faults unless you go to/from LLU or to/from FTTC. BT to IDNet will be the same equipment in the exchange so nothing physically changes.

Have a look around here:

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/troubleshooting.htm

Most problems are down to internal wiring issues which are the responsibility of the home owner.

[Simon]

There's also a FAQ on here that might be useful:

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,1904.0

[Steve]

Thanks for the additional links

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,1904.msg31528.html#msg31528

[Clive]

When this was happening to me it turned out to be the connector box on my windowsill which brings in the phone line from outside.  BT sent out the same engineer for several years who kept telling me his computer said was nothing wrong with my line and that my download speed was 5 Mb/s.  In truth it was just 104Kb/s which explained the frequent disconnections.  Eventually James at IDNet managed to get a different BT engineer out to me who identified that the connections in the box were completely corroded.