Another customer with a difficult ADSL internet connection.

I do my usual spyware check & fix a few nasties (but I don’t need to work on the PC from the office).

The internet connection still doesn’t work, so we ring the isp & ask for a password reset.

We are back on the air, but the connection will still drop out every minute or two… client says she has noticed that the internet became unreliable 2 weeks ago, and she also noticed the telephone line was “noisier”.

So we call the ISP again & ask about the line noise, & they ask how long is the telephone line? (about 6 meters). We are told that it is probably long enough to cause some adsl length problems. I don’t believe it but I give it a try…

I connect a very short telephone cable from the wall outlet to the modem, & a 12 meter cat5 utp ethernet cable from the modem to the PC.

The noise is still there, the internet connection is still flakey.

Client comments that there is a new housing estate being built nearby & it is possible that telephone work on the estate has caused problems in the neighborhood. Customer is happy to ring the ISP herself & give them hell until they fix the problem, and I don’t want to increase my fee by just waiting on the phone, so we leave it at that & I’ll check back in a few weeks.