Internet Connection Intermittently Disconnecting

I'm wondering if I can get some help with an internet (cable) problem.

The internet becomes slow (ping around 50 to 200, download speed around 1mb/s, upload speed usually 0 mb/s), then it stops working, disconnects and the usually within a couple minutes it will start working again. The lights on the modem sometimes remain as if the modem is fine and other times the online will flash, go black and come back on. Our ISP is struggling to figure out what it could be. They can see that the connection is straight and steady and then will suddenly spike and/or drop, and they can see that this happens multiple times an hour and more than 30 times a day. It's a constant struggle and we live in a rural area so switching providers isn't really an option.

This problem happens on all computers and devices (windows laptop, windows desktop, ipads, iphone). It happens when we aren't using the internet and when we are. It does seem like it's more likely to disconnect if I open a new program that uses the internet like Netflix or if I start downloading but at the same time it will disconnect while I'm surfing the web as well, with nothing else in the house running.

We haven't changed anything recently. The modem is the same, no new equipment. I tried using a different coaxial cable but that did nothing. We've tried switching off wireless capabilities and only using Ethernet and it still has the same problem.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this problem and how we might fix it? Any obscure possibilities? Are there any programs we could run to get some more information?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

I seen this be for.In another thread.

The issue could be many things.

I have had experienced the same thing at the old house i lived in.

I mainly just had the ISP come out and switch out all the wires and the modem.

That solved the problem.

It could most likely be your main line on the pole that is causing the problem.When the end's on the wire go bad the signal to the modem starts to mess up.But all so when the wires in your house are more than 6 years old they can be come unstable and brittle and cause issues with the Modem and ISP.

Some times to fix the problem it's better to just replace it all.And than if it still continues than it's the ISP end not yours.

Oh and there should all so be a filter on the modem some where so that it's not interfering with other equipment.

The Filter on the one wire leading to the modem could all so be bad as well i had that issue as well.

 

Not sure where you are, but in the UK, I have had to ask the BT to increase the gain on the line- that helped. Also it seems that what they call noise on the line will knock out the connection. As wile e coyote says, cables can be the problem, but sometimes it can be the main cables coming into the house -I had many problems where I lived previously where they still had aluminium cables to the premises. They were forever coming and repairing bad joints all down to the exchange.
Try to get them to check backwards from your home to the exchange- if you can.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice, it helps a lot. We've got a tech coming in a week, I'll get him to check the line. We've had this problem for a while so hopefully they'll be willing to do a thorough investigation of it. That does make sense about the wires, they are pretty old.