[Steve Day]

ok the engineer came and fittented a 6db attenuator to the back of the modem in about 5mins.
my downstream power level is now a more respectable 7db.

currently i cant say whether this has solved the problem as its only been 24 hours, but so far it hasnt dc'ed me at all. in the 2.5 hours before the engineer arrived it happened about 6 times.

the engineer was dubious as to whether it would in fact solve the problem as his opinion was that it was a virgin server out in "the world" that was at fault and not me.

my most noticable symptom was regular reconnecting of MSN and getting booted from online games.

the engineer did ask me if my modem lights changed when this happened or if it reset. which mine didnt.

when i got the lag spike, tracing a route would take me to the local GSR and go no further. as it cleared i would be routed via Wolverhampton instead of the usual Manchester node i see, which kind of suggests that a node near manchester could be at fault.

anyway. anyone wishing to use technical support, i would heartily reccomend they do so online at virgin newsgroups intead of by phone. they seem far more savvy on there than the phone support (with the advantage of your posts also being read by a load of other users who may be able to chip in too).

lastly i would advise that because your modem is actually resetting that u go on the newgroups and post your signal levels and traceroutes. they can and will book engineers for u without u having to phone anyone.

i will post if i get a recurrance or if it seems to have solved the problem later on.

Steve