Tech Support Pits:

From Raoul===
Dear Webby,
My Internet connction drops out every night at 1:05 am,
accurate within a few seconds. I do have a security
system that does a line check every hour, but that is
on a different line, and would be every hour. This problem
is only once a day. Is that a wire-tap?
What should I be checking ?
Raoul

Dear Raoul
Most likely that is your gas meter reporting the day's
usage to the gas company. Just call the gas company
and ask them to move the connection from the meter
away from the modem line and onto the voice line.
It might take them a few days to get around to it, but they
usually don't charge for it.

It's easy enough to do, but they also have to type in the
change on their end. Just moving the wires alone won't
do the trick. The transaction starts from their end by
momentarily shorting that line and knocking anything that
is in progress off, then waking up the meter and polling
the readings. After that they hang up and return the line
to you.

If you are in a really rural area and they don't want to
come out there without getting paid for it, ask them to
just move the polling time to for example 5 am or some
time when you don't need to be connected. They can do
that by simply punching in a new time, without even having
to get up from their chair.

Have FUN
Dear Webby