What to do about dropped sync with Tiscali?

For the past month or two, I've been experiencing an increasing
frequency and duration of lost connections. I've just got back from
holiday to find the service off more or less continually, and my
housemates tell me it has been like this for most of the time I was
away. The sync light on the router flashes rather than staying on, and
the Web interface reports the link as disconnected, and (delving deeper)
as cycling through the states of IDLE, INIT, and occasionally QUIET1.

Presumably this is a problem with the physical link rather than anything
directly under Tiscali's control. But I also assume that trying directly
to get BT to look at it will only result in being sent back to Tiscali.
I'm hoping someone here knows the system well enough to tell me who to
talk to and what to say to them. I haven't bothered talking to Tiscali's
standard helldesk so far as I don't believe it would do any good.

Ideally, of course, I wouldn't be using Tiscali at all, but the Internet
connection in our house is provided (though not maintained) by the
landlord. I don't really want to have to ask him to change it,
especially if it means him having to pay more for a service he doesn't
really care about (and trying to pass the cost on would mean changing
contracts, standing orders, asking for money from people who don't
really use the Net at all, etc etc; basically a whole bag of worms). On
the other hand, a change is an option of last resort, so if anyone can
recommend a provider of similar cost to Tiscali that sucks less (at that
end of the market they're all going to suck to some degree) I might be
interested. But advice on fixing^H^H^H^H^H^Htemporarily bodging back
into action Tiscali would be appreciated more.

Thanks for your help,

Pete

On 01 Dec 2006, Pete Verdon wrote:

>Presumably this is a problem with the physical link rather than anything
>directly under Tiscali's control.

Depends on whether this is a line where the connection goes to Tiscali
equipment within the BT Exchange. That'll depend on where you are,
as well as some (possible) notification that they would be making
some "improvement to your connection". A simple check might be to
note the upstream speed. If you are getting 448 kbps it could be BT
but if it is higher (assuming you were getting "up to 8 Mbps" before)
then your line could be connected to Tiscali kit. Either way, first
point of contact will need to be Tiscali, IMO.

NoNeedToKnow wrote:
> On 01 Dec 2006, Pete Verdon wrote:

>>Presumably this is a problem with the physical link rather than anything
>>directly under Tiscali's control.

> Depends on whether this is a line where the connection goes to Tiscali
> equipment within the BT Exchange. That'll depend on where you are,
> as well as some (possible) notification that they would be making
> some "improvement to your connection". A simple check might be to
> note the upstream speed. If you are getting 448 kbps it could be BT

Hard to tell, as my current connection speed is zero :-)

However, we did have a letter a couple of months ago about work on the
line, so it is conceivable that they switched over to a Tiscali DSLAM.

> Either way, first point of contact will need to be Tiscali, IMO.

OK. In which case, can anyone recommend a way of getting past the
scripted "reboot your computer and check your virus scanner" to the
point where they admit that the problem might be the line? I use a Mac
connected through a router, which is likely to blow their tiny little
minds. Last time I spoke to them I didn't get any useful information
whatsoever, which is why I've held off from contacting them so far this
time round.

Pete