[ale] Cablemodem problems, considering DSL

[Ken Cochran]

Summary, 2 questions:

1.  What's wrong with my cablemodem Internet service?

2.  Would the better choice for DSL be ATT/Bellsouth or HiWaay?

Hi folks, could use some input from someone knowlegable with
cablemodem outside plant/infrastructure.

I've had recurring problems with Charter for a couple of years
now.  Roughly quarterly I get IP outages with their Internet
service.  Previously they've told me these outages are due to the
weather becoming hot/cold & throwing the neighborhood lines "out
of balance"(?).  My outages do roughly coincide with weather
(temperature) changes.  For the past few days (since Thursday
night) I've had it happening again and I & the cableco line tech
don't believe it's weather-related.  I've logged this for years
now and with the logs from my current set of outages I'm seeing a
pattern - IP (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc) goes out at about 10 minutes
before the hour, lasting for about 5-15 minutes.  When it goes
out I can't traceroute *anywhere* - I get "*" starting with the
1st hop.  If I traceroute back here from elsewhere, it stops with
the final hop before my own interface.  This happens regardless
of the computer I connect to the cablemodem, so I don't think
it's my computer/OS/setup.  TV is unaffected, the cablemodem
itself (a Motorola Surfboard SB4101) reports all good signals,
s/n ratios, etc.  Line tech has visited & couldn't fix it (he's
fixed it before when it was the line-balance problem, home tech
is a waste of time both for me & them).  All outside plant I've
ever seen here for Charter is from Scientific Atlanta (amps,
nodes, etc) with some kinda boxen (power supplies?) that say
"Alpha" on the side.

Any idea(s) what's going on?

Until recently, my only broadband option has been cable; DSL has
recently become available here and I'm considering switching but
the only providers I'm aware of who service this area are AT&T
(formerly Bellsouth) and HiWaay.  Speedfactory & Speakeasy don't
serve here.  Any ALErs with HiWaay experience(s)?  Looks like my
only option for any kind of reliable Internet service is going to
have to be DSL (or dialup - even that works more reliably than
cable but my max dialup speed is 28800).  Not much choice here.
Bellsouth is cheaper but I think HiWaay has Alabama-local
customer service/support (I plan to investigate further).  I'm
aware of the problem(s) list members here have with ATT (e.g.
port blocking, warrantless wiretapping, etc); what of HiWaay?

Thanks,

-kc