Sometimes, it's just the internet provider. Like with my AT&T U-Verse service. I spent the first 6 months with constant random dropouts. Internet, phone and TV would all go down, so it clearly wasn't a problem with my computers. I had the techs out 6 times. They could see the incoming signal was full of errors, they replaced/cleaned up/shielded all the wiring at my end, but it never fixed the problem. Then, about 2 weeks after the last visit, the dropouts suddenly went away and never came back. Something back at the internet provider had to have been the problem, because nothing had changed on my end.
As to the "Why did you stay with U-Verse?" question, it's because I had no choice. My house has never been wired for cable TV. When I had the cable internet people take a look, they said I'd have to remove several large trees before they could run a cable line to my house. Satellite is too expensive, and too unreliable due to those same trees. Hence, over the phone line is my only realistic option.
