[Cialug] [OT] Flaky Broadband Connection

[Claus]

You guys seem to know a lot about cable and DSL internet access so I 
just have to ask this question.

The Cox broadband connections at my parents in law in Omaha is extremely 
flaky.  It drops connections multiple times a day.  At first I thought 
it was the wireless router since I used wireless but I finally 
experienced it being connected via wire.  It's to the point that this is 
very annoying to me. Obvious proof that my father in law rarely is using 
his computer.

I haven't done much trouble shooting and research on the cable modem 
since I was mistakenly looking for the problem at the wireless router. 
Without much more info do you think it's a:
a) faulty cable modem
b) incorrectly configured cable modem
c) out-of-date cable modem (it's a couple of years old)
d) bad service by cox (problem outside the home)

I heard from my brother in law that he experienced such behavior from 
Comcast as and from some previous DSL.  Is it really that common?  I 
always had a rock solid Internet connection with my Qwest[1] DSL and FN 
connection at home as well as any wireless access points I've used.  So 
my tolerance for flakiness is pretty low.

   Claus

[1] With Qwest, if it works stay low and don't draw attention. 
Otherwise someone at Qwest messes up your service for the next few 
weeks.  At least that was my experience in the past.