Out of Pod Experience

Call phone company and ask if they are having any trouble.

It could be that someone somewhere was digging something and cut the phone cable. Something like that happened in my area a few years ago.

I used to use dsl alot, but I'm a layman so take it for what its worth. I am assuming you have phone service on the same line and have already verified that is working fine. In my experience, no lights at all means the modem can't even detect a carrier wave signal to try to synchronize with. Also, If you've tried other modems I would definitely hedge my bets that its a problem with the phone provider's lines.

I think the phone companies are using a program that runs a quick test up to the box to your house, if it passes then everything must be fine, I've had to insist that I have checked everything on my end and that a technician needs to come out. It's like pullnig teeth from a rabid bear, but when they did come out at the end of the day the technician was admitting the fault was on their end.

I am fortunate that my dsl has been run through the phone company though, your results may vary.

Seems like you got a poor ISP. I would consider getting a new connection if they can't even give you service. Failing that keep on nagging them to fix it each day.

Cheers for the replies guys. nice to hear an intelligent response for a change. rather than my provider telling me to turn my modem on and off again.

Since ive complained they are looking further into it and ive tried all sorts of different cables/modems and even tried another comp.to make 100% certain its nothing on my end.

i have a contract with my internet provider but surely i can refuse to pay if my service isnt working?

With both my internet and phoneline provider saying they cant see a problem its hard to see this getting resolved :/

Need to know errors...

GL, I was getting d/cs NON stop all of a sudden from my cable... tech support useless both times "it could be your router, your pc" "ya buddy the modem is throwing the errors" ended up getting a d3 modem as I knew i needed... fixed the issue...

Ya so we need to know the errors in the modems logs...

Both can actually be right. Your switched on for DSL and your (im believing seperate) phone provider is happy with there test results.

I dont see you mentioning you have replaced all filters with known working or new ones ? with no other phones attached you can get signal without filter, try that too.

Sounds freaky but rampant faulty 'other' electronics can play havoc on bell wires not terminated with a plate (in UK for sure - plus if you havnt done this you should see speed increase anyway for cheap bucks).

Turn everything, and i mean everything electrical off in the house..... start testing should you get an improvement.

{QUICK EDIT} one more likely thing due to the situation you describe is what ive heard referred to as a stale connection. It acts up and happy but isnt. I cant believe your ISP wouldnt do this as standard but ask them to manually disconnect your connection and allow you to reconnect. They should then ask you to unplug your router (thats how you know they seriously doing that) for 5 mins then try to reconnect.

My 2c.

It is 90% though the phone company wiring at the street box and if your using 2 third party 'billing' companies it gets a nightmare to organise the fix.