The problem could very well be on the system, the problem with it being intermentiant is if its not happening and when the tech troubleshoots it from tap to node, everything maybe perfect, its dam near impossible to track.
This is what I am afraid of. I am sitting here watching Fox Business, waiting for the guy to come out and "test" everything this AM. Everything is perfect with no hiccups. But, I have had problems off and on since Dec, but it really didn't annoy me enough to finally schedule them out until this week. With the new baby arriving last week, my mother in law stayed (10 days or so) at our house and the Living Room / home office TV was literally on 24/7 as she watches Fox News, A&E (non-HD version for some reason even though I told her there is an HD version), TNT (non-HD), and Lifetime. We sure got our usage of BHN this month. But anyway, having the TV on ALL the time means while I sit at my computer doing work or playing around on sites like this, I noticed every hiccup while in the room, 24/7 as she watched TV. It was happening way more than I noticed previously. She never complained though,but it was bad. Then the black screen hit the other day, and again a day later. Both times, taking out my Internet. Eventually, TV came back on and impatiently I rebooted my business class modem. When I called to get them out here they skipped troubleshooting and scheduled immediately.
I truly understand how hard it is for you guys to pinpoint a problem. I go through the same thing with customers and computers. I'll go out and their problem vanishes, I leave, it comes back. And since I am an RR reseller, my customers often call me first when their Internet is down. I know RR is having a problem when I get 3-4 families calling me to say their Internet is down. Although I would love the money of a service call to their house to tell them it is RR, I end up realizing it is RR and tell them to call, saving them the cost of having me out. Sometimes they don't want to deal with it so they pay me to come over and call in and report it. Other times they ride it out. I see a lot of trends in neighborhood outages. Especially the coastal upper class residential neighborhoods with one way in, one way out utilities. They are down all the time. I seriously have very little RR outage, which is the important thing. TV is nice, but Internet is my bread and butter and pays the bills.
Come on tech.... time is money... the sooner you get here, the sooner I can go make some money!
Edit: 9AM- it just hiccuped.... come on... do it again when the guy comes.
Edit: 11AM- I'm told squirrels chewed through my line and the tech replaced the line from the pole to the box. No hiccups since. Unfortunately, he was unable to add an HD box for my son's room, as he didn't have any in the truck, so I get to have somebody come out again for a three hour window next week. Anyway, I don't see how an exposed line at my house would impact the entire Tampa Bay, since others are getting hiccups too, but maybe replacing the line will help me. Don't know about the other 600,000+ customers.