Noise on the line

[#1]

Today, 25th March 2010, we had a local thunderstorm, with some very strong local lightning strikes, within about 5 miles of my home.... as luck would have it, I have been running Routerstats for most of the day. ....
For those who do not know what effect electical noise can have on telephone wires, take a look at this graph......
Normally my SNR line is virtually straight, ... I have very very little noise..... Electrical noise can be caused by faulty switches, or dirty connections in switches, or worn contacts in electric motors, such as washing machines, central heating pumps, tumble driers, hair driers, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners....even some street lighting can cause interference, if it is close proximity to the overhead telephone wires....... for those living in the country, even electric fences used for stock can cause interference.... It can be difficult to remove the noise, and it can be difficult to track it down.... I hope this gives you some clues as where to start looking, to reduce the noise spikes, and therefore to improve the connection for your broadband.

[#2]

I recognise that Firefox theme!

[#3]

UPDATE....
The graph below is from 19:15 to 21:15, to show how "quiet" my line is.....
Note my SNR figure is 3.3 whilst my RX synch is 1952Kbps.... I am about 4 km from the exchange, and my Downstream attenuation is 63.5.....
When I first joined PlusNet, a couple of years ago, I had issues with speed, and connection problems..... thanks to help and advice on the forum from HPsauce, and Anotherone, I now have a pretty stable connection, and the speed is reasonably constant between 1.2 and 1.4 megs....
A few points about my situation ...
[ o ]  master socket > [ o ] first extension socket (unused) > [ o ] second extension socket 
[ o ] second extension socket ...... filtered and cordless phone.
[ o ] third extension socket ...... filtered with Wireless D-Link Router (also filtered with 2nd cordless phone)
[ o ] fourth extension socket .....  BT wired phone
The distance from the Master Socket to the Wireless router is about 15 mtrs...... originally it was wired using the DIY extension cable from hardware shop/B&Q (the flat stuff).... it was difficult to strip and make a good connection.....and this stuff was probably the cause of most of my problems regarding noise on the line.....
After advice on the forum from HPsauce, and Anotherone, (and others).... I re-wired all the sockets from the master socket, using the "proper" wire  CW1308. twisted pair.... this cost me less than £5 from a source on Ebay.... (send me a PM for the linky.... he still sells it in 10 15 and other lengths).....
Once the re-wire was completed, which took me a couple of hours, I set the router up and waited for the speed and synch figures to improve.... 2 weeks after the re-wire, and everything was (and still is) running sweetly....