Disconnect problem

[#1]

Hi
Wondering if anyone here can help. Since the end of November, I’ve been suffering regular connection drops, several times a day, particularly in the evening. Between holidays and xmas, I had been hoping it would simply go away - but one month on it’s as bad, if not worse, and becoming a real pain. I’ve gone through the troubleshooting help steps - which didn’t resolve. And Ive attempted to report the problem via the “broadband troubleshooter” - but it just dumps me to a page telling me that:
A major service outage is affecting the broadband network. As your local telephone exchange is included you may experience a loss of broadband service.
Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.
Fault was raised on: 07/09/2011 16:06:00
Telephone exchange(s) affected:
Fault was fixed on:
[INTERNAL NOTES]
Service outage reference: 27686
Reason this was cleared: Card re-seated
Service ID: BBIP37087356
Case ID: 170463
Which is fine, but this is several months old and, checking the latest service status pages, the only broadband issue listed as live is actually affecting Scotland, Northern Ireland and Cumbria. I live in South London. Given I don’t think this report has anything to do with it and plusnet’s system doesn’t want to let me file a report about the problem I actually have, I thought I’d ask for help here.
By way of background
- I’ve had plusnet broadband on this line for around 5 years, and not had any issues before. Generally v reliable.
- There have been no changes to my PC or router that  might have caused the problem (Ive been using both for over 3 years on this line without issue).
- Ive got no xmas lights up and as far as I can see all the  neighbours have is an xmas tree with some fairy lights some way off!
- The connection can be pretty stable during the day but I start to suffer drops regularly early evening - (Ive was on line most of today with no issue but have had two drops since 16.30)
- Ive done the various test suggested in the sticky and when its up, the speed seems reasonable (cut and pasted below). Not sure if noise, attenuation etc look right tho.
- Where there does seems to be an abnormality is in the ping test though - ran it a few times and it either can‘t read packets, or the rating‘s abysmal. 96% packet loss Same thing on two days  Does that mean anything to people?
http://www.pingtest.net/result/53325519.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/53411646.png
- The general pattern when it drops is that the web starts getting very slow and sluggish and then fairly rapidly I can’t connect and the PC seems to realise that it doesn’t have a connection any more.
- I ran a speed test one time this started to happen last night and speed dropped to around 2800kbps on the first test but the connection dropped before the test could complete.
All of this makes me think it’s something server side - dodgy connect, too many people on the line…? - but I’m really not an expert and would welcome the views of people here before I take things further. If there’s something I’m overlooking my end which will sort this, great, happy to do whatever.... I'd appreciate any help / advice people here can give - this is starting to seriously wind me up....
Alastair
ps Apologies for the amount of info below, and the cut and paste approach - couldn't seem to get graph to display. 
For the community to assist the following information should be included initially:
Router states - noise margin, speed and attenuation (upstream and downstream).

Speed Actual data rate was 1048kbps up and 6512 kbps down
Noise margin 6db up and 6db down
Attenutation 0db up znd --- db down
BT speed test
1. Best Effort Test:  -provides background information.
Download  Speed 5433 Kbps
0 Kbps 7150 Kbps
Max Achievable Speed
Download speed achieved during the test was - 5433 Kbps For your connection, the acceptable range of speeds is 2000-7150 Kbps.
Additional Information: Your DSL Connection Rate :6651 Kbps(DOWN-STREAM), 1048 Kbps(UP-STREAM)
IP Profile for your line is - 5868 Kbps
2. Upstream Test: 
Upload Speed 828 Kbps
0 Kbps 1048 Kbps
Max Achievable Speed
>Upload speed achieved during the test was - 828 Kbps
Additional Information: Upstream Rate IP profile on your line is - 1048 Kbps
We were unable to identify any performance problem with your service at this time.
It is possible that any problem you are currently, or had previously experienced may have been caused by traffic congestion on the Internet or by the server you were accessing responding slowly. If you continue to encounter a problem with a specific server, please contact the administrator of that server in the first instance.
Line speed test (Plus net)

High-speed Broadband
Estimated line speed:
Not recorded (service activated before we introduced estimates).
Current line speed:
5.5 Mb

[#2]

One update on this. Ive been trying again to log the fault with plusnet again this morning - 5 drops last night - and it seems to keep looping me round the "broadband troubleshooter" - which is, as described above, a dead end. (How do you report a fault to this company  :o?!)
Anyway, I note the text which the "troubleshooter" dumps me to actually says that the fault's been resolved - back  in September. I don't know if I just missed that, or it was updated recently - apologies for confusion - but in any event that seems to rule out this MSO as the issue.
Major Service Outage (MSO) - fault report
A major service outage is affecting the broadband network. As your local telephone exchange is included you may experience a loss of broadband service.
Further updates will be provided as soon as possible.
Fault was raised on: 07/09/2011 16:06:00
Telephone exchange(s) affected:
Fault was fixed on: 07/09/2011 19:47:29
[INTERNAL NOTES]
Service outage reference: 27686
Reason this was cleared: Card re-seated
Service ID: BBIP37087356
Case ID: 170463
Anyway, I'd really appreciate some help on this one - whether its in the forms of solutions or advice as to how to contact plusnet!  And if there's any plusnet tech's here - I see they post sometimes -  Id welcome their input. Even if its to reset the troubleshooter
cheers
Alastair

[#3]

Hi AlastairM,
I don't see any issues with the faults troubleshooter. What point do you get to before it sends you back in the loop? You don't mention in your post whether you have tried plugging into the test socket. This would be one of the most important checks to see if the line stays stable in there.
Jojo

[#4]

Hi Jojo
Thanks for getting back to me. Yes, I've tried test; Ive also tried another pc and the other tests suggested. The only one I haven't been able to is try another router - I don't have another Im afraid, but this one seems to work fine yesterday morning and this morning. The drops seem to happen mainly in the afternoon / evening. Hence why I thought a network problem rather than my kit.
On the troubleshooter, it first takes me to a window where I put contact details in, then to the page which reports "A major service outage is affecting the broadband network. As your local telephone exchange is included you may experience a loss of broadband service.".... but that "Fault was fixed on: 07/09/2011 19:47:29" (see below). From there I can see only two options - "return to my account" or a button marked "my problem is fixed" - neither of which seemed very promising! (It also doesn't seem to save any of the updated contact details I put in) The only other place I could find on the website to log an issue was the"Help Assistant." I'm not sure that's the right place to log this  as an issue, but given problems with the troubleshooter Ive posted this stuff as well if it helps.
Appreciate any help you can give me on this
Alastair

[#5]

Hi Alastair ,
I'll look into the troubleshooter issue again, but as for the test socket, you say you tried it, how long for? could you plug it back in there while the fault is investigated, please?
Jojo

[#6]

Hi JoJo
It was probably a couple of hours  - bit of bf2  then it dropped, then plugged it back in while I cooked dinner. When it dropped second time, I figured that answered the question and shifted the pc back. If it helps to sort this though, Ill move the pc back over soon as I'm done here.
The "help assistant" responded to my email there. But, you guessed it, they say its not for them and gave me another link to report a problem. Which takes me straight back to the "broadband troubleshooter" which, as we've previously discussed, isn't helping much!
Recognise that isn't really for the help assistant, but I did explain the problems I was having in the post I sent them! Hoping you can help me get this sorted - not having much luck on main site  Do you need my account details or can you already see them?
Thanks again for your help on this
Alastair