One last effort before I fire Centurylink and risk ending up with worse

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I didn’t want to get into this as it can get VERY involved, but I disagree with this completely as a former Infrastructure engineer. To hit this problem occasionally with a particular service / endpoint may suggest a problem with something on their end, but a regular drop to zero throughput for all traffic on an internet connection multiple times a day means that there is a problem somewhere from the computer to the ISP.

To have a fight with your Internet provider you first need to rule all of your kit out.

Here’s the path I would follow, if the step doesn’t remove the issue, continue to the next.

  • If this happens on multiple devices, you can usually rule out the devices as an issue.
  • Next step would be to hard wire a device to your router via an Ethernet cable and test (If this stops it’s probably a wireless issue)
  • Next step connect directly to the endpoint (i.e. only one device, remove your router) from the ISP and see if this stops the problem (If this stops it, probably a router issue)
    If you get to this point and you’re still having problems having ruled all of the above out, put everything back.

Now run a traceroute/tracert to an internet IP address e.g. 8.8.8.8 and make a note of every IP Address on the way
Then run continuous pings to:

  • 127.0.0.1 (Your local computer)
  • Your local Router Address e.g. 192.168.1.1 (The 2nd address you get)
  • Your ISP modem (the 3rd address you get)
  • Your ISPs Router (The 4th address you get)
  • 3 different internet addresses e.g. www.bbc.co.uk, www.google.co.uk
    When you have an outage, see what stops responding. If your router still responds, then whatever is causing problems is beyond your router, if your Modem still responds, then it’s beyond that and if your ISPs router responds, then it’s not a problem with the line.

I had a similar problem with my ISP 18 months ago (Virgin Media in the UK) where they claimed nothing was wrong despite an outcry and thousands of people complaining to them on social media. I was able to fault find exactly where in their network the connection was being lost and they still wouldn’t listen. I’m no longer a customer.

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