In article
,
PaulD wrote:

Update:
The telephone repairman came out today. The problem was outside
the house in the telephone company's lines. My wife was at home not
me so I don't know what the problem was in the telephone company's
equipment. The repairman mentioned work was being done about two
miles from my house that apparently caused the problem.
Interestingly, my connection seemed to be the only one effected.

Excellent. I put up with an intermittent fault on my line for six months
once, because they kept telling me that it was in my house somewhere,
and I didn't want to pay their rates. Finally broke down and had them
come out, and sure enough, same deal -- a problem in a telco box about a
mile away.