On Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:20:35 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:

It seems to me that a modem should be able to re-connect
without external help;
I wonder if there are ADSL modems around that do this?

Yes, mine does. It also has a configuration setting to not do this.

What is your modem.

ZyXEL P660R-61C

--
Cheers
Dave.