ISP disconnects

The past several weeks I've been getting disconnected from my _dial-up_
connection to my ISP, too often several times an hour. This makes it
impossible to DL anything useful. It's not the ISP, I changed (for other
reasons) and the problem continues. I just bought PC Tools Spyware Doctor
yesterday and all it found were cookies so it's not likely to be malware.
To my ear the phone line sounds quiet. AVG found no viruses.

Oddly, often the system seems to be unaware I am disconnected. I get no
disconnect window from DUN and my Gmail new-mail monitor doesn't
complain, which it does instantly if I disconnect manually. I however can
no longer use my news reader, browser, email client etc. so need to
disconnect and reconnect which fixes things for a while.

Could this be a modem (US Robotics 56K external) problem?

Anything anyone can suggest for me to try? Any sort of diagnostic tool
available? I'd even pay for one if it would likely help!<g>

Running XP Home, SP1.

TIA


--
Every silver lining has a cloud.



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