How to prove your internet keeps dropping.
No ISP solves a ticket built on "the internet dropped at 9:43pm". They solve one backed by a record: time, duration and exactly what failed. Without it, support becomes opinion against opinion.
What counts as proof
A speed test run once, after the outage, proves nothing — the problem is already gone. Proof is the timeline of what the connection did before, during and after the exact moment: router responses, external target tests, DNS lookups, HTTPS checks and adapter events.
Speed becomes evidence too when it is measured every day. The recorder runs up to four tests a day while the PC is idle, and the 30-day history shows how much of your plan arrived in each period of the day. See how the automatic test works.
1. Measure over a cable, with the PC awake
Connect the computer by cable straight to the main router, with no repeater. That takes Wi-Fi out of the picture, so a recorded drop is not wireless interference. Keep the PC awake while recording and, for the first few days, leave the VPN off and pause large downloads: every variable removed is one less question from support.
2. Mark the moment it drops
Leave the recorder running and press Ctrl+Alt+L when it happens. The window keeps the 5 minutes before and the 2 after, with the moment marked. Then choose what you saw and leave a note if you like. Two or three recorded episodes are worth more than a week of impressions.
In the note, say what else failed: a call dropping, a game disconnecting, sites that would not load. That ties the chart to a concrete loss, which is what support takes seriously.
3. Read what failed together
The router and the external targets are tested at the same time. What matters is what failed in the same window:
| During the drop | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| The router responds, but the external targets stop together | The failure is past the router: the modem's uplink, the ISP or external routes. |
| The router and the external targets stop together | The local path becomes a suspect: cable, Wi-Fi, the computer or the router itself. You cannot blame the ISP yet. |
| Only one external target stops | A problem with that target or the path to it, not a general outage. |
| Ping responds, but DNS or HTTPS fail | The connection is up, but name resolution or websites fail. Check the resolver before blaming the link. |
This is how the first row looks in the report: a 47-second outage with the router answering every probe. See a sample report.pdf, with simulated data.
This is a first reading, not a diagnosis. Failing pings alone do not mean the internet is down: some equipment rate-limits or ignores them. That is why the recorder logs pings, DNS lookups and HTTPS checks side by side — a real outage usually shows up in more than one kind of test.
Tools like PingPlotter and WinMTR focus on ping and route. PingPlotter alternative: compared with WinMTR, PingInfoView and Ping Tracer.
What the data shows — and what it does not
The data describes what this computer saw, with times and durations. It does not identify the responsible component. To separate a home problem from an ISP problem, repeat the measurement on another device or network: drops appearing on both sides point outside.
4. Send it to your ISP
Fill in only what the records show:
"I am having recurring outages. I monitored over a cable, without a VPN. On [date], between [start time] and [end time], the router kept responding but the external targets stopped responding at the same time. During the same period, [sites/call/game] also failed. The reports are attached. Please check the disconnection events and line signal at those times."
Write down the ticket number. If they do not fix it, ask the ISP to escalate with the same records, then take the case to the regulator or consumer-protection body in your country. See how to put the complaint together.
Your next lag, recorded.
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