My two cents worth
Whenever your adsl goes down don't believe a single thing that Telkom tells you no matter what they say, I've never spoken to a person at Telkom or even my ISP who has any idea about my software and my specific system.
Who can blame them though? While it is true that sometimes the blame for the loss of connectivity lays squarely on their shoulders, I have often called them with disconnectivity problems and even been told that they're working on the problem, and subsequently discovered that the problem was within my PC.
Here's my advice, from my various experiences, following supposed Telkom and ISP connectivity issues, as far as I can remember this covers all the angles I've had to deal with.... so far.
Most of us download and install loads of crap that could have been the reason for the failure. We are also often unaware of stuff that goes on while browsing like java script, active X etc.
I believe that people often lose connectivity because of spyware/malware/adware/crapware/etc.
So firstly, and I really hate to promo MS, but if you don't have XP GET IT!! When you do get it, make sure you update to XP Service pack 2... BEFORE YOU EVEN ALLOW THE PC TO GO ONLINE.
Enable firewall. Also BEFORE GOING ONLINE, make sure you have have also installed Ad-aware, Spybot S&D and MS Antispyware, CCleaner, as well as antivirus software like Mcafee or Norton. Download these files from a friends computer or internet cafe and save the downloaded installs to disk. Another handy programme is Executive Software's Diskeeper (it's a brilliant version of what MS defragmenter has always wanted to be)
Install all these programmes. At this time you might want to go into into start/control panel/add remove programmes and delete anything you no longer use. Then run CCleaner, then run diskeeper (afterwards make sure you set it to run when you want, I like the screensaver mode), then reboot.
Then go online, update all of these programmes and visit MS Update immediately. After updating, shutdown and then visit MS update again and again until it finds no further updates.
Then allow all the above programmes to scan your system, one after the other, let them delete anything they find. Run CCleaner again, reboot.
MAKE SURE that you check for updates with Ad-Aware and Spybot and MS Anti spyware every few days, there is an auto option, but it's still a good idea to check manually each time before you do a scan.
Finally if all the above is true and you are still having connectivity problems and Telwhatever and the ISP can't help (or give doubtful responses) then I suggest that you fiddle around yourself, disable your connection and re-enable: start/control panel/network connections/Local Area Connection (LAN) (or whatever connection you use for DSL) right click and choose disable, then re-enable by right clicking on the icon again. If that doesn't work try windows repair (also on the right click menu), it should reassign an IP address, which sometimes works. If that does't work delete your connection and reinstall, if that doesn't work remove your LAN altogether from start/control panel/sytem/hardware/device manager/network adaptors right click the LAN hardware and choose unistall. If that doesn't work remove your dsl modem start/control panel/sytem/hardware/device manager and reinstall and also remember to remove all traces of its drivers or extra software then reboot and reinstall.
Also, once back online make sure that all your drivers are the latest.
Also if you suspect sypware related issues download HijackThis and find a friendly forum that will tell you what to delete, there's plenty of ppl out there in forums that are avaialable 24/7 to give you free advice within a few minutes.
Also visit pcpitstop.com and run a full test on your sys, their comments can be quite useful, check the sytem log of what they say is running at the time of your online scan, not only do they provide info on what programmes are necessary to be running in the background, but also on what running progs are optional and what should definitely not be running.
Since doing all of this I've had no probs, and for months now I've been running a clean system that gives me no trouble at all. And most of my problems were related to connectivity issues.
I also prefer to use Mozilla Firefox instead of IE as my browser, with the java script disabler/notifier plugin installed. I find it to be a much faster browser (yup the pages load really quick) and I believe it to be much more secure - i.e. funny litle progs that are designed to enter your sys without your knowledge while you are browsing are mainly designed to enter via IE rather than Firefox.
If anyone would care to add further input, I and I'm sure many others, would appreciate any further suggestions
