Packet loss question

[Speedster]

I'm on a 4mbps line using a capped Afrihost account. My internet has been disastrously slow all week. After phoning Afrihost (very helpful) and Telkom call centre (not so helpful) I've established there is significant packet loss on the line.

Any ideas as to possible causes? Or, more importantly, how to fix it?

Here is an example of a ping I ran:
PING google.com (196.23.168.147): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 196.23.168.147: icmp_seq=0 ttl=56 time=166.218 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
64 bytes from 196.23.168.147: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=128.401 ms
64 bytes from 196.23.168.147: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=153.036 ms
64 bytes from 196.23.168.147: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=148.738 ms
64 bytes from 196.23.168.147: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=167.472 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6
64 bytes from 196.23.168.147: icmp_seq=7 ttl=56 time=149.878 ms
^C
--- google.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 25.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 128.401/152.290/167.472/13.001 ms

 

[Speedster]

Nobody have any ideas?

 

[Know_hope]

I'm afraid there are to many variables that could be causing the packet loss. What is your SNR and Attenuation on the line?