Sorry for the late response, Gary, but I do really appreciate the feedback. I didn't know about the share thing, too. So I thought I'd take advantage of that by sharing this: https://share.pingplotter.com/7REYzW3WxSy

The previous image I linked to was when I experienced problems on my router's wifi. I'm now using a direct cat-5 connection to the router and given Hop 2 is the one that's been showing the most packet loss lately (been having constant disconnection issues all week), I'm assuming it could be anything from my home's wiring to anything leading to their DSLAM?

I've contacted my ISP about this and they indicated that their line test showed a fault--they admitted that a tech would have to look into things to make anything make more sense than that because they couldn't even tell me whether it might have anything to do with my home's line or theirs. (Which I guess makes sense albeit frustrating to accept.)

The packet loss increases almost tenfold when I'm actually doing things on the net. When I'm at idle, though, it averages little red lines like those seen in the referenced image. What might that mean? And when the DSL reconnects after the constant reconnects, the speeds are never what they should be (though I will say that after I called the ISP today, the speeds came back more often at the rates they should be, which is interesting--makes me wonder if the ISP knows more than what they admit about whether there's a faulty machine somewhere that might be causing this).

It's hard not to be paranoid with ISPs sometimes!