Hey Spike, just wanted to do a small checklist for you when that technician comes out to your house. The thing about techs is they are hired with no degree in the field so you can get a guy whose been in the business for 30 years and knows everything or a guy who has two months under his belt and not qualified enough to do in-depth troubleshooting. So here are the things the tech needs to check in order to eliminate issues on your side:

1) Check the signal coming out of the tap. Internet signal is measured in dBHz (decibel-hertz) and you should be at a solid +20 or higher coming off your tap (that is where the cable company plugs multiple houses into). If it is too low, your signal going to your modem may be too low and that is causing disconnects.

2) Check the fitting on the line at the tap. A bad, loose, or old fitting can cause ingress and signal degradation.

3) Check the "ingress" in the line going from the tap to your house. Ingress can also be called "signal leakage". Basically outside signal (satellite, radio, UHF, basically anything that is in the air) could be leaking into your line and this causes your modem issues trying to connect back to the node where you get your main Internet signal from. This would cause disconnects.

4) At your house, check the fittings on the barrel (what connects two cables together). Make sure the barrel's connections (as well as the tap to boot) has rubber grommets. They look like this: http://www.newark.com/productimages/standard/en_US/50F623-40.jpg but depending in ISP could be different. They protect the fittings from water damage.

5) Check for ingress in the wire going from the barrel to your house.

6) If there is a splitter in the house (ie, you have both TV and internet) replace the splitter (techs have an infinite supply of them). Check the fittings on the splitter and replace if needed.

7) Check the ingress to every line coming off that splitter. If your TV line has signal leakage but your Internet line doesn't, it will still leak into that Internet line at the splitter and cause disconnects.

8) Check the fitting going into the back of the TV and the Internet modem. Again, even if your Internet line is clean if you have a bad fitting at the TV it will cause ingress.

9) Do a signal test of the modem to make sure it falls between company specs. At Charter a modem's signal needed to be between -10 and 10 dB, I have no idea what your ISPs specs are, but dB is the same from one company to another. If you are at -20 dB or 16 dB that can possibly be the cause of your problems.

10) Make sure he does ALL of these. Demand he does them and say you will not let him leave unless he does them.