Finding Intermittent ISP Connectivity Issues

How do you do it?  You know something isnt right, but you can still get on the Internet.  Everything works ok, but sometimes it gets slow.  Sometimes you get a "page not found".  But if you refresh, it seems to work.  What is going on???
Well, here is a pretty reliable way to find unreliable ISP connectivity.  Get yourself a program that will do a graph of ICMP.  I use ping plotter pro.  I also use DOS with it.  You will see what I mean below.  Start a ping to a remote site IP address like google or norton or somewhere (not the URL). Also, get your graphing program (ping plotter pro in my case) and ping the same IP within that program also.  Then, watch them both closely.

Now keep in mind this, one sporatic "time out" is really not enough for reliably saying that there is a problem.

Now in the below, the speed test starts dropping out when a consecutive "time out" occurs.

Anyway, if you suspect problems with your Internet connectivity, try this above.  Its pretty reliable in finding these sorts of issues.  I have even found VPN drops this same way.  That turned out to be dirty fiber, which I found just like this above.