So an update on my Charter issues. I called them up (which took way too long to find the number on the web site!) and they looked at the line and they see errors, so a tech is coming out monday afternoon to look things over. Some days I feel stupid, since they smart suggestion to check if my land line (through charter on the cable modem) was also dead when the internet connection went down was spot on. So it's not my router or anything like that, it's their gear/line which needs looking at. As someone else said, it could be water somewhere in the system. They replaced the link from the box on the street to my house a couple of years ago, so maybe the chipmunks have been nibbling on that somewhere too. Sigh... At least I've made some progress! John