So, out of these many problem areas, only one is under your Internet provider's control. As you can see, problems aren't always clear-cut. We regard to reliability and availability, there ARE a few things that you can check on and will make a difference to your access. In terms of dialing into a provider and making a connection, an Internet provider receives calls using a phone line similar to you. But they don't have one for each of their users.
Internet providers play the numbers game.
Let us say an Internet provider has 1000 clients. They might work out that they don't anticipate that many more than 100 of those will be wanting to use the service at any one time - so they will install 100 lines for those 1000 clients to use. Therefore, the lower the ratio the easier the service is likely to be available. Speed and Bandwidth Similar to modem ratios, your Internet provider will link themselves to the Internet based on working out averages on the amount of people using their service at once. But that's OK, because no one spends all their time online downloading at full rate.