Strange problem with BT broadband

A friend of mine has a problem with her BT broadband. Yesterday the connectivity check on her homehub said DSL was OK but ATM failed. Today its got a bit further - ATM and PPP are OK but it can't get an IP address. I took my own Linksys router round, fully expecting the problem to be with the crappy homehub, but to my surprise my router failed at the same point, it manages to briefly acquire an IP address before dropping back to the gateway stage. BT are no help at all, the only thing they seem interested in is how many lights are flashing on the front of the router and seem convinced anything can be solved by turning off firewalls and antivirus on your computer. Any ideas what this could be?

Could it be a WBC upgrade at the exchange, or that was earlier and she has just been moved to WBC? When was/is the exchange WBC-enabled?

Bob: Demon dialup >> Freeserve dialup >> BT Broadband >> Prodigynet >> Newnet >> O2 Premium.
Purple Cloud for domain, email and web space.

Nah, just looked up the WBC date and its 2011.

Talked to three different neighbours, and they all lost their broadband on friday too so it looks like a problem with the line or at the exchange. Its a pity BT didn't listen to the diagnostic information I was giving them from the router rather than [censored] about telling me it was the anti-virus settings on my PC - they would have had a three day headstart on fixing the broadband for an entire street.

In reply to a post by _ben:

Talked to three different neighbours, and they all lost their broadband on friday too so it looks like a problem with the line or at the exchange. Its a pity BT didn't listen to the diagnostic information I was giving them from the router rather than [censored] about telling me it was the anti-virus settings on my PC - they would have had a three day headstart on fixing the broadband for an entire street.

But Sir, it can't possibly be our problem.

It must be the static electricity on your carpet because of the cat scratching it.

Bob: Demon dialup >> Freeserve dialup >> BT Broadband >> Prodigynet >> Newnet >> O2 Premium.
Purple Cloud for domain, email and web space.

We've talked to several local businesses today who depend on their internet connection, including an internet cafe, and they all lost their connection on friday too so it seems to be a widespread problem. It appears to have come back this evening though, so only a 3 day outage.

In reply to a post by _ben:

A friend of mine has a problem with her BT broadband. Yesterday the connectivity check on her homehub said DSL was OK but ATM failed. Today its got a bit further - ATM and PPP are OK but it can't get an IP address. I took my own Linksys router round, fully expecting the problem to be with the crappy homehub, but to my surprise my router failed at the same point, it manages to briefly acquire an IP address before dropping back to the gateway stage. BT are no help at all, the only thing they seem interested in is how many lights are flashing on the front of the router and seem convinced anything can be solved by turning off firewalls and antivirus on your computer. Any ideas what this could be?

Not sure what you mean by gateway stage. Do you mean the line re-syncing again?