Hi and thanks for the reply, I have been fighting this bad line problem for years some neighbours down this lane and the one next to me have similar problems, no spares, DACS2 to the hilt (not on the Red care or BB lines) etc etc yet others on a different ug feed seem to be happy, they get no dissconections or overhearing, or engineers test tones etc. Some days I was calling the Customer service manager who said in 2001 he would sort all out and up to April this year wen he went long term sick that he was going to get the uplift to the ug thart was so badly needed as nearly every house here has two or more lines. If I had some direct form of contact with yourself I would lift the lid on myself and my background. I know only to well about Al and Cu cable. I have had speeds of 3.8Mips in August for a few days. So I now know it is possible and I know that something is in conact of some form with my line. The key to all this is monitoring the printouts of the adsl status when you can watch and BT have the HEC errors climbing for short periods. The intermittent noise and klicks on the line so much so that people who call me dont want to continue conversations because of their fear that someone is listening in. The Customer service manager witnessed this on a number of occasions because I could and did call him and let him hear the problems I was experiencing. SO is it surprising that as with him going long term sick BT claim that all my fault reporting to him and with him appear to be missing. As a result of me elivating my complaints to the chairmans office the gentleman in high level broadband complaints has connected this DSLMax and we can at least monitor the situation. I started off with less than 1/2 meg of speed then it dropped back again because the belkin surge prtector on the line blew in a thunder storm. Then I hit the peak possible of 3.6Mips plus a little only to find it drop back again with the BB engineers saying and in EMails we have to get the PSTN lot to find what keeps interfering with the line. So my demands last week were to hold a multidisiplany meeting at my high level HQ office in London but I cant get agreement to attend from BT. A little further down my country lane there is a country house which is a business premises and there ug feed comes out of the gound outside my house so maybe I should pop up the pole and take a spur, one dark night !!!
So BT dare not say no to my service.
I just hoped someone would refer me to a good book or reference so I could gen myself up with the diagnosis I have from the ADSL Line stats that I have been compiling. The reason for my original question as this particular speciality in Electronics is not inside my blood circulation at present. Does this help and show you where I hope to get to. Thanks again and look forward to any further comments and have a good speedy day.

Thanks and please read my comments to Ade that I typed a few mins ago. I think I can beat your comments by saying that I am told to report all line faults and find after there is no record the moral of this is always make sure you get the fault Ref number. Then there are the faults that BT write of because when they test it would appear that no fault is found. BUT THE BEST TO DATE is "a note on my account that "Fault cleared to customers satisfaction" when last month and to date no one has contacted me in respect to that fault being booked off. Of course when I hear my " bell tinkle" I have often jumped in my car and followed the cable route never more than one kilometer to find a BT Engineer working on a joint or one of the few cabs in the lane to my house. The DP covers have been left of on the poles (some wont fit if the cover could be attached) joints have been left hanging upside down. I shall leave you to imagine the rest. Now the best is from the UG crew attending one UG joint oh well the water is always getting in the joint on the hill, still its good for the work.!! All I ask is for a good reference work to interpret the results from the 240 router as my study in the past did not cover this speciality as it was not invented in my student days. The reson for my opening question to this thread. Oh and by the way my noise margin since yesterday has crept up now to 11.4db Thanks and I shall await your further thoughts.