By drop in sync I mean when the router can't maintain the present sync rate and has to retrain or when the router is restarted and can only sync at a rate lower than previously. Pulling the plug or switching the router/modem on/off more than 10 times an hour is also seen as instability at the exchange end.

Have a read through http://www.thinkbroadband.com/files/broadband-max-my...

Being rural often means you will suffer from noise I'm afraid. Is some of your phone wire overhead for example? This picks up more RF interference... My overhead wire even shares the same poles as the electricity supply which is a bad thing.

Electric fences etc. (that you mention) can also be ADSL killers.

Yes any lower sync (connection speed) detected will mess up your IP Profile!

I can recommend RouterStats to monitor your connection. This gives you a good feel for your line as you can graph your SNRM throughout the day.

You'll probably see it drop when you start using your radio equipment!

Thanks for the useful info from you both...

From initial findings it doesn't look like RouterStats will work with my Solwise router, but I will investigate further.

Whilst I accept that wherever one lives electrical noise can be a problem, the point I was making was that interference from commercial or industrial sources is well removed from my location. I can often hear weak radio signals when other stations say they're obliterated by the higher noise floor at their own location.

Surprisingly for a rural location, a majority of the phone lines feeding this part of the village are underground. The relatively new NTE5 socket terminates right by the side of the router and has no extensions off it - there is just one telephone attached directly to the filter.

The electric fence is only just detectable on a quiet frequency during the day, and doesn't even get close to moving the S-meter. Night time general QRM/QRN easily overrides it.

You could be right about the transmitting equipment, although I generally only run QRP, and have never noticed any interference problems.