Decent routers will have error counters for line errors - things like HEC, CRC, FEC, and if you're really lucky, errored seconds. These are the error counters for line errors between you and the exchange kit. If they are consistently zero or nearly zero, there's no need for faultfinding between you and the exchange, and your out of order problems are coming from somewhere else, somewhere on t'Interweb, but not between you and the exchange.

NB the above assumes that you're not getting any packet loss between you and your own router. If you're using WiFi, this isn't necessarily all that safe an assumption.

One concern is the impact of the 45 years old wire that runs down the outside wall .....

That's not that old by BT standards i.e. circa 1964

No idea how to get any sort of useful stats out of my router.

How can I look at those sort of figures or even the packet loss, or otherwise, through my WiFi system.

In reply to a post by asanyfuleno:

No idea how to get any sort of useful stats out of my router.

How can I look at those sort of figures or even the packet loss, or otherwise, through my WiFi system.

Line stats:-

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/adsl_line_stats.php

and here as well:-

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/frogstats.php

No idea how to interpret these stats but...

# adslctl info --stats
adslctl: ADSL driver and PHY status
Status: ShowtimeRetrain Reason: 0
Channel: INTR, Upstream rate = 448 Kbps, Downstream rate = 1504 Kbps
Link Power State: L0
Mode: G.DMT
Channel: Interleave
Trellis: OFF
Line Status: No Defect
Training Status: Showtime
Down Up
SNR (dB): 10.9 14.0
Attn(dB): 63.5 31.5
Pwr(dBm): 16.4 11.9
Max(Kbps): 1664 804
Rate (Kbps): 1504 448
G.dmt framing
K: 48(0) 15
R: 16 16
S: 4 8
D: 4 2
ADSL2 framing
MSGc: 1 1
B: 48 15
M: 4 8
T: 1 1
R: 16 16
S: 4.3265 9.0000
L: 392 128
D: 4 2
Counters
SF: 13137352 13137508
SFErr: 943 53
RS: 223334992 111667815
RSCorr: 21547 161
RSUnCorr: 2902 0

HEC: 813 29
OCD: 11 0
LCD: 0 0
Total Cells: 792205035 0
Data Cells: 15154701 0
Drop Cells: 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

ES: 567 0
SES: 6 0
UAS: 18 0
AS: 223338

INP: 0.65 1.00
PER: 1.89 1.96
delay: 4.32 4.50
OR: 29.58 28.44

Bitswap: 0 0

Total time = 1 days 14 hours 2 min 49 sec
SF = 13137352
CRC = 943
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 567
Latest 1 day time = 14 hours 2 min 49 sec
SF = 2974544
CRC = 241
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 134
Latest 15 minutes time = 2 min 49 sec
SF = 9912
CRC = 0
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 0
Previous 15 minutes time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52982
CRC = 3
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 3
Previous 1 day time = 24 hours 0 sec
SF = 5082319
CRC = 316
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 185
15 minutes interval [-30 min to -15 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52923
CRC = 1
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 1
15 minutes interval [-45 min to -30 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52923
CRC = 3
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 3
15 minutes interval [-60 min to -45 min] time = 15 min 0 sec
SF = 52923
CRC = 5
LOS = 0
LOF = 0
ES = 3
Showtime Drop Reason: 0
Last Retrain Reason: 0

This is a long line, and some CRC errors are showing up, but the rate looks low enough to not warrant any major heartache