The laptop was ruled out since I was able to stay connected when on a wired connection with a different ISP (cable).
The browser was ruled out because somehow it was updated to IE11.
The ATT Boards, where several others were complaining, suggested checking the phone line filters. I made certain they were functional, clean, and the little metal part was intact.
It was down to my ISP or the modem/router which is now 4 years old. The thought of waiting for a replacement and being without the internet is not a pleasant one.
Then I read somewhere to get a replacement for the surge protector. It was worth a try, especially since ours is about 12 years old. I doubt that they would get worn out, but possibly something else is involved. Ours is on a carpet (fibers) near an open window (dust), and just plain dust getting in the outlet holes.
The store was out of the one I wanted but I picked up one with more outlets. What's great about it is that you can cover the unused outlets, it has two outlets for those large converter plugs, and you can plug in your phone line if desired.
I would have been happy if this new surge surpressor improved my connection by 25%. I am very happy that after several weeks of use, the improvement was at least 75%!
If you're having internet disconnects, try one, or more, of the tests above. It's so nice to have mostly uninterrupted internet service! :)
Note: I have been trying for weeks to post the above. It wasn't the words that were giving me a problem, but the pics. They would upload, I could click on Add, but nothing happened, plus I couldn't X out the page. Checking with Help let me know that this has been a problem since January. I tried their suggestions, finally deleting cookies. That didn't work either. They were saying that they don't support IE 11. What?
Another of their suggestions was to download Chrome. So, it's "We won't let it work unless you use our product"? I guess that's it because I finally downloaded Chrome and it's worked like a charm.
