Having high packet loss at night, could lowering MTU correct this?

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In the hours between 8:00 - 10:00 pm, my internet connection suffers severe packet loss (30-50% over 50 pings). I've been dealing with my ISP over the course of the past 2 months, trying to get a resolution to this. They swear up and down we are in a low demand area. But the problem ONLY occurs at these specific hours. Finally after 4 technicians and a network engineer working on the problem, it seems as if they have come to the conclusion "there is nothing that can be done"...

The tech lady that I spoke with this evening gutted up and admitted it's more than likely due to network demand load causing the problem.

In my desperation to fix this I've been researching possible fixes on my end, and one thing I have been reading about is MTU... Could this possibly fix the latency issue I have been experiencing at night? Any help or advice on the issue is greatly appreciated.
Again, the packet loss only occurs at specific hours of the night. During the day the network runs like a well oiled machine. If the problem were on my end, in my computer as you suggest, wouldn't it be a sustained issue?

The technicians have done a lot of line tests. Our SNR shows absolutely beautiful and well within normal operating limits. No packet loss, etc. But they can't be out here when it starts happening of course, because it's well past business hours.
No torrenting or anything of that nature. I play World of Warcraft at night, and during the day.

The game runs fine during the day, no packet loss or latency. Everything is super responsive. Then I can just sit and watch as latency starts to creep in as the evening approaches. It starts creeping up, things start becoming unresponsive, until its full blown unplayable.

I did ask them about data usage and Fair Access Policy type slow downs, my ISP does not do this.

[Igotreported]

I REALLY doubt that doing anything with the MTU size would help your problem. Increasing it would more than likely make it worse, and decreasing it probably wouldn't provide much of an increase.

Are you sure the fault isn't yours? Let me be less frank...are you sure the problem isn't with your computer? If you have that much packet loss, then you should look into a protocol analyzer like wireshark (it's free), and see how many packets (and over what protocols) are being dropped...and to what systems they are being sent to. It could be that whatever system you are pining just can't handle all the responses (that's why people use tracert).

I would have them physically test the line. Try also updating the firmware for your modem, and see what the modem logs say. A lot of the newer modems have log files...look at those, just see what you can learn.

Good luck, I've dealt with issues like this quite a bit. I know they can be a pain.



UPDATE:

It depends on what you mean by sustained. There could be something around the area that's causing distortion on the line. Are you using a wireless connection? If so, have you tried changing the wireless frequency channel? How about decreasing signal strength?

I'm not saying that the problem is on "your end", just that if they have done so many tests on the line...there is a chance that nothing at all might be wrong with the line...which means you should probably start checking other things it should be.

Just a thought...is there a way you can check how much data you've been using per month? Many ISPs throttle down the connection speed after a certain amount of traffic.

Is there something you are doing from 8:00 - 10:00 pm? If you are torrenting...some ISPs are able to detect usage patterns and can limit the amount of data that is being transmitted.

Just had a thought. Try using a different operating system. Many linux distros come on LiveDVDs that have full functionlity without needing an install. If nothing else, it might at least tell you if something on your system is causing the problem (perhaps it might have something to deal with a firewall or the TCP/IP stack?)

UPDATE 2:

Okay, when the lag starts to happen, go here http://www.speedtest.net/ and run a speed test. Just see if you have adequate latency, and up/download speeds.

What strikes me about your response is you mentioned WoW. Having been a WoW player for quite some time (right before cataclysm came out), I remember how the servers used to lag and nothing could be done about them. Right before I left the first time (right before the burning crusade came out), the lag was so bad (and queue times were over an hour)...bliz was actually giving people free server transfers to cut down on traffic.

Maybe the fault is blizzards?