need something to show connectivity

im getting "false signals "on connectivity,carrier says everything okay on their side,little computers in system tray say "fine here ". modem says orange light flashing but it isnt flashing like it should.ive been watching modem for long time and it gets out of rhythm.
is there anything that i can get so i will know whether i am on or not online?something that can sit in system tray? carrier only goes to modem and i can tell them that its flashing out of rhythm till im blue in the face and they can only tell me that it looks fine on their side! and so i will not come flying here with malware problems which i did since i had about the same problems couple weeks ago.
any ideas,please i hate calling them and hate having them come out since they usually do a speed test! something i let me know that i am really online cause modem and those little computers lie like you wouldnt believe.
thanks you guys are a good bunch.