I run into this issue a few times every month and don’t know why I haven’t written a tip about it yet. When a computer user signs up for DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), a DSL kit is delivered to their home. Like many of us, the instructions get pushed to the side or are left in the box, and the user starts plugging everything in to get online as quickly as possible. Or, they may call the neighborhood tech guru and give him or her a cup of coffee to help get connected. And being the tech guru they are, the instructions still don’t get read.
One of the items included in the DSL kit is a bag of funny looking devices that look like a short phone cord with a box on the end of it. Those devices are the DSL filters. Since DSL is delivered through the phone lines, the DSL data signal needs to be separated from the voice signal so that both the voice and data signals stay separate and clean. If you don’t use the filters, both your voice quality and Internet quality/speed suffer.
All DSL users need to disconnect any phone in the house, conected to the same number as the DSL line, then put a DSL filter in the wall jack, then plug the phone into the DSL filter. The only phone jack that is not filtered is the one that you connect to your DSL modem…leave this one unfiltered, just plug a normal phone cable between the jack and the DSL modem.
The only exceptions to this rule may be when an installer comes to the house and places a filter on the entire house at the phone box outside.
By following the above steps, you will reap the reward of faster, more stable Internet connections, and clean, quiet phone calls. Again, this is for DSL users only. If you connect via a cable or satellite connection, this tip does not apply to you.
I’m starting to think that I’m one of the only people that reads instructions first 😉
I have DSL but don’t have a home phone line – I haven’t thought about the filter in a long time.
You certainly may be! So you have a naked DSL line and use cell for voice, eh?
Rick,
Who copy read this line: I run into this issue a few times every month and don’t know why I haven’t wrote a tip about it yet?
Duane,
Apparently you have not read the entirety of the Helpmerick website or the earlier newsletters. Very early on Rick apologized, in advance, for his grammar and spelling issues, but decided the information he was giving out was more important than the minor errors. I completely agree. The radio show he does, and has for many years, he does out of love for the listeners and a personal desire to help people through their technological problems. He does not get paid for it even though it is nationally syndicated. The newsletters he produces are again for the benefit of the people who read them, free of charge. Do not be an arrogant individual, an elitist, or a snob and spit on those who are trying to help you by showing a lack of respect for what they do or they may decide helping you is not worth the problems!
Thanks Bob and Creighton. I appreciate the backup, but Duane caught an egregious error and that’s ok with me. Adam’s tag line was “Grammar and Spelling guaranteed to be 81% accurate”, but I shoot for 98%.
Good catch Duane…I admit that I’m not the best proofer in the world, and don’t like hillbilly blog writing, so thanks.
Good for you, Bob Atkins. Rick is an outstanding person and his information is golden. Duane needs help.
Heaven help “Mrs Duane” – he must be a pig to live with if he picks on an occasional typographical error like that. John.
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