Strange ADSL problem.....

[paul172]

...I was asked to have a look at a friends ADSL connection last night. He had been complaining of slow access times and timeouts. I could see, from the modem utility software, that the line was continuously generating errors. On seeing this I phoned the provider to request a line test, at the very moment the call connected through, the ADSL started working, without any faults or errors. After confirming this was the case, by trying it a few more times, I decided to disconnect the offending phone from the wall socket in the other room. Hey presto, the ADSL was working again. The phone just so happens to be brand new and it's installation corresponds with the start of his ADSL woes. I've ordered up some microfilters to install in any sockets he has dotted about the house, but don't know for sure this will solve the problem with the new phone, the old phone never caused a problem.

So, has anyone seen this before, if you have, will a microfilter solve it, or is it a case of ditching the new phone and using the old one instead?

Thanks,
Paul

 

[SjrH]

Microfilters should be installed on all sockets that are used. I had a similar problem whereby an older phone was used ok without a microfilter, but a new DECT phone caused the DSL to drop out whenever a call was recieved. Likewise, we had a new sky box installed and that reset the DSL whenever the box was remotely reset which caused the box to go online. Fitting new microfilters to these problems and this problem has never occured again

 

[paul172]

Sounds like the same problem, he also has an un-filtered SKY connection in a different socket. I'll try the microfilters, fingers crossed that should fix the problem!

 

[plshlpme]

when you use that phone with no filter do you not hear modem noise while its on in the background?
you must install the microfilters on all jakcs or have a pots splitter installed at your demarcation point.

 

[Crowtalks]

There could be several different reasons for the trouble. Some phones have cheap electronics with non-existant filtering which can allow their intrusion into the higher frequencies, which can conflict with the signal the DSL receives (the upload midrange is @ 128 MH, and the download midrange is @450 MH).
Some phones have a higher resisitance value which can virtually add thousands of feet to the loop which can impact the signal to noise ratio of the loop causing errors.
I have found bad filters causing problems like this.
I have found high opens in the ring side of the pair that caused patchy DSL service until a phone was answered.
There are multiple causes to crummy signal, but most likely, your phone was creating too much resisitance on the line

 

[paul172]

The filters fixed this problem, thanks!