a little information

[redvette]

Hi Gang

I am going to pass on some thing that I learned yesterday. Some of you might already know this but I am sure there will be some that don't. I will try to make this as short as I can, although this happened over a span of time, 7/10 days.

One day I lost my DSL, the modem lights would not be acting right, I got this orange and some times a red light on it, so I tried a few things , rebooting/resetting, etc with my computer and my modem, nothing helped. So I called into AT&T and was told they were having DSL trouble in their connections in Palo Alto, which is about 20 miles up the peninsula from me. So I was told to check back later to see if it was fixed, which I did and no it was not fixed, so this went on for a few days, and I was still with out my DSL If I did connect my speed was like dial up, like 500k up and the same down.

So after several phone calls to AT&T they finally got tired of hearing from me I think and they connected me with a local AT&T person. I explained what was going on and he said there was a definite problem, and he would send out some one the next day to determine if the problem was mine or theirs.

So he gets here and starts checking my lines/connections. He said what I had coming to my house was right in the ball park, a little weak but way above dial up, worthy of a good DSL connection. he came inside and started checking my DSL. He put this expensive meter on my DSL line to my computer, and instantly said holy cow, you have some thing pulling it down, and the most obvious was the phone filters. So we went around disconnecting all the phones and he said there is your problem, the phone filters.

To ad to this story so you can get an idea of how this happened. I went from basic DSL to DSL pro, in April 06, it was a little faster right off the bat. And it stayed this way until a week ago last Thursday at 2:00pm in the afternoon, when I lost my DSL.

Problem was I did not use the new filters that came with my DSL pro, I kept on the original Phone filters that came with my basic DSL. That was the mistake, I should have installed the new filters that came with my new 2wire modem. he said they held up for a while, but eventually went bad. The faster speed I was getting with the Pro, should have had the filters installed that came with the Pro modem. He also said these filters can and do go bad. So I changed all the filters and immediately the speed went back up and I have not been dropped signal wise since. I am sure this will not keep me from ever having my signal drop out, because I am fighting the problem of my phone lines being in the ground, (cable, power, phone lines) and I have had problems with them all, since they have been in the ground, not in conduit or anything since 1967.

So just thought I would pass this on, it might be worth checking if you did the same mistake I did or you are having a DSL problem. being dropped, no DSL, etc. I thought a filter was a filter, they all look the same, what could the difference be. Well I learned a valuble lession yesterday, that I will not soon forget.

Thanks and take care...........Gunny>>>>P.S. I was told by a AT&T rep that there never was a problem in Palo Alto, so they lied to me, out and out lied, just to get me off the phone. I guess some reps don't have the same dedication as others do at helping solve your problems. My hat is off to the ones that really tried to help.

[TallTravel]

Thanks for the information. What speeds did you get from the basic DSL, and what speeds from what your phone company calls DSL " Pro "? That way we can more easily translate to the terms other DSL providers would use to describe the enhanced DSL service which requires different filters.

[glc]

Basic AT&T is 1.5 and Pro is 3.0.

[cranestr]

I recently signed up for DSL thru my telephone company and had prblems from the beginning. I got my modem and read the directions and ran the CD for installation. I got to the point of turning on the modem and waiting for the DSL and Internet lights to light up. It didn't happen! I tried several times doing everything that I could think of to get it working. I rebooted the computer and the modem numerous times, reset the modem, tried the modem hooked up to the connection box where the phone line comes into the house...

I called tech support several tiimes and learned a little more each time they suggested trying something new. The telephone repaiman came out and checked for the DSL signal, checked the phone lines in the house, and even installed a filter on the outside connection box and a dedicated connection for DSL in by my computer. The lights on the modem were lit when I came home. I unplugged the modem and rebooted the computer, where he had the modem was an inconvienient location. I started the process again and it didn't work. I ended up calling tech support a few more times and got the repairman back out and told him what all I had tried. He gave me a new modem. I haven't had a problem with the modem since.