DSL line filtering

We had an interesting little technical issue here today that was caused by a completely innocent change.

Sarah was rearranging things upstairs and removed an old PowerRF transmitter that was used by a wireless phone. She pulled the device and then plugged the phone straight into the wall removing a line filter from the equation. Shortly afterward, as we later pieced things together, we noticed significant network issues.

After a few hours and a trip out to dinner I finally called tech support to see what help I might be able to get.

After getting through the screening process, the tech informed me that my modem was not synced. Hmm, the light was on. Restart the router. It came up and synced, then lost sync several times in a row. Eventually it synced but using a tool on his side, he could see that there was a lot of noise on the line.

He asked if we had added anything to our phone network at home. My initial answer was no, but as we talked I remembered seeing the old device sitting on the bedside table upstairs. I mentioned that we had removed something, thanked him for his time and went upstairs to investigate. Sure enough, the device had a filter on it and it was completely removed. Restoring everything to it's state before the change restored network operation (after another router power cycle).

Tomorrow I think I'll go inventory everything making a connection and ensure that they've all got decent filters on them.