New To DSL...Need Help Please
I am going from a 56k dialup account to DSL through my local phone company, CenturyTel. I have received the modem, software, cabling, and 3 filters. The tech from the phone company came out yesterday while I was at work and replaced the wall jack in the living room. See, this has been our only wall outlet for several years and it had only 1 plug-in in it. I had drilled a hole in the floor under our one outlet, ran a line from this outlet under the floor and back up into our spare bedroom where the computer is. This has worked well for years with me connecting at 49.6K on a 56K account. I had placed a splitter in the one plug-in and used one hole on the splitter for yet another splitter and the remaining hole for my line to my computer. The splitter placed into the splitter was for the line to my Dish Network receiver and my telephone. Anyway, he replaced the wall outlet with an outlet that has 2 plug-ins. But, he plugged my splitter back into the upper plug-in leaving everything together as it had always been telling my wife to have me unplug the line from the splitter going to the computer and plug it into the lower plug-in AFTER the modem came in. My wife does not remember much except he said to use no filters. I am connecting the modem to my computer via a NIC. Folks at the phone company said it would be Friday, December 26th before they “turned on” my account but I was curious as to a few questions between now and then.
1. What are filters? The tech seemed to think I would NOT need them.
2. Can I run the phone line through a surge protector and my DSL still work?
3. Any good links on DSL, filters, and setting up these items for newbies?
Thanks,
Farrar