New To DSL...Need Help Please

[Farrar]

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

[NooNoo]

1.The filters are for the telephones.... otherwise you can hear the noise of the modem transmissions in the background.... sometimes the foreground too.
2. Shouldn't affect it.
3. www.dslreports.com

[Farrar]

1.The filters are for the telephones.... otherwise you can hear the noise of the modem transmissions in the background.... sometimes the foreground too.
2. Shouldn't affect it.
3. www.dslreports.com

Thanks for the info. We are leaving out in a few minutes fo visit with family but I look forward to going over the link you sent first thing in the morning over several cups of coffee.

Thanks NooNoo,

Farrar

[TripleRLtd]

Thanks for the info. We are leaving out in a few minutes fo visit with family but I look forward to going over the link you sent first thing in the morning over several cups of coffee.

Thanks NooNoo,

Farrar

Yeah, filters are as NooNoo says, and now, some dsl modems do not require them anymore.
So, if that is what they told you, then don't worry since you won't need them.
And dslreports, now www.broadbandreports.com is reallly good.

[Farrar]

Yeah, filters are as NooNoo says, and now, some dsl modems do not require them anymore.
So, if that is what they told you, then don't worry since you won't need them.
And dslreports, now www.broadbandreports.com is reallly good.

Thanks for that link TripleRLtd. I am on their site now running a security check.

I just visted CenturyTel's DSL site and they have changed the available plans and pricing. I am pay 44.99/month for 512k/128k. Now, they are offering 768k/128k for 44.95/month AND 1.5M/256K for 49.95/month! I beleive I will give them a call and upgrade to the 1.5M/256k plan. Awesome.....to go from 46.6K to 1.5M!

Hey....

Just noticed that www.dslreports.com and www.broadbandreports.com are the same.

Thanks Guys,

Farrar