Microfilters

I recently had a call from a new client who needed some help with finding a lost file.

As she has already explored the obvious hiding-places such as the recycle bin, I offered to have a look using remote assistance.

She then mentioned that she couldn't use the internet and the phone at the same time which was a bit surprising as she was using an ADSL broadband service whose great advantage over dial-up, apart from speed, is that you can do just that.

In fact, she already had the solution to hand in the form of the microfilters which came with her ADSL Modem.

The microfilter (or 'splitter') separates the voice and data signals on the telephone line and you need to put one on each extension that you intend to use—if you don't, the voice and data signals are likely to interfere with each other.

The microfilter plugs into the phone (or extension) socket and there are normally two sockets on the microfilter so that both phone and modem can be used simultaneously on the same extension.

In this case, the client had a microfilter plugged-into the basic phone socket supporting the ADSL Modem but not into the extension socket supporting the phone.

I have also noticed that deterioration of the phone or internet service can often be cured by replacing the microfilter—they are very cheap and new ADSL modems/routers usually come with a couple in the box.