Physical DSL Setup: Filter & Splitter


The physical setup of a DSL connection is pretty simple. 3 cords will connect to the DSL modem.

  • Telephone Line - The phoneline needs to be hooked directly to the DSL modem. The port on the back of the modem to connect to is usually labelled 'Line' or 'DSL Line'. There should be no filters between the DSL line and the modem.
  • Ethernet - An ethernet cable will connect from the modem to the NIC(network interface card) on computer. This cable will resemble a telephone cord, but the jack is slightly wider. It would technically be possible to replace this ethernet connection with a USB connection, but this is not recommended and not supported.
  • Power (not shown in diagram) - The modem will need to be plugged into AC power with the cord provided for that.

Additionally, there will need to be filters connected to every other device in the house connected to that phoneline. All Telephones, Fax Machines, Tivos, etc will need a filter added inline.

DSL Filter
This is placed directly between the wall jack and the telephone. This is ideal for any phones not mounted to the wall, modems, fax machines or satellite receivers with phone jacks.
DSL Wall Filter
Wall mounted phones will use a wall mount filter. This will mount over your existing wall jack and plug directly into it. It includes the hooks needed to then place your phone over the filter and leave it mounted to the wall.

If the customer doesn't have enough phone jacks available, they may use a splitter in order to turn one phonejack into two. It's better to avoid this if possible, as this introduces one more thing into the setup that could potentially cause a problem, but normally it will work just fine. Plug the dsl modem into one jack(no filter), and whatever is plugged into the other jack will need a filter.

DSL Splitter «Splitter
DSL Modem Setup w/Two-Way Adapter

You have now successfully setup your physical connection. Now you will need to configure the computer for the connection.

0 comments:

Post a Comment