Faulty microfilter, common ?

iplogger1

Our broadband connection was enabled over a week ago and I noticed
that the download speeds were very poor (metered it using
www.speedtest.ie). The package we purchased was the home starter
1MBit/sec eircom broadband over copper/dsl.

I also noticed that every now and again the netopia wireless router would
show a red light on the rightmost LED as if the IP connectivity with
the eircom switch had been lost.
I have a spare 2 device (computer/phone) microfilter somewhere in the
house (couldn't find it easily) ... instead I just plugged the modem
directly into the phone outlet with no microfilter and suddenly my
download/upload rates look much more reasonable (eg, 700/800Mbit/sec
versus 160Mbit/sec with the microfilter).

How common is it to be given a faulty microfilter ?
I'm definitely getting a replacement one first thing tomorrow.

zilog_jones

I assume you mean 700/800 kbit/s!

I don't think a microfilter could affect speed like that - AFAIK it just protects interference from telephone calls. If you don't use a filter and a phone call is made you'll probably lose your DSL connection - stuff like that.

Check what speed your modem is syncing at (should say on the router's config pages somewhere). It should be 1024k down/128k up or whatever you're paying for. If it's anything lower then you may have a problem with your phone lines (or might just be too far away from the exchange).

Any other speed differences are due to IP traffic, be it the server you're downloading from or whatever. Speedtest.ie and whatever else are by no means reliable.

dub45

iplogger1 wrote:

Our broadband connection was enabled over a week ago and I noticed
that the download speeds were very poor (metered it using
www.speedtest.ie). The package we purchased was the home starter
1MBit/sec eircom broadband over copper/dsl.

I also noticed that every now and again the netopia wireless router would
show a red light on the rightmost LED as if the IP connectivity with
the eircom switch had been lost.
I have a spare 2 device (computer/phone) microfilter somewhere in the
house (couldn't find it easily) ... instead I just plugged the modem
directly into the phone outlet with no microfilter and suddenly my
download/upload rates look much more reasonable (eg, 700/800Mbit/sec
versus 160Mbit/sec with the microfilter).

How common is it to be given a faulty microfilter ?
I'm definitely getting a replacement one first thing tomorrow.

Given that they are probably manufactured in their zillions it is likely an odd faulty one escapes the rigorous checking in some Chinese factory.

chopperbyrne

Faulty filters are very common. Your ISP should replace them free of charge. Eircom do anyway.