I've just purchased an ADSL self install package. My line has been activated and I have the new hardware installed in my PC.

I can't get a "green light". The modem won't and has never synchronised with the line, so I can't connect and use it. What might be wrong?

Andy W, September 2003

NOTE: about the filter, You should have a ADSL filter on ALL of the phone sockets that are connected to teh same line as your modem.
EVEN tho BT do not mention this, I would a lot with BT adsl and we have figured that, this can cause a lot of problems if only one filter is on your line.

Lynxus, October 2003

I had a similar problem when I first got ADSL. After weeks of running over the same diagnostics I managed to persuade BT - who insisted that my pc or modem were at fault - to come and investigate. It turns out that they had (years earlier) fitted an RF filter to my line, presumably to filter out line noise and radio interference... and, as it happens, the DSL signal. They replaced the master socket and everything worked fine.

A word of warning - if the fault had been mine and not theirs, they would have charged me £100 (or thereabouts) call out fee…

Phil Hull, October 2003

Andy, have you plugged in the ADSL Filter? You should have a filter plugged into your phone socket and your PC's "phone cable" plugged into that. (In the ADSL socket, there will be another socket for a phone.)

I would suspect that you might have a duff ADSL filter and that this is causing the problem. I received a duff one with my pack and so have two friends of mine. (Different makes.) It seems to me that ADSL Filters are being thrown together in factories and that too many of them are duffers.

To get your system working remove all the filters from all the phones on your line. (The bedroom/kitchen phones etc.) Leave just one plugged into the socket used by your computer. See if your line synchronisess. If not, swap the one filter you are using with the others you have, one by one, and see if one of them works. (I hope you find that one of your filters is duff and shorting out your phone line. Two of us have had this. Once you stop using the broken filter all works properly.)

Steve Knight, September 2003