What are microfilters? In order to get a stable and reliable broadband service, you need "microfilters" and they must be fitted correctly.
A typical microfilter They don't look like much but they actually separate your voice calls and your broadband signal from each other. Failure to correctly install them can result in any of the following symptoms :
Microfilters may also be called "splitters", "ADSL microfilters" or just plain "filters".
Despite it appearing daunting to some people fitting the microfilters is actually quite simple as long as you follow the 2 simple rules :
If you have just one telephone socket and a phone then fitting the microfilters is a breeze. Unfortunately, in this day and age, most of us tend to have things like burglar alarms, Sky boxes, fax machines and multiple telephone extensions which all need to be taken into consideration.
We'll try and cover the 2 most common scenarios here and help you get up and running, just adapt to your set up by following the two rules and you should be fine.
A standard BT master socket
A filtered BT faceplate
The place to start is to find your BT master socket. Most consumers in the UK have the standard BT installed master socket which, for the geeks amongst us, is known as the NTE5.
Some consumers may have another "variation" of this which has a face plate with two sockets screwed on to the front of it. This is a prefiltered faceplate which has the broadband signal and the phone signal available separately right from the start. Don't worry, in the examples that follow this faceplate should be treated as though it is a standard socket with a microfilter already plugged into it.
The easiest way to show you how to install your microfilters is with some example layouts. We will then apply the 2 simple rules to them and show the correct configuration.
Here the phone line is plugged straight into the BT master socket
Remember that we can't plug anything directly into the socket ? The solution is to unplug the phone and plug in the microfilter. Then we are free to plug both the phone and the modem into the microfilter. The filters are usually clearly marked and even if it isn't then there is only one way both cables will fit so you don't need to worry too much about it.
HELPFUL HINT: If you have problems with your broadband setup you may be asked to cable up your broadband in this configuration as it is the easiest to troubleshoot.
Now a more comlicated example. You have Sky and a phone line plugged in downstairs and an extension socket upstairs where you have just a phone line plugged in.
The same rules apply; you can't plug anything into the master socket or the extension socket. The solution is to unplug everything and plug in two microfilters, one upstairs and one downstairs. Then plug the Sky box and the phone line into the filter downstairs, the phone into the filter upstairs and then you can plug the modem into either filter depending on whether you want it located downstairs or upstairs.
And if you want your broadband router upstairs then here is the same configuration show but with the broadband modem located upstairs. We followed the same rules and but microfilters before anything got plugged in then we sited the modem upstairs and plugged it into that microfilters broadband/ADSL socket.
After fitting broadband - modem upstairs
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