DSL modem works when connected to one phone jack but not another?

[cirthix]

Ideas? There's no filter on either of the jacks.

 

[ksheets]

What kind of modem? are the indicator lights different when hooked to different jacks?

 

[cirthix]

some kind of at&t modem, and yes, indicator lights are different

 

[cirthix]

the phones around the house use filters, so the dsl shold be unfiltered through every jack in the house I'll try the one in the kitchen tomorrow.

 

[Modelworks]

Unplug all the filters and all the phones. Now try the modem on that phone jack.
You may have a phone or filter that is causing the problem. DSL is finicky. Filters degrade the signal if they are attached to the line at all, even if your modem doesn't run through them. If the line you are connecting to is on a longer wire from the jack that a bad filter is connected to it could degrade the signal enough to cause problems.

That is why I suggest people on DSL to do a home run , a line straight from the nid box outside to the modem. Then one filter outside that connects to all the voice lines inside. You can use the extra pair of wires already in your homes phone wiring if you like to keep the two separate without running a new line. Then you can get rid of all those plug in fliters.

 

[bruceb]

Modelworks has the best suggestion. I did that at my home when the DSL would randomly lose sync and after that was done, my line has not gone down once in over 2 years time. And I am at the limit of DSL wire length (around 16K feet or so from the central office)