Slowly reducing speeds fixed

[4wd]

Well there's a thing, I was contemplating having a go at Virgin as I noticed the last few weeks my speed was down from usual 4Mbs to more like 2MBs - anyway last weekend storms damaged the router when they struck the line - although wireless was working I noticed the ethernet on old PC upstairs was off, apparently the router ports were dead.
I had a new router anyway which Virgin supplied when I went with them but I never installed it since it was the same Netgear one I already had.

Anyway I set that up yesterday and was still not happy with speed on wireless at 2MB and yet the ethernet was up to 5.6Mb/s.
I hadn't bothered changing the filter since I assumed it was OK as no noise on the line etc.
Anyway decided to try swapping that, and as if by magic both wireless and ethernet are now on 5.8Mb/s which is higher than ever before....
Apparently ADSL filters slowly deteriorate over time, and are vulnerable to lightning damage.
Since they aren't expensive this is something to try if you notice declining speeds!

[mcfarmer]

Are those filters oil bath or dry element ?

Seriously, explain more please. Once in a while we have certain pages that simply will not load on our wireless system, no mater which computer we try. Shut everything off for a while and good to go.

[4wd]

I'm not entirely sure the system is the same in the US, but here with an ADSL broadband you usually need a little filter plugged into the phone outlet - it has two outputs one for the modem/router and one for the phone.
like this

That's what I changed, the old one would have been there about 5 years.
I think you can now get both outputs incorporated into the phone outlet plate. Presumably they still have similar filters inside, so you might need change that too if lightning tickled it a bit.

I see new adsl filters - like first pic - on ebay for about £2 so worth having one to hand.

[mcfarmer]

Our connection is from a wireless tower, and we have a radio receiver, connected to a wireless router in the house. No filter that I know of.