Are all microfilters the same?

kalaika

Morning all.

I've currently got an intermittent fault on my broadband connection that my ISP is currently trying to solve (I won't go into details now, although I may be back here for more advice if they can't work it out! )

While I wait for them to get back to me, I was thinking about the microfilter and whether using a cheap one could cause problems. Does anyone know if all microfilters are effectively the same or do you get what you pay for?

I know that most routers come with a couple which I'm assuming are fairly cheap ones and that you can buy them at anything from £1 (in Poundland) up to ADSL Nation selling their XF-1e for £8, but is there actually any benefit in buying an £8 one over the £1 one or even the free ones that come with the router?

I found this thread on another forum, which suggests that more expensive ones may do the job better, but it is from 2006 and wondered whether things have changed much or not.

Cheers.

kwikbreaks

The laws of physics haven't been repealed since 2006.

The filters supplied with routers are usually perfectly OK although one of the top notch ones may outperform it by a small margin.

The cheap and nasty pound shop or eBay filters may be OK too but there is a good chance that they won't be very good and could cause a bit of noise on your phone or a slower speed than would otherwise be possible.

jimbms

Avoid the cheap ones, I always replace mine with decent quality after experiencing myself and witnessing on others the massive increase in sped that can occur by getting rid of budget filters

weegie.geek

Depends on your line too. Some people report increased sync when using expensive filters, some people say it makes no difference. Someone should do a proper scientific test of filters. Signal generator, filter, oscilloscope.

Filters work by attenuating frequencies. Some are made to a more exacting specification than others.

littlepanther

When I had an issue they told me to change microfilters, that wasn't the problem. Perhaps they can develop a fault. Worth a try getting a new one and paying the money.

I did get a BT accelerator from, no surprise, BT and that made a difference, speed increased from about 5 mbps to 6.5 mbps, although I still had drop out.

All has changed since going to BT infinity, no microfilters required and awesome speeds, 35 mbps down, 7.6 mbps up. No contention ratio either.

weegie.geek

littlepanther wrote: »

All has changed since going to BT infinity, no microfilters required and awesome speeds, 35 mbps down, 7.6 mbps up. No contention ratio either.

I hate you.

I have 20-odd down, so while the 35 would be nice it isn't all that important, but you have 3x the upload speed I have, which would come in VERY handy.

Just need to wait for them to start running fttc up here. Don't think they even have a date for it yet.

jimbms

Doesnt infinity have the microfilter built in?

weegie.geek

Infinity is FTTC with VDSL over the copper between cabinet and user, so it'll have the filter built into the faceplate, yeah.