     Commonly called line noise, the spurious characters that appear on the
screen,  give  trouble uploading or downloading (or streaks &  garbage  on
your FAX) are usually from the central office of the phone company. It  can
make  a  big difference whether you call out or someone  calls  'in'.  Also
there  is  a  difference between calling different  areas  (area  codes  or
exchanges)  as  different  equipment will be involved.  Calling  the  phone
company will rarely do any good, because the problem is not on your line.

     However,  because  the problem is not rare, (in fact  common  in  some
places),  operators of BBS and other modem users have come up with a  cheap
simple solution which works most of the time.

     You  can  make (or have made) a 'noise filter'. Parts  are  less  than
$2.50. You plug it into the modem 2nd jack. If you are using a phone in the
2nd jack then a "T" adapter  (about $2.50 at Radio Shack) will let you  put
the 'filter' on and still use the phone in that jack. (I have never seen  a
'noise  filter' for sale. The only device I ever saw that claimed  to  stop
noise,  cost  more than $45 and did nothing at all).

If you have trouble sending, then the receiving modem must be the one  with
the filter.


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                                   Don Hinds - Zoom Tech
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