12-16-93                   Line Noise

     If the characters that appear on the screen after you connect are  ALL
illegible,  then the following does NOT apply. If Some parts of  words  are
readable, then the following probably is the problem.

     Commonly  called line noise, the spurious characters or  garbage  that
appear  on  the  screen 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'. The  modem  doing  the
rec'ving  must be the one with the filter. Parts are less than  $2.50.  You
plug  into the modem with 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).


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                                   Don Hinds - Zoom Tech
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