79
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 12 points 1 week ago

When I did tech support for a UK telecoms firm, that was the easy way to fuck off an awkward customer with any kind of connectivity problem - stability, speed, whatever. Generally, people's routers were connected to the same NTE as the landline.

"So what we're going to do, is replace the ADSL filter, see if it's a gubbed filter, it's a nice cheap and easy fix. Can you remove the filter from the wall socket please?"

click

Beautiful.

[-] Steamymoomilk@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago

ADSL filter thats pretty damn funny! its like the blinker fluid equivalent of tech support

[-] Matty_r@programming.dev 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

This is actually true though. With ADSL you needed a filter to split out the ADSL line with the phone line.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSL_filter

[-] Steamymoomilk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Go figure i did not know that

[-] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago

Every day's a school day.

In fairness, it's nothing short of sheer voodoo what they managed to do with the simple copper loop. As usual though, it was the rural communities that felt the pinch (and the gains) more than most though.

[-] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago

The chances of it being the filter were stupidly low, and I don't think I ever had a case of the filter being at fault - but it was one of those potential issues that would make a customer look stupid (and £120 lighter) if BT tipped up and declared it a customer equipment fault.

In newer homes (at the time), there were NTE faceplates that had a filter built it, with individual ports for telephone and for data telephony cables. They didn't last long though. Maybe they were stupidly expensive in comparison, maybe BT could see the fibre future and stopped producing them.

[-] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

What you might be missing from the story is that the customer was more likely than not using a landline to call technical support.

The ADSL filter sits between the telephone line from the street and the telephone.

Disconnecting the filter is equivalent to yanking the telephone socket out the wall and if you do that during the call .. no more call.

At this time many people were already using cordless phones and mobile phones were making inroads, so the link between the call dropping and removing the filter might not be immediately obvious to a clueless end user.

Source: I have had the misfortune of phoning telco helpdesk services where this kind activity would absolutely happen.

this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
79 points (96.5% liked)

Lemmy Shitpost

30542 readers
2869 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.

Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!


Rules:

1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means:

-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.


-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Memes

2.Lemmy Review

3.Mildly Infuriating

4.Lemmy Be Wholesome

5.No Stupid Questions

6.You Should Know

7.Comedy Heaven

8.Credible Defense

9.Ten Forward

10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)


Reach out to

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS