>>should i be looking for a filter and stomping it to hell?

 DE> probably not.

:(  it would help to get rid of the frustration, though >

 DE> do this instead...

 DE> Clean EVERY connection in the house.

this is a dedicated line... it runs 750 feet from the NID to a type 66
punch block... there are two fuse protectors in place... one on TIP and the
other on RING... both fuse protectors are tied to #8 solid copper which
goes some 5 feet to the groundrod outside the wall... there's one wire from
the other side of the type 66 that goes directly to the back of the
modem...

 DE> That is, take the wires off the terminal screws, clean them,
 DE> reconnect them.  Do this all the way to the outside of the
 DE> house.  THen do something really hard.  Ask the phone company
 DE> to rewire your central office connection.

now /that/ i might be able to get them to do... i dunno... either way, i've
/got/ to do something... this 28k8 is just killing me ;(

 DE> I did this years ago and went from 26400 to 49333.  When I
 DE> got DSL on that line, it tested to 11Mbit/s.  The tech said
 DE> "wow" and "too bad we have no products that go that
fast."

wonder what he meant by products?

)\/(ark