A communications system for receiving a modulated signal that carries encoded communications data, comprising: an adaptive filter having an input adapted to receive said modulated signal carrying the encoded communications data, an input power measurement circuit adapted to measure power of the modulated signal received from said input; an input normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the modulated signal received at said input; a finite or infinite impulse response and, a plurality of non-adaptive and adaptive filter taps with weighted coefficients (46a-d), and an output, wherein the received signal is passed through the adaptive filter, a variable update gain circuit adapted to update said adaptive filter taps (46a-d) based upon a demodulation state information, such as preamble search, preamble detected, and data state, received from a receiving modem via a feedback channel and the modulation scheme used by the communications system; an output power measurement circuit positioned at the output of the adaptive filter, adapted to measure the power of the output signal of the adaptive filter; a variable delay circuit positioned between non-adaptive and adaptive (46a-d) filter taps, adapted to delay the modulated signal received from the input normalizing circuit based upon an amount of a multipath channel interference and multipath tolerances measured at said receiving modem; an automatic tap order selection circuit connected to the adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and configured to select a number of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) based upon the input and output power measurements by the input power measurement circuit and the output power measurement circuit, an output normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the signal output by the adaptive filter, and a demodulator adapted to demodulate the signal received from the adaptive filter; a decoder adapted to receive the demodulator output signal and to decode said signal to obtain the communications data. an adaptive filter having an input adapted to receive said modulated signal carrying the encoded communications data, an input power measurement circuit adapted to measure power of the modulated signal received from said input; an input normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the modulated signal received at said input; a finite or infinite impulse response and, a plurality of non-adaptive and adaptive filter taps with weighted coefficients (46a-d), and an output, wherein the received signal is passed through the adaptive filter, a variable update gain circuit adapted to update said adaptive filter taps (46a-d) based upon a demodulation state information, such as preamble search, preamble detected, and data state, received from a receiving modem via a feedback channel and the modulation scheme used by the communications system; an output power measurement circuit positioned at the output of the adaptive filter, adapted to measure the power of the output signal of the adaptive filter; a variable delay circuit positioned between non-adaptive and adaptive (46a-d) filter taps, adapted to delay the modulated signal received from the input normalizing circuit based upon an amount of a multipath channel interference and multipath tolerances measured at said receiving modem; an automatic tap order selection circuit connected to the adaptive filter taps (46a-d) and configured to select a number of adaptive filter taps (46a-d) based upon the input and output power measurements by the input power measurement circuit and the output power measurement circuit, an output normalizing circuit adapted to obtain sample values from the signal output by the adaptive filter, and a demodulator adapted to demodulate the signal received from the adaptive filter; a decoder adapted to receive the demodulator output signal and to decode said signal to obtain the communications data.