A method for eliminating unwanted interference in a digital return path of a cable television network comprising: splitting an incoming data stream into two paths, a first path and a second path; performing a Fourier transform on the incoming data stream in a first path to find the spectral content of the incoming data stream and representing the spectral content as a Fourier transform array, where each element in the Fourier transform array represents a range of frequencies; calculating an adaptable interference threshold based on a running average of accumulated Fourier transform arrays; comparing the Fourier transform array against the adaptable interference threshold by comparing each element of the Fourier transform array to the adaptive interference threshold and recording the results in a comparison array; identifying spectral components of the incoming data stream that exceed the adaptable interference threshold from the comparison array; creating an adaptive filter by calculating a plurality of filter coefficients based on at least one of the identified spectral components; and filtering the second path of the incoming data stream with the adaptive filter , wherein filtering the second path of the incoming data stream with the adaptive filter comprises: whilst a first data stream filter is used to filter the second path of the data stream, loading the plurality of filter coefficients into a second data stream filter; and once the second data stream filter is loaded with the plurality of filter coefficients, initializing the second data stream filter to filter the second path of the data stream and turning the first data stream filter off so that it can be loaded with the coefficients of the next filter . splitting an incoming data stream into two paths, a first path and a second path; performing a Fourier transform on the incoming data stream in a first path to find the spectral content of the incoming data stream and representing the spectral content as a Fourier transform array, where each element in the Fourier transform array represents a range of frequencies; calculating an adaptable interference threshold based on a running average of accumulated Fourier transform arrays; comparing the Fourier transform array against the adaptable interference threshold by comparing each element of the Fourier transform array to the adaptive interference threshold and recording the results in a comparison array; identifying spectral components of the incoming data stream that exceed the adaptable interference threshold from the comparison array; creating an adaptive filter by calculating a plurality of filter coefficients based on at least one of the identified spectral components; and filtering the second path of the incoming data stream with the adaptive filter , wherein filtering the second path of the incoming data stream with the adaptive filter comprises: whilst a first data stream filter is used to filter the second path of the data stream, loading the plurality of filter coefficients into a second data stream filter; and once the second data stream filter is loaded with the plurality of filter coefficients, initializing the second data stream filter to filter the second path of the data stream and turning the first data stream filter off so that it can be loaded with the coefficients of the next filter . whilst a first data stream filter is used to filter the second path of the data stream, loading the plurality of filter coefficients into a second data stream filter; and once the second data stream filter is loaded with the plurality of filter coefficients, initializing the second data stream filter to filter the second path of the data stream and turning the first data stream filter off so that it can be loaded with the coefficients of the next filter . <EOS>