Patent ID: 8644169

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a data analyzer located at a customer premises, the data analyzer comprising a line prober operative to transmit a probing signal and in response receive a measured reflection of the probing signal, the data analyzer operative to: cause the line prober to transmit the probing signal into a customer premises end of at least one telephone line, provide to at least one of: a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a residential gateway, and a loop tester, located at the customer premises, at least one parameter that represents a characteristic of the at least one telephone line based upon at least the measured reflection of the probing signal, receive from a download server, instructions to provide the parameter that represents the characteristic of the telephone line based upon the measured reflection of the probing signal; and communicate with a digital subscriber line (DSL) maintenance device that is geographically separate from at least one of the data analyzer and the line prober, wherein the DSL maintenance device is operative to request from the data analyzer the provided parameter, and in response: instruct the line prober to transmit the probing signal, transmit the probing signal, measure the reflected probing signal, and compute the parameter.