The present invention provides a solution that automatically detects and connects the properly terminated line pair and then allows modem training to proceed. The present invention can set a control parameter at the physical layer that establishes a training "state" for the modem (115). Training states can determine whether or not automatic line detection (375) is utilized. Automatic line detection (375) can be accomplished by measuring the power levels (345, 350) on each of the line pairs (145, 150) and then selecting the line pair (145, 150) that has the highest power level measurement (345, 350) as the line on which to continue training the modem (115). The selected line pair (355) can be stored for use as the properly terminated line pair.