A method of synchronizing a feedforward filter (46) that receives a signal resulting from the transmission of a series of symbols through a channel, wherein the series of symbols includes a predetermined sequence of symbols includes the step of developing a plurality of samples from the received symbols (60), wherein a sequence of samples corresponds to the predetermined sequence of symbols. The method further includes the steps of estimating a channel impulse response from the plurality of samples, calculating a characteristic of the channel impulse response, and synchronizing (54) the feedforward filter in accordance with the estimated channel impulse response.