Cordless Phones?

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

After a lot of tweaking and doing everything fresh from Nate's guides plus a few extras, I manage to get around 3.2 - 3.6 test results on testyourvoip.

However, after browsing around the forum for awhile, I noticed several people were having trouble with using 2.4Ghz phones, as both of my routers are 2.4Ghz! The issue I think this may solve is the strange echo I receive on calls sometimes.

Is there ANY way to work around this besides buying yet ANOTHER item??

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:34 pm Post subject:

Change your router to a different channel, preferably 1 or 11. 6 is in the middle of the frequencies and is the most prone to interference. It is also the default for most routers, including yours.

You can also hit the CHANNEL button on your phone if it has one, and it might move the phone "out of the way".

I have two 2.4 GHz cordless phone bases running in my house (AT&T and Uniden), one of them (the AT&T 1485 Speakerphone/Cordless) with the base mere feet from my WRT54G, and I have zero problems with them.

That may also explain some of your problems with BitTorrent over wireless, if the wireless signal keeps getting interfered with, and if the router has to spend a lot of time retrying transmissions.

EDIT: To isolate the cordless phone(s) as the cause, unplug the bases,and try using a corded phone.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

I actually set it to channel 12! (Thanks tofu!) and my wireless card picked it up. The router was originally set to broadcast on 11 though so maybe I wanted to go in the other direction. When I set it to channel 14, my card saw the network but couldn't seem to connect.

I actually don't have a corded phone! Crazy huh? I'll see how this goes and if there's still interference, I'll try to go down to channel 1.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

interesting...

So I had another person call the Vonage line from my cell phone. It sounded "blurry", but I could hear them perfectly.

Then I switched the channel to 1 while we were still on the line. It instantly got better.

However, as I walked closer to the router, it started getting blurry again.

When I walked to a different room however, they said my voice became "jumpy". But it's better.

Mayhaps I was hitting someone else's signal from the other room? (I live in an apartment building).

My phone doesn't seem to have a channel changer thing haha.

Whew. I hope I'm getting closer to finding out what's up.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:56 pm Post subject:

Signal bleed.

Go to the router and go into advanced wireless settings, and turn the power that the router is transmitting at as low as possible and still get signal where they need it. I keep my wireless at about 25% power, and it still reaches throughout the house.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2006 Posts: 16

Hrm, well would that really affect anything? My cell base is right near my routers (I gotta plug it in don't I?).

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:21 pm Post subject:

You have two transmitters broadcasting in the same frequency range right next to each other. Even with channel separation, you're going to get a certain amount of crosstalk.

Lower the transmit of the WRT54GL if you can, and separate the two by at least a few feet, or as much as you reasonably can.

I'm not saying it's your problem for certain, but two devices on the same frequency range next to each other = recipe for trouble.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 01, 2005 Posts: 4

I had problems after remodeling my home office and stacking all my computer gear in one area. The problems were a freezing wireless router for no reason at all. Being a sound and lighting tech for theatre, it quickly became apparent that there was a frequency problem with my cordless phone also operating at 2.4ghz (with no problems with 900mhz phone). Moving my wireless router six feet away helped, but didn't solve all of the problems. Moving it 15 feet, and I've only had one freeze in three months (when I happened to walk past the wireless router while talking on the 2.4ghz phone).

The moral of the story, kids...physical seperation and as well as a wide frequency spread.

Posts: 1125 · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:35 am Post subject:

I don't recommend ANYONE that has a wireless network in your house to use 2.4 GHZ hpones, no matter what steps you try. 5.8 GHZ aren't that expensive anymore, and is well worth the upgrade. Just remember, YOU might not have a wireless network, but your neighbor might. At my residence, I initially saw only two AP's, mine and a neighbors. That was a year ago. Today, there are SIX that I can see near my home. Upgrading my router to some more flexible firmware allowed me to "take over" channel 3, and raise my power output enough that I "own" that channel. Very Happy