Wifi vs. cordless phone: FIGHT!

Ok. My phone is 2.4ghz. It makes my wifi connection drop. No biggie for browsing, but it bumps me off of games. MY wifi router also cuts out the wired connections it allows when the phone interferes, so my pc (wired to the wifi router which goes into my dsl modem thingy) also gets an internet hiccup. I can replace MY phone, but it seems to happen whenever anyone in the apt. in the building next door uses their phone.

I dont mind the interrupt to the wifi connection so much as the wired one being affected as well. Whats my best solution other than buying 20 cordless phones for the large apartment building next door? Is ther ea way to have my dsl modem go straight to my pc and have my pc feed the wifi router? 2nd nic and ics?

Have any of you had fights w/ keeping your wifi signal working in an environment where you might have a few dozen cordless phones operating?

I thought it was just my small 4 unit building, and was prepared to buy 4 5.8 phones to get my neighbors to toss their 2.4 phones, but I just got dropped the other day when a phone rang in the building next door.

Help?

That’s why the invented 802.11a. It’s just like g, but it’s on the much less busy 5.8GHz band. It’s possible some of your neighbours have 5.8GHz phones, but far less likely, and my understanding is that 802.11a is less prone to interference in any case.

That’s my thought. 802.11a routers are more expensive, but it sounds like they’ll solve your particular dilemma.

Er, forgive my ignorance, but does ‘a’ work with a PSP, a DS and whatever the hell my CF wifi adaptor is called for my pocketpc? I’m guessing absolutely not, because wifi apparently sucks balls, but I know nothing of this.

If that crap does work with an ‘a’ I can buy one and then bring my apparently shitty ‘g’ one to the office.

That’s the thing about “a”. They probably shouldn’t have called it Wi-Fi, because it’s not compatible with anything but “a”, so people get confused about what to buy. It’s interesting to note that “n”, the next standard, is, like “g”, still backwards compatible with the original 802.11b. It uses multiple antennae and much better software to give higher rates, increased range, and much better interference resistance.

Current “pre-n” devices work fine with wireless wi-fi gadgets. My DS and PSP connect through mine. I think it makes more sense to get your other devices off of 2.4 and leave that for your pc (802.11b/g/n, bluetooth) devices if you’re having trouble, or buy a router with better ability to coexist (many don’t share the same level of interference susceptibility you’ve seen).

An easier alternative might be to just junk the 2.4 phone and get a 5.8ghz phone. I’ve got a real nice Panasonic that’s by far the best phone I’ve ever had. It’s one of those ones with a nice base station with speaker/etc, and then up to 8 extra handsets.

It’s KX-TG5562 if you’re interested. Good phone. And I didn’t have to replace my router.

You know, I really like the Panasonic extendable phone systems in theory, although in practice it turns out that we have spent a lot of money on these because we (and by we I mean my wife) are prone to breaking them.

We started out with a base and two handsets, then went to three, then went to four. We always used the 2.5mm jack headsets with these, but at one point my wife dropped the thing and a piece of the jack broke off inside the handset. This made the handset useless because the broken off piece convinced the phone that the headset was in use at all times. The headset was also borked due to the tip of the jack being broken off (obviously.)

So we replaced it and had four handsets again. At which point my wife broke one in the exact same way. Notice this is about an $80-$100 mistake too, because not only did the handset break and need to be replaced at between $50 and $70 dollars (the price eventually went down from 70 to 50) but the headset was generally a $30 plantronics model.

The third time that my wife did this I didn’t replace the handset and instead bought a $25 Radio Shack phone to replace the handset. I told my wife to try to use the Radio Shack piece-o-crap when using the headset.

So ideally I would love to upgrade and get one of the newer 5.8ghz models but I’d have to get divorced first.

are they cheap? because I’d need to buy them for 2 apartment buildings.

I can replace MY phone, but it seems to happen whenever anyone in the apt. in the building next door uses their phone.

If it was just my phone I’d have done it already. And I’d likely go to a 900mhz phone, I barely have a need for a landline so I buy cheapies. Thanks for the info though. Those seem more for people with huge houses. If I ever have ahuge house, I wont have a phone of any kind because fuck talking to people if you own a mansion. They can call my assistant.

I’m not sure if you’re joking about buying phones for your neighbors or not. If you’re serious, I’m thinking it would be cheaper to just buy some network cable and run a wired network throughout your home. If you’re in an apartment where you can’t drill holes in the wall, just buy some coping at your local hardware store and use it like a conduit for the wiring along the top or bottom of your baseboard trim. That’s how I run speaker wire from the entertainment center in to the rear channel speakers without having to rip up my carpet of mess with my drywall/ceiling crawlspace.

This may be a really stupid question, but have you tried changing the channel that your router is broadcasting on? Try channel 1 or 11 (the two ends of the spectrum) and see if that helps.

Regarding phones, find the 900 Mhz Panasonic ones, which seem increasingly rare.

900 Mhz phones have far superior sound quality to 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz phones, and they don’t get in the way of wireless networking of any stripe. However, they are prone to interference from weird crap like nearby fast-food restaurants, baby monitors and big truck engines rumbling on by.

Phone frequencies are a colossal scam, and the phones often do not transmit on the advertised frequency anyway. (Only the base station does, which is like hooking a 10 Mbit ethernet card to a 1000 Mbit switch with an old phone cable and claiming you have gigabit networking)

I know this is off topic, but I went through the painful process of being a total consumer drone, buying shitty expensive phone after shitty expensive phone. My $20 900 Mhz panasonic is the best one I have ever had, and I’ve had them all. It’s far better than the otherwise OK 5.8 Ghz Panasonic in the bedroom.

Open up the phone, desolder the headset connector.

I can’t as the only devices needing to connect cannot use wired connections (psp/ds/ppc). It is the only reason I’m even bothering w/ wifi.

I’d read that DS or psp like channel 1 the best? so I had started there, also most of these phones apparently autoscan constantly for the better channel and jump from one to the other, which means all the channels are being messed with.

Is a setup like this feasible or no?


DSL MODEM--(wire)-->PC--(wire)-->wifi router---->wifi devices

instead of the current

DSL MODEM--(wire)-->wifi router--(wire)-->PC
                               \
                                Wifi devices


(it would still make my wifi suck, but I wouldnt have to disconnect the router and disable wifi whenever I want to play a game)

as far as the phones, I am serious about replacing the phones in my building, since its 4 units. I would prefer NOT to try it though since I know at least one phone next door (a large building) is the same as mine by the ring, and when it rings it also boots me off (nice range on these dumb fucking phones, I guess)

This behavior just strikes me as wrong. What wifi router do you have?

My $20 900 Mhz panasonic is the best one I have ever had, and I’ve had them all.

Where can you find these, Rob? I’ve been sorta looking around for a new phone, but never see anything but the 2.4 and 5.8Ghz.

-Tom

From the bargain rack at Big KMart, I’m afraid … The model number is KX-TC1486B, however, and Froogle seems to have lots of stores carrying it. (There’s also a version with an answering machine, but by about our fourth phone I decided that it was imprudent to pay extra for something that would have to be replaced if the phone died.)

I hate telephones. :)

I bought two $13 Vtech 900MHz cordless phone w/Caller ID on the handset from Best Buy two months ago to avoid problems with my WiFi connection, so I know they still have a number of models there.

My friend works for Sprint, and he is of the opinion that you must live in some fucking mansion to need a 5.8GHz phone, much less a 2.4. I have some 2.4 Motos in mine, and I’ve yet to have aproblem.

I opened one of them up to see if I could get better access to the thingy, but when I put it back together it didn’t work at all.

:(

But desoldering the thing would have been a great idea if I knew how to re-assemble the handset without breaking it.

Yep, the 5.8s are pointless, as far as I can tell. I bought one to avoid my WiFi network, as instructed by advertising and the breathless bullshit reviews of these phones at places like C|Net, but the quality was poor. So when it died, I just bought that 900 Mhz Panasonic, and a 5.8 replacement for the bedroom which was also on sale.

I was so amazed by its quality of the new 900 Mhz, over the new 5.8 GHz, I looked up how this wireless phones work. This is how they work: “We put bigger frequency numbers on the boxes and idiots will pay $90 for a telephone.”

Some dlink thingy. Can’t recall model number off the top of my head. It was the only thing in the store I happened to be in that was on Nintendo’s very short ‘ok for DS’ list. It works fine except for the phone thing. It isnt even noticable when browsing, it’s just enough hiccup to toss me out of CoV.