802.11b/g WiFi vs. my cordless phone system

idea

Golden Member
Apr 15, 2001
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Thanks to Hot Deals I saved a ton of money signing up for SunRocket VOIP service. They gave me a free Uniden 2.4ghz DSS system (I have 4 handsets) for signing up. Now I have to get them all to play nice with my Linksys WRT54g and wifi devices.

I'm more concerned with the fact that when I am transferring data across the LAN, the phone starts breaking up and I can't hear anything. The transfer speed takes a hit but its still pretty good for wireless. So as of right now I have to be standing next to the laptop while its transferring in case someone in my house needs to use the phone. Then I have to stop the transfer till they're finished.

Yeah, so, I tried changing the channel to 1, 6, and 11. Best transfer speed is channel 11 but none of them help the phone's signal. Anyone have any ideas?
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
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The phone should scan and pick the less used frequency.

If you've tried changing channels on your AP then my only suggestion would be to try and force the phone to use the other end of the spectrum.
 

spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
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Sorry dude...that specturm is wide open.


read the manual on how to set your phone.


some of us hardcore network guys that deal wih spectral analizers from time to time and have been in the hobby of clearing our radios before we talk can understand.

CLEAR YOUR FARGIN RADIO!!!!!!!
 

idea

Golden Member
Apr 15, 2001
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Well, I read the manual and searched it (PDF format) and there's nothing matching 802.11 or internet. In troubleshooting, they mentioned "noise interference" and how to fix it. Its pretty lame, it said to move away from the source of interference or eliminate it. Yeah, great.

Maybe there's no way around it? Transferring at full speeds (1-54mbit/s) messes with the phone's reception real bad. Messing around on the web, email, etc, doesn't though. I guess I'll just have to transfer large files at night or through a patch cable.
 

Dravic

Senior member
May 18, 2000
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Originally posted by: daweeze02
that is not the wireless signal causing probs, you probably need to configure QOS.

It most certain is his wireless phone causing the issue.

I used to have my 802.11g connection severed when my 2.4 GHz cordless phone rang if it was in the same vicinity as my wireless connection.

My solution: I brought the Panasonic 5.8GHz phone with extra headset for $99

Haven?t had a random net lockup or dropped connection since.

It sucks but the 2.4 ghz freq is over crowded, get any other devices you can off it. You?ll soon be bumping heads with you neighbors AP?s
 

daweeze02

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2003
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Originally posted by: Dravic
Originally posted by: daweeze02
that is not the wireless signal causing probs, you probably need to configure QOS.

It most certain is his wireless phone causing the issue.

I used to have my 802.11g connection severed when my 2.4 GHz cordless phone rang if it was in the same vicinity as my wireless connection.

My solution: I brought the Panasonic 5.8GHz phone with extra headset for $99

Haven?t had a random net lockup or dropped connection since.

It sucks but the 2.4 ghz freq is over crowded, get any other devices you can off it. You?ll soon be bumping heads with you neighbors AP?s

I have 3 wrt's running in my house and 4 2.4ghz phones with no issues. Also if you see in his post he says hes gets the static when he is transferring data through his network, which def sounds more of a QOS issue.
 

Fardringle

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2000
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QoS has absolutely nothing to do with wireless signal interference. QoS simply makes sure that certain types of traffic on the computer network get priority so that they are not interrupted by other traffic on the network. It does not have any effect on what happens outside the network, such as what the cordless phones and other sources of interference are doing...

As an example, QoS is like a room full of people talking at the same time and gives one (or a few) of them a microphone so that they can be heard over everyone else. It doesn't stop everyone else from talking, it just makes sure the important ones get heard regardless of what else is happening. It works great for traffic on the computer network, but has zero effect on anything outside the network. (I.E. No matter how much you turn up the volume on the PA system, it won't keep someone outside the building from knocking the building down.) It's not an exact analogy, but QoS and wireless interference really are completely different concepts.

Wireless interference is like having enough cars to fill two full lanes of traffic trying to drive in opposite directions at the same time in the same place on a one-lane road - it either won't work at all and nothing goes anywhere or there has to be a traffic monitor stopping one direction of traffic to let the other one through. Since there is no "traffic monitor" to make the phones stop talking while the wireless network is talking (and vice versa) the only way to fix this is to get each direction of traffic driving in its own traffic lane (channel).


Static on the phone while transferring files on the computer network means that the phone and the wireless router are on the same (or similar) frequencies within the 2.4GHz frequency spectrum and are interfering with each other. The only way to fix this problem is to eliminate (or at least reduce) the interference. As Spidey said, you need to force the router and the phones to use different wireless frequencies. There should be something in the phone's manual that says how to manually select the frequency/channel that it uses. If your router is set to channel 1, set the phones to channel 11. If the router is on channel 1, set the phones to channel 1. If your router is on channel 6, then 1 or 11 will work fine for the phones.

If there is no way to manually set the frequency on the phones, and the phones will not automatically switch to a different frequency than the one that is already being used by your router, then you'll just have to change the channel on the router to something else and hope that the phones won't automatically jump to that channel later on. If you can get the router and the phones on different channels, both should work properly as long as they stay on separate channels.

Having said that, there are some cordless phones known as spread spectrum phones that use all 11 of the 2.4GHz spectrum channels at the same time (or randomly jump between the channels) and if your phones fall into this category, then there really isn't anything you can do to keep them from interfering with your network and your choices are pretty much as follows:

1) Move all of the phone equipment (handsets and base stations) as far as possible away from the networking equipment (router and computers). You'll still have some of the interference, but it should be lessened slightly by the distance between conflicting devices.

2) Get new phones that are either 900MHz or 5GHz and won't interfere at all with your network, or are 2.4GHz and that will let you manually select what channel they use.

3) Switch to a 5GHz "A" wireless network for your computers.

4) Live with the fact that you'll have static on the phones and interference on the wireless network whenever both are used at the same time.

 

daweeze02

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2003
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I know what QOS is, and trust me go send files across your network while trying to talk on a voip phone it will cause static on the phone. It happened to me before I enabled QOS. The whole 2.4Ghz thing is way over hyped. Again if he has sunrocket then he has the exact same phones I got from Sunrocket. So we have the exact same setup and I have no interference whats so ever.
 

idea

Golden Member
Apr 15, 2001
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daweeze02, You have those silver/orange Uniden phones? Can you please post a common QoS config for my Linksys WRT54g ?