Do cordless phones affect Wireless networks?

[Archman]

Hi,

I was curious to know if cordless phones can affect a wireless network in terms of performance and interference?

Any particular ranges, like the 900MHz, 2.4GHz, or 5.8GHz cordless phones?

Thanks 🙂

 

[JackMDS]

900MHz, and 5.8GHz do not affect WIFI signal.

2.4GHz does.

It can be minimal intrusion, or it can paralyze your WFI depends on the specific phone.

:sun:

 

[Archman]

Ah, okay, that is news to me, and important to know since I am considering purchasing a couple of cordless phones.

Thank you 😀

 

[nweaver]

yeah, my 900 died, and I got a 2.4 from a bag-o-crap so I hooked it up. It crippled my wireless, but I still saw my neighbors. I droped to channel 1 and now I'm fine.

 

[thecoroner]

They can sometimes. Wireless networks are very strange things. Some days they will go crazy and others they will work flawlessly.

I have a 2.4 GHz cordless phone about ten feet from my wireless adapter and router. I have had problems where my connection dropped when the phone rang. Switching the channel fixed it.

 

[spidey07]

wireless is fl@wless if setup correctly

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: thecoronerI have a 2.4 GHz cordless phone about ten feet from my wireless adapter and router. I have had problems where my connection dropped when the phone rang. Switching the channel fixed it.

If you would compute the Bandwidth attenuation of the 2.4GHz band as compare to the channel separation you would find that it is so close that all 2.4GHz phones must create noise that affects the WIFI's SNR.

The difference is that some are so bad that it results in dropping the connection, while with others it just affects the SNR, and thus reduce the quality of the connection but do not causes dropage.

But I guess that people consider out of sigh (the signal) out of mind as a good thing.

Any one who really care about is WFI should use 5.8GHz Phone.

:sun:

P.S. The Signal Strength Bar Thingy that is showed in WZC and variety of Wireless Utilitties do not reflect the quality of the Signal (http://www.ezlan.net/wbars.html ).

 

[ktwebb]

Wi-fi certification by the Wi-Fi alliance encompasses 802.11a, b and g. As a catch phrase most people recognize 802.11g because that's what they know but .11a also falls under this umbrella.

But if like most you have .11b or g gear then many 2.4ghz cordless phones can have an impact on performance or connectivity in total. But not all. Why is that? Because there are direct sequence spread spectrum phones on the market. Not very common. Most 2.4ghz cordless phones use Frequency hopping spread sprectrum and Jack is right about those. Little chance if the FHSS cell overlaps your .11b or g WLAN cell that the WLAN equipment won't be impacted at all. how much depends on alot of variables. So as a generalization you could say if you get a FHSS phone and have 2.4Ghz wireless LAn equiipment, the chance of there being a problem is very high.

As a rule of thumb, if you have 2.4ghz goodies for your wireless network, getting a 900Mhz (what I prefer) or 5.8 ghz phones is the best option.

There is also the little know fact that most 802.11a LAN equipment uses the lower 5.3Ghz band while 5.8Ghz is typically used for WAN bridging. Been awhile so if I am crossed on that someone correct me. Could be the other way around but all the 5.8Ghz gear I've ever used, or mostly used anyway, was implementing point to point or point to multipoint bridging. So typically even if you have 802.11a LAN equipment, a 5.8Ghz phone would not affect the WLAN at all.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: ktwebb
Wi-fi certification by the Wi-Fi alliance encompasses 802.11a, b and g. As a catch phrase most people recognize 802.11g because that's what they know but .11a also falls under this umbrella

Yap, 802.11a falls under WIFI category too, and has nothing to do with 2.4GHz.

It is late at night and I just got lazy typing 802.11b/g.

So as a self punishment.

802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g.😉
802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g.😉
802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g.😉
802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g.😉
802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g.😉
802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g. 802.11 b/g.😉

G-d bless ctrl-v

:sun:

 

[spidey07]

meh, business use 802.11@

2.4 spectrum is too crowded/overused