[Asterisk-Users] WiFi Phones

[Michael Graves]

Jim,

I have one of the Hitachi WIP-5000 wifi phones. Been using it about 6
months. I've even travelled with it and tried to make use of hotspots
here and there. My primary application for the phone was to replace a
Panasonic analog corldess phone and Sipura SPA-2000 combination for my
home office. 

I have both 802.11b (house) and 801.11g (office)  on the property. The
WIP-5000 is a .11b device. While it supports long encryption keys it
does not support WPA...which is specific to .11g. I have been able to
make it mount both WLANs with encryption enabled. There is a bit of an
issue making it jump from AP to AP seamlessly as both APs must share
channels & SSIDs, which is troublesome.

As a phone its behaviour is very good. It's very small. The battery
life has been good. It has a 2.5mm jack for a standard headset, which
is essential for me. It can perform basic PBX functions better than the
ATA/Panasonic pair. I wish that the volume would go a bit
louder...that's my one major complaint about the phone.

However, what I've learned about wifi along the way is more
enlightening. My wlan is simply not sufficient to ensure a good voice
experience. I've been using several access point including; Linksys
WAP54G, Linksys WAP11b & a cheap Belkin 802.11b. None of these provide
absolutely continuous calling. Periodically the wlan goes away for a
couple of seconds then restores itself. The result is a momentary pause
in an ongoing call...very much like a cell phone. The call never gets
dropped, but I often need to ask the other party to repeat their last
statement.

Also, the range you can expect is nowhere near what you will achieve
with a normal 2.4 or 5.8 GHz cordless phone. I get around 40-60 feet
maximum...and I don't like in a brick house.

As an alternative I've also purchased an Aastra 480 CTi which comes
with a cordless handset. Too early to know much about this in detail
but so far I like it a lot.

Michael Graves

--Original Message Text---
From: James H Thompson
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 12:04:50 -1000

Anyone have good words to say about any of the WiFi handsets currently
available? 
 
Thanks. 
 
Jim 
 
 


--
Michael Graves                           mgraves at pixelpower.com
Sr. Product Specialist                          www.pixelpower.com
Pixel Power Inc.                                 mgraves at mstvp.com

o713-861-4005
o800-905-6412
c713-201-1262
fwd 54245

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