[asterisk-users] Recommendations for 100 Wifi SIP phone setup

[Anselm Martin Hoffmeister]

Am Montag, den 26.11.2007, 22:39 -0500 schrieb joakimsen at gmail.com:
> On Nov 26, 2007 9:52 AM, Alberto Pastore <alberto at msoft-italia.com> wrote:
> 
> > I also found the Pirelli DP-L10 dual phone to be an excellent sip client
> > with good roaming support and discrete battery saving capability.
> > (Used in a 14-cell wifi network with 40 cellphones).
> 
> I don't know what to say I have not used the Pirelli phone but at the
> same time it is the same ODM as most of the Linksys and D-Link phone
> and I have not been too pleased with those. They work. They roam ok
> but they also lock up every so often and the call quality isnt the
> best. You can tell the G729 codec is very taxing on the device it can
> take 2 sec for the phone to respond to a keypress.

Hello *,

I have the Pirelli phone (there are two actually, I have the bar-type
one, I think it's L10) in daily use, both GSM (O2 Germany) and WLAN
(registered to Asterisk of course - behind OpenWRT boxes, FritzBoxes,
D-Link APs.... whatever is there). I had the latest firmware in August,
did not check back since.

In my opinion, this phone is not ready for production use for regular
users. It works really nice in the short run, but a few things make it
unacceptable or at least lack for my approval as a "well-done product":

- Connection loss on DHCP expiry (twice yet)
- Relatively poor Wifi signal strength, compared to other Wifi devices
- frequent lockups, which require battery removal and clock
reprogramming:
  - if you power on the phone while it is on charger power
  - if you receive a WIFI call while you have a WLAN call, and the WIFI
call is from the same "contact" in the phone book
  - plugging in, unplugging, plugging in headset fast in a row
- no SIP voicemail support, GSM voicebox only (pressing "1")
- slow user interface

It further lacks
- one-touch silent mode - you can only kind of emulate that
- proper headset support - "any key accept call" does _not_ work,
although it is a separate choice from "accept key accept call".
Auto-accept works OK though. Vibra seems to _not_ work once a headset is
plugged in... or at least not always.
- one-digit press in main menu to open the menu: It works in the
submenues, but you always need to navigate the main menu with the arrow
controls
- quick mode switch WLAN on/off - if you are out of home range, WLAN
seems to suck lots of battery.
- display of CALLERID(name), currently only CALLERID(num) is displayed

I would also like a modus which is "if no known network is in range,
connect to any unencrypted network you can get that seems to have
network connectivity". This should of course be optional.

That said, for my personal uses it is OK, lightyears in front of the two
UTStarcom phones I also had in daily use. Well, while they worked
anyway. Both the good WPA support (basically broken in the UTS) and the
GSM function make me like it. The phone book (multiple entries) is
great, although it would be nice to see from which of the numbers listed
the call is coming (call Sam back on his mobile, or is he at home?)

I believe most of the problems I see could be solved in software quite
easily, but until they are, I would not give it to my users, rather I
would go with DECT, Siemens Gigaset ISDN, on FritzBoxen internal S0 bus,
because this combination I know works absolutely perfect, as good as
ISDN, and that means a lot.

I have been using the Pirelli for five or six months, and keep using it
because the GSM/WLAN combo is just the killer app on it. It sucks a bit
more than my regular mobile phone (which I sometimes carry instead, I
have a Dual-SIM contract), but for me all mobiles suck. I have thin
fingers, but using mobile keypads always makes me feel like having jelly
sticks on my hands. That is why I love the BudgeTone 100 phone :-P

Best regards,

Anselm

P.S.: "Your fingers are too fat to dial - please mash the keys for your
free dialing wand"  -- phone announcement in Simpsons "King Size Homer"