[Asterisk-Users] Wireless LANs and Asterisk

[Mike Meyer]

Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and Asterisk?

We have and here are my impressions.

We configured an Asterisk in the office as a precaution to see how it
would work for our own retail customers. Our office is open space, about
800 sq ft. (20x40 area). We use Snom200 and Grandstream SIP phones.

Using the latest Linksys wireless access point (WAP54g) and 3 wireless
bridges (WET54g), I have found that it works most of the time with WPA
encryption on, but will occasionally drop voice (loosing packets). With
no encryption on the WLAN it seems to work without a hitch! Using a less
CPU intense encryption such as 64bit WEP, things also work fine. There
must be too much delay with higher rate encryption.

Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week puppy in the litter. It
could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed to have problems
under all configurations. Finally we positioned it such that it too
works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 wireless bridges in
close proximity would have anything to do with the signal strength? I
would doubt it though.

Anyone else with other experiences to share regarding wireless LANs and
encryption? I'd me interested to hear them.


Thanks,
Mike Meyer
GenDesign Corporation