[Asterisk-Users] WiFi Phones

[Andy Hamilton]

> Anyone have good words to say about any of the WiFi handsets currently
> available?

The UTStarCom F1000 (an 802.11b device) works pretty well. It's about
half the $$$ of a Cisco 7920 (which are also pretty nice), but it
seems like most of the config is done from the keypad. There is a TFTP
option, but it seems that isn't quite perfect. You could check the
manual (I programmed the unit without that, except to find that the
default password is 888888).

The unit, I'm guessing, was designed somewhere in Asia, and the
language translation shows it a little bit. Sound quality seems pretty
good for the few calls I've passed through it. I only have one AP in
my house, so I can't comment on roaming. The headset for my cell phone
is stereo, and I think the phone would be most happy with a standard 3
conductor plug, but I imagine a headset on a phone is a headset on a
phone.

The keypad is a touch small, and sometimes I hit the wrong key (and my
fingers aren't terribly fat). I also seemed to have a problem
transferring calls (using the built in transfer function -- # should
still work). Despite many vendors' pages saying that it does 802.1x
authentication, it sure looks like WEP is the only available
"security" option.

Overall: I would recommend purchasing one, for testing at the very least.
 They are well priced and of good quality.

Battery life seems to be pretty good, too.

-A