Wireless router / phone conflict?

zzzLazyDaisy

I access the internet through a wireless router. I also have a cable-free phone that sits on a base station. When I use the phone it knocks out the router, and I have to switch the pc and the router off and refresh the system.

Sometimes, before the router goes down, the phone gets lots of clicking on the line, and sometimes it disconnects altogether.

It is really annoying, as it means that I cannot talk on the phone at the same time as I'm using the internet. And if I am doing something on the internet and I take a phone call, I lose what I'm doing. If anyone can make any suggestions I'd be really grateful.

Further details are:

Until recently I was using a Linksys WAG54 router. On Sunday the phone knocked it out as usual and I haven't been able to get it going again. So I now have a Belkin, which I had hoped would solve the problem, but it is doing the same thing.

Both the router and the phone are plugged into microfilters. The router is in the hall on the main phone socket as it comes into the house. The phone is on a supplemetary phone jack in the lounge. Neither is on a telephone extension cable.

The phone is an NTL digital, with a base station in the lounge and a secondary phone in the bedroom.

Many thanks

Daisy

espresso

Have you tried changing the wireless channel on the router?

zzzLazyDaisy

Errrr.....

Have no idea what that means, or how to do it. All I did (with both routers) was follow the installation instructions in the box. I didn't see anything about channels.

Could you treat me like an idiot please, and explain?


Thanks a lot

Daisy

smcaul

Have you got any other filters you can try? Sometimes these are not very good quality and can esily cause problems. Could also be that the extension socket is not wired in correctly if it was a diy job.

JohalaReewi

Could be that you have not put microfilters on your phone base station and wireless router? All devices plugged into the phone system will require a microfilter each (unless you have an ADSL plate on your master socket). However, it looks like you have done this so...

Sometimes DECT phones and Wireless routers clash because they both use the same radio frequency (2.4GHz). There are a few solutions:-

1. Try your phone base unit and wireless router at different ends of the house.

2. Make sure the phones and wireless router use different channels as far apart as possible within the frequency range. With the wireless router, you have a number of channels you can use (1 to 14). You set the required channel via the router's configuration utility. Not sure if you can change the channel used by the phones. Maybe a switch somewhere or something in the manual.

3. Buy a different phone system that doesn't use the 2.4GHz band.

4. Buy a different wireless router (and wireless network cards) that don't use the 2.4GHz band (this is possible look for 802.11a products).

5. Go wired with either the phone or the PC network.

References:
http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless80211/a/aa80211standard.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11b

espresso

zzzLazyDaisy wrote:

Errrr.....

Have no idea what that means, or how to do it. All I did (with both routers) was follow the installation instructions in the box. I didn't see anything about channels.

Could you treat me like an idiot please, and explain?


Thanks a lot

Daisy

Well the instructions should have showed you how connect to your router (using the supplied cable) to your PC and how to log in to the routers control panel by using an address something like http://192.168.0.1 in an Internet Explorer window.

You then go to the Wireless Settings page and see what the channel is set to, which is usually set to a default of 6.

If it is set to 6, change it to 1 and then see what happens when your phone is used.

If it is set to 11 (another common default channel) set it to 1 and see what happens with your phone.

IEEE 802.11b/g wireless nodes communicate with each other using radio frequency signals in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) band between 2.4 GHz and 2.5 GHz. Neighbouring channels are 5 MHz apart. There are 13 channels that can be used in Europe and you are simply trying to find a channel that will work together with your cordless handsets without clashing.

The instruction manuals explain all of this and also how to set up your wireless security which you must do to protect your information from others.

I would doubt if is a filter problem as you only have problems when using the cordless phone while online wirelessly.

:cool:

espresso

JohalaReewi wrote:

1. Try your phone base unit and wireless router at different ends of the house.

And how exactly would that suggestion work then? The phone handsets transmit on the same frequencies or very similar, depending on the actual technology used, as the base station does, so the handset would still interfere with the WiFi adaptor, if used when sitting at the PC.

:rolleyes:

zzzLazyDaisy

Thanks so much to everyone for all your comments.

Espresso, thank you for spelling out what to do about the channels. I'll have a go at that. Thanks also for warning me about wireless security.

Daisy

gavinp

There are two potential problems here so the next time it happens, you need to work out whether it is the wireless signal from the router has disappeared (radio interference) or the access to the Internet has dropped (ADSL microfilter).

This will help identify the cause.

Thanks

Gavin

JohalaReewi

espresso wrote:

And how exactly would that suggestion work then? The phone handsets transmit on the same frequencies or very similar, depending on the actual technology used, as the base station does, so the handset would still interfere with the WiFi adaptor, if used when sitting at the PC.

:rolleyes:

By having the two transmitters as far apart as possible, it is sometimes possible to get a working setup provided the PC is near the router, and the phone handset is near the base station. It does depend on how big the house is and is probably not much use if you want to use the phone while you are surfing at at the PC (VOIP anyone?). It is a cheap first step to try and has been known to work. Usually, if it can't be fixed by channel selection, the solution is buy a new phone system that doesn't use 2.4GHz (there are many of these).

happyhunter

I have a 3Com wi-fi modem/router and Panasonic DECT sitting next to each other inside the tv cabinet for the past year - no problem whatsoever.
As someone has already suggested, it could ybe problem with your filters.