2.4ghz phone interference with Airport

[Patrick Mills]

Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:

[url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
(scroll down to "Tip of the Month")

It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.

I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
same room I keep the router.

Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.

I just thought others might appreciate this information.

PLM

[Patrick Mills]

Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:

[url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
(scroll down to "Tip of the Month")

It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.

I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
same room I keep the router.

Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.

I just thought others might appreciate this information.

PLM

[Paul Hoppe]

In article <pan.2003.09.02.06.17.27.793636@ix.netcom.com>,
"Patrick Mills" <plmills@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
> magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
> edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:
>
> [url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
> (scroll down to "Tip of the Month")
>
> It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
> with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
> many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.
>
> I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
> channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
> Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
> failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
> same room I keep the router.
>
> Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
> problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.
>
> I just thought others might appreciate this information.
>
> PLM
>

Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....

Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

[Paul Hoppe]

In article <pan.2003.09.02.06.17.27.793636@ix.netcom.com>,
"Patrick Mills" <plmills@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
> magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
> edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:
>
> [url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
> (scroll down to "Tip of the Month")
>
> It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
> with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
> many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.
>
> I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
> channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
> Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
> failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
> same room I keep the router.
>
> Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
> problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.
>
> I just thought others might appreciate this information.
>
> PLM
>

Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....

Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

[Tony Hwang]

Hi,
Some are channel hopping, digital spread spectrum based. El Cheapo ones
may suffer from interference.
Tony

Paul Hoppe wrote:

> In article <pan.2003.09.02.06.17.27.793636@ix.netcom.com>,
> "Patrick Mills" <plmills@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>

>>Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
>>magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
>>edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:
>>
>>[url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
>>(scroll down to "Tip of the Month")
>>
>>It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
>>with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
>>many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.
>>
>>I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
>>channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
>>Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
>>failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
>>same room I keep the router.
>>
>>Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
>>problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.
>>
>>I just thought others might appreciate this information.
>>
>>PLM
>>

>
>
> Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
> and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
> to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....
>
> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

[Tony Hwang]

Hi,
Some are channel hopping, digital spread spectrum based. El Cheapo ones
may suffer from interference.
Tony

Paul Hoppe wrote:

> In article <pan.2003.09.02.06.17.27.793636@ix.netcom.com>,
> "Patrick Mills" <plmills@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
>

>>Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
>>magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
>>edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:
>>
>>[url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
>>(scroll down to "Tip of the Month")
>>
>>It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
>>with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
>>many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.
>>
>>I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
>>channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
>>Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
>>failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
>>same room I keep the router.
>>
>>Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
>>problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.
>>
>>I just thought others might appreciate this information.
>>
>>PLM
>>

>
>
> Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
> and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
> to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....
>
> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

[David Turley]

In article <phoppe-DBB288.21280402092003@news-central.giganews.com>,
Paul Hoppe <phoppe@nospam.phoppe.com> wrote:

>
> Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
> and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
> to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....
>
> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

Won't help.

Someday hopefully the manufactorers will realize how these phones foobar
wireless networks and return to making good 900Mhz phones. (Which worked
better in my opinion.)

[David Turley]

In article <phoppe-DBB288.21280402092003@news-central.giganews.com>,
Paul Hoppe <phoppe@nospam.phoppe.com> wrote:

>
> Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
> and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
> to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....
>
> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

Won't help.

Someday hopefully the manufactorers will realize how these phones foobar
wireless networks and return to making good 900Mhz phones. (Which worked
better in my opinion.)

[George Williams]

Paul Hoppe wrote:

> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

The way I understand it, the range for these commercial devices
is inversely proportional to the frequency. So a 5.6 GHz phone has
less range than a 2.4 GHz phone, which has less range than a 900
MHz phone. Below 200 MHz, it becomes a problem of antenna length
for the simple, low-gain dipoles that are used.

[Jerry Kindall]

In article <phoppe-DBB288.21280402092003@news-central.giganews.com>,
Paul Hoppe <phoppe@nospam.phoppe.com> wrote:

> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

Panasonic makes a very nice 2.8 GHz system that doesn't interfere with
WiFi because it's DSSS. When you're using the phone the wireless
network will occasionally get an error, but it'll retry, and on the
retry it'll work because the phone has since moved on to a different
frequency.

If you are at the limit of your wireless range you might have some
problems staying connected, but ordinarily what you should notice is
simply a slight slowdown.

I agree that it'd be nice to see manufacturers return to 900 MHz, but
they won't. Lots of people already have 900 MHz phones and won't buy
new ones, so they change the frequency.

What I really want is to see Apple introduce an inexpensive cordless
phone that connects to an AirPort base station using 802.11 and makes
use of the AirPort's analog phone jack for voice calls.

--
Jerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/>

When replying by e-mail, use plain text ONLY to make sure I read it.
Due to spam and viruses, I filter all mail with HTML or attachments.

[Jerry Kindall]

In article <phoppe-DBB288.21280402092003@news-central.giganews.com>,
Paul Hoppe <phoppe@nospam.phoppe.com> wrote:

> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

Panasonic makes a very nice 2.8 GHz system that doesn't interfere with
WiFi because it's DSSS. When you're using the phone the wireless
network will occasionally get an error, but it'll retry, and on the
retry it'll work because the phone has since moved on to a different
frequency.

If you are at the limit of your wireless range you might have some
problems staying connected, but ordinarily what you should notice is
simply a slight slowdown.

I agree that it'd be nice to see manufacturers return to 900 MHz, but
they won't. Lots of people already have 900 MHz phones and won't buy
new ones, so they change the frequency.

What I really want is to see Apple introduce an inexpensive cordless
phone that connects to an AirPort base station using 802.11 and makes
use of the AirPort's analog phone jack for voice calls.

--
Jerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/>

When replying by e-mail, use plain text ONLY to make sure I read it.
Due to spam and viruses, I filter all mail with HTML or attachments.

[Mike Cohen]

In article <phoppe-DBB288.21280402092003@news-central.giganews.com>,
Paul Hoppe <phoppe@nospam.phoppe.com> wrote:

> In article <pan.2003.09.02.06.17.27.793636@ix.netcom.com>,
> "Patrick Mills" <plmills@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>

> > Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
> > magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
> > edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:
> >
> > [url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
> > (scroll down to "Tip of the Month")
> >
> > It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
> > with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
> > many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.
> >
> > I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
> > channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
> > Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
> > failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
> > same room I keep the router.
> >
> > Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
> > problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.
> >
> > I just thought others might appreciate this information.
> >
> > PLM
> >

>
> Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
> and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
> to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....
>
> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

I use a 900 MHz phone for that reason. I purposely avoid 2.4 GHz phones.

--
Mike Cohen - mike3k <at> onepost <dot> net
Personal: [url]http://www.mc-development.com/[/url]
Mac News: [url]http://www.macmegasite.com/[/url]

[Mike Cohen]

In article <phoppe-DBB288.21280402092003@news-central.giganews.com>,
Paul Hoppe <phoppe@nospam.phoppe.com> wrote:

> In article <pan.2003.09.02.06.17.27.793636@ix.netcom.com>,
> "Patrick Mills" <plmills@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>

> > Thought I'd alert the group to an excellent tip in the new MacWorld
> > magazine. For reference, see "Tip of the Month" on page 83 of the U.S.
> > edition of the September 2003 MacWorld magazine, or:
> >
> > [url]http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/secrets/mac911/[/url]
> > (scroll down to "Tip of the Month")
> >
> > It seems that 802.11x routers and 2.4ghz wireless telephones may interfere
> > with each other, esp. if they are both transmitting on channel "6", which
> > many phones prefer, and which may be the default of Airport base stations.
> >
> > I have a non-Apple 802.11g router, but when I checked, it was set to
> > channel 6. I had noticed sporadic communicatons failures between my
> > Powerbook and the router, but hadn't traced the reason. It seems that the
> > failures were indeed occurring whenever I used my wireless phone in the
> > same room I keep the router.
> >
> > Simply reconfiguring the router to use channel 11 appears to have fixed my
> > problem, just as recommended in the MacWorld tip.
> >
> > I just thought others might appreciate this information.
> >
> > PLM
> >

>
> Trust me, it's not just channel 6. I have my Base Station set to ch-11
> and my phone follows it around. Doesn't matter what channel I set it
> to, eventually my phone will find it and blank it....
>
> Gotta get me a 5.6Ghz phone....

I use a 900 MHz phone for that reason. I purposely avoid 2.4 GHz phones.

--
Mike Cohen - mike3k <at> onepost <dot> net
Personal: [url]http://www.mc-development.com/[/url]
Mac News: [url]http://www.macmegasite.com/[/url]