Wireless advice

The Aastra is the only ip phone with wireless handset that I know of, at work I just used an ATA and connected a cheap portable phone to it. Depending on you clients needs something simple like that may work.

-Kale

I work from home and use the 480i CT as my office phone. The cordless is definitely a good quality handset with good battery life and range. Often times I'll be on a conference call and need to walk down the street to get the mail and there's no problem with the call quality.

The only two additional features I wish the cordless had were a built-in speakerphone and Bluetooth so I could use it with a wireless headset. The only problem I've noticed is that if you turn up the volume higher than about mid-level, the person you're talking to can actually hear an echo of their voice because the microphone picks up the speaker's audio. Other than this I think it's great. Very small and lightweight, too.

Couple of things to keep in mind... The cordless handset is not assigned it's own extension, so any calls that ring the extension assigned to the base will ring the cordless too. You can do intercom calls between the cordless and the base, but these calls do not auto-answer. This is definitely a phone that's designed for one person to use who just needs to be away from their desk from time to time, and not for using multiple cordless handsets with one base (even though each base supports up to four).

I searched long and hard for a cordless IP phone that had a speakerphone and would also auto-answer for intercom calls. The only one I came across is the Zultys WIP2--a WiFi phone with both features. They're very hard to find, especially at a good price. I managed to pick up two on eBay. The things are BIG, and I mean BIG. They have huge batteries to give you long standby and talk times. The quality isn't bad on them, but they're almost overly complicated for what I need them for. I also can't figure out how to get them to auto-answer for just internal calls, so I can't have any external calls automatically routed to them or they'll auto-answer as well. In light of this, I've decided to replace them with a couple more Aastra 480is, one of which will be the 480i CT with the cordless handset.

If you have any other questions let me know. I've been using the Aastras for over a year now and have come to really know and like them.

Jay

I have been running the Aastra 57i CT for a short while now and I am very happy with the included 480i cordless phone. It (almost) covers the top floor of our building (20k SQFT) - my desk by chance is in the corner (fancy corner office ;-)) and I can walk about 90% of the way to the other end of the building before i get issues.

if the signal does drop low enough that I can not talk, I am especially impressed it re-establishes as so as I walk back toward the base. I can usually get about 200ft away before I have a problem.

if you want a WiFi phone I personally like the Linksys WIP330

Alex - AsteriskHQ.com

I know 3com, Avaya and other enterprise manufacturers make cordless IP phones but I am not sure they are interoperable with Asterisk/Trixbox. We are a 3Com partner so I have at least seen their cordless IP phone and the customer service at the Giant grocery store by my house all wield the Avaya cordless IP phones all over the place as they make their very loud overhead pages and other calls with it. So I would say research these and other enterprise manufacturers. For business WiFi is not the way to go, as mustardman already mentioned common issues with that at just 54Mbps, perhaps when the 802.11n at about 3000Mbps finally comes out as a standard and all WiFI phones are compatible then it can get better but I am not sure dropped connections can be totally eliminated though. Good luck.

Don't forget Siemens, they make a lot of wireless IP phones, and they're dirt cheap!
The DECT SIP models are perfect in voice quality.
Look at:
C450IP
S450IP
C455IP
S675IP
or +R for integrated router.

They also have a WLAN model, SL75WLAN but I would recommend the dect gigasets for maximum range and quality.

BTW, we have deployed lots of these units at customer sites in combination with Trixbox as well as plain Asterisk. Only thing that doesn't work until today is the MWI light... Apart from that, they are great and a lot of people buy them for their homes as well, as they cost less than $100!!

Are you using any special QoS on those WiFi links cosmic? What model Buffalo Access point are you using? Do they do multiple (2) calls on the Linksys phones at the same time via the same access point? I guess it's a YMMV kind of thing but if you can make it work that is great.

Senao has a wifi SIP phone, I know another user on this forum has tested one with great success. From my experience, I know Senao has the top-top of the line equipment, I have used their APs and phone systems many times. This new SIP phone should be in distribution in the next month or 2.

http://www.senao.com/English/Default.aspx?TYPE=vipplayercard.htm&...

cosmicwombat,

I'm wondering whether your client is still happy with the WIP330's. I've read some very mixed reviews. In particular, I'm wondering 2 things:

1) Why didn't you use a Linksys WLAN AP to support the Linksys WIP's?
2) have you had any problems going from one AP to another?

I'm very interested in this setup. Essentially, I'd like to be able to go from my house to the pool house, put two exterior AP's up (one on the house, and one the pool house) and be able to take a WIP and walk to/from the pool. (I know, it's a little extravagant, but if the technology exists, why not, right?) :-)

b

another approach might be using linksys wbp54g's piggybacked with linksys atas.

Since the installation is that is using the WIP330's has been running since June 07, I still consider it new. I have not had any complaints about the WIP's except that some of the staff find them to be intimidating. Some simple training and explanation of them being based on PDA software (Windows CE) seems to help. My experience is that tinkering with them is a bad idea. They are easy to brick. Otherwise, I am fairly impressed. Mind you, I am not interested in anything but making phone calls with it. I have had mine setup on a FreePBX system and currently a Teliax SIP account. Using these phones in a mobile fashion, while works... Is silly for the most part. As a trick phone for home or office they offer good voice quality.

As a side note I learned an undocumented fix for a bricked WIP330:
1) Remove the battery.
2) Hold the power button down for 10 seconds.

I tried this while talking with Linksys support. They didn't know what to do, so after being put back on hold for the 8th or 9th time, I did the above and viola. Tech support didn't have any comment :(

cosmicwombat,

I see you used the concept of a "bricked" WIP330 in your last comment. What do you mean by bricked? (sorry, i've never heard this term, and i'm interested to know if it is something i should be aware of in considering the WIP330)

However, I was able to un brick the phone by taking the battery out and holding down the power button for 10 seconds. I don't recommend messing too much with the WIP330. Otherwise I like it.

Since we are on the subject of wifi phones... Does anyone know if there are any that use the atheros chipset?

Hi Robert/cosmicwombat, was wondering how you got your wip330 unbricked? Do you have the cord in? Have the phone turned on. Then take off the battery and hold the turn off for 10 seconds? Then take the cord out and the battery in and then turn it on again? Cos I just bricked mine and cant get it to work again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.