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Which 2Ghz Cordless Phone Do You Recommend?
A Wireless Anonymous Coward asks: "My 900MHz cordless phone needs replacing, but I've since adopted 802.11b wireless networking in the house courtesy of Apple's Airport. What if any problems can I expect with either the new phone or the network if I bring in one of those swank new 2GHz phone systems, e.g. Siemens Gigaset? Compatibility issues aside, what's the best of these next generation phones?" I've been toying with the thought of getting one of these, but I also have a wireless LAN in operation, and hear that these devices do not co-exist. It would be interesting to hear if someone has a work around, but if you have a wireless LAN, you're probably better off sticking with the 900Mhz phones.
Sounds like your microwave is leaking radiation. I'd worry more about getting cancer from being nuked all the time you are near it more than I'd worry about interference with my phone!
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
We use a VTech 2.4GHz phone and have just added an 802.11 wireless LAN using a D-Link access point and LinkSys cards. They work fine. There is no interference at all.
I use a KX-TG2550 phone (the blue one), and interference with my 802.11b network isn't a problem unless I'm using the handset right next to the wireless node. Even 4 feet away is fine, and my network signal level stays in the "good" range. But if I forget and answer the phone as I type at my laptop, my net connection goes bye-bye completely.
I don't know about interference from your wireless LAN, but I can tell you that your microwave is going to cause interference. (no bull). They're on the same frequency - you get too close to your microwave with the phone while it's on and crrrzzccch is all you'll hear.
I have a Panasonic phone, for what that's worth.
Joseph Elwell.
I didn't realize that it was trolling to point to resources that answer the question. I'll refrain from doing that in the future.
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I can't speak for the model 100 but my father (in his lifelong quest for a decent cordless phone) bought a bunch of their 3000-series phones for his house. They turned out to be complete peices of crap. Every time I call him, it sounds like I'm talking to him over a radio link from a remote outpost in Antarctica. It's horrible. And it's the phones, not the lines--when he picks up a conventional corded handset, the quality is great. I've done a bit of cordless phone searching myself and I've always been very pleased with Panasonic phones. Motorolas were ok but the battery life was awesome. If you plan on using multiple cordless phones in your house, make sure that the frequencies are sufficiently different to help prevent interference.
I've had several Panasonic 900MHz phones in recent years and have been pleased with all of them. In my experience the digital spread spectrum models (Panansonic's buzzword for this is 'Gigarange') seem to offer a little more range and immunity to noise, and I would assume security from snooping. The difference in quality is not great, and if your budget is tight, I would not hesitate to go with the cheaper analog models.
In my opinion, their Gigarange models try to act too much like cell-phones with a deep and complex menu system that is just too awkward. Fortunately, you can just ignore all the 'gee whiz' features and use it as a good ol fashioned phone.
Consumers Reports did a test recently and concluded that there was no advantage to the 2.4GHz frequency over the 900MHz frequency. This has been my personal experience as well. I wouldn't pay any extra for a 2.4GHz phone. On the other hand, if you know you are already using one band (wireless network for example), that may be a good enough reason to get a phone that uses the other band just to reduce interference.
As it sounds like you have an electrically noisy environment, I think the best advice is to buy from a store will liberal return policies. Pick a phone you like and try it for a few days - if it doesn't work out, exchange it for a different brand or frequency phone.
Be prepared to invest some time finding the best phone for your situation. A bad phone is a constant annoyance - life is just too short for that.
Hey, who else could go for some flapjacks right now?
I know that this is hardly ground-shaking, but our only complaint about these phones is that, bizarrely, they have no mute function. You can put somebody on hold, but during those extended conferences calls, sometimes you just want to hit mute to cough, have a drink, openly mock your client, etc. Unlike with our CDMA phones, these phones have never caused any interference with our office network.
-Waldo
I have a Panasonic Gigarange Extreme, and I'm pretty disappointed with how susceptible it is to interference. The "Channel" button (to change channels) always fails (3-fast beeps) even when right next to the unit, and often (I can only theorize due to a neighbor in my apt complex using 900mhz stuff) I hear a repeating burst of noise that oscillates on and off every 2 seconds. Also it's not in the least bit intuititive to program -- for my next purchase I'm skipping Panasonic.
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Don't know much about 802.11, but all other things being equal, AT&T has a 2GHz cordless system that lets you add more handsets to a single base station, giving you multiple cordless handsets with only one base station. The default package is 2 handsets, and I think it supports up to 4.
A friend of mine got one, and I also saw them at Costco.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
SST offers privacy over analog. There's nothing about encryption that makes it specific to digital (although implementing on digital is easier).
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