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ZyXel P-2000W VoIP WLAN Phone Reviewed
prostoalex writes "MSNBC reviews ZyXel's P-2000W, a VoIP-over-WLAN phone that supports 802.11b and 802.11g. Gary Krakow tests the $200 phone with a VoIP account from T-Glo (his phone came pre-programmed with that). Looks like a pretty decent solution for anyone who's on the go, but has consistent access to Wi-Fi networks: 'I took the phone with me to a number of friends' homes and tried it there. All I had to do is ask the phone to find nearby networks and join them. It was even able to find others' WiFi networks as I walked though Manhattan (no, I didn't try connecting).'"
War Talking!
Did anyone else misread that model number as a 2000 watt phone and think that would be a little excessive?
Remember RFC 873!
I know there are companies like Packet 8, that allow you to take your VOIP box with you, but you still need a regular phone and cables to go with it. This is most excellent.
Maybe someday we'll have small portable phones we can take anywhere without worrying about needing 802.11b access! I can't wait for that to happen!
"So far everything works perfectly - fluctuating summertime electrical services haven't affected my phone service at all. "
This guy is talking such shit. If he did have a proper power outage, I'm sure his VoIP is going to break.
When we had our big power outage in the NE of N. America a couple of summers back, my land line carried on flawlessly. My internet went down and stayed down longer then the power was off. That would definitely break a VoIP phone, methinks.
What ever you have to say about the baby Bells, they've had to maintain higher standards than other alternative providers of telephony. Or at least that how it seems here in Canada.
It's pronounced "Zy-Sell". They're the worlds largest maker of VDSL CPE and DSL routers. Also have a new consumer line you can buy at CompUSA. A version of the phone featured in the article is currently available through Office Depot stores.
and funnily enough it failed, why ? lack of connection points (it was relativly cheap too)
BBC story about it , would be wise to read it before praising Wifi phones just yet
Wow! How revolutionary! A phone that doesn't need wires, that you can use almost anywhere, that doesn't have long distance charges! Honestly, who cares if it's VOIP? People still complain about quality of regular cell service. I can't imagine VOIP over 802.11x. It brings new meaning to, "Can you hear me now?"
That's kinda' like geeks who buy a powerful PC with a video card so that they can watch TV on their PC's.
I don't respond to AC's.
I have one of these and while it is pretty neat, it still is pretty clearly a first generation product, despite being version 2 of the model.
The largest problem is that you can't use these phones in places where you have to log onto a service provider in order to use the wifi connection - for example at a Starbucks. You can only use it on wifi access points that are wide open or for which you have the WEP key. Both 64 & 128 bit WEP are supported though.
The firmware is still a little flaky. Once in a while, it randomly reboot itself. Also, it sometimes has trouble connecting with access points that use MAC address filtering, even if the phone's MAC address is correctly entered on the allowed list.
The phone is easy enough to configure via its web interface. There appear to be a few features that are only configurable via web interface and a few that are only configurable via the phone's menus.
The phone can hold only one set of SIP settings (i.e only one VOIP provider account) at a time.
Battery life sucks. The manual suggests something like 20 hours standby and 3-4 hours talk. I'm guessing that the real numbers are around half of that.
I bought mine at an Office Depot office supplies store (US$199), and it came with a sticker on the box promoting tglo and promising a $50 rebate if you signed up for tglo service. The phone is NOT locked to tglo and I have tried mine on Freeworld Dialup and SipPhone among others.
The Zyxel website provides firmware downloads and a fairly comprehensive manual.
Other than that, it pretty much works as advertised.
Maybe things have changed a lot with the new firmware version, but Nugget of distributed.net fame really doesn't like his:
http://slacker.com/~nugget/asterisk3.php
Keep reading past that page, and he says he doesn't use it at all anymore due to it being so terrible.
My ideal wifi handset would automatically find an open network and connect. And if it could not find an open network it would commence hacking into the least secured closed one. Not to mention logging anything financial that goes accross the line, and decrypting data in real time...
Well, first voip handset provider to supply this has my business!
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"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" - DNA
Dings against this device:
1. No WPA support!
2. This device can't give user credentials for a T-Mobile hotspot account or other similar types of roaming Wi-Fi accounts
So basically, I like the idea but its security needs massive improvement and it needs to be able to work on authenticated gateways that you find at most mobile wi-fi hotspots. Sure this device will work great on any insecure or unsecured WiFi network but I certain refuse to use any WiFi device that doesnt support at least WPA security these days.
According to a user on Vonage Forum, Vonage has requested that Zyxel not provide assistance to owners seeking to use this phone with Vonage's SoftPhone service.
See Vonage restricting use of ZyXEL P2000
This is probably because of Vonage's investment in the competing product from UTStarcom.