Cordless Phones and home wireless networks

[Tiffany]

Hi,

Is it true that a cordless phone can mess up the wireless internet signal in your home? It seems like anytime the cordless phone is near our desktop computer it loses its wireless signal but it does not have an impact on our laptop. Any help and or guidance will be appriciated.

 

[Nite0wl71]

I have a wireless network and a cordless and I have never noticed any signal loss. Usually the phone is sitting right in front of my desktop or my DD's.

 

[rubinlar]

When shopping for a new cordless phone we were told that we needed to have one that was 5.8 Ghz if we had a wireless network in our home. Thats what we got and have never had a problem.

Lisa

 

[Towncrier]

That's why we still have our 900MHz cordless phone. I didn't want a 2.4GHz version that might interfere with our wireless network. The one thing that I didn't expect was that my son's Wavebird wireless controller for the Nintendo GameCube knocks out our wireless network whenever he plays video games. It took me a while to figure out what was going one. He switched the frequency on the controller and the problem seems to have vanished.

It seems like there are loads of consumer electronics that share the same frequency as wireless networks.

 

[KathyTX]

my son's Wavebird wireless controller for the Nintendo GameCube knocks out our wireless network whenever he plays video games.

John, you rock! I think you've just shed light on a nagging problem at my house!

 

[sulleyfan]

Coming from someone who does tech support for an Internet Service Provider, basically its best if you get a phone on either the 900mHz or 5.8gHz frequency because they won't interact as much with the wireless internet from your router. You still may get some static on the phones and a little loss in signal, but not nearly as bad as with a 2.4gHz phone. No matter what frequency of cordless phone you get think carefully about where you place it. Try not to place it in the direct line between your router and computer. Not knowing whether you're wireless router is an a, b, or g variety this is for the b/g varieties. If you happen to have a router that uses the a frequency, flip the 2.4 and 5.8s around.

 

[Tiffann4k]

We have a 2.4 ghz and sometimes it messes up, its a pain when it does, but its not often

 

[Tiffany]

Thanks for all of the replies. That is exactly my problem. Our cordless is 2.4ghz. Looks like I need a new phone.

 

[Geoff_M]

Instead of ditching the phone, you may want to try and move the phone base. If yours is like our set up, both our wireless AP and phone base are centrally located in the house and only a couple of feet from one another. Our phone isn't in the same RF band as the AP, but if it was in the same range and the two were close to each other, the proximity could trigger problems due to a radio phenomenon known as "desense overload". That's basically where a transmiter is so close to a receiver that it "overloads" the recevier and wipes out all other incoming signals.