home phone - time to dump DECT network for wifi/VOIP?

Summary Questions:

- can you make internal house calls from wifi/voip phone to wifi/voip phone?
- is wifi an alternative for DECT?

The story:

I need to upgrade a home cordless phone network. Extra challenge is that the
"home" is an ancient building (6 centuries), largely stone with walls of
varying thickness (up to 4 ft), etc: wireless nightmare. Building is about
150x150ft. And then there's the outdoors, but inside coverage is key for
now. Analog phones used currently are long range phones (several km
coverage, can hear my brain sizzle when on the phone). Desire to replace is
the much better sound quality of digital.

If I choose DECT I have excellent sound, can call internally between
handsets and do all sorts of wonderful home phone things. However, the
coverage is limited with all the thick walls and I would need to get several
pricey repeaters to put in a DECT network with decent coverage.

If wifi/voip phones such as the new Linksys ones mentioned on voxilla can
perform the functions of a DECT home system (the ones I use anyway, like
calling one handset from another internally, or passing an external call
through from one handset to another) I could opt for using the cash instead
for beefing up my current wifi network instead of installing a second
wireless network (DECT).

Any views on this?

Can you replace the functionality of two DECT handsets and base station with
two wifi/voip handsets and an Access point, or through some other setup?

Are we ready to dump DECT for wifi/voip?

Many thanks,

Bob

[POSTED TO alt.internet.wireless - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]


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In <44367f42$0$11065$(E-Mail Removed)> on Fri, 7 Apr 2006 17:03:25
+0200, "Bob Newheart" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Summary Questions:
>
>- can you make internal house calls from wifi/voip phone to wifi/voip phone?
>- is wifi an alternative for DECT?
>
>The story:
>
>I need to upgrade a home cordless phone network. Extra challenge is that the
>"home" is an ancient building (6 centuries), largely stone with walls of
>varying thickness (up to 4 ft), etc: wireless nightmare. Building is about
>150x150ft. And then there's the outdoors, but inside coverage is key for
>now. Analog phones used currently are long range phones (several km
>coverage, can hear my brain sizzle when on the phone). Desire to replace is
>the much better sound quality of digital.
>
>If I choose DECT I have excellent sound, can call internally between
>handsets and do all sorts of wonderful home phone things. However, the
>coverage is limited with all the thick walls and I would need to get several
>pricey repeaters to put in a DECT network with decent coverage.
>
>If wifi/voip phones such as the new Linksys ones mentioned on voxilla can
>perform the functions of a DECT home system (the ones I use anyway, like
>calling one handset from another internally, or passing an external call
>through from one handset to another) I could opt for using the cash instead
>for beefing up my current wifi network instead of installing a second
>wireless network (DECT).
>
>Any views on this?
>
>Can you replace the functionality of two DECT handsets and base station with
>two wifi/voip handsets and an Access point, or through some other setup?
>
>Are we ready to dump DECT for wifi/voip?
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Bob
>

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR ALT.INTERNET.WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FAQ_for_alt.internet.wireless>

> I need to upgrade a home cordless phone network. Extra challenge is that the
> "home" is an ancient building (6 centuries), largely stone with walls of
> varying thickness (up to 4 ft), etc: wireless nightmare. Building is about
> 150x150ft. And then there's the outdoors, but inside coverage is key for

You can replace your DECT with Voip but if you've already got issues
with a DECT signal through walls, you'll have the same problem and will
likely have to use several access points.

You can buy DECT repeaters.

David.

Thanks for your reaction but it didn't address my questions which were
pertaining to a comparison of DECT to WIFI/VOIP, particularly with regards
to internal home phone calls.

> >- can you make internal house calls from wifi/voip phone to wifi/voip
phone?
> >- is wifi an alternative for DECT?

B

Thanks. You're correct in pointing out thick stone walls pose the same
problem for wifi as for dect. However, the wifi network is already there
with a strong senao AP and a decent 15 dbi omni (or 19, I forgot) and as I
said I dont have any dect stuff yet, I am replacing analog material. If I
would go with dect I would be putting in a second wireless network which,
though probably practical (voip/wifi still has a way to go), feels silly.
Finally my question regarding the ability to call from one wifi/voip handset
to another within the house, i.e. within your own network. If that would not
work wifi-voip handsets are not a solution for me here, and the decision is
also made. Someone answered it could be done but the SIP service would need
to specifically cater to that or alternatively I could get my own mini SIP
server. By now the dect solution, even though I'll be putting in a second
wireless network, seems the more practical approach. I guess what I'm
looking for is an AP which has specific functionality to let two wifi/voip
handsets attached to it talk to eachother. Havent seen these yet. We'll go
with dect for the next 3 years and see things develop.

regards,

Bob

I am aware the same problem with thick walls and wifi goes for gsmHowever I
already have a wifi network in place. It makes more sense to strengthen

"David Taylor" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) d.com...
> > I need to upgrade a home cordless phone network. Extra challenge is that
the
> > "home" is an ancient building (6 centuries), largely stone with walls of
> > varying thickness (up to 4 ft), etc: wireless nightmare. Building is
about
> > 150x150ft. And then there's the outdoors, but inside coverage is key for
>
> You can replace your DECT with Voip but if you've already got issues
> with a DECT signal through walls, you'll have the same problem and will
> likely have to use several access points.
>
> You can buy DECT repeaters.
>
> David.

"Bob Newheart" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Finally my question regarding the ability to call from one wifi/voip handset
>to another within the house, i.e. within your own network.

I think in an ideal world you could make this work, but without a
"system" from someone I doubt it's going to do what you want.

>Someone answered it could be done but the SIP service would need
>to specifically cater to that or alternatively I could get my own mini SIP
>server.

Yeah, there's probably an Asterix solution, but I don't know enough
about it yet, and it's nontrivial...

> Thanks for your reaction but it didn't address my questions which were
> pertaining to a comparison of DECT to WIFI/VOIP, particularly with regards
> to internal home phone calls.

The question was wrong

It's not Wifi that's enabling the internal calls but the service
provider.

I use Vonage (and have used others) and have both a mix of cordless and
corded phones. I can call between them although they are both (in my
case) on different numbers.

I haven't seen any specific wifi phones that allow intercalling but then
I haven't looked. They tend to be suited towards use for either home or
hostspot but not building a DECT pbx which is what you're asking for. I
would have thought though that you could create a speed dial for the SIP
endpoint of each phone by IP address so you should be able to at least
call between them, which extra services you could achieve would be
somewhat more dependent on what you bought.

I still raise the issue that simply replacing DECT with Wifi isn't the
solution if you are already experiencing radio signal problems. Wifi
won't solve that without a supporting wireless infrastructure which you
could also achieve with DECT basestation and repeaters.

David.

> with a strong senao AP and a decent 15 dbi omni (or 19, I forgot) and as I

That omni is probably a really bad choice as the pattern will be very
flat and you could find much worse coverage than with a lower gain.
Have you already performed a site survey to establish signal strength?

> said I dont have any dect stuff yet, I am replacing analog material. If I
> would go with dect I would be putting in a second wireless network which,
> though probably practical (voip/wifi still has a way to go), feels silly.

I disagree. There's nothing that annoys people on phones more than
constant voice break up which could happen with the wireless network if
people are using it heavily at the same time. I understand where you're
coming from regarding two networks but DECT isn't that difficult.

> server. By now the dect solution, even though I'll be putting in a second
> wireless network, seems the more practical approach. I guess what I'm
> looking for is an AP which has specific functionality to let two wifi/voip
> handsets attached to it talk to eachother. Havent seen these yet. We'll go
> with dect for the next 3 years and see things develop.

I don't see that as an AP function though, it's a function of the SIP
protocol, like I said in the other post, you should be able to call
between each phone as a SIP endpoint but may end up stuffing much more
in to achieve what can already be done easily with DECT. I stuck in a
wireless LAN with DECT PBX for a small office some years ago, worked
well for what they wanted and turned out a smart move because they moved
shortly afterwards and could take it all with them.

David.

David,

Thanks for your detailed replies below and to my other post.

"David Taylor" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) d.com...
> > with a strong senao AP and a decent 15 dbi omni (or 19, I forgot) and as
I
> That omni is probably a really bad choice as the pattern will be very
> flat and you could find much worse coverage than with a lower gain.
> Have you already performed a site survey to establish signal strength?

The surveys I've done for wifi are limited to trying different spots for the
AP and omni (not a commercial project). Possible placing spots were limited
due to the fact that it involves a museum and thus cables and drilling (from
phone line to AP) need to be kept to a minimum.
I will see how DECT performs with different placings with an old siemens
2015 and repeater the next time I'm at the site. I dont have any
professional tools for analyzing signal strength so walking around while
talking will have to do.

> > If I would go with dect I would be putting in a second wireless network
which,
> > though probably practical (voip/wifi still has a way to go), feels
silly.
> I disagree. There's nothing that annoys people on phones more than
> constant voice break up which could happen with the wireless network if
> people are using it heavily at the same time. I understand where you're
> coming from regarding two networks but DECT isn't that difficult.
Fully agree with the relevance of this drawback. It was more a theoretical
thinking approach.

Bob

> 2015 and repeater the next time I'm at the site. I dont have any
> professional tools for analyzing signal strength so walking around while
> talking will have to do.

You might find that the DECT phone has a survey mode. I had one that
did this after a few key presses, it would display signal strength.

If it's an off the shelf from Dixons then probably not or if it does,
finding the option which might not be exposed in the menu could be a
challenge

David.