Wireless router and wireless phone - not a happy couple

My father has just bought a BT Voyager 2110 wireless ADSL router and has
found that it interferes with his wireless phone (a BT Quartet 1100).
Unfortunately the router needs to be placed close to the phone base unit.
The router and phone are connected to the same wall socket via the supplied
filter. At worst the phone won't work at all when the router is switched
on, at best it works but with a very loud background buzz.

I think the phone is an old analogue model rather than a DECT and I've been
unable to find out what frequency it uses. Switching channels on the phone
makes no difference. The router apparently uses 2.4GHz and is 802.11g and
802.11b compatible.

What are his options? Would a different phone, e.g. a DECT phone, make any
difference? Is there a way to change the router's frequency? I know next
to nothing about wireless networking and would appreciate any advice on
solving this!


Anthony.

Ant wrote:
> What are his options? Would a different phone, e.g. a DECT phone, make any
> difference? Is there a way to change the router's frequency? I know next
> to nothing about wireless networking and would appreciate any advice on
> solving this!

I don't know anything hard and scientific but we have a DECT phone and a
wireless lan and they don't interfere; however, the router is upstairs
and the base unit for the phone is downstairs. I don't think you can
significantly change the router's frequency although the "channel"
option should change it some. You could try setting the channel to the
other end of the range - ie. if it's set to 11 make it 1, for example.
The best option is almost certainly to move the base station for the
phone by using a phone line extension lead, if possible - that would
make interference less likely. DECT ought to work better with
interference than analogue in any case but the DECT base station might
not like being too close to the router either.

--
Phil

http://www.usefilm.com/photographer/31307.html

Ant wrote:
> My father has just bought a BT Voyager 2110 wireless ADSL router and has
> found that it interferes with his wireless phone (a BT Quartet 1100).
> Unfortunately the router needs to be placed close to the phone base unit.
> The router and phone are connected to the same wall socket via the supplied
> filter. At worst the phone won't work at all when the router is switched
> on, at best it works but with a very loud background buzz.

That's probably because the on-off nature of the router transmissions is
being demodulated by the phone circuitry, probably in the audio section.
It is a proximity effect so if you can move the router elsewhere it
might improve.

>
> I think the phone is an old analogue model rather than a DECT and I've been
> unable to find out what frequency it uses. Switching channels on the phone
> makes no difference. The router apparently uses 2.4GHz and is 802.11g and
> 802.11b compatible.

Phone is probably on 47MHz and 1.8MHz or thereabouts. Yes, the router
will be in the 2.4GHz ISM band.

>
> What are his options? Would a different phone, e.g. a DECT phone, make any
> difference? Is there a way to change the router's frequency? I know next
> to nothing about wireless networking and would appreciate any advice on
> solving this!

The phone is the probable culprit. DECT phones work at 1.88-1.9GHz and
are reasonably immune to the 2.4GHz signal. Ensure that you have a good
quality micro-filter on the ADSL signal on the phone line as some DECT
phones will interfere with the ADSL spectrum below 2MHz if any digital
noise from the phone can get into the wiring. You can't change the
router's frequency out of the 2.4GHz band, it is limited to that range
by design.

--

Brian Morrison

please observe reply-to address

Ant wrote:
> My father has just bought a BT Voyager 2110 wireless ADSL router and
> has found that it interferes with his wireless phone (a BT Quartet
> 1100). Unfortunately the router needs to be placed close to the phone
> base unit. The router and phone are connected to the same wall socket
> via the supplied filter. At worst the phone won't work at all when
> the router is switched on, at best it works but with a very loud
> background buzz.
>
> I think the phone is an old analogue model rather than a DECT and
> I've been unable to find out what frequency it uses. Switching
> channels on the phone makes no difference. The router apparently
> uses 2.4GHz and is 802.11g and 802.11b compatible.
>
> What are his options? Would a different phone, e.g. a DECT phone,
> make any difference? Is there a way to change the router's
> frequency? I know next to nothing about wireless networking and
> would appreciate any advice on solving this!
>
>
> Anthony.

I would think a DECT phone would offer a great improvement. You can pick up
a basic one for about £10 now.
--
Adrian A

"Brian Morrison" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Ant wrote:
>> My father has just bought a BT Voyager 2110 wireless ADSL router and has
>> found that it interferes with his wireless phone (a BT Quartet 1100).
>> Unfortunately the router needs to be placed close to the phone base unit.
>> The router and phone are connected to the same wall socket via the
>> supplied filter. At worst the phone won't work at all when the router is
>> switched on, at best it works but with a very loud background buzz.
>
> That's probably because the on-off nature of the router transmissions is
> being demodulated by the phone circuitry, probably in the audio section.
> It is a proximity effect so if you can move the router elsewhere it might
> improve.
>
>>
>> I think the phone is an old analogue model rather than a DECT and I've
>> been unable to find out what frequency it uses. Switching channels on
>> the phone makes no difference. The router apparently uses 2.4GHz and is
>> 802.11g and 802.11b compatible.
>
> Phone is probably on 47MHz and 1.8MHz or thereabouts. Yes, the router will
> be in the 2.4GHz ISM band.
>
>>
>> What are his options? Would a different phone, e.g. a DECT phone, make
>> any difference? Is there a way to change the router's frequency? I know
>> next to nothing about wireless networking and would appreciate any advice
>> on solving this!
>
> The phone is the probable culprit. DECT phones work at 1.88-1.9GHz and are
> reasonably immune to the 2.4GHz signal. Ensure that you have a good
> quality micro-filter on the ADSL signal on the phone line as some DECT
> phones will interfere with the ADSL spectrum below 2MHz if any digital
> noise from the phone can get into the wiring. You can't change the
> router's frequency out of the 2.4GHz band, it is limited to that range by
> design.

Many thanks to everyone who replied. I passed on the comments and he went
out and bought a BT Studio 500 Twin DECT phone to replace the old Quartet
1100. That did the trick! Everything works fine now.


Anthony.