Making a VOIP phone wireless
October 21, 2011 10:16 AM Subscribe
My VOIP phone requires a wired ethernet connection. But after an office redesign, my VOIP phone is now far enough away from the router than an ethernet cable isn't an option. Is there any way to get the VOIP phone (LinksysIP phone SPA 942) connected to my router via wifi? Some way to make it seem like it's on ethernet (like a wireless ethernet adapter or something)?
Wireless ethernet bridges are also often called Wireless Gaming Adapters. I've had good experiences with the Linksys ones in particular...very handy for non-gaming related scenarios (eg. hooking up a PC to a wireless network on a mobile cart was one example)
posted by samsara at 10:35 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by samsara at 10:35 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yes you can do it with a wireless bridge, but there's a non zero chance that you're going to end up with problems with voice quality due to packet loss. If having decent qualities calls is important to you, I'd try and figure out how to run an ethernet cable, if possible.
posted by empath at 1:15 PM on October 21, 2011
posted by empath at 1:15 PM on October 21, 2011
A powerline adapter (if you have a power outlet close enough) is another option. Supposedly the speeds are as good as a regular wired ethernet connection, but I find that dubious. It will probably be faster than a wifi connection though.
posted by calistasm at 6:37 PM on October 21, 2011
posted by calistasm at 6:37 PM on October 21, 2011
How far away is it? You can go something like 100 feet or more with an Ethernet cable before you start to get significant signal drop off. Add a hub in the middle if needed. But cable should reach...
posted by caution live frogs at 8:46 PM on October 21, 2011
posted by caution live frogs at 8:46 PM on October 21, 2011
100 meters is the standard for 10/100 ethernet. I would really, really suggest figuring a way to get it cabled right and not use wireless. Voip devices CAN work on wireless, but you need a router/accesspoint that is Voip aware in order to get any kind of decent quality out of it.
If you must go wireless, set your devices to (try to) use a lower bandwidth rate. Voip only needs something like 64kbps, and lower rates on wireless are more robust signal-wise. Speed isn't the concern, it is that wireless is necessarily a shared medium, and Voip doesn't like that.
posted by gjc at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2011
If you must go wireless, set your devices to (try to) use a lower bandwidth rate. Voip only needs something like 64kbps, and lower rates on wireless are more robust signal-wise. Speed isn't the concern, it is that wireless is necessarily a shared medium, and Voip doesn't like that.
posted by gjc at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by SpecialK at 10:19 AM on October 21, 2011 [1 favorite]