# DECT 6.0 phones and wireless interference



## tilt (Mar 3, 2005)

Hi,

I was given to understand that the advantage of a DECT 6.0 phone over a 2.x or a 5.8 phone was that the wireless will not be interrupted when the phone is in use. It seems to be incorrect.

I recently bought a Panasonic DECT 6.0 phone set to replace my 2.4 gig set. Now whenever the phone rings or whenever someone in my house makes a call, I lose the wireless connection for a couple of seconds and then it comes back. I have tested this a few times to make sure that this was not a coincidence.

I convinced my wife that we needed the DECT 6.0 set and spent some money on it and now she's mad whenever she's on Skype with her family and the phone rings she gets cut off. Guess who gets to bear the brunt of her displeasure.

Is there something in the phone setup or Airport Express setup that I should do to prevent this? Or is the claim of DECT 6.0 not interfering with wireless just another empty claim to sell newer phones?

Cheers


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

My understanding of this (and I'm no expert by any means) is the DECT part is not actually causing your problem, but the electromagnetic interference of the BASE STATION could be an issue.

Try moving the base station as far away from your wireless router and see if that improves things. Also, if "interference robustness" is still an option with your wireless, enable that.


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## tilt (Mar 3, 2005)

Thanks for the quick response Chas. My Base station is in the kitchen on the ground floor and my Airport Express is in one of the bedrooms on the top floor. And yes, Interference Robustness has always been enabled.

Cheers


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

My understanding was the reverse--that nothing would interfere with the DECT signal.


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## tilt (Mar 3, 2005)

Macfury said:


> My understanding was the reverse--that nothing would interfere with the DECT signal.


Well, nothing interfered with my 900 MHz phone or 2.4 gig phone or my 5.8 gig phone, but my 2.4 gig phones did interrupt my wireless connection 

Sometimes I wish I could still buy the 900 MHz phones - these were the best of the lot. Clear audio, no wireless drops, no phone signal drops, but big huge handsets LOL

Cheers


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## james_squared (May 3, 2002)

*wee*

I cannot say for sure about your settings, but I can say for sure that neither our 900MHz or DECT 6.0 phones caused problems with our wireless network.

I am certainly not an expert in this field, but I wonder if there might be interference from the phone cables themselves and your wireless connection or electrical issues or something similar. Some things to consider may be:

Are your phone jacks or phone cables near your base station?
Are they plugged into the same outlet (including power bar)?
Are you using ADSL?
Is it a drop in the wireless signal or does the actual base station lose power (even for a just a second)?

Best of luck.

James


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Well, although it's alleged to do no good in this case, try changing the "channel" the wireless network uses.


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

.


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## tilt (Mar 3, 2005)

Chas, thanks, I shall try changing the channel.

James, thahnks for responding. Yes, of course there is a phone cable near the base station, the cable that's connecting the base station to the wall-socket. However, the socket itself is a few feet away from the base station. 

No, they are not plugged into the same bar.

And no, I do not use ADSL, I am on cable.

I do not know if the base station loses power, how do I find out if it is just for less than a second or so? And yes, the wireless signal drops and comes back within a second, but that's enough to disconnect Skype. It does not bother me when i am not on Skype because the connection comes back and if I am just browsing, I do not even notice it; but on Skype it is glaringly noticeable, and mostly when my wife is on Skype, because that's when I use the phone.

Cheers


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## kls (Mar 12, 2007)

*channel changing worked for me*

Thanks for posting the channel changing suggestion chas_m

My wireless router was crawling at a snail's pace after I set up my new DECT 6 corldess phone. My apartment has only 1 phone jack so moving the phone and router physically apart is quite difficult. 

Changing the wireless signal channel worked like a charm.


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

I've got a Pansonic DECT set (KX-TG1033S), as well as a 802.11g network. The DECT phones don't interfere with anything. DECT operates on the 1.8Ghz - 1.9Ghz frequency, and shouldn't interfere with a wireless network in the 2.4Ghz range.


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## RandyPrue (May 10, 2010)

To resurrect this old topic, yesterday I bought 3 Uniden DECT 3.0 phones and a new iMac.

My wireless router is part of the modem (from Bell Sympatico) made by 2Wire.com: Home. Using ooVoo on the new iMac (ooVoo is like skype but allows conference calls. We were 3 or 4 on this call (sometimes we wanted to be 4, but there were other problems besides the DECT interference).

The Uniden box states "Will not interfere with WiFi networks." So, while on ooVoo, I was on the phone with one participant, setting up things. As soon as we hung up the phone, my connection to the conference disappeared (froze, etc.). The router/modem sent a message to my browser that the network was not available.

Repeatedly, and until the last time, I was joking that the phone was disconnecting the conference, every time I disconnected the phone call, the router went down.

The router is a room away, and the new phone base is connected to the same filter that my old (now dead) 900 MHz Sanyo phone (which I would gladly buy a lifetime supply of) was connected to and there has NEVER been a problem.

The problem is the phones, before someone tries to claim otherwise. The problem IS THE PHONE. I will try to move it, and for now, I am not using those phones while online, but part of my work is to be online with a customer and on the phone at the same time.

That is why I bought the phones. It looked to me like every cordless phone in the store was a DECT 6.0

If someone knows how to change the channel on my wireless, I would try that. I have never heard of changing the channel on a router or modem (yet).

Tanks in advance!


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