Portable phone interrupting internet connection?

Question

My roommate and I each have a laptop. I have a Sony Vaio VGN CR120E and she has some kind of crappy Gateway she got this past Christmas. We bought a new portable phone, and everytime we use it it interrupts her internet connection which is provided by the cable company and routed through a D-Link. Why would the phone interrupt her signal and not mine and how do we fix that?

Answer 1

The majority of cordless phones in use today are 2.4GHz models. These phones, innocent as they may seem, reap devastating effects on 802.11b WLANs. Finding cases where 2.4GHz phones severely interfere with 802.11b WLANs is usually an easy task. Some 802.11b WLANs have even been totally shut down by somebody simply answering a 2.4GHz cordless phone.

Most 2.4GHz phones use frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) technology that operates within the 2.4GHz spectrum. FHSS hops from frequency-to-frequency across the entire 2.4GHz spectrum. 802.11b WLANs, on the other hand, use direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), which transmits within approximately one third of the 2.4 GHz spectrum. Because FHSS jumps across the entire spectrum while DSSS stays in only one portion, a FHSS 2.4GHz will clobber an 802.11b network, causing interference or even failure.

Somethings that you can try that have worked for me in the past are -

*  With 802.11b systems, try changing the channel on the access point (at least try 1, 6, and 11).   Usually 11 seems to have the least amount of overlap and works the best around  phones.

    * With 802.11a systems, change to any one of the channels that are not in use by the cordless phone.

    * Change the location of the access point or the cordless phone base. Maximize the distance between the cordless phones and WLAN devices, especially WLAN users operating at the fringes of access point range.

    * If you have the option, use an external, remote antenna on your computer. This will let you place the antenna as far away as possible from a cordless phone.

    * Operate the cordless phone with the antenna in the lowered position if possible. This will dampen the RF signal coming from the cordless phone and reduce the amount of interference.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Ok i'm dont know exactly however I can maby help a little bit.  First type in 192.168.0.1 in the url bar at the top of the screen.  Then a box should pop up asking for a name and password, put admin as the name and leave the password field blank.  your now in the config page.  Ive never used a d-link ever so I cant help past this point but just browse around all of the pages and make shure not to change anything and eventuially you should find a box where you can click and change the wireless channel.  just keep trying channels until this dosnt happen.  Im also really sorry i cant help that much but ive never used a d-link so i dont know what to click.  Good luck. also regarding weather it is an a or b connection it is both wireless B and G .

Answer 3

Classic. My parents were having this for a while - You probably have a 2.4GHz cordless phone in your house. These randomly jump channels to improove clarity, security, and privacy but they aren't "friendly" with other wireless devices like networks and stomp all over the network, obliterating it's signal.  Your computer sees an interruption with the signal and then you're disconnected.

The only sure-fire fix is getting a new phone that's not on the same 2.4GHz band.

Put your wireless router as high up as you can and as far from electrical and metal things as you can, that'll give you the best coverage.  Try to put it in the middle of where you expect to be (usually the middle of the house).  If you have 2.4GHz cordless phones you may want to replace them with 5.8GHz, 900MHz, or the new DECT6.0 phones that won't cause interference.  Also, wireless video senders, or wireless cameras that run on 2.4GHz should be set to the farthest channel from your router (e.g. set video sender to 1 or A and put the router on channel 11).  Channels 1, 6, and 11 are preferable because they don't "overlap" with each other.