Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and Asterisk? We have and here are my impressions. We configured an Asterisk in the office as a precaution to see how it would work for our own retail customers. Our office is open space, about 800 sq ft. (20x40 area). We use Snom200 and Grandstream SIP phones. Using the latest Linksys wireless access point (WAP54g) and 3 wireless bridges (WET54g), I have found that it works most of the time with WPA encryption on, but will occasionally drop voice (loosing packets). With no encryption on the WLAN it seems to work without a hitch! Using a less CPU intense encryption such as 64bit WEP, things also work fine. There must be too much delay with higher rate encryption. Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week puppy in the litter. It could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed to have problems under all configurations. Finally we positioned it such that it too works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 wireless bridges in close proximity would have anything to do with the signal strength? I would doubt it though. Anyone else with other experiences to share regarding wireless LANs and encryption? I'd me interested to hear them. Thanks, Mike Meyer GenDesign Corporation
>Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and Asterisk?I have played with the LocustWorld distro but not at length. Basically, it works. Some sort of QoS tagging for SIP, the docs on it are scanty. It has it's own internal encryption. Never tried it in full force, mostly because of extremely poor WiFi device support. The Intersil Prism2 chipset with the rev. that Linux likes is becoming scarce these days. Great concept, needs more work on device support. www.locustworld.com
We are a wireless ISP running Asterisk as an IVR in our office. Our office is connected via wireless to our Internet gateway some 4 miles away. I have had 4 calls going at once without and static or dropped packets. We have deployed normal VoIP services to our customers that are a minimum of 2 wireless hops away from the gateway with little or no problems. Wireless bridges should not interfere with each other as long as they can "hear" each other. --- Kelly D Griffin Network Engineer Tantella Wireless http://tantella.com 800.636.0306 Voice 479.464.8998 Fax -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Mike Meyer Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:39 PM To: Asterisk Users Group Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Wireless LANs and Asterisk Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and Asterisk? We have and here are my impressions. We configured an Asterisk in the office as a precaution to see how it would work for our own retail customers. Our office is open space, about 800 sq ft. (20x40 area). We use Snom200 and Grandstream SIP phones. Using the latest Linksys wireless access point (WAP54g) and 3 wireless bridges (WET54g), I have found that it works most of the time with WPA encryption on, but will occasionally drop voice (loosing packets). With no encryption on the WLAN it seems to work without a hitch! Using a less CPU intense encryption such as 64bit WEP, things also work fine. There must be too much delay with higher rate encryption. Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week puppy in the litter. It could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed to have problems under all configurations. Finally we positioned it such that it too works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 wireless bridges in close proximity would have anything to do with the signal strength? I would doubt it though. Anyone else with other experiences to share regarding wireless LANs and encryption? I'd me interested to hear them. Thanks, Mike Meyer GenDesign Corporation _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Mike, I'm using Asterisk over a wireless LAN (Netgear something or the other). I use my desktop as the server and a laptop for remote administration and testing. So far, I haven't had any major problems that I would attribute to the wireless connectivity. Cheers, BeOnIce --- Mike Meyer <mjmeyer@gendesign.com> wrote:> Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and > Asterisk? > > We have and here are my impressions. > > We configured an Asterisk in the office as a > precaution to see how it > would work for our own retail customers. Our office > is open space, about > 800 sq ft. (20x40 area). We use Snom200 and > Grandstream SIP phones. > > Using the latest Linksys wireless access point > (WAP54g) and 3 wireless > bridges (WET54g), I have found that it works most of > the time with WPA > encryption on, but will occasionally drop voice > (loosing packets). With > no encryption on the WLAN it seems to work without a > hitch! Using a less > CPU intense encryption such as 64bit WEP, things > also work fine. There > must be too much delay with higher rate encryption. > > Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week > puppy in the litter. It > could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed > to have problems > under all configurations. Finally we positioned it > such that it too > works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 > wireless bridges in > close proximity would have anything to do with the > signal strength? I > would doubt it though. > > Anyone else with other experiences to share > regarding wireless LANs and > encryption? I'd me interested to hear them. > > > Thanks, > Mike Meyer > GenDesign Corporation > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com >http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > >http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users>__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
On Thu, 2005-02-10 at 12:39 -0600, Mike Meyer wrote:> Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and Asterisk? > > We have and here are my impressions. > > We configured an Asterisk in the office as a precaution to see how it > would work for our own retail customers. Our office is open space, about > 800 sq ft. (20x40 area). We use Snom200 and Grandstream SIP phones. > > Using the latest Linksys wireless access point (WAP54g) and 3 wireless > bridges (WET54g), I have found that it works most of the time with WPA > encryption on, but will occasionally drop voice (loosing packets). With > no encryption on the WLAN it seems to work without a hitch! Using a less > CPU intense encryption such as 64bit WEP, things also work fine. There > must be too much delay with higher rate encryption. > > Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week puppy in the litter. It > could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed to have problems > under all configurations. Finally we positioned it such that it too > works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 wireless bridges in > close proximity would have anything to do with the signal strength? I > would doubt it though. > > Anyone else with other experiences to share regarding wireless LANs and > encryption? I'd me interested to hear them.I wonder if you wouldn't have been better off price and performance wise to have used the 10 mbit to powerline adapters. For corded phones, you have to be at a power outlet and you could easily have bought a few of them for the same price as one bridge. My recent playing with a wireless bridge semi annoyed me. I had to put a firewall behind it to get more than 1 device to hop the bridge. I do have to admit though that I enjoy only plugging into power for my remote office space now. -- Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
Hi Mike, This is interesting - it's something that I've been considering doing for the Asterisk rollout at my company. We don't have enough Ethernet ports and I'm not thrilled about the expense of re-wiring the place. Have you tried D-Link's dual-channel gear for even more bandwidth, or do you feel that bandwidth is not really a problem? How resilient is 802.11g against interference from other sources? Microwave ovens, gigarange phones, etc. Thanks for reporting your success here to the list, just proves I'm not alone with my funny ideas. ......jurgen On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 12:39:00 -0600, Mike Meyer <mjmeyer@gendesign.com> wrote:> Has anyone had any experience with wireless LANs and Asterisk? > > We have and here are my impressions. > > We configured an Asterisk in the office as a precaution to see how it > would work for our own retail customers. Our office is open space, about > 800 sq ft. (20x40 area). We use Snom200 and Grandstream SIP phones. > > Using the latest Linksys wireless access point (WAP54g) and 3 wireless > bridges (WET54g), I have found that it works most of the time with WPA > encryption on, but will occasionally drop voice (loosing packets). With > no encryption on the WLAN it seems to work without a hitch! Using a less > CPU intense encryption such as 64bit WEP, things also work fine. There > must be too much delay with higher rate encryption. > > Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week puppy in the litter. It > could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed to have problems > under all configurations. Finally we positioned it such that it too > works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 wireless bridges in > close proximity would have anything to do with the signal strength? I > would doubt it though. > > Anyone else with other experiences to share regarding wireless LANs and > encryption? I'd me interested to hear them. > > Thanks, > Mike Meyer > GenDesign Corporation > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Users mailing list > Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >-- thinger@gmail.com is jurgen's gmail address. Visit http://jurgen.ca/ for more yummy goodness.
Mike Meyer wrote: <snip>> > Also we had one bridge that seemed to be a week puppy in the litter. It > could only muster 60-70% signal strength. It seemed to have problems > under all configurations. Finally we positioned it such that it too > works well running WEP 64b. I wonder if having 3 wireless bridges in > close proximity would have anything to do with the signal strength? I > would doubt it though. >My memory fails me but for at least one of the wireless standards (802.11a or .11b or .11g or 802.16) there is power control for the rf output of access points. Having several points close together would cause a reduction of power output. I know this isn't a full answer but.... Don Pobanz