Airtunes/Wireless phone issue
Okay, so I've got a 2.4 Gigahertz wireless phone that when I use cuts out my iTunes getting to my speakers through AirTunes. Sometimes the music will come back in during the middle of phone use, sometimes it won't at all until I physically press play again, and sometimes it comes back on its own after I hang up. Is this just a physical space issue maybe? Where I need to separate the laptop farther from the phone? Words of advice appreciated.
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Originally posted by Meeces
Okay, so I've got a 2.4 Gigahertz wireless phone that when I use cuts out my iTunes getting to my speakers through AirTunes. Sometimes the music will come back in during the middle of phone use, sometimes it won't at all until I physically press play again, and sometimes it comes back on its own after I hang up. Is this just a physical space issue maybe? Where I need to separate the laptop farther from the phone? Words of advice appreciated.
Did you try changing the channel on your phone?
The bottom line is this: 2.4 gig cordless phones wreck havoc on wireless networks. Some more than others. Why, I can't say. But I know in my home office, I simply hate to get rid of the 2.4 gig phones and upgrade to 5.8 gig phones. But beware, some of the 5.8 gig phones use 2.4 gig technology and will also be somewhat, though less, problematic. I'm using Uniden, for example, and occassionally I'll watch my network drop off while on that phone. If I were doing it again, I'd spring for the panasonic 5.8's, as I believe they make a much more solid phone and don't incorporate the 2.4 technology.
Don't get me wrong, all the advice here is solid but I've been through the threads on mac discussion boards, hundreds of posts long, all with the same problems. If want your wireless network you gotta rethink your phone situation.
Best of luck.
The short answer is there is no cheap and easy solution. Using Interface Robustness does help but also creates some interesting noises when initially using the phone. And it doesn't guarantee your wireless network will remain operative - I find that it goes down 50% of the time when the phone is use.
Should this problem be frustrating enough, I would suggest nirrad's decision to change phones is perhaps the best course of action.
Another option is to downgrade the phone. I bought a 900MHz cordless phone just to avoid this problem. It was something like $15 at Fry's.
I just checked pricegrabber.com and there are several 900MHz cordless phones for under $20.
As far as moving the AE base station away from the phone base station: as I mentioned in my first post, there are lots of these types of "corrective fixes". The moving of the base stations is one of the first things that level one apple tech support will suggest to you. I did not find it very helpful. Then again, the only thing I did find helpful was replacing the 2.4 gig phones.
Good luck.