WiFi Phone from Office Depot
Normally $199, this little item was found lost and lonely on the clearance table yesterday at Office Depot, price was marked as $19.95. No manual, no software, just open box, phone and AC adapter. I bought it of course.
Had some troubles getting it to work with one of my WiFi networks (WEP and Broadcast SSID off) Switched to a less restrictive one, and bingo it worked. Then after reading the online manual at ZyXel I foung it has a mini webserver built in. I connected and set the unit up to talk with one of my Asterisk boxes. After reading the Asterisk wiki, and tinkering with the extension.conf file, I found the right combination. I got a little worried when a couple of the entries mentioned that firmware after a certain date in May 2005 would no longer connect to Asterisk.
I found the most current revision of firmware and flashed the unit. Went without a hitch and I was still able to connect. Then I did a little further reading on ZyXel web site (which by the way is poorly laid out) and found there was a newer version of the same phone, the Prestige 2000W V2. They looked identical, and specs were similar. I looked at the ZyXel FTP site and found there was an even newer of the Firmware for the V2 (June 2005). I took a chance and flashed the unit again with the V2 firmware. Went off again without a problem. Phone works great. I used it today from home, as well as from a couple open WAP's around the town (North Orange County). I tried getting it to work at Tmobile/Starbucks but the Tmobile network uses a small login application that is web based, so I couldnt get connected properly (authenticated - as I was getting the initial IP address).
I just set the unit up to do Ad-Hoc, so I can use my Powerbook's net connection to make calls from the phone. Of course if the Powerbook is with me on the road, I will use either Gizmo or SJPhone (SIP) - but I had to try.
Hopefully there is another update to allow you to connect/take advantage of WAPs like Tmobile in the future.
The battery life is pretty bad (maybe thats why it was returned). The battery lasted all of 4 hours, no talking.
Had some troubles getting it to work with one of my WiFi networks (WEP and Broadcast SSID off) Switched to a less restrictive one, and bingo it worked. Then after reading the online manual at ZyXel I foung it has a mini webserver built in. I connected and set the unit up to talk with one of my Asterisk boxes. After reading the Asterisk wiki, and tinkering with the extension.conf file, I found the right combination. I got a little worried when a couple of the entries mentioned that firmware after a certain date in May 2005 would no longer connect to Asterisk.
I found the most current revision of firmware and flashed the unit. Went without a hitch and I was still able to connect. Then I did a little further reading on ZyXel web site (which by the way is poorly laid out) and found there was a newer version of the same phone, the Prestige 2000W V2. They looked identical, and specs were similar. I looked at the ZyXel FTP site and found there was an even newer of the Firmware for the V2 (June 2005). I took a chance and flashed the unit again with the V2 firmware. Went off again without a problem. Phone works great. I used it today from home, as well as from a couple open WAP's around the town (North Orange County). I tried getting it to work at Tmobile/Starbucks but the Tmobile network uses a small login application that is web based, so I couldnt get connected properly (authenticated - as I was getting the initial IP address).
I just set the unit up to do Ad-Hoc, so I can use my Powerbook's net connection to make calls from the phone. Of course if the Powerbook is with me on the road, I will use either Gizmo or SJPhone (SIP) - but I had to try.
Hopefully there is another update to allow you to connect/take advantage of WAPs like Tmobile in the future.
The battery life is pretty bad (maybe thats why it was returned). The battery lasted all of 4 hours, no talking.