sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Samsung Telephones & Systems 5100 handset on user's own wireless?

I've put in a lot of IP hard wired sets in end user's home networks, but never one of the wireless samsung 5100's. My understanding is they work off of the same 802.11 standard, and that you can use them with a regular brand X 802.11 wireless router.

Anyone done this and what has your experience been?

To provide a quick answer... yes.

If you are going to be setting up a WIP phone at a customer's house to connect back to their system at work... be prepared for problems. I have done this but I always run into problems with one way audio and the problems are always in the router.

Where I have had good luck is setting up a router-to-router VPN from the customer’s house back to the office. You then use the LAN IP address and all the traffic flows over the VPN tunnel.

You will need the latest software on the phones. There are a few different steps to set them up, but if you have the documentation from Samsung... you should be good to go.

Cheap routers in our experience are problem causers. We have set up some decent quality routers for home offices - with out VPN with quite good results.

There are naturally the normal caveats - home network issues with other home users - no bit torrents can be going on at the same time etc.

Also, home internet is often non-static IP addresses which adds to the difficulty. We have had really good experiences with Soekris routers, although i think the VPN is a little slow on the earlier models.

Thanks for the replies guys. I've had pretty good luck with the IP desk phones on basic customer routers like DLink, Netgear, and Linksys. CIT, are you saying that the wireless sets are more problematic just because they are wireless? If I have a deskset that works fine with the customers brand X router directly plugged in, shouldn't a wireless set work fine with the same routers wireless protocol?

the troubles we had were to do with port forwarding, and found the linksys didnt always do what we programmed it to. Replace with a dlink and it ran solid.

Yes... the ITP Phone was working without problems, but the SIP Phone had one way audio problems.

Most inexpensive routers are a hit or miss. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they work for a while, then there are problems. Anytime we are dealing with VoIP, we try to get the customer to use Cisco products and VPN tunnels.

I forgot to mention... WRichey has run into problems with VoIP and I think it was related to the Linksys router at the customer’s remote site. Hopefully he chimes in because it was last month and I can't remember back that far!

Slept since then right.

Marc is right, Linksys seems to be a bone of contention with Samsung products. I will pm anyone wanting more detail. One way audio is not the only issue. For example an ITP user behind a Linksys router with 1.0.0 firmware works great. On th very same system and router but in a different part of town. Could make phone calls and receive them. But could not intercom or use the voice mail. Vernon hit it on the head, we replaced the router with a dlink and BAM no issues what so ever.

As for the wireless. In all honesty yes it will work but you will spend more time messing with it than using it. If you don't have a HIGH quality router/firewall in place.

Thanks again for the replies.

I have the wireless 5100 set now and am trying to set it up on my home router. It fails to register. Seems to connect to my router OK, but the only way I can tell is to look at the DHCP clients list. Phone is very vague as to what the problem is, unlike the desk itp phones.

Anyone here know if this will work on OS500 with 2.75b software? I think tech support may have told me that it requires 2.76a on OS100/500's.

What version is the phone software. You must be on the latest version.

You also need the latest OfficeServ Wireless QRG from Samsung because you will need to put the phone in Non-SIP mode and you will need to make some programming changes in the MMCs that deal with the WIP Phones.

Feel free to shoot me a PM for more specific requirements. I can't get into the details in the public forum.