WiFi and Cordless phones can get along just fine. Yes; there can be snags but they can be worked around and, in general, with a little care it will just work. In any case, none of the snags are fatal and all can be solved.
The brief how-to for WiFi & cordless is below but first just a brief note about our good friend Comcast.
The instigation of this post is a notice posted on Twitter.com (aka, a "tweet") reporting that a new Comcast telephone service customer was told by the service installer that it is "not an option" to use her cordless phone and a wireless WiFi router together.
That's not correct.
A second tweet has the Comcast Field Tech ("FT") explaining that it can't be done, "because they plug into the same box, [and thus] you can't keep the cordless phone base away from the router." (A regular telephone extension cord works -- available at most drug stores.)
That makes the third time that I've run into this misstatement by Comcast FTs in the last few months. Two others were tech support clients of mine who were told the same thing by Comcast FTs and who had, in turn, hired me to come in to "help get the internet going". The clients both told me that the FT had told them, straight out, that "you can't use cordless with WiFi" but in both cases we got it all working just fine in about 5-10 minutes.
The nice folks at ComcastCares (on Twitter, etc.) would also be able to help you solve this -- at least I think that they would be able to. (They will now, LOL)
By passing out this faulty information Comcast is also forcing many customers to loose the valuable services of their cordless phones or WiFi routers and, in some cases, causing them additional expense by hiring the likes of me.
All this simply because the Comcast "Field Techs" are just not adequately trained for the tasks that they are given. And really all it would take, in this case, is a piece of paper with some simple tips and an instruction to the FT to hand it out. Or maybe just put the tip sheet in the box for the customer.
Bottom line: the FT gives poor service to the Comcast customer and the reputation of Comcast gets another heartfelt and, unfortunately, well-deserved whack. Please Comcastcares; don't roll a truck on this one-on-one problem. Just get a little info to the field techs..
OK: enough of that. Now to the solution.
How-to get Wifi and Cordless Phones to Work Together.
(Even when involved in the Comcast Three-Way)
The answer comes in two parts: one for if you're going to buy a brand new cordless phone and the second for not brand-new cordless phones.
If you're about to buy a brand new cordless phone, look for one that expressly says "WiFi Friendly" on the box. That doesn't mean potential problems are completely solved, but it does mean that the phone will be programmed to sense nearby WiFi networks and to try to program itself "around" them.
NOTE: this is not the same as a "WiFi phone". That's a completely different animal. You want "WiFi Friendly."
If you already have a cordless phone or cordless system (show of hands for who doesn't?) and you want to keep using it, then some simple steps will make it completely usable and noise free in 90% or 95% of cases. (I haven't run into one yet where it didn't, though I've heard that they exist.)
By the way; these steps are also useful with "WiFi Friendly" phones. "Friendly" doesn't mean perfect.
By the way #2; you can do just enough of these to make it work, but if you do them all then there's a good chance you'll never have to think about it again.
Step 1: Physically separate the base units as much as possible ("AMAP"). If you can only get a few feet, take it. If you can't get any, try it anyway. It might work but if not, you'll know where to start looking for a solution.
Even if the phone and Wifi router connect to the same device where the service first enters your home or office, you can still separate them quite easily. Good quality telephone extension lines are inexpensive even for long runs. (I just got 50 feet of good phone line with factory installed plugs at Radio Shack for less than $15. A 25' cable was under $6.)
In fact, you can actually connect from your cable modem into your house telephone but that takes some special care and it's not for this post. The point is; with a little phone extension cord, you can easily separate the cordless phone base unit from the WiFi router/access point.
Step 2: Set the phone and WiFi to distant channels. The channel numbers in WiFi and cordless phones do not correspond to each other directly, but they do correspond in terms of direction. That is: lower channel numbers are at the lower end of the frequency band and higher numbers are at the higher end of the frequencies. So: if you set the WiFi to channel 1 and then set the cordless phone to the highest channel it has, you can be pretty sure that you have them separated as must as possible that way.
Step 3: Have the phone "search" for the cleanest channel. Most modern cordless phones have some button set to "seek" (or some word like that) the channel with the least interference. In this case, set up the WiFi and turn it all on, separate the base units AMAP as in step 1, and then turn on the phone and tell it to "seek" an open channel.
It's a good idea to take the phone into another room or little way away from the Wifi equipment just to give it the best possible opportunity to find an open channel.
Step 4. While using the phones and your computers, AMAP keep them away from each other. If you've done all of the above then at this point you probably won't be running into many problems. But if the phone gets noisy or the internet connection gets dropped, notice if you've accidentally set the phone down on top of the computer. Doah!
Even when the phone is "on the hook" or turned "off" it is still on the air and looking for a call from it's base station.
Optional Step 5: if your WiFi stuff is all "b" class or older, consider upgrading to newer "G" or newest "N" grade WiFi. Both are better equipped to be "cordless friendly" (though neither will admit it in public.)
That's it. Sorry to take so long to get here. Post questions if any or send an email. Or Tweet to @XXP. That Twitter is pretty cool.
PS: if you're getting phone service from your cable company, don't forget to keep a working cell phone handy! Seriously. Google "my cable is out" and see how many new hits you get. Do it.
Thanks for the hot tips. I've done most of this but managing the cordless "channel" is something I didn't do ... my phone doesn't enable that so perhaps it's time for a new cordless phone! Brilliant!
Thanks Lisa. (A real reply is amazingly heartening and motivating!)
This "need a new phone" is happening here too. Not because of channels, per se, but a bunch of needed features. Maybe the motivation will extend to a blog entry about it. Hmmm.
It's a rare cordless phone of the modern era that doesn't have a button labeled "chn" or "ch" or some other abbreviation for channel. That's a clue about your phone: one that places it out of the recent modern era and makes it either Really Old or so modern that it is a DECT type in which manually selected channels are made irrelevant.
If it's that new and you still have interference then you've got something else happening. It might be that the phone is malfunctioning in some way or, more likely, there's something in your proximity that is generating a lot of radio noise. Could be an appliance in your house or it could be equipment outside but nearby -- maybe at a construction site near your house?
Good luck! Now... about my phone search....