Cordless Phones

geecee

Not sure if this is the correct board to post on or not... but it seems to me the best match...

I want to buy a cordless phone for my Eirocm landline.

I live in a fairly densely populated apartment area (for instance i can pick up 9 wireless networks - 3 of which are unsecured! Within the boundaries of the apt!)

If I buy a cordless phone is the Phone unit itself tied by some sort of mac type address or pasword to its base station? Or is it just frequency based?

In other words if one of my neighbours has the same model cordless phone (or even a completely different model) would they be capable of making calls over my landline?

With no way of checking day-to-day usage on my landline, i'd hate to be stuck with a massive phone bill, because my neighbours have been ringing Timbuktoo all month!

Any input would be appreciated!

tomk

DECT base stations are supplied with a 4-digit code, and handsets must be associated with a single base stations by entering that code. So your handset will only make calls through your base station, and your neighbours' through their base stations. If your neighbour wanted to associate with your base station, they would have to know your 4-digit code.

geecee

Hi TomK

Thanks for the reply...
What is a DECT base station?

Is the standard €30-50 cordless that they sell in Argos equipped with a DECT base station?

I want to buy one in town this afternoon!

Thanks In Advance!

tomk

DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) is the current standard for this type of equipment, and the base station is the unit that physically connects to the phone line, and also acts as a charger for the handset's batteries. All DECT phones comes with base stations, AFAIK - they wouldn't be much se otherwise. I don't know what make/model Argos supply, so I can't be specific.

DemoniK

If the Argos catalogue doesn't say it's a DECT then it's analogue wireless.

Basically it's frequency based. All of them use the same freqeuncy, but it's divided up into a number of channels - usually 65000. When you put the handset on the base station the phone and base negotiate a channel, and next channel (in case the channel is busy when you try and connect).

The problem with these phones is that - yes, once in a while a neighbours phone can make calls through your phone (very rare though), but more important is that since there is no encoding, anyone with suitable equipment can pick it up (Atmospheric conditions can cause reflecting of signals, causing harmonics which bring the frequency down from the main frequency - i.e. I could always pick my old one up by tuning a radio in LW).

DECT is much more complicated. Firstly your conversation is digitally encoded so you can't simply listen in. Secondly a handset must register via a PIN on the base station, as mentioned by tomk. It's important to change this PIN asap as DECT phones have ranges exceeding 100m and a neighbour can configure their phone to use your basestation if they know the defaul PIN, e.g. Eircom phones are the most popular, and made by Siemens, and the default PIN for siemens is usually 1234 (you can simply download the latest manuals for this).

And finally - defintely recommend a DECT set if you can afford it. Voice is clearer, etc.

-RikD

geecee

Hi Tomk
Bought a Philips DECT112T from Argos on sat.

2 x handsets and 2 x base stations for €45 (reduced from 70 in their summer sale)

So far I'm very happy with the units
I was able to change my PIN from the standard 0000 to one of my own choosing

Thanks for your advice!