Asterisk :: ZyXEL Prestige 2000W

[index] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Well, it looks cool (23-Sep-2004)

The ZyXEL handset was a gamble. It was a relatively new piece of hardware and there were only a few reviews I could find online. They were mixed reviews. Not to mention the fact that it was quite expensive.

I unboxed the P2000W and dropped it into its cradle to start the five hour charging process. I wonder if there's a market for pre-charged kit for impatient geeks. People will pay a fortune for next-day shipping and the pain and consternation of "first charge waiting period" on new toys is a near universal geek complaint.

While it charged I was able to play around with the keypad-based configuration. I tried dilligently to enter in my 802.11b ESSID information but the phone would not register on the network. Several attempts were foiled by a failure to contact the DHCP server. My server logs showed no request for an address so I just went ahead and configured it to use a static IP. This was a bit tricky due to flakiness of the user interface. Sometimes I found it would ignore the values I entered when I tried to apply them. After 30 minutes of fiddling I finally got a point where I could ping the phone. That's kind of cool, but not really very useful.

I was completely unable to get the phone to contact the asterisk box, however. The entry field for "SIP Proxy IP" would only take alphabetic input but the phone had no way for me to configure a DNS server. Despite putting in the proper hostname (in all caps) there was no way that the phone would be able to resolve that to an IP. I decided to try the built-in web-based configuration.

Caveat Browsor

I've found that the web-based configuration works about half the time and is dog slow. But it does manage to be sort of functional. Upon logging in the first time I discovered that my software version in the phone was version "WJ.00.0a". Too many zeros and a scary "a" in that version number. No wonder the interface felt so raw -- it's practically prerelease! I headed off to zyxel.com to see if there were any updates.

In fact there were several. The current version was already up to "WJ.00.0e". That's four releases since April (this was in September, so nearly one a month). The coders at ZyXEL might be poor UI designers, but they seemed to be trying to make up for it with furious activity. I downloaded and applied the firmware update. It's worth mentioning that the update failed when I used Firefox, but worked when I used IE. I didn't even bother trying to use the Mac to do it. Ignoring the scary and mostly-futile engrish warning "Do Not Lose Power!" it was a fairly quick and painless process (once I tried using IE).

I found the WJ.00.0e firmware solved my flaky DHCP problems and from there I was off and running. It did not, however, solve the near-crippling user interface and configuration problems that exist on the phone. Fact: It is impossible to configure the phone using just the keypad or just the web interface. Any successful configuration will require the use of both interfaces. For example, the web interface will not allow you to alter SIP Proxy IP/hostname. That can only be entered from the handset keypad. But the handset keypad has no option to set the DNS server addresses. Those can only be entered from the web-based configuration. Configuring it for the Wireless 802.11b network requires that you specifiy an 802.11b channel which means that if your access points are configured to automatically channel hop you will have poor results. It also means that in a roaming configuration with multiple access points that you will be unable to hop between access points unless they are on the same channel.

I took screenshots of the web-based configurator.

So how's it work?

First off let me say that I was quite surprised by the audio quality of calls. It's crisp, clear, and totally free of noise or static. Talking on the phone I frequently get worried that the call has dropped (the asterisk system is still new enough that I'm skittish) because when nobody is talking it's dead silent. People I call have no Idea I'm using a VoIP phone and claim it sounds better than my old cordless phone it replaced. It sounds GREAT.

However, the range is really awful and it's not capable of making use of my two access points. I reconfigured them to both use the same channel but I can't use the ZyXEL even when I'm standing out on my back patio. I suspect that it is not hopping to the access point which is in the back of my house. My powerbook gets a full five bars of signal on the patio and the ZyXEL is pretty much unusable. I get about 1/3rd the range I enjoyed from my traditional cordless phone. This could be solved in the software though, so I'm hopeful that ZyXEL will continue to improve their code and turn this into a useful product. The hardware seems solid (albeit slow) but it's ruined by the crippling mediocrity of the code.

Configuring this phone initially is a royal pain in the ass, but once I got it going I found it to be usable. My only real problem with it is the reduced range over the cordless phone it replaced. If ZyXEL could sort out the bugs with the roaming I'd be much more satisfied. If you enjoy being an early adopter and your house is small I'd recommend the phone but if you're looking for a smooth installation or range is important I think you'd be better served by getting a nice 5.3GHz traditional cordless and an FXS card or device. This is assuming asterisk use. The ZyXEL has PPPoE and point-to-point VoIP capabilities which I have not examined at all. It might be more or less useful in either of those two uses.

There are also a variety of small but annoying traits in the user interface. For instance, if you pick up the handset and try to dial a phone number, the first digit you press is "eaten" by the UI and interpreted as "please stop displaying the clock now, I want to do something". I'm sure I'll quickly develop the habit of entering an extraneous digit prior to dialing which will ruin me for using all my other phones. The ring tone melodies all sound awful, too. "Default" is the only one I can tolerate. I mean really awful. Not like "ewww, that sounds pretty lame". I mean "oh my god make that stop! make it stop!" bad.

Update, November 2004: I never use this phone. You're much better off with a cordless phone and an IAXy or other FXS port. The crippling user interface and underpowered hardware are just too much of a burden to utility. In practice I find this phone to be worse than useless. I'll keep an eye out for improved firmware but I'm not optimistic. Wait for the next generation of phones before you buy.

Next: Glue and Plumbing while I wait for my 7960 to arrive.