This review originally appeared as a three part series on the old Archatechs blog. During our move we decided to condense it into the following post. There are still quite a few active comments scatter around the original three posts. While we'd prefer people comment on this post, you may wish to view those comments here.
Part 1 - The Mythical WIP330 Arrives (and gets reviewed)
For the true Alpha Geeks out there, don’t
worry.We are going to wrap up our look at at
interfacing Asterisk and iTunes soon. However, the
good people at FedEx worked
extra hard this week to bring the
Linksys WIP330 phone to my door. This thing is
so new that Linksys has not (as of writing)
announced the phone on their consumer site- here
take a look. We’ve been working hard to
get one in our lab for over a month and
interfacing Asterisk and iTunes soon. However,
the good people at FedEx worked a half, and we
are exited to provide one of the first reviews
of the phone. In addition we are going to
include a bit of a tutorial in using the WIP330
with Asterisk@home.
But first, why on earth are we so excited about a $350 phone? The WIP330 is a wireless (wifi) SIP phone. If you remember from our VoIP a year later post then you’ll recall that SIP is a standard for Voice over Internet Protocol. There are numerous SIP providers out there that work just like traditional phone companies- only they charge a fraction of the price. For a refresher take a look at these posts and our favorite tutorial site, Nerdvittles. The WIP330 is designed to look and feel like a ‘candy bar’ style cell phone, only it uses WiFi, or wireless networking for its connection. If you were to set up the phone with a SIP provider, or better yet your Asterisk@home server, then you’d have service anywhere you can find WiFi. Since you can get VoIP for as little as $5/month, and free WiFi is poping up in more and more places, this might just be a cell phone killer. For those of use who aren’t ready to ditch the celly, just think about traveling. More and more hotels are offering WiFi. With the WIP330 you could connect to your home Asterisk@home server and make calls just like you were in your living room! You can even receive and answer calls coming in to your home phone number. The possibilities are pretty endless. We know a lot of folks are looking forward to taking a WIP330 abroad for free calls back home!
What would a geek site be with out some TLAs to throw out there? What really drew us to the WIP330 was security. Most of the other WiFi VoIP phones on the market only support WEP wireless security, if anything. Without getting too deep into WiFi security, WEP, or Wired Equivalency Protection, has been shown to be extremely insecure. All it takes is a quick trip to Google to find tools that will break WEP. WPA is the modern standard, and with a very long, very random password it’s considered to be the most secure option available to consumers. Here at Archatechs we run our wireless access points with a 64 character password that includes a lot of random characters (like $^*(!, etc). Until the WIP330 came along, we haven’t been able to find a WiFi phone that would support our security settings. With the Windows CE operating system running on the phone, plugging in our password should be a matter of copy and paste. The WIP330 also supports 802.11g (where many other phones only support the 802.11b standard). G is a considerably faster standard, but the different between B and G shouldn’t matter to VoIP which doesn’t require a lot of speed (bandwidth) to begin with. Finally, the WIP330 has a built-in web browser, for places like hotels and Starbucks that require you to log in to a web page to get WiFi, this is really important!
So, on with the review? We are going to try something a little different here. We’re calling this a ‘live review’. From opening the box to connecting at the local Starbucks, we are going to write about is as we try it. Got your fingers crossed?
The box is farily nondescript, something one would expect from a professional, rather than consumer, product. Linksys has included a charger and some documentation for getting started. It appears to be the same doc that is available here on their website. We had no problem getting the battery in the device and powering it on. Things are starting to look good. The device immediately scans for an access point and was able to find both of our networks. Since we have our heavily locked down WiFi subnet. But the hope is that we can use the built-in web interface of the WIP330 to paste our WPA2 password and tie into the protected WiFi network. First we had to jump on our unprotected public network.
Attaching to the unprotected Public
network was a breeze. Once connected, we
found
the phone’s IP address in
our router. We pointed a web browser on a
desktop to the IP and were pleased to find a
linksys configuration page. The documentation
doesn’t mention that the phone has a
built-in web server- but it seemed like a good
bet.
The WIP330 has the ability to store several wireless profiles. We were able to use the web interface to replace the default Linksys profile with one for our Private network. Now for the moment of truth, would it connect? Looks like that’s a no! Apparently the device is limited to a 27bit key and it appears not to like some of the characters we’ve used in the password. (To get an idea of what we prefer for WiFi passwords, check out Steve Gibson’s password page)
Oh well, the testing must go on. We’re going to try first with the weakened WPA password. This will allow us to use an accesspoint on the same subnet as the Asterisk@home server.
Next, we used the Asterisk@home FreePBX web interface to setup an extension for the new phone. In the WIP330’s web interface we used the same information for the extension and password. We also had to change the SIP ports to 5060, what Asterisk (and most people) use as a default. At first the phone refused to connect. Things are not looking so hot! In the SIP menu on the phone we noticed a few settings that were not in the web interface. After we plugged in the outbound proxy and port things took off. The phone registered! We were able to make a few calls and the sound quality is great!
Detailed settings:
In the phone’s web interface there are several
fields to fill out, here’s what settings to use
for the WIP330 and Asterisk@home. To access this
set-up page use a web browser and go to
http://<your phone’s ip> also, pay
careful attention to the ports we are using, they are
important!
Don’t worry- there is more to come. But this is enough to get everyone up and running. Its taken us just over an hour to get our phone working and put this info together…oh and call our Moms, you have to call mom with a new phone! Hopefully these settings can get people up and rolling quickly with the WIP330 and Asterisk@Home.
Part 2 - The Mythical WIP330 Review, not all its cracked up to be
We had a pretty rough weekend with the WIP330. Be sure to check out our bottom line and the screen shots below.
First, lets start with what we liked:
• Audio Quality – everyone who used the
phone agreed that it was comparable to wired VoIP
phone. There are several codec choices available.
• Built-in web browser is actually useable. No
one wanted to actually surf the web on it, but to
clear a portal or sign in to a hotspot, it worked
fine
• Hotspot profiles – ability to save
credentials for paid hotspot accounts
• Bright color screen is very readable
• Web interface for (some) configuration and
phone book
• 802.11g support
• Limited WPA support
• Wireless range – best of any WiFi phone
we’ve tested
o We were easily able to roam around outside of the
lab and pretty far down the street before we lost the
signal
Ok, on to the issues list:
• Trouble joining open wireless networks
– seems to be DHCP related
o The phone frequently just refused to connect,
failing at “getting IP address”
o We were unable to join the open hotspot at the
local mall
o When driving around town we were able to join some
unprotected networks, but not all (could have been
MAC filtered).
• Only supports 27bit WPA key – we found
this to be a particularly frustrating problem. Since
we could not get it to work with our WPA protected
subnet we could not test if it would successfully
hand off calls between access points.
o No support for RADIUS (hey, someone asked!)
• Though it runs windows CE, there is no access
to most CE features. We think many readers will find
this particularly frustrating. For the same price you
could purchase a wifi enabled Windows Mobile PDA.
o EG: No VPN client
o No way to sync with a desktop PC for phone book
• Wireless Profiles – the phone supports
profiles for WiFi networks but fails to auto-join
known/open networks. In other words, if you have the
phone working at home and take it on the road, you
will have to re-scan and attach to your home network
when you return. The profiles will save your security
settings which makes the process a tad easier
o The phone should roam for open access points and
attach when possible, a la cell phones!
• Interface – The phone is cumbersome to
use. From the small buttons to the quirky menus.
o In a call you have to access a menu for functions
like: hold, conference, transfer, mute, etc
o From the main screen you have to enter the menus
for everything except the phone book. We’d like
to see the 4 way direction control have a little more
use. For instance, left should bring up missed calls
and right should bring up outgoing calls.
o Pushing the talk button will bring up dialed
numbers for re-dial, but they are in no discernable
order. In other words, the last number you called is
not always on the top of the list.
• The Mystery Button – on the side there
are three buttons. The first two are for volume up
and down, the 3rd button has no apparent function
• Unlike its little brother, the WIP300, the 330
has no e-mail client. That’s fairly inexcusable
for a $350 phone running windows CE
• Battery Life- We think battery life would be
ok, except from time to time the screen simply
forgets to turn itself off!
o When functioning properly, we got about 7 hours of
standby and 2 hours of talk time
o When the screen stayed on the battery life dropped
to a quarter of what was expected
• Blue LED service light is lit constantly
– not a huge issue, but may contribute to poor
battery life
• Voicemail support not implemented
o The #1 key has a voicemail icon. However, it
doesn’t do anything special. Pressing and
holding simply does nothing. Phonebook items are not
speed dials, so dialing 1 on an Asterisk@home system
just rings the first ring group.
o No message waiting indicator – there should
be a on-screen icon as well as a change in the
service LED, this was not the case
• Intermittent DNS issues – not always
able to resolve our Asterisk server by host name
• No NTP support- despite having a setting for
NTP server in the menus, it simply refused to pick up
our network time and date. We tried a Linux server,
windows 2003 and OS X box. The WIP330 just
didn’t want to set the time via NTP
• No support for STUN – STUN is a great
service that can help overcome many firewall
issues associated with VoIP
So, should we tell you what we really thought? All in all this is actually a quality WiFi SIP phone. The problem is that it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It is on par with most other SIP phones we’ve tested. If you are used to even a free cell phone, you’ll be disappointed in the features (or lack there of) in the WIP330. If you have been waiting for advanced security options, it looks like the WIP330 still doesn’t fit the bill. However, for the die-hard road warrior this thing has some merit. The ability to clear a captive portal- you know those web pages that make you agree to terms of service on free hotspots?- is pretty nice. If you are a user of something like T-Mobile Hotspots then you’ll appreciate the browser and the Hotspot Profiles feature.
For the home user looking for a WiFi VoIP phone we still like the Hitachi Cable IP5000. The range isn’t quite as good as the WIP330 and it doesn’t support WPA, but it is a bit more stable. For the home enthusiast on a budget, we’d still recommend a good ole fashioned cordless phone attached to an ATA (analogue telephone adaptor). An ATA, like the Linksys PAP2, will allow you to attach a standard phone line to a VoIP system. You’ll lose some of the cool digital features, such as menus for transfers and hold, but you can let Asterisk manage those features for you. Pressing the # key with Asterisk@home will give you a dial tone where you can transfer or park calls. The Zyxel 2000 is another WiFi sip option that you can find for about $100.00 online. Be warned, it has even less options than most 1980’s telephones.
The Bottom Line:
The WIP330 is just not ready for the average
consumer- especially newcomers to VoIP. Configuration
issues combined with a lack of features will simply
result in a lot of frustration. Nevertheless, with a
little patients and some geek-knowhow road warriors
may get a lot of benefit from with WIP330. If you
travel abroad, it could pay for itself (and your time
working with it) pretty quickly. Imagine jumping on a
free hotspot in Paris and making calls like you were
home in Washington DC – for free!
It should also be said that the firmware on the device says 1.0. This device is so new that it’s difficult to find much information on it. We suspect Linksys rushed it out the door (shame on them) and that future firmware updates will improve the functionality a lot!
Housekeeping:
Last time we said that we had to enter the SIP menu on the phone to set the outbound proxy. It looks like that can be set in the web-based configuration, its labled as the NAT menu.
Screenshots:
Part 3 - WIP330 Review Addendum
Just when you thought we were done with the WIP330…After a few more days of testing we have become increasingly disappointed. The phone simply fails to ring 9 times out of 10. We have confirmed that we can ping the phone however it simply ignores the call.
Folks, steer clear of this turkey until Linksys issues a few updates to work out the bugs!
That being said, if you are determined to use the Linksys WIP-330 with Asterisk or Asterisk@home then check out our configuration gude (from the review part 1). The web interface makes it much easier.
Update - Windows Drivers
Big thanks to Hevad for bringing this to our attention with his comments on this post:
https://archatechs.wordpress.com/2006/05/19/the-mythical-wip330-has-arrived-and-gets-reviewed/#comment-22
It appears it is possable to modify the INF file included with ActiveSync for windows CE to sync the WIP330 to a Windows XP machine.
We were able to download, unzip and install Hevad's drivers with no problems. Simply download the drivers from here. After you've unzipped them, plug in the phone via USB. It will ask for the drivers, just point it at the INF file from the zip file.
From there you can explore the device. The config files are in the WIP330 folder. Like Hevad points out: your password is stored in clear text, so be careful.