Vonage VoIP Forum Digest - May 3, 2006

New Vonage Forum Member Andymac has started a thread that he's entitled, Sluggish internet when router connected - was great before.

"I've had Vonage for about 7 months now and have been really happy with the service. However, in the past week and a half I have noticed that when surfing the 'net, it's become a bit sluggish," he writes.

Andymac tested for viruses and spyware, but found nothing up with that. It was then that he started to narrow down the possible causes to his Vonage connection, as well as his Internet Service Provider. 

Following his hunch, he writes that he unhooked the router and his cable modem and turned off the computer and started it all up in the order that Vonage says to do when starting up. 

"Everything came back online but still the problem remained with the sluggish surfing. I unhooked the router and hooked up the cable modem directly to the computer to see if perhaps it was my ISP (Comcast) being slow. After I did this without the router, surfing the 'net was quick and instantaneous with loading of website pages and responding right away thus it proved to be the router causing the sluggish performance."

He then called Vonage customer care but was unable to resolve the issue.

Vonage Forum Member NateHoy sails up, and offers his valuable assistance.

"First, try disabling the DNS Proxy in the RTP300. That is a known problem with the RTP300/WRTP54G units, and will cause all number of delays and problems," Nate writes, then referring to the article he has posted at http://vonage.nmhoy.net/dnsproxy.html.

"Then, if that doesn't help, NateHoy advises Andymac to try the following steps:

1. Try cloning the MAC address of your PC to your RTP300. This is on the off chance that your ISP is detecting that you have a Vonage router and slowing you down artificially (this is unlikely, but easily tested).

2. Change out the patch cable between your cable modem and your Vonage router. Another long shot, but what the heck..

3. Do a factory reset on your RTP300 by selecting "Factory Reset" from the "Administration" screen, or pressing and holding the RESET button for more than 30 seconds.

"If none of those help, you're probably looking at a router replacement. I recommend buying a different router and putting it in front of the RTP300, rather than trying to replace the RTP300," NateHoy suggests, pointing to the article he has posted on http://vonage.nmhoy.net/tworouters.html.

"My favorite, if you end up going that route, is the WRT54GL, or the WRTSL54GS if you want a USB port for Network Attached Storage and/or a print server on your router," Nate adds. "Both take aftermarket firmware that makes them impressive routers."

Because of some business changes, Vonage Forum Member gburg wants to drop one of his two Vonage lines. He has questions about the right procedure involved in doing this, so he decided to launch a Vonage Forum thread that he's named Disconnect question.

"I have a business plan that includes free fax, using a wireless modem/adapter. I also have another line, running from a separate adapter," explains gburg, whose first name is Doug. "Due to work changes, I need to kill the business plan and phone. 

"If I do so, do I lose the ability to use the wireless modem? Also, I still need the single line, so can I have Vonage reset the wireless to the mac address for the single line?," gburg asks.

Turns out that gburg gets advice from two of our three most prolific Vonage Forum posters, Steve48 and NateHoy.

"No, you wouldn't lose the ability to use the wireless. Yes, technically Vonage can move one line to another adapter. Hopefully they wouldn't give you any static about doing it, but they are sticky about "reusing" adapters that have been used on Vonage and then discontinued," Steve48 writes. 

"Since you're the only owner," adds Steve48, "I hope they wouldn't have a problem with it, but I'd talk to (Vonage) first."

"I know you can switch back and forth between the "500" and "unlimited" plans," writes Nate, who suggests to gburg that he may want to call Customer Service and see if they can simply "downgrade" his account from the business plan to the consumer one, and ask if he will be able to keep his regular phone number.

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