MTA In Front

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 17, 2004 Posts: 4

Reading this forum, I really didn't give much consideration to putting the MTA between my Cable Modem and Router as Vonage recommends. So, I thought I'd share my experience.

As I'm a new customer, I was still trying to find out what "acceptable performance" is. With my MTA behind my Linksys BEFSR41 router, with up-to-date firmware, I was experiencing what I considered excellent performance with the exception of a "digital stutter" every minute or so. Contrary to my best judgement (the writers in this forum are very persuasive Smile

), I put the MTA between my Cable Modem and Router and the "digital stutter" is non-existent. In fact, I have yet to experience a single anomoly except for the following:

When initiating a 5MB download from a very fast server, I will hear a very slight "stutter" that is not nearly as pronounced as what I was experiencing before. This situation is consistently repeatable. During the download, there were no other oddities in audio quality and the speed of my download was not noticeably or measurably (using the tools at my disposal) affected.

Recently, I unchecked the Enable DHCP/NAT on LAN Port feature on the Advanced Configuration page of the MTA with similar success.

The gist of this entire post, then, is that putting the MTA between the modem and router should be considered if you are having issues with your service.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 14, 2004 Posts: 25

I thought Vonage recommended the MTA be behind the router. That's what they show in their setup diagrams. Also, I get the impression from the forum comments here, and maybe I am wrong, that most people here seem to think the MTA should indeed be behind the router, not in front of it. I am probably wrong on this, so if someone could shed light on it I would appreciate it.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 28, 2004 Posts: 13

Vonage's instructions for [a href=http://www.vonage.com/installation_multiple.php]Multiple Computer Installation[/a] show the voice terminal in front of the router. ie., between the cable or dsl modem and the router.

This allows for the voice terminal's handling of QOS which keeps voice packets together (not fragmented).

However, many people report that their service is better or more reliable when the voice terminal is "sheltered" by a router (by placing the voice terminal behind the router).

Joe

---
Jesus Saves.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 11

Vonage definitely recommends putting the MTA in front of the router. I'm currently running behind the router, and I'm getting frquent clipping. Probably 70 of calls feature slight digital clipping that occurs every 10 seconds or so. It's rather distracting, but I fear mucking up the works by moving the MTA out front. When I get time, I will try it though.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 12

how do u find the ip of your mta?

Posts: 1 · Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2004 2:29 pm Post subject: mta in dmz

One thing I did is place my mta in the dmz, so the mta is not between my cable modem and router, but its still in-directly visible to the net by virtue of placing it in the dmz. Perhaps there is a better or more correct way to say this technically.

Vonage did not suggest this alternate set up, but they should. It works very well and does not interfere with my VPN connections.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 18, 2004 Posts: 12

mine is behind my wrt54g linksys router, no issues

Posts: 66 · Full Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2003 Posts: 66

I have the VT1000 between the cable modem and my Linksys BEFW11S4 router. Actually, there is now an ethernet switch between the PC port in the VT1000 and the LInksys. All is well. Before, without the switch, I was getting frequent data interruption and eventually no data or voice.

I think the Linksys and the VT1000's PC port have an ethernet autosense compatibility problem that the switch resolved.

HOWEVER, I still see 15-20 second data interruptions once every 10-15 minutes. Not sure what that is.

Posts: 61 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 61

DanVM wrote:

With my MTA behind my Linksys BEFSR41 router, with up-to-date firmware,

I also have this router. I had some problems when I upgraded teh Firmware. I have since reset the firmware to the Pre July 2003 upgrade. I also swapped out one BESFR41 for another that I had and kept the MTA behind it and all is working great. Once and a while I will hear a faint Echo but I have not rebooted in over 3weeks as I am trying to take it to the limit to see when if ever service becomes unstable etc..

Posts: 20 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 03, 2004 Posts: 20

The MTA in front of the router just wouldn't work for me. Weird things kept happening with the FTP and WWW server- the MTA is not the most robust firewall you'll ever encounter.

Behind the router (NeatGear FVS318), it works like a champ.