Help with WRTP54G and QOS setting

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 2

Hello, newbie here.

just got Vonage with Linksys WRTP54G Vonage built in router.
call quality is okay, but internation calls sucked...
i heard there is a QOS setting I can change but can't find infomation on it.... found the setting in the router but I need to assign priority to the port... since my Vonage is built in, which port do I use?

thanks

Posts: 2257

eggyacid wrote:

Hello, newbie here.

just got Vonage with Linksys WRTP54G Vonage built in router.
call quality is okay, but internation calls sucked...
i heard there is a QOS setting I can change but can't find infomation on it.... found the setting in the router but I need to assign priority to the port... since my Vonage is built in, which port do I use?

thanks

QoS in the WRTP54G automatically gives top priority to the Voice ports, when it works. Unfortunately, without any apparent way to determine the upstream bandwidth available, the QoS is spotty on the WRTP54G. I put another router in front of the WRTP54G, and I now have working QoS.

http://vonage.nmhoy.net/qos.html

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 2

do you think i should buy one of those Voip Booster to put it between my cable modem and Vonage/Linksys WRTP54G?
Do they work or am i just looking for more trouble?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 3:57 pm Post subject:

eggyacid wrote:

do you think i should buy one of those Voip Booster to put it between my cable modem and Vonage/Linksys WRTP54G?
Do they work or am i just looking for more trouble?

I've never heard of such a device, and I have no idea how they'd work, but I'm going to assume it is a router with QoS pre-configured.

Depending on the price, and whether they are returnable, it might be worth a try.

But with a few minutes' work, a WRT54G for $50-60 can do the same job, AND take a lot of other load off your Vonage router.

Here's a diagram of how my network is set up:

You can use any router you want, as long as it has some way of telling the QoS engine how much bandwidth is available. The WRT54G has a new hardware version out. It had some initial problems, but they finally seem to have stabilized with the latest firmware, and it's a good box from the reports I've seen.

Posts: 476 · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:07 pm Post subject:

CompUSA has a D-Link DI-102 Express EtherNetwork Broadband Internet/VoIP Accelerator on sale for $29.99 after rebates right now. I suspect the rebate conditions would preclude returning the device though (likely you would have to send in the original UPC code from the box). I have no idea how well (or if) it works and it's yet another device in the chain to have to troubleshoot if something's not working.

Posts: 114 · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:13 am Post subject:

That is just about identical to the layout of my network.

I also use a WRT54G router between the cable modem and RTP300 (a v4 running DD-WRT v23 firmware). I've had it set up this way for abou a week and has been perfectly stable. The QoS of the 3rd party firmeware vendors is amazing.

One question. On the RTP300, the Fireware on/off setting also controls NAT. I don't have any systems connected to the RTP300. I assume I can safely turn off NAT?

-Craig

NateHoy wrote:

eggyacid wrote:

do you think i should buy one of those Voip Booster to put it between my cable modem and Vonage/Linksys WRTP54G?
Do they work or am i just looking for more trouble?

I've never heard of such a device, and I have no idea how they'd work, but I'm going to assume it is a router with QoS pre-configured.

Depending on the price, and whether they are returnable, it might be worth a try.

But with a few minutes' work, a WRT54G for $50-60 can do the same job, AND take a lot of other load off your Vonage router.

Here's a diagram of how my network is set up:

You can use any router you want, as long as it has some way of telling the QoS engine how much bandwidth is available. The WRT54G has a new hardware version out. It had some initial problems, but they finally seem to have stabilized with the latest firmware, and it's a good box from the reports I've seen.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:32 am Post subject:

Yes, you can pretty much shut down everything on the RTP300 if you don't intend to hook any clients up to it. In fact, you are better off doing so, since there won't be the extra delay of having the firewall out there, protecting nothing. Wink

Posts: 1125 · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:13 am Post subject:

So is the Dlink device really a watered-down version of a packet shaper/traffic analyzer? I guess it sniffs the header of the packet and sticks them in different queue's?

Posts: 114 · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:32 am Post subject:

Well, I turned it off.

Before turning it off, I could only access the router by:
http://<ip address>:<remote port>

Now that the firewall/NAT is off, I can access by:
http://<ip address>

Strangely, when the RTP300 rebooted after turning off the firewall, two setting changed by themselves:
QoS when back to Enable
Remote Administration turned off

I supposed I don't need Remote Administration anymore since I can get to the router without a port number.

I turned QoS off again. It seems to have stuck, but I'll have to check it periodically.

Thanks,

-Craig

NateHoy wrote:

Yes, you can pretty much shut down everything on the RTP300 if you don't intend to hook any clients up to it. In fact, you are better off doing so, since there won't be the extra delay of having the firewall out there, protecting nothing. Wink

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:37 am Post subject:

navydavy2001 wrote:

So is the Dlink device really a watered-down version of a packet shaper/traffic analyzer? I guess it sniffs the header of the packet and sticks them in different queue's?

Just read the marketing blurb on the device.

Looks like someone just took a D-Link router, prevonfigured it for Voip, ripped out most of the ports so it wouldn't look like a router, slapped some pretty buzzwords on it, and are selling it as a "router that isn't a router".

It's a QoS add-on for an existing router. As such, if the following conditions are met, it might make a decent add-on to a Vonage router and give the network working QoS:

1. Device must be able to detect Vonage Voip traffic. How it does this, I don't know. Maybe it prioritizes UDP packets over TCP, maybe it actually sniffs for the SIP packet and prioritizes the negotiated Voip communications port. Maybe it just takes the standard web surfing ports and lowers their priority. I don't know. Telling Voip traffic from BitTorrent traffic isn't that simple if all you are using is TCP/IP ports.

2. Device must be able to accurately determine available upstream bandwidth. This is actually harder than it looks, especially when you are dealing with Voip UDP packets that do not expect to receive acknowledgment, because if you are overloading the upstream pipe, you won't know it.

So it all depends on whether this device can accurately tell the size of the upstream, and then tell what needs to be set to high priority. If both conditions are met, and either condition is somewhat iffy, the device could be a good one.

At about the same price as a REAL router, with working QoS and the ability to actually shape other traffic and adjust the shaping to suit your own network, of course. Wink