RTP300 Problems on Mac and XP

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2006 Posts: 8

My Setup:
I have my RTP300 plugged directly into my Motorola cable modem and I have a great connection, over 4mb up.

I am using Safari and Firefox on my Mac and IE and Firefox on my PC.

I have both computers connected to different ports on the back of my RTP300 router, tried many different cables.

My Problem:
I do not have a dial tone and cannot log into the router admin pages. I am able to access 192.168.15.1 and after a long delay I am sometimes able to login using the default admin/admin. After i log in it won't let me access any of the other pages, i can click on the links but it won't load.

When I first received my device everything worked fine, including the Linksys admin pages. My problem started a couple weeks ago after I ported a cell number to my Vonage account. This became my primary number, then I had Vonage switch the two numbers so that the ported number became my virtual number and my original Vonage assigned number then became my permanant number.

I was successful in having a replacement RTP300 sent by Vonage but the replacement device does the same thing.

Any suggestions? I apologize if this is a duplicate thread but I have not seen any listed on here with errors on a Mac. I have seen some suggestions to change the DNS info in XP but this will not help me.

Should I try a different router model, the WRTP54G? Could it be because of my ported phone number?

Thank you for any help.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:42 am Post subject:

I doubt it has anything to do with your ported number.

You can still change the DNS settings in MAC, I believe, or in the router itself. That may help you out.

do you use BitTorrent or other P2P/file sharing applications? The symptoms you describe are more like a filled-up connections table than a problem with the DNS settings (which should not really affect your ability to access the admin page).

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2006 Posts: 8

I do use BitTorrent but I have tried loading the admin pages with everything closed on my computer and after multiple restarts on the computer and hard resets on the router.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:04 am Post subject:

hmmm..

The problem with BitTorrent is caused by the large number of connections it creates. The routers are equipped with a routing table that has about 2000 entries available, and an entry is made in this table for each connection every client computer makes.

What happens is that connections are not freed up unless they are specifically disconnected or they are idle for a certain period of time, and Linksys chose the unfortunate default of 5 days for that timeout.

However, if that was the problem, a simple restart of the router (pull power, wait 10 seconds, plug power back in) should clear it up immediately.

Having said that, your symptoms are EXACTLY those of a filled-up iptable. That's what makes me immediately suspicious.

Can you try shutting down all of your BitTorrent clients, leaving your modem, router, and computer(s) all powered down for about 1/2 hour (to give BitTorrent peers plenty of time to figure out you are gone and stop the inbound flood), then try running without BitTorrent for a couple of days?

If that fixes the problem, you need to get a better router and relegate your Vonage RTP300 to Vonage duty only. That's really the best answer (I went through the exact same thing for 2 months last year with my WRTP54G, which is the same router as the RTP300 except it has wireless). If you go that route, I like the Linksys WRT54GL http://vonage.nmhoy.net/wrt54gl.html

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2006 Posts: 8

Nate,

Thank you for the suggesstion. I will certainly try this.

I also have two other routers available, an Airport Extreme from apple and an old Belkin Wirless 11b router w/ 4 ports. How owuld you suggest setting up my network? I want to keep the wireless computers off of the wired network for security purposes. I of course will use WPA encryption.

I will eventually have up to 8 wired ports in my place to eliminate the need for wirelss but it is nice to have if friends visit or i bring work home on my laptop.

Thanks,
Adam

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:30 am Post subject:

http://vonage.nmhoy.net/tworouters.html is my generic article for having another router in front of your Vonage one. I don't know much about the AirPort Extreme - does it support Wireless-G and WPA?

Personally, I'd probably put the AirPort out front, disable DHCP and wireless on the Belkin and plug a wire LAN-LAN from the AirPort to the Belkin and use that as a dumb switch, then plug LAN on the AirPort to WAN on the RTP300 and relegate the RTP300 to Vonage use only.

Of course, if you use BitTorrent, you'll also need working QoS to keep your call quality good ( http://vonage.nmhoy.net/qos.html ) so you may need a new router anyway. I'd try the AirPort first, and see if people on the other side of your calls complain about poor voice quality when you talk to them on the Vonage line. If they do, you need QoS.

Keep in mind that most consumer routers use a similar iptables configuration, and many of them balk or have problems with BitTorrent, which is tough on connections and routers.

IF you need QoS or your AirPort has trouble with BitTorrent, the WRT54GL has served me very well, has highly secure wireless, and solid QoS as long as you take the time to configure it properly ( http://vonage.nmhoy.net/wrt54glqos.html ). Using stock firmware, it does have BitTorrent problems, but the addition of aftermarket firmware fixes that, and adds so many new features, you'll think you have a $500 router. Wink

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2006 Posts: 8

Great, Thank you Nate. I will try your suggestions and let everyone know how it goes.

What a great forum this is.

Thanks!

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 30, 2006 Posts: 8

Hi All,

I too Nate's reccomendations and it turns out that after leaving all the devices unplugged for a couple days had no effect in my condo.

I took the RTP300 to my friends house where she has DSL and everything worked great. I took the router back to my condo and I again did not have a dial tone.

I didn't try to connect to the router admin page but I am now thinking this must have something to do with my Comcast internet. Besides my Vonage issues, Comcast seems to work great! I have very fast D/L and U/L speeds.

I live in South Florida, I am going to call Comcast now to see if they can do anything but do you think that they could be somehow blocking the Vonage service?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:22 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

I like the Linksys WRT54GL http://vonage.nmhoy.net/wrt54gl.html

I just found a v3 WRT54G yesterday at my local Frye's, amongst the stacks of v5's, so I have another unit now for only $47.44. Smile

Going to play with the various wireless bridge modes between the two routers now.

By the way, something seems to have gotten hosed in your signature, you may want to take a look.

-Gary-

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:19 pm Post subject:

My signature works as-is sometimes, and not others, so I made the link work regardless. Wink