Using Vonage in INDIA

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 12, 2005 Posts: 3

I'm interested in buying Voip to make calls to Chennai India from the US & vice versa. Can you please guide me as to what I need to do for that?
If you can tell me from the scratch I would appreciate it. We have not selected the ISP provider in Chennai yet. Please advise on the instrument, the router, the ISP provider in India etc.... I look forward to hearing from you soon.
I'm not a computer person. So please advise me from the basics.
Thanks
Usha

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 4

I have been able to use Vonage in India. The Details are as follows:

City/State : Vadodara (Baroda) , Gujarat
ISP: IQARA (iqara.net) using their MB plan (Get speed around 128K)
Vonage Adpater: Lynksys PAP2

Bandwidth Saver Setting : 30K
Voice Quality : 7 out of 10

I am planning on switching the ISP to TATA Indicom Unlimited Plan(New Infinity - 128 for Rs900/mo). What I dont know is if Indicom blocks any ports with that plan.

Please let me know if you have any information

Thanks
JBurger

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 5

Hi guru and others,

I've recently sent my Vonage phone adapter (Motorola VT1005V) to my parents in Hyderabad. They have a BSNL broadband connection with a bandwidth of 256kpbs. My dad run into problems installing the connection and is not even able to configure the Phone adapter to use PPPoE coz he says that when he connects the Phone adapter to the DSL modem the LED on the adapter keeps on blinking and would never stop. moreover, he's not even able to go to the configuration page of the adapter at http://192.168.102.1, he gets a DNS error.

Do we have to disable PPPoE on the computer before configuring the Phone adapter to use PPPoE?

As I won't be able to go to india any time soon, I appreciate if anyone who has successfully installed Motorola VT1005V with BSNL or some knowledge of the same can help me.

THanks,
Seshu

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 4

seshendra wrote:

Hi guru and others,

I've recently sent my Vonage phone adapter (Motorola VT1005V) to my parents in Hyderabad. They have a BSNL broadband connection with a bandwidth of 256kpbs. My dad run into problems installing the connection and is not even able to configure the Phone adapter to use PPPoE coz he says that when he connects the Phone adapter to the DSL modem the LED on the adapter keeps on blinking and would never stop. moreover, he's not even able to go to the configuration page of the adapter at http://192.168.102.1, he gets a DNS error.

Do we have to disable PPPoE on the computer before configuring the Phone adapter to use PPPoE?

As I won't be able to go to india any time soon, I appreciate if anyone who has successfully installed Motorola VT1005V with BSNL or some knowledge of the same can help me.

THanks,
Seshu

Before you read my reply, I want to mention that I had SUCCESS with what I am about to describe using VSNL and Iqara connection. Make sure you have a 128K line atleast because it will not work if your band width is lower than 75K.

As I understand, the problem is with PPPoE authentication. I tried similar setup with VSNL (Indicom) setup involving a ADSL router. This router offers only one ethernet connection and you need to setup a PPPoE connection (login/pass) on your computer. To vercome this situation, you need a broadband router.

I used the Microsoft MN-700 router (its a 4 port wifi router, you can use any wired or wireless router which has more than 2 ports). These routers have PPPoE authetication setup. So your Setup will look something like this.

BSNL or VSNL Router -> connect to
Broadband Router
---> Connection 1 to Computer
---> Connection 2 to Vonage Adapter
---> Connection 3 Empty
---> Connection 4 Empty

When you turn on the Broadband router, it automatically connects to the BSNL/VSNL connection.

Now you need to use a Broadband router and NOT a Hub or Switch because ;ONLY a broadband router will offer setup for PPPoE connection. When you buy a broadband router, make sure it offers PPPoE authentication (Most of the latest ones do that).

This worked for me. Hope it works for you.

The service providers are not suppoed to Block any ports because the Indian government regulations do not specify that. If your ports are blocked, you must talk to your provider. Voip is VERY legal in India.

Good Luck
JBurger

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 5

junkburger
thanks man i appreciate your help , i'll ask my dad to follow the steps you mentioned. by the way can you tell me the price of the router you mentioned.

thanks,
seshu

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 4

seshendra wrote:

junkburger
thanks man i appreciate your help , i'll ask my dad to follow the steps you mentioned. by the way can you tell me the price of the router you mentioned.

thanks,
seshu

Hello!

The router I mentioned, I brought it to India from US. I bought it 3 years ago for about $50. You can get a wired router anywhere from $20-30 these days.

BUT!

I read your post again and I have another thought.

I returned to US two days ago and bought VT1005 for my home in US and got another Vonage number. When I wrote my previous post, I was not aware of the VT1005 and what it can do. Now that I have bought it, I understand your problem better. Let me try to throw some light in this matter.

Before you gave the VT1005 to your parents, I am assuming their setup was as follows.

BSNL ADSL Router ---> Connected to Comptuer

Everytime they needed to connect to the internet, they had to start the computer and then do some sort of Login for PPPoE (someone must have already created a BSNL PPPoE connection short custon their computer and they would just double click and hit the connect button)

Here is my theory and I could be completly wrong.

This is just my observation with these PPPoE connections that they tend to assign a Static IP to the computer.

So now your New Config looks like this.

BSNL ADSL Router --> VT1005 --> PC Port to your Computer
& --> Phone 1 port to a Phone with Vonage number

Now, when you try the http://192.168.102.1 address, it is NOT going to resolve it since your computer has a static IP address.

ONLY way to confirm my theory is to have your father do an IPconfig and check the IP on the computer after it is connected to VT1005. Asking my parents in India to do an IPconfig can be very challenging task, I dont know about yours.

So if you cannot hit the VT1005 config, obviously you will not be able to configure PPPoE settings on VT1005 and only reason your computer cannot hit VT1005 could be due to a static IP, or an IP not assigned by VT1005.

If you can confirm this, you will have to ask your dad to change the TCP/IP settings to Dynamic IP and hopefully everything else can be setup from there.

PLEASE let me know what happens. I am very much interested in knowing what happened and it will help others also.

Regards
JBurger

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 5

JBurger,

Even before u replied to my message I asked my dad to exactly what you've suggested by configuring the computer take a dynamic IP and configure the Phone adapter for PPPOE. When my did that, he was able to go to the configuration page of the phone adaptor and could enter all the relevent info. But phone adaptor didn't work. I have a small question for you should the phone adaptor be configured to use a static ip? BSNL only provides dynamic IP can you suggest the settings for the phone adaptor.

It seems my dad tried everything but failed to make the adapter work. I think the best solution for now is to send him a Linksys 54g router with Vonage compatibility, i hope that works, what do you suggest.

thanks for all the help,
seshu

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 4

seshendra wrote:

JBurger,

Even before u replied to my message I asked my dad to exactly what you've suggested by configuring the computer take a dynamic IP and configure the Phone adapter for PPPOE. When my did that, he was able to go to the configuration page of the phone adaptor and could enter all the relevent info. But phone adaptor didn't work. I have a small question for you should the phone adaptor be configured to use a static ip? BSNL only provides dynamic IP can you suggest the settings for the phone adaptor.

It seems my dad tried everything but failed to make the adapter work. I think the best solution for now is to send him a Linksys 54g router with Vonage compatibility, i hope that works, what do you suggest.

thanks for all the help,
seshu

Can you please tell me the model and make of the BSNL ADSL Router? These routers provide some setup. At my parents place, I ordered VSNL (Tata Indicom) and it offers a Static IP. I am not sure if the IP is configured at the ADSL router level or the computer level.

I feel that the setup at your Dad's should work without the Linksys 54g router. Let me do some more research on the router. If you can, please provide me following information.

1. Make and Model of the router
2. If the router has an administrative console, then it should have a login/pass. Was this login/pass provided to your dad?
3. If it was provided, can he check the settings of the Router?

Thanks
JBurger

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 5

JBurger,
Sorry was busy with work, i'll find out the details and get back to you.

thanks,
seshu

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2005 Posts: 2

Hi,

Iam looking for installing Vonage system at Bangalore, India.
Can anyone let me know more details like from where it can be bought & contact details of them in India.

Thanks
VSM