QoS router/access-device hardware recommendations?

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 36

Hi there guys, long time no chat.

Happy Vonage user now for well over a year but recently something has happened that I need some advice with.

My original setup was that my Linksys RT31P2 was directly behind my cable modem, then I had a Netgear switch/router sitting behind the Linksys device with the firewall disabled and all ports forwarded to the Netgear IP address.

This worked great, until I bought an XBOX 360. For some reason unknown to me, with the setup described above I could never get the XBOX 360 to pass its "ICMP test" and couldn't get any support from M$FT as the RT31P2 was not on the compatible device list. As a result I couldn't use my X360 online (booooooooo).

When I put the RT31P2 behind the Netgear it fixed the problem with the XBOX but now I have QoS issues where if the network is busy the audio quality on the telephone line will degrade to the point that it is unuseable.

So my question is this; I really like my Netgear router (it does everything I need it too and has a great 802.11b/a/g system), but I am willing to replace it if there's an all-in-one solution that supports Vonage and gives me the same 10/100/wireless functions.

Alternatively is there any Vonage adapter out there that will transmit packets with a DSCP tag? I know that the RT31P2 sends an 802.1p frame header, but that only helps with layer 2 congestion, not congestion at layer 3. If I could get a Vonage adapter that sent a DSCP value then I could get a router which could be programmed to recognize the DSCP value for the voice service and prioritize accordingly.

Sorry for the long post, I've done some searching but haven't run into a solution on this problem.

Thanks!

Very Happy

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject:

Well, one thing you might want to try is hooking stuff up like it was before, but set the Xbox's IP as the DMZ address on your RT31P2.

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 36

paul248 wrote:

Well, one thing you might want to try is hooking stuff up like it was before, but set the Xbox's IP as the DMZ address on your RT31P2.

I did try that and unfortunately it didn't work, I think that something about double NAT'ing to the XBOX causes the ICMP issues, but I could be wrong on that.

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:30 pm Post subject:

Oh, sorry, I didn't notice that you were double-NATing.

Have you tried using the Netgear router as just an access point? That would make the double-NAT unnecessary.

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 36

paul248 wrote:

Oh, sorry, I didn't notice that you were double-NATing.

Have you tried using the Netgear router as just an access point? That would make the double-NAT unnecessary.

I'm not sure if I can configure it as such, but maybe I'll give that a try.

Posts: 646 · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:25 am Post subject:

You can turn pretty much any wireless router into an access point. Just disable everything you can (especially DHCP) and don't plug anything into the WAN port.

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 36

paul248 wrote:

You can turn pretty much any wireless router into an access point. Just disable everything you can (especially DHCP) and don't plug anything into the WAN port.

So the router would become a DHCP client to the Linksys box. I wonder if VPN tunneling would still work in this configuration.

I guess the really frustrating thing is that my Netgear router is so much more capable/fully-featured than the Linksys box and I'd really rather just have the Linksys box be it's client rather than the other way around.

Oh well, such is the price for being cutting edge with Vonage.

Posts: 646 · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 2:28 pm Post subject:

Well, if you don't like the options with the hardware you already have, then I'd recommend putting the DD-WRT firmware on a Buffalo WHR-G54S or Linksys WRT54GL.

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 22, 2005 Posts: 36

The thing I primarily like about the router I have is that it has a very good SPI firewall integrated into it and it's very easy to setup, do port forwarding, etc. Also, the range on it is excellent.

I've just purchased the new Linksys OGV200 Voip optimizer for $51 shipped. I will give that a shot. The advantage of getting something like the OGV200 is that I can pretty much use whatever gear I want and still have QoS prioritization of my upstream traffic.

I'll post back when I get it and let you know if it fixed me up.

Thanks for the help!

Posts: 646 · Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:34 pm Post subject:

Hm, that thing looks pretty cool. And this feature list was actually written by someone with a clue.