RTP300 & Comcast

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:50 pm Post subject:

If you have an old PC and a couple of network cards laying around, you might want to try IPCop. (www.ipcop.org) The price is right (free), and you're not going to find anything under $1k which can do everything it can and perform as well.

Posts: 170 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 05, 2004 Posts: 170

VonageTPA, thanks for the suggestion. However, everytime I upgrade (usually every 3 years), I always sell or give away all my old parts, or even throw them away if they aren't functional.

However, interestingly enough, after a day with no RTP300 and no problems, my Comcast service went down, but for a longer period of time. I called Comcast and there was a recording that they were doing network maintenance. They did not specifically mention my area but they did mention a nearby area. I waited on hold forever to verify that my area was being affected by this, but got tired of waiting and hung up.

I've had Comcast for a week and am already frustrated with them. I decided to purchase a wireless router anyway so that I can use my laptop with it. It's just a question of figuring out which one to buy and hopefully have my RTP300 operate reliability behind it. In the worst case, I could order Verizon DSL, but the previous owner of this house had Comcast digital phone so Verizon would have to come in and do some rewiring I guess. Argh.

Maaz

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 24, 2006 Posts: 4

Hmm, interesting... I have a somewhat similar problem. I've been using Vonage for close to a year now. In the last 3 months I've upgraded my Comcast service to 8Mb/768Kb as well as swapping out
my older (rented) Motorola SB modem for a newer Motorola SB modem. Since then, I've had occasional Vonage and Comcast internet service "glitches".

In the last month, the problem got much worse and I discovered that one of my splitters went bad. After replacement, I went from a -15dB downstream power level to -1dB. Much more manageable. This put me back at the occasional glitches.

I'd guess these glitches occur 10+ times a day and last from a few seconds to 30 seconds, I'd guess. Of course, this knocks me off the phone and kills my internet. How do I know this is happening? I've got a 24hr/day downstream of data... and I monitor when the downstream fails altogether.

My cable modem is hooked to the RTP-300 Vonage router. This router then hooks to a Linux box with two NICs. The Linux box is my firewall and gateway. The second NIC hooks to an 8-port Netgear gigabit switch. As I understand it, this is the recommended setup by Vonage.

If I take the RTP-300 out of the loop and hook the cable modem to the Linux box directly, the glitches disappear. This suggests the problem is in the router. Time to get a different Vonage adapter? I'm doing nothing out of the ordinary with the RTP-300. QoS enabled to boost phone priority.

Any suggestions? Try a different adapter?

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:30 am Post subject:

If you're using the linux box as a firewall/router, put the RTP300 behind it -- the linux box will be a superior router, and the Vonage adapter shouldn't encounter any issues living behind it.

Posts: 170 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 05, 2004 Posts: 170

tfo, yes, that's pretty much the issue that I'm having, except I just now started service with Comcast. I got the 8 MB/768k service to begin with, thinking the faster upload speed would help my Vonage service and the faster download speed would help me download files on the Internet faster. This is actually true, but I'm stuck with the glitches such as you described.

I did have that Comcast outage yesterday afternoon, but I'm thinking it was an unrelated problem. Thanks for confirming that it's not just me having the issue with the same setup (Comcast 8MB/768k, Motorola modem, RTP300).

I could probably obtain an old box and set up the Linux router, but I'm not sure where I'd put it. I would hate to have to run additional cables in the house. Can someone recommend a good regular router? I got one recommendation for the Trendnet. Anyone have experience with this brand? I was originally leaning towards Linksys wireless, but am worried that it may give me the same performance the RTP300 is. By the the way, the RTP300 is an excellent phone adapter, but it's routing features and functionality is horrible.

Maaz

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:33 pm Post subject:

The Linksys WRT54G used to be the preferred router in the forum, but Linksys cheaped out the latest models and crippled them (only 16 connections max.) I'm hoping a few others here can suggest what they've been using in the meantime. There used to be a WRT54GL, which IS a good router, but not sure if these are still available. The only real gotcha of having a wireless router is making sure your cordless phones aren't 2.4Ghz (same freq as the wireless routers), otherwise you open the door for interference, etc.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2006/06/09/linksys_wrt54g_v5_really_is_a_lousy_router_uk/

Posts: 170 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 05, 2004 Posts: 170

Yeah, I haven't been keeping up with the forum lately. I used to visit and post regularly last year.

My cordless phone system is 5.8 Ghz so there's no issue there. When you say 16 connections max, do you mean 16 TCP/UDP connections to the Internet, or just 16 devices (computers) connected to it? If the latter, then that's no big deal. I'll never have more than 4 computers. If outside TCP/UDP connections, then yes, that could potentially pose a problem if I'm multitasking.

Maaz

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 3:35 pm Post subject:

Apparently TCP/UDP.

See the chart at the bottom of the article on this page:
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/06/08/linksys_wrt54g_v5_really_is_a_lousy_router/page5.html

At idle, I run more than 16 connections between my 2 Voip lines, laptop, and desktop. AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, that's 4 connections right there...

Posts: 170 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 05, 2004 Posts: 170

That's horrible. Thanks for letting me know. I'll have to look into a different router. Anyone have any suggestions?

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:12 pm Post subject:

Tom's Hardware has a list of routers w/throughput graphs here:

WAN (Internet) to LAN (local network) throughput:
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/lans_routers/charts/index.html?chart=119

Maximum # of simultaneous connections:
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/lans_routers/charts/index.html?chart=124

I think the max # of simult. connections is probably the best measure of the worthiness of a router. It's not definitive, but it at least suggests that the router can handle connection-heavy apps like BitTorrent, or large #'s of connected PCs.