how to use my router with vonage

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

If the VT1005 has a firewall I'm unaware of it. The only mention of firewalls in the manual is a statement that if you want one you should buy another router to use with it.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 18, 2006 Posts: 13

All I know is that's what Bright House told me and when then the phone adaptor is ahead of the Netgear the problem is the most severe.

OTOH it worked fine with no problems with the phone adaptor first in line for about a year & a half, so maybe BH is being less than truthful (or at least not fully informed) and blaming others for some recent changes they made with to their network?

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

Or maybe they're making an honest error in diagnosis. Maybe the VT1005 is going south.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 22, 2006 Posts: 4

What is the exact model number of the "Scientific-Atlanta Webstar Modem"?

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 18, 2006 Posts: 13

geekuskhan wrote:

What is the exact model number of the "Scientific-Atlanta Webstar Modem"?

DPC2100R2 Rev 2.1

Oddly, it says made 10/06 so it's hot off the assembly line! Smile

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 18, 2006 Posts: 13

At the risk of being pre-mature it looks like as of yesterday the problem is now fixed.

I had contacted Netgear and they gave me some things to change in my router settings, which I think eliminated their firewall. That helped some but the problem would resurface.

So yesterday my ISP BHN sent a tech out to my house. His handheld meter found no packet loss and I suggested he check the box outside. There were remnants of a hornet's nest and a shed snake skin. Eye Popping

So even though he couldn't find anything wrong he decided to redo the connections in the box and said he raised me 3 db, whatever that means.

So far, so good! Applause

So that brings up another question. How can I determine if I have ANY hardware firewall and should I have one?

Posts: 52 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 10, 2007 Posts: 52

When the tech told you that he raised you 3 db, he was referring to the signal strength on the cable line. Whether he was referring to the upstream or downstream, I don't know. Either way, if your signal strength isn't in the right range it will definetly cause problems with the internet connection. The internet portion of the coax cable is more sensitive to signal strength than the tv portion. Also, the phone adapter does not have a firewall. BH told you that, because ISPs have a nasty habit of not wanting to do anything, so, there was probably a signal issue all along, but they didn't feel like checking it. At least that's how I would put the puzzle pieces together.

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Posts: 25

margulis9 wrote:

When the tech told you that he raised you 3 db, he was referring to the signal strength on the cable line. Whether he was referring to the upstream or downstream, I don't know.

As a point of information, in a CATV system, almost always the passive components (connectors, cables, splitters, taps, etc.) have the same loss in one direction as in the other. So if he cleared up some connection issues outside the house by chasing away a few spiders and snakes, he not only raised the incoming signal strength, he raised the outgoing signal by approximately the same amount.

I'm being overly simplistic here, as there are exceptions related to frequency that apply, but for all practical purposes, passive cable hardware is bi-directional and gain (or loss) only differs when you encounter an active device in the line (for example, an amplifier), or something that's frequency dependent (like a slope compensator).

And now that most of the newer cable TV systems are dependent on both upstream and downstream signal quality (for cable modems and interactive set-top boxes), this is a good place to remind folks that if they put an amplifier into their home system, it had better be a bi-directional amplifier, or else everything behind it (on the house side) that depends on upstream and downstream comm, is going to stop working properly.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 18, 2006 Posts: 13

This all makes sense and is kinda what I felt all along was generally the root problem. But then when they would run tests remotely, heck even when the tech ran his tests, there was often no indication at all that the problem was in the line itself.

I think only the fact that the last remote test (meaning of course someone sitting in an office god knows where running a line test) showed a -7 db did he even want to actually look at the connections in the box since his packet test showed no loss. But that's what was needed.

So I guess the moral of the story is if it's a bad enough issue to require an in home tech visit and he can't identify the issue at least make sure he takes the extra 5 minutes to actually look inside the box outside. And whatever he did inside the box only took about 3 - 5 minutes so in 8 minutes he corrected an issue that plagued me since Nov 16 and all because the standard testing procedures overlooked a physical aspect to the issue, namely pests.

Me? I always thought it was a loose connection or partially broken wire but all the "experts" kept sending me in all different directions and were sure the problem was someone else's to correct. Rolling Eyes

But back to my previous question, do I need to have a physical firewall and how can I tell if one is working? Would that be something I would type into a DOS command line?

Posts: 52 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 10, 2007 Posts: 52

I'm not sure if you have already stated what your router is, but since I'm too lazy to check, I'll be ignorant. Some routers have the option to turn the firewall on or off. It should be under setup. In order to check that, you would have to log in to your router. The best way to do it is go to the command prompt, type ipconfig, get the default gateway and type that address into your web browser. At that point you should be prompted for your username and password. If you haven't changed any of that, it should still be the default username and password. You can find out what that is by googling your router manufacturer and default username or password and you can usually find a forum with that information. Once inside the router there will be multiple menu options. Usually, the firewall status is under setup, of course, this is all dependent upon the type of router. I'm not sure if this will help, but it's a point in the right direction.