Good VPN Capable router? WRTP54G not working for me

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 03, 2007 Posts: 2

I'm a vonage newbie, and got myself a Linksys WRTP54G just before Christmas.

I'm having major problems getting a VPN connection into my work going properly. (Home office worker).

Prior to trying Vonage, I had the following setup:

Comcast->Cable Modem->Linksys BEFSR41->PC

Now I have :

Comcast->Cable Modem->Linksys WRTP54G->PC

The cable modem is a Motorola SB5120, and my data rates are around 6Mbits down, 350Kbits up.

I previously had no trouble with my VPN connection - would connect every time, and would even stay up for weeks on end.

Now I'm lucky if one in five attempts connects, and the connection frequently seems to stop working (though no real obvious break - just no response from the far end) after maybe 7 hours or so, though my current connection has been open for 1 day 15 hours, so there doesn't seem to be a hard limit.

I have set up all the same port forwarding that I had before on the BEFSR (all the standard ones recommended for VPN's in countless posts), but no joy.

When the connection attempts fail, it just gives a timeout when trying to download the banner (Nortel Contivity software) which I've seen in other reports of VPN problems with the WRTP54G.

Anyone figured out why this works for some people, but not others?

I tried Vonage support, but the only answer I got back was to put the WRTP behind my BEFSR, or to wait for a new router from Vonage due sometime in Q1 '07 that should supposedly play better with VPN's.

The BEFSR doesn't support QoS (it's an old one - says BEFSR41B on it - probably about 6 years old by now) so I'm not convinced this'll work well for VoIP traffic.

Any recommendations for alternative hardware that works well with VPN's? I figure I can return the WRTP to bestbuy as it's badly broken. Would something like the PAP2 work in front of my BEFSR, or is it likely to mess up the VPN stuff too?

Another thing I noticed with the WRTP - my PC's auto negotiate the connection speed with it at 10Mbps, whereas they all worked fine at 100 with the BEFSR. If there was a VPN capable router that allowed 1Gb speeds, then I'd be happier...

Thanks for any ideas,

John

Posts: 36 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 36

Any and all phone adapter devices have never made a good router.

I would sugest going to old config and put vonage behind router. disable vonage devices router functions and use it as only a phone adapter.
Then set old router to have vonage device on the DMZ

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 03, 2007 Posts: 2

elvis4321 wrote:

Any and all phone adapter devices have never made a good router.

I would sugest going to old config and put vonage behind router. disable vonage devices router functions and use it as only a phone adapter.
Then set old router to have vonage device on the DMZ

Thanks, that makes sense. I guess I'll return the WRTP54G and get something simpler for Vonage since I won't be using its extra functionality, and it seems rather broken...

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 17, 2005 Posts: 9

I had the same router and tried everything, port forwarding, MTU timing, Qos, etc. Nothing worked. If you have an extremely busy home network or several computers and use a P2P or online gaming this is what worked for me.

This is an Email I sent to Vonage customer svc to advise them of the fix I found.

http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-Technology-HBB1-Broadband-Booster/dp/B0009PLO0Q/sr=8-1/qid=1168037647/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-6694753-6421248?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

I like a lot of folks have been working with bad quality issues for a while with my router. I talked with a couple of folks at work that were also having issues and this item listed above seems to have solved all of our quality issues. No more messing with Qos, port forwarding and MTU settings. This thing is litterally plug and play.

On my network I have 360kbps of uplink speed but with multiple computers, online gaming and P2P programs the choppy audio was present especially with P2P such as Bittorrent, Azerus. This little $70 gadget works. As a stockholder in your company I would highly recommend that you list this for anyone having audio problems with outgoing voice.

The above item solved all of my audio quality items and seems to have also worked for my friends at work having issues with both Vonage and Skype.

Here is some of the comments concerning Voip and this broadband booster on the Amazon reviewer rating.

I've had the HBB1 for about a month now and it did more than just solve my problem! My VOiP quality improved significantly even with all 3 computers simultaneously connected to the internet. It may not have "boosted" my uplink speed by 400% as advertised but it did what I needed it to do. It's cool when callers comment how clear we sound, especially for a free VOiP service like Skype. I also noticed that my other internet applications run smoother. Set up was fool proof and literally took no more than 5 min to get it up and running. The bright blue LED confirms that the unit is connected correctly and packet management is working. Although no adjustment is necessary right out of the box, the GUI was a nice option to have as it shows your up/down stream speed, modem and router IP addresses and it gives you access to a few other manual adjustments. An average user wouldn't have to mess with it though.

For What its worth

Pete