Hotel use of Starcom F1000

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 11

Thanks to all for the quick responses. I will be travelling probably in the next few weeks, and will report back on how this works.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 11

I just traveled to the UK, and now am in India, and am still unable to connect to the AP provided by the Linksys Travel Router. The router is working, and right now I have the security turned off to make it easier. But am still unable to connect the F1000. It did connect once today, but now will not.

This phone works fine using my home network.

Thanks

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 11

I finally got this to work properly. I tried to do a master reset on the phone with two Vonage passwords that they gave me, but it just kept coming up with "code error." So he suggested just to put in nothing and select "ok" on the phone. It accepted that, and with the security turned off, the phone connected. We then turned the security on, re-configured the phone with the key, and everything works as it should.

Thanks to all who responded, you were a great help.

Posts: 94 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Sep 15, 2006 Posts: 94

How do you find Vonage's quality over Wifi? I've always been a little suspicious of this type of setup, due to fluctuating bandwidth, etc., with wireless.

Posts: 328 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 328

It works fine for me. The bandwidth fluctuations that result from WiFi in a hotel seem to be less than the fluctuations that come from congestion on the IP link in and out of the hotel. The same is true at home - but that is not a problem at all for me.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 11

I should not talk so soon.

Now the phone just says it has no service, to try another AP. This is really getting frustrating, as you can not depend on it to always stay connected.

Posts: 328 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 328

How is the phone connected? The "No Service Try Another AP" message shows up where the phone is connected to WiFi, but it cannot connect from there to Vonage. If the AP is connected to the internet via your PC, then the PC needs to stay on. If the hotel access controller relies on some PC java application to maintain its connection then, again, the pc needs to stay on or the ap will not stay connected.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 11

Connection goes like this:

Hotel Ethernet cable to Linksys Travel Router.

Travel Router to Latop.

Everytime I unplug the cables or turn off the computer, I have to activate the hotel's system to gain internet access. I am thinking of trying a static IP address to see if that helps, as all of this switching around changes the IP addresses at will, then the phone needs to be changed as well.

Thanks for the feedback.

Posts: 328 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 13, 2005 Posts: 328

Static IP will not change anything for you. The condition that you are in is that the hotel's access controller is sending something to the PC (very likely running some sort of java application or checking on a cookie that it fed you). So long as the PC is on and connected, the connection will stay up and the travel router will stay connected to the world, letting your wifi phone reach Vonage.

Once the PC disconnects, the hotel's access controller will block the outbound connection from the travel router to the world so, even though the phone will still be happily connected to the travel router, the travel router will not be able to communicate to anything outside the hotel - including to Voange. If you put the PC back on the router and tell the hotel's access controller that you are back and all is well, then the router will connect to the world and the phone will connect to Vonage.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 30, 2007 Posts: 11

Finally I got this right.

The computer is turned on, and the internet connection is established through the hotel's connection. Once that is done, a wireless access point is established, and a wireless connection from the computer is made to the AP. Once the connection is made to the AP, I can disconnect the ethernet cable from the laptop, and have the computer access the internet through the AP.

The Vonage phone was turned on to find the new AP. Once that was done, I configured the AP in the phone to match the IP address and DNS address of the router. Those settings were saved, the phone was turned off and on again, and it connected immediately with Vonage. Since that time, I have made and received calls as it was intended to be used. Another nice feature is that I can have the computer turned off and the AP is still established until I turn off the power to the router or do a reset.

I spent over an hour on the phone with a great tech help guy from Linksys, who helped me undo and understand my mistakes, then helped me configure the router as I wanted.

This has been a great learning experience, and thanks to all who passed on their knowledge.

Nightcat