Adding wireless router – but how?

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 63

Hello:

I have a cabel modem connected to a Motorola router VT2442, which in turn is connected to a router RTP300.

The new wireless router is a NetGear WGR614 to connect my wife's new laptop to the Internet in our house. The only free outlet is in the second router, RTP300, which now only have a telephone connected to it.

My question is, would it work okay to connect the wireless router to the RTP300?

Thanks,

Hans L

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

It should work for light duty using the laptop. You should already have made sure that the subnet addressing in the three routers is different. Getting the laptop to communicate with other computers on your network could be a problem if you need it to do that.

The VT2442 and RTP300 will service up to 4 phone lines if they're both Vonage boxes. If you only have one or two lines, you might consider putting both on the VT2442 and removing the RTP300, leaving one port for the new router.

That said, if the new Netgear has good QoS capability, it might be better to put it first and set it to favor the Vonage boxes (or box if you eliminate one). Generally speaking, if you have a good, robust router with good QoS capability, putting it first is the preferred solution.

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 63

Thank you, Steve. I have no idea if the NetGear has good QoS capability, but I guess there are ways to find out.

One problem is that if I want to make changed in the RTP300, I have to connect it directly to the computer. (Out two computers are now connected to the Motorola router.) In other words, any router after the Motorola (the first router) cannot be accessed via the Motorola, which means that I also have to connect the NetGear directly to the computer if I want to check its settings. A real pain in the bazooka. Am I possibly wrong about this, or ...?

Regards,

Hans L

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

No, you're right about that. Oh, there are probably ways, for the networking experts, but folks like me have to plug a computer directly into the router to fiddle with it.

You might want to take a look at Nate Hoy's writings on the subject of adding routers, here: http://vonage.nmhoy.net/ . Option 3 under "Putting a new router in front of the Vonage router" gets a lot of attention.

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 63

I've read a few of Nat Hoy's articles. I'll follow his advice, and return the router my wife bought (I did not think it was the best around Smile

, and go with something more advanced and put it up front.

Regards,

Hans L

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 63

Steve48 wrote:

You might want to take a look at Nate Hoy's writings on the subject of adding routers, here: http://vonage.nmhoy.net/ . Option 3 under "Putting a new router in front of the Vonage router" gets a lot of attention.

Steve, is there any way of establishing the date when these writings were published?

Hans L

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

I don't know, but Nate is still a forum member, though not around as much as he once was. Do a search on user Natehoy and send him a private message. Or send one to the forum owner, Dan Connor (dconnor). He may know.

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 63

Thanks for the suggestion, Dick. I wound up writing to his feedback address, since the forum membership list cannot, as far as I can see, be searched and you cannot manually scroll to a particula name (you see page 1-40 and then a few in the 1100 area. Quite ridiculous.

Regards,

Hans L

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

It is awkward, but if you do a search with an author's name specified, you'll get threads in which he's involved. Find one of his posts and click on "posts" under his name, and you'll get a list of his posts. Then click on his name and you'll get to his profile. From there you can PM. <Yeesh> <G>

Posts: 63 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2006 Posts: 63

I will try that method next time, Steve. I got a reply from Nate after having used the feedback address. Here is his response:

"The articles are a couple of years old. The RTP300 has had a new
firmware version or two since them, so the "Upgrading to the latest
firmware" doesn't work any more since Vonage scrambled the manual
upgrade password. However, the WRT54GL is still a really good router,
and there are lots of "aftermarket" firmwares for it, Thibor still
among them.

"I know very little about the Motorola router [VT2442/Hans L], but the settings should still pertain - the IP address ranges, etc, are based on basic networking concepts and not a specific router."

Regards,

Hans L