Vonage via Wireless Bridge?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 02, 2008 Posts: 2

Anyone know if I can use my Vonage account with a wireless bridge (wifi)

I want to buy a bridge IF they work. Most people selling them have no idea? "Throughput" seems to be the unknown. Also, will a 802.11b work as well as a 802.11g ???

Thank-You in advance!

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 02, 2008 Posts: 2

Need a connection in another area of the house where there is no ethernet connectivity. I'd like to see a Vonage modem with built in WiFi interface. Baring that, a pure bridge like the D-Link DWL-G810 or Linksys WET54G.

Hope someone has some experience with that setup.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

Search this forum, you will see many posts asking this question.

We have seen cases where people get it to work, but many others where it does not work.

I don't think Vonage will never sell a device that included bridging given the potential quality and reliability issues it adds to the equation.

The bottom line is that it is possible, but not a recommended or supported configuration.

A much easier model is to use a cordless phone with multiple handsets. so that it doesn't matter where the actual Vonage device is.

Posts: 350 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 350

You can do that and it would work. However as others said, using a cordless phone (or cordless phone jacks) would be a better option, unless you have a specific reason otherwise. I do not have my Vonage TA's running off of my wireless network segment. Disclaimer aside...

I currently have a Linksys WRT54G and WAP54G functioning as bridges to my wireless router, running DD-WRT in "Client Bridge" mode. This connects the ethernet port(s) to a wireless network, bringing a wired network connection to anywhere in range of the network. The signal quality is OK and I typically get 36 Mbps, more than enough for Voip. It did take some trial and error of things such as placement and increasing the radio power until I managed to get it stable enough that it doesn't drop occasionally (in retrospect it would have just been beter to devote the time to running the Cat6 cable that I was too lazy to do in the first place). You can do the same thing with hardware usually called a gaming adapter though they tend to be way overpriced.

One thing I found is that the Linksys wireless range extender (forgot the model number) is complete junk. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities to it. Don't bother to waste your money on it.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 02, 2008 Posts: 2

I have a cordless phone with multiple handsets in different parts of the house. But it gets poor reception in the basement where my office is, while the wireless connection to my PC is stable. Therefore, I though a wireless bridge to the same wireless router might help.

Are there any models of wireless bridge that work better than others? I have a Buffalo AirStation wireless-G router which is awesome on range, far better than the D-Link that it replaced.

Posts: 323 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 323

Two things.

1. If you have bad cordless phone reception in the same location that you plan to put the bridge, I'm a bit less hopeful that this will give stable performance.

2. If you end of wanting to try the wireless route look at what trekologer talks about. DD-WRT is a 3rd party firmware that can be used on many routers. I would do something like this before I would try any other device. With this type of setup you can use most any type of standard router as the bridge. I'm not very up on all of the details of wireless bridging like this so I'm not sure if you have to have the same device on both ends. I believe your Buffalo router works with DD-WRT, and also works with Tomato which are two of the 3rd party firmware options that are popular for Voip (due to excellent QoS settings) but they both also support a number of options for wireless bridging.

Look here.

http://www.dd-wrt.com
or here
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Sep 03, 2008 Posts: 1

I have a similar situation with Cable modem & Router in one part of the house and PC's & Vonage in another.

I have a WRT600N linksys router -> WGA600N Dual Band Game Adapter -> Linksys SD2008 Switch -> Vonage Dlink VTA-VR adapter

A game adapter is essentially a one port wireless bridge, and much easier to setup than my previous buffalo wireless bridge.

By placing a switch behind this I can have 3 PC's, Vonage, a NAS drive, etc. all going through the Game Adapter as I have 8 ports where as most ethernet bridges only have 4.

I also have another WGA600N in the bedroom for the other Tivo

I should not that as I live in an apartment building I have the Game Adapters running off the 5Ghz band which is less clutttered.

It has been working Flawlessly for 6 months now