Looking for Wireless Router with GREAT QoS

Posts: 830 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 830

VonTechMgr wrote:

As for choosing router with, my suggestion is an older model Linksys WRT54G or an older model Buffalo router which you can then run 3rd party firmware on. I recommend DD-WRT firmware. It has really robust features and the QOS works well. Of course your going to get many opinions from everyone who will answer you on here as everyone has a preference and different experiences. Me personally, I cannot use a standard store bought router. For my needs I use a Cisco 871 and its QOS engine works perfectly.

Many on this forum prefer to put their Vonage device behind a router, and because of various applications running on the network, use a QOS capable router, as noted in the above posts.

I have had no problems with my set-up using a my Vonage device (VT 2142) first, presumably using it's "built in" QOS. My systems do a number of scheduled web site and database back-ups via FTP, as well as use VNC, terminal services, web browsing, email accounts, a local FTP server, etc. and am curious if my VT 2142's QOS is responsible for this, or am I just not loading my network up to the extent others are?

Any thoughts?

Posts: 25 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 31, 2008 Posts: 25

Hi ed56,

I belong to one of the guys who is running his VT2442 behind a WRT54G router for the simple reason that everything was set up (and mounted) before the Vonage router arrived.
(I changed the VT's IP to my default subnet, so I can get to the device easily. DHCP etc turned off as well.
Having trouble with the default linksys firmware I was looking for an alternative and decided on tomato. I had no experience with flashing at that time and I did not want to brick my router, so I did not go for dd-wrt. The winner was tomato, because in case something went wrong, it let me restore my linksys backup config-file ( or restore the original from linksys web page) with the click of a mouse button.

Sorry for the extended intro...

If you are experiencing no trouble with your voice quality then either your QoS-settings are good or you never use your whole bandwidth.
I tested my speed via http:\\speakeasy.net/speedtest plus downloaded (and uploaded) some linux torrents while being on the phone. Whatever I tried, linksys never got the priority right - neither via MAC nor IP address.
(Note: I always prefer MAC over IP, because it creates less overhead)

Tomato does a great job for me (and dd-wrt for others I assume), so I can only conclude that the right firmware is an essential point.
Since you are uploading via ftp and http, I would call that "heavy traffic" and the usual upload speed of around 320 kbps (for cable connections) creates exactly that bottleneck.

I'd say - lucky you!

Posts: 830 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 830

Guess I am lucky . . . or the VT2142 QOS works, who knows Confused

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2008 Posts: 51

Netgear WPN824v3 has QoS features. The earlier versions of that model do not.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 15, 2008 Posts: 3

For anyone looking into a WRT54G, if you are buying new, make sure to get the WRT54GL. Make note of the "L" at the end of the name!!!

The WRT54GL is built like the older WRT54G routers.
The "new" WRT54G routers are junk devices with half the RAM and crummy VxWorks operating systems (but cost the same as the original).

The WRT54GL runs Linux and works with 3rd party firmware.

DD-WRT is fine, but many people prefer Tomato.

I tell my WRT54GL w/ Tomato to simply give the Vonage device's MAC top priority over everything else.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 24, 2007 Posts: 12

When I do a speed test without QoS turned on, I get 500 upload. When I turn QoS back on again, I get 250-300'ish (QoS is set for 200 specifically for Vonage device).

Should it not recognize Vonage device was not being used at the time and let the full 500 go through?
Thanks

Posts: 51 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2008 Posts: 51

I would add that I just replaced my 5 month old Netgear WPN824 with a Linksys WRT110. The Netgear has stopped working reliably. This is my second Netgear router that died in 18 months or less. I think I am done with that brand.