New router alternatives

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 17, 2008 Posts: 4

So i have a situation. Currently my modem is junk and is just killing my overall connection. So, i was going to purchase a motorola sb5101 which i have used before when renting it from another company. Instead i bought the sbg900. I have the crappy linksys wrtp54g roputer and my question was, since the modem is also a wireless router on its own, is there a way to just have an ethernet phone adapter instead of having to keep the linksys router? if i have to keep it hooked up i plan on disabling everything i can on it. I was looking to buy the Vonage V portal as that seems to be along the lines of what i would need but the setup seems a bit unpractical. Looks like i would have to keep the unit in my basement to connect the ethernet port. Any suggestions?

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

Do you currently have Vonage?

You mentioned a setup being unpractical if you purchased the V-Portal because it would have to be in your basement to connect via Ethernet. How else do you plan to connect it? Regardless of the type of Vonage device you would have, it would have to connect to your modem or to a router via Ethernet. So unless your home is wired with cat 5, you going to have to connect it locally.

If you did not want to connect it in the basement and you don't have cat 5 running through your house, the only other method would be to use a wireless bridge would could wirelessly connect the V-Portal to the wireless modem. However, I would NOT recommend this since any interference would reduce the quality of your audio especially with the use of cordless phones operating on the 2.4ghz frequency.

One other thing to note is that the Motorola SBG series has issues with SIP and RTP due to it's firewall. The firewall in this modem must be completely disabled in order for any Vonage product to operate properly. Once disabled in the web interface, the modem must be rebooted for the change to take place.

Posts: 831 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 831

It appears that your cable modem is located in your basement and that is why you would need to hook up your Vonage device there?

If so, I presume your phone hook up (demarcation point) is also in your basement. I would simply run a phone line from your Vonage device to the phone hook up (making sure you have your POTS connection disconnected) and power your phones through the house phone wiring.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 17, 2008 Posts: 4

Well when i meant it being unpractical i was really trying to ask if there was something simpler to buy other than an $80 item that has a bunch of extra features that i'll never use when its in the basement. my intention for buying it was strictly for having the phone port and also didn't relize you can't the discount off it unless your a new customer so that in mind i'm not buying it. But yah everything is in the basement and i do currently have Vonage. Currently the phone port is on the router and i was trying to find a way to ditch the router and keep the phone port.

So it sounds like i should just keep the current router and just run it off the new modem. Would i really have to disable the firewall? couldn't i just manually configure it to allow the router to bypass it?

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:39 pm Post subject:

OK so you if that is all you want to do, then you could just disable the wireless portion of the WRTP54G and use it only as a phone adapter if there is nothing wrong with your phone. The routing and wireless can be performed by the SBG-900.

As for it working with Vonage, you would need to test it out on your own and see how it works. If you run into intermittent lost dial tone, 1 way audio, no audio, you will need to configure it. I recommend the firewall disabled as in my experience seeing many cases over the past few years resulting in service affecting issues caused by the SPI firewall. Even port forwarding and DMZ did not fully correct the issue permanently. Hardware and software revisions can cause different types of issues but no way to tell if you will be affected until you test it out..

Just wanted to give you a heads up so you know where to look if you run into issues and how to resolve on your own.

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

It's theoretically possible to attach any Ethernet device to a router or switch using a Powerline Adapter. That connection plugs one of the RJ ports on the router into a device that plugs into a power outlet. Somewhere else, on the same wiring rig a corresponding Powerline adapter is plugged into another power outlet. At that point, depending on the type of device either it connects to that powerline adapter wirelessly or it plugs in to one of its Ethernet RJ sockets.

I have not tried to do this with Voip but I have done it with wireless PC connections. It appears to work no worse than a wireless link and the Netgear model has a rated spec in the 200Mbps range which is certainly sufficient for Voip. Again though, does it really work, will is survive power fluctuations, does it reliably support isochronous connections? I don't know.

The other thing is to use plain old Ethernet Cat5 or 6 and run it in a chase behind your walls out to the max runlength in the Ethernet spec. That's what? 250ft?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 17, 2008 Posts: 4

K thanks guys for your help