Networking options for V-Portal?

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject: Networking options for V-Portal?

Okay, so all my griping aside, UPS did finally deliver me my new V-Portal today. The two gripes I already have about it out of the box: 1) the device is able to be mounted on the wall, but all the wires connect from the top? Apparently they didn't build this for style. And 2) the way the wall wart power supply is designed, you can't use it on a power strip or anywhere where there are more power outlets placed underneath, the wall wart will block at least two of them. Really, terrible design. I'll have to pick up a rotating plug extension or a squid to be able to use it.

Okay I said I wasn't going to gripe, seriously I need some advice! Smile

Right now here's my network topology:

Code:

|| === [Time Warner/RoadRunner Cable]
||
[ Motorola SB5100 Cable Modem ]
||
||
[ Cisco/Linksys Vonage RTP300 ]
||||||
|||||+----------------[ Telephone #1 ]
||||+-----------------[ TrendNet TEW-132 BRP WiFi Router ]
||+-------------------[ PC #1 ]
|+--------------------[ PC #2 ]
+---------------------Open Ethernet Port

The only problem that I'm having with the RTP300 is the phone ports flaking out. I'm not having any issues with the ethernet router. The RTP300 already has QoS and DHCP enabled.

Would I be better off leaving this as it is, and connecting the V-Portal to the last Ethernet port, or should the V-Portal go in-between the cable modem and the router?

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

You are going to get a variety of opinions here. I prefer to have my Vonage device first using its built in QOS. others disagree.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 5:27 pm Post subject:

Do you feel that the Vonage V-Portal's QoS is better than the Vonage RTP300's QoS?

The main thing I worry about is the call quality. I realize that if I put the device up-front then I will most likely never have to deal with QoS issues, which is the way it is with the RTP300 now.

However, I have already hardwired IP addresses from the RTP300 into the rest of my network. Putting the V-Portal up-front it has a pre-assigned address of 192.168.15.1, which is the same self-assigned address of the RTP300. I'd have to re-configure everything.

There's also an issue of having to unmount and re-route all my wiring if I put the V-Portal up front. I am interested in using the Caller ID and other built-in features, currently all my equipment is tucked out of the way where I do not have to bother with it.

But, call quality is the first issue, network management the second. If I have to change these things in order to obtain the best, so be it.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject:

The V-Portal QOS will provide you with best possible call quality if placed directly to the modem. However, you will notice your internet to bog down, especially when the phone is in use as it's adaptive QOS technology will reserve near 95% of your overall throughput with a call session active.

The RTP300 will use standard QOS to services hosted behind it's LAN which means your only going to prioritize the ports, IP, MAC, etc.. for Vonage based upon the way your configure it. This will also provide adequate call quality and leave you with sufficient throughput for other services like HTTP.

While your best call quality will come from the Public IP being assigned to the WAN of the V-Portal, your going to see a happy medium if you just connect the V-Portal to the LAN of the RTP300.

Take a few days to test it out for yourself and see which works best to suit your usage and needs. Everyone is different.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject:

Well sofar I've not found a happy medium either way.

Putting the V-Portal behind the RDP300, call quality was horrible, voice dropping out every 5 seconds. I also could not reach the WebUI for the V-Portal by the IP address it picked up. I didn't see any way to change this at all.

Putting the RDP300 behind the V-Portal, decent call quality, but the Internet is damn-near unusable.

I'm on the phone with a Vonage tech right now trying to diagnose this for 50 minutes now, it has been pretty slow and painful. We're now rebooting devices for a second time. Ugh.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:02 pm Post subject:

How did you configure the QOS? What's running on your network? How heavy is the traffic? P2P, Gaming, Web Browsing? What's using the Trendnet Wifi router?

Sounds like you may be dropping packets at Layer 2 on the switch ports of the RDP300. Turn off your PC's and unplug the wireless router for testing. Check the call quality. The turn on 1 PC and check the call quality. Then another and test. Then the wireless router. See if you can find out what might be ARPing, using STP, or just saturating your LAN which might be causing Layer 2 packet loss.

Your not going to be able to access the V-Portal on the IP assigned to it's WAN as that is disabled by default for security purposes. Wouldn't want it connected to a modem and have wide open access right out of the box. So you will need to connect a PC to it's LAN port, log in at 192.168.15.1 and then you can enable Remote Admin which will alllow access to it's Web GUI through the WAN port. All SOHO routers are configured this way by default.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject:

I don't see any way for me to access the QoS configurations within the RTP300, unless I'm just missing something.

However, I think it turned out to be an issue with the V-Portal. After spending nearly two hours plugging and unplugging and rebooting and swapping devices, the tech finally had me connect the PC directly to the V-Portal, log in and do a factory reset, then reconnect as Cable Modem->RTP300->VPortal. Voice quality is fine, Internet is fast again.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:

VonTechMgr wrote:

Your not going to be able to access the V-Portal on the IP assigned to it's WAN as that is disabled by default for security purposes. Wouldn't want it connected to a modem and have wide open access right out of the box. So you will need to connect a PC to it's LAN port, log in at 192.168.15.1 and then you can enable Remote Admin which will alllow access to it's Web GUI through the WAN port. All SOHO routers are configured this way by default.

OK, I give up. How do you do this? Smile

Posts: 656 · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:56 pm Post subject:

Connect a PC to the LAN port of the V-Portal. Log into the V-Portal at http://192.168.15.1

Once inside you need to enable Remote Admin. I think it is under Administration but not 100% sure off the top of my head. Once this is enabled, you can then access the V-Portal Web interface from the IP assigned to the V-Portal WAN port from PC's connected directly to your RTP300.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:31 pm Post subject:

VonTechMgr wrote:

Connect a PC to the LAN port of the V-Portal. Log into the V-Portal at http://192.168.15.1

Once inside you need to enable Remote Admin. I think it is under Administration but not 100% sure off the top of my head. Once this is enabled, you can then access the V-Portal Web interface from the IP assigned to the V-Portal WAN port from PC's connected directly to your RTP300.

OK I enabled Remote Admin and disabled WAN blocking. I'm still not able to connect. The VPortal reports that the Internet port is assigned to 192.168.15.104, which is an open IP on the RTP300. Trying to load http://192.168.15.104/ or http://192.168.15.104:8080 both result in a Connection Timed Out error. Attempting to ping the V-Portal at this address also results in a Request Timed Out error.