Which ports does the V-Portal REALLY need?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 26, 2008 Posts: 3

I've set up my V-Portal (latest firmware 2.8.1-2.2. Cool

*behind* my home router, as I do interesting stuff with my WRT54GL flashed with DD-WRT.

From the directions I've found online for this, it seems Vonage recommends forwarding ports 10000-20000 to the V-Portal, both TCP and UDP. I've also heard that they maybe also like TCP ports 5060-5061 (SIP) forwarded as well.

I've probed these ports on the V-Portal, and the only one of the 10,003 listed that wasn't stealthy was port 10000; port 10000 was closed and not open. The rest didn't respond.

So, does the V-Portal *really* need all these ports forwarded to it? I've heard from one unreliable source that it only really needs 10000-10010 (it didn't mention TCP vs. UDP).

Posts: 144 · Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject:

I have operated several Vonage ATA's behind several Linksys and D-Link routers since 2003. I have never had to explicitly open any router port to any ATA for this purpose. The ATA's originate outbound connections and make themselves available to the Vonage proxy servers using the NAT feature of your router. They refresh these connections every ten or twenty seconds or so, to keep the NAT mapping alive. You should be able to plug your ATA into the LAN side of your NAT-equipped router and it should just work, plug-and-play. Don't make it harder than it is!

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 26, 2008 Posts: 3

DLevenson wrote:

Don't make it harder than it is!

Well we are in agreement in that last point!

Now that you mention it, I guess there are ways to allow incoming connections over a NAT without explicit port forwarding (or any of its derivatives: port triggering, UPnP, NAT-PMP, DMZ, etc). I never heard anyone mention this in the pages I've found, so I just assumed the box sat there with an open port, waiting for a Vonage server to tell it about an incoming call. One must wonder, however, why Vonage directs forwarding at least 10001 ports to the VoIP adapter. http://www.vonage.com/support.php?article=1098&topic=20 I'm also not sure if you're router is using SPI on top of NAT and if this would affect one's experience.

I guess instead of blabbering about this, I could just disable port fowarding and see if it still works or not. Good 'ol scientific method.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Posts: 27

dtemp wrote:

I guess instead of blabbering about this, I could just disable port fowarding and see if it still works or not. Good 'ol scientific method.

Well? did it? I have my v-portal behind my router, and have never opened any ports for it. I just plugged into a switch port, let it grab a DHCP address, and started making phone calls.

I HAVE to have mine behind the router, because my router is a DSL Wireless gateway. There is no separate modem and router, they are one device, so you can't put the v-portal between them. If I ever make the switch to cable, I'll probably try the v-portal in front of the router, but it's working fine behind it for now.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 26, 2008 Posts: 3

mehardin wrote:

Well? did it?

Never tried it, sorry folks. I probably should if I'm ever around home again (this was actually for my mother's house) long enough to fiddle with things. Currently it works fine with 10000-20000 TCP/UDP forwarded, and 5060-5061 TCP forwarded.

A little off topic: I have DD-WRT installed on our router, and QoS set up for the V-Portal. Every other IP has "standard" priority, but the V-Portal is "Exempt," i.e. all packets are passed immediately and without restriction. I tried pegging the connection both incoming and outgoing using the other computers on the network, and the VoIP call I had going did not suffer any quality loss.