Crazy Multiple Router Setup and Help

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 28, 2009 Posts: 5

Due to various technical and other issues, I find myself in need of some advise on setting up my network. I have 3 separate lines from vonage, so I have 2 devices from them, a D-Link VWR and a Motorola vt2442. Because of poor call quality, I took a chance and purchased a Linksys Network Optimizer. This has helped to an extent and I would not like to loose it. Because I have a large number of devices, and configuration of the devices I have recieved from vonage has been iffy at best, I also have a Netgear GS108 switch. I have recently discovered, after replacing 4 of the D-Link VWR devices, that the security settings it looses are a "known issue". Because of this, I have also had to recently purchase a D-Link DIR-615 for my wireless needs. So my question is, what will be the best way to wire all of these devices?

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

If it were me with your devices, I would do this.

Internet -> Network Optimizer -> DIR-615 -> Netgear Switch and Vonage Devices

Here is my rationale behind this.

If you want to continue to use the network optimizer it needs to be at the start of the chain so that it can control all traffic. This is a must if you want to use that device.

After this I would put my router to do its job and then connect the switch and the Vonage devices to this and then connect whatever else you have to the switch.

I would turn off all of the routing and wireless features in the Vonage devices so that they are just acting as phone devices.

Hope this helps.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 28, 2009 Posts: 5

I could still use the other ports on the DIR-615 or even connect the Vonage devices directly to that right? I would need to configure the 2 Vonage devices to have a static IP to be able to connect to them right?

My original thought was to have the devices setup in a strait line. I thought that:
1. This would provided better security as all 3 firewalls would need to be breached before access to the network.
2. Most important, since the Vonage devices would be first, they would get priority and therefore have better call quality.

I have a 10/1M service, so I should be able to have multiple lines with no problems. However, call quality has always been terrible. I want to make sure I optimize Vonage service without adding huge delay times I imagine my setup would cause.

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

HippyPimp wrote:

I could still use the other ports on the DIR-615 or even connect the Vonage devices directly to that right? I would need to configure the 2 Vonage devices to have a static IP to be able to connect to them right?

You could still use the other ports on the DIR-615, but not on the Vonage devices (at least not with some other work).

I would configure the Vonage devices with static IPs, but its not required. (you just need to know the address to connect)

I think configuring them all in the line wold be the last thing you want to do. If you are that concerned about security, drop the router and run a something like smoothwall for a real firewall.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 28, 2009 Posts: 5

Well, the extra router is for the wireless since Vonage does not have a device that can accomplish this. I was also told by Vonage tech support that the Vonage routers would not work behind a firewall. Is this correct? I would eventually like to add one.

I should be setting up the network this afternoon. I'll post my results and final configuration when I can.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 28, 2009 Posts: 5

Ok, well, here's the setup I came up with:

Modem
|
v
Network Optimizer
|
v
DIR-615
| \ \
v v v
Switch VT2442 VWR
|
v
computers

The connections between the DIR and vonage devices are using lan ports on both sides. Both vonage devices have dhcp disabled and static ip addresses. I can connect to all 3 routers from any computer (critical). However, neither of the vonage device phone lines are working. I called vonage and they had me change the cable from the lan to the wan ports on the vonage devices. Immediately after, I needed to connect to the devices to configure them of course. So far, neither vonage device can now obtain an ip address from the DIR which does have dhcp enabled.

Can anyone help with this setup? I really need to be able to access the devices from my computers. I also obviously need the phone lines to work.

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

First temporarily connect your PC directly in to a LAN port on each of the Vonage routers so that you can configure them. Remember when you do this you'll need to use the local IP address of the Vonage device which is http://192.168.15.1.

Now you can make the configuration changes you need.

I would then check all of your static IP settings to make sure they are correct. If you aren't sure what should be there, we can detail that.

Also make sure that Remote Administration (or Remote Management) is configured on the Vonage devices. In your setup you would need that to access them that way. You would then access them with the static IP (not the local one) and add :8080 on the end (this is the default at least)

I have a similar setup and have to have that enabled on my Vonage device to access them.

I have a main Router (WRT54GL) and both Vonage devices are connected to is as well as an 8 port switch.

Also remember that the Vonage devices will not pick up an IP address from the DIR if you are setting it to static. So if you are looking for them in a DHCP Client list or something similar I'm pretty sure they won't show up since they aren't getting their address from DHCP.

Your setup will work fine as long as you have the Static IP address settings done properly and you will be able to access them from our PC (when it is connected to the switch) by using the remote administration option.

Hope this helps.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 28, 2009 Posts: 5

Ok, made a few changes, got everything working perfect now. 1st change was to use the Wan ports on the Vonage devices. I had to use a temp cable to them for configuration though. Both are set to static IP's. They key was to turn off the firewall, and even the NAT. Nat was not necessary, but I'm hoping that it will stay set if my vwr defaults the wireless settings again so that nobody can hijack my network. The firewall needed to be turned off so that I can access the config page from a pc through the wan ports. Hopefully, the firewall on the DIR will prevent anyone from outside doing the same.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 20, 2009 Posts: 1

I have an 8 server network with a T-1 through a Cisco 2600 incl T-1 WIC. I use a SonicWALL TZ-170 Firewall. Presently I have a lot of latency when receiving calls with any of the 3 phones all attached to seperate V-Portals. If I seperate the network traffic (Pull the Cat5 cable from the Firewall to the Switch. My Vonage works great (Plugged directly onto the firewall. My problem is that I need both to work great. I see in some of the other threads in the forum the use of a Linksys Network Optimizer for Gaming and VoIP. I called linksys and they said that it will help. They said to go in the following order:

cisco 2600 (T-1) -> TZ-170 -> Linksys Optimzer -> Switch -> V-Portals/Network devices.

Does anyone have experience with this cofiguration or better ideas?

I am new to the forum so if my question is Hijacking this topic, feel free to let me know and I will re-post elsewhere. Thanks