Vonage V-Portal and Linksys WRT160N V3 router

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 10, 2009 Posts: 2

I have been a Vonage user for a fair while now. I have had a trusty old BEFSR41 Linksys modem for about 8 years now, and it's been rock solid. Since it was strictly an old wired router I also added a Linksys WET11 access point to it so I could have wireless, and this has all worked great. Lately my old router has been giving my problems so I decided it was time to upgrade, and I chose a Linksys WRT160N modem.

Except I can't get the thing to even be recognized to configure it. The way the system is currently cofigured is as follows:

Cable Modem ==> Vonage V-Portal ==> BEFSR41 (with WET11 connected) ==> wireless to the PC.

To configure the WRT160N I just removed the BEFSR41 and WET11 from the mix, but left the Vonage V-Portal in place. Modem cable connects to the "internet" connection on the Vonage box and then a cable goes from the Vonage box to the "internet" connection on the Router. I have no wired devices as the location of the cable, etc is in a very inaccessible place.

So I went to set up the new router, basically just removed the BEFSR41/WET11 and put the WRT160N in its place, and crouched on the floor in the corner so I could connect my laptop wired to the router. But when I went through Setup the router was never recognized. I kept getting an error 322 when I tried.

Never could connect in the new router at all, even to configure it. I tried actually removing the V-Portal from the mix entirely and just connecting the modem directly to the new router - and that never worked either. I realize now that I didn't power cycle the modem so perhaps it had a MAC address problem.

But when I put my old BEFSR41/WET11 behind the V-Portal I'm back in business instantly. But with the WRT160N behind the V-Portal the WRT160N is dead as a dodo. Not even recognized as a box.

I had initially set the V-Portal first as that was the way the Vonage setup instructions specified, and since it has worked rock-solid I never found any reason to question it.

But I read here that this is not required in the setup. I can't play with it now as I'm working from home today, and I need my internet connection to be available! But perhaps later I can try reversing the order or something.

But anyone have a clue why the WRT160N is not even recognized as being there when behind the V-Portal? It all works like a charm with the ancient 8-year-old BEFSR41.

Posts: 627 · Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:06 pm Post subject:

When you say the new router can't be recognized, what exactly are you referring to. The point you make by it not working when directly connected to the modem, eliminates the issue to have anything to do with Vonage or the V-Portal.

Are you able to even connect to the router wirelessly and get into it's interface?

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 10, 2009 Posts: 2

I had read this item:
vonage-forum.com/ftopic22203.html+vportal" target="_blank">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic22203.html+vportal

which sounded a bit similar to mine, no internet access when the V-portal was placed ahead of the Linksys router. But true, I don't seem to be able to access the router at all. The router comes with a CD that supposedly steps you through set-up. Of course the setup does not take into account the V-portal, but I just removed the old Linksys router and swapped the new one it. But no luck, the Setup software spends minutes saying "waiting for router" and then eventually gets an Error 322, saying no router or gateway detected. I did switch the boxes around so that the WRT610N was first. This time I remembered to recycle the modem as well to eliminate MAC problems, but even with the router first I still get the "Error 322, saying no router or gateway detected" so it does seem more likely now that the V-Portal does not come into play - assuming I have it all cabled up properly!

Posts: 627 · Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:16 pm Post subject:

Are you trying to connect to the wireless router via wireless connect or do you have an Ethernet cable connected to it?

What you have to understand it it does not matter what is upstream of the wireless router. It doesn't even matter if yo have a modem or an internet connection to do the set up. If all you had in front of you was a wireless client(laptop) and the wireless router, you should be able to access the router's internal web interface.

Hold the router's factory reset button for 10 seconds. Give it some time to run through the boot process. Then open up the wireless client on the PC and look for the Linksys SSID and connect to it. Make sure your wireless adapter on the PC is set to DHCP.