need setup help with Motorola VT2442 through D-Link Dir-655

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 09, 2009 Posts: 3

Is there anyone here who might be able to help me? I do not know very much about networking. I have wireless internet access through a radio receiver on the roof that is connected to the "Internet" port on the D-Link Dir-655 router. "LAN" ports 1, 2, and 3 are connected to computers here in my home office. "LAN" port 4 runs all the way to the other end of my home to the "Internet" port on the Vonage Motorola VT2442. "Ethernet" port 1 is connected to my Dish receiver, 2 is connected to my blu-ray player, and 3 is connected to my Slingbox SOLO to stream my Dish content to my laptop anywhere. "Phone 1" is connected to my home wiring system. Everything worked great before I got the D-link between the internet and Motorola. Now that the Motorola is after the D-link, I can no longer connect to the Slingbox through my home computers or laptop. I think my question is, can I disable the internal firewall in the Motorola and how would I access it?

Posts: 627 · Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:52 pm Post subject:

The problem is that anything you place behind the Motorola is on a different subnet then what is behind the D-Link. Most people think because the hardware reside in the same house and has cables connected to one another, it is all on the same local network. This is not the case with 2 or more routers.

Each router has it's own local area network. So what is connected behind the D-Link is local to each other and what is behind the Motorola is local to each other. But the components behind the D-Link are not local to the Motorola and so on. Now there are ways to make this happen with static routes in each router however this is a bit more advanced so you may want to pass.

I can also tell you from experience with the Slingbox, it does not like to be on a separate LAN from the clients. It only operates on a 24bit class C subnet which means it would not work properly with static routes while everything would.

My recommendation to keep it simple and also give you room for expansion would be to purchase a 5 or 8 port switch. A switch is not that expensive. You would connect port 4 from your D-Link to port 1 on the switch. You would then connect the Slingbox, the Motorola's Internet port, and any other component you choose to into the other ports on the switch. That way everything is on the same local area network behind your D-Link. Nothing would plug into the LAN ports of the Motorola.

I recommend this if you only need a 100Mbps LAN connection.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127086

or this if your looking for a Gigabit LAN connection.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833127082

There are also many other brands and 5 port models to choose from for about the same moeny. I only picked this as an example because I have two of the 2nd one and they provide me great bandwidth for large simultaneous file transfers and high def streaming media across my LAN.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 26, 2009 Posts: 13

mikejackie wrote:

Is there anyone here who might be able to help me? I do not know very much about networking. I have wireless internet access through a radio receiver on the roof that is connected to the "Internet" port on the D-Link Dir-655 router. "LAN" ports 1, 2, and 3 are connected to computers here in my home office. "LAN" port 4 runs all the way to the other end of my home to the "Internet" port on the Vonage Motorola VT2442. "Ethernet" port 1 is connected to my Dish receiver, 2 is connected to my blu-ray player, and 3 is connected to my Slingbox SOLO to stream my Dish content to my laptop anywhere. "Phone 1" is connected to my home wiring system. Everything worked great before I got the D-link between the internet and Motorola. Now that the Motorola is after the D-link, I can no longer connect to the Slingbox through my home computers or laptop. I think my question is, can I disable the internal firewall in the Motorola and how would I access it?

First, the dir-655 is a great device. Good buy.

If you can get the cabling to work I would just connect all my devices to it directly (i.e. the dish player, the blu ray, the sling box, as well as the vt2442 ata through its blue internet port).

If that doesn't work, either because you don't have enough ports on the dir or because you don't want to run all those cables, then you can just add a new switch at that end of the house and plug everything into that switch (including the dir-655 to form a bridge).. if you didn't go with gig-e then it would be a choke-point for the dir-655 but I highly doubt you're using that kind of bandwidth capacity anyhow.

As a compromise you can use the 2442 as both the ATA and that "new switch". You'll just need to run 2 cables to the 2442 from the dir-655. Plug one into the blue internet port - the ata will use that one for VOIP traffic. and plug the other one into one of the 4 lan ports.. Then you need to go into the console on the 2442 and disable the DHCP server. (http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic16516.html seems to show how to do that). Once you've done that any device you plug into the other lan ports will be bridged with the dir-655 and everything will live on the same subnet and happiness will ensue. If you neglect to turn off that DHCP server there won't be any happiness.

--
PenBay Networks
VOIPRecorder - Record Calls Made with Vonage(tm) on Your Computer!
www.penbaynetworks.com

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 09, 2009 Posts: 3

Does the 2442 not have a switch built in? Ok, the Dir-655 is in the home office with 3 workstations (without wireless) that need to be connected to it. The media room is about 150' away at the other end of the house. All of the computers go through the Dir-655. How can I log into the 2442 to change settings and what do I need to change to have the Slingbox pass through correctly? If I convert the 2442 to a switch, can I plug one of the "Ethernet" ports into the "Internet" port to use the phone?

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Mar 26, 2009 Posts: 13

mikejackie wrote:

Does the 2442 not have a switch built in?

yes it does. The LAN ports all comprise a switch. The internet port is different. That's why the help you were given suggested you connect the dir-655 to the lan ports - so the vt2442 switch would be on the same subnet as the dir-655.

Quote:

How can I log into the 2442 to change settings

This is the link I gave previously - I think it has what you need:
vonage-forum.com/ftopic16516.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="postlink">http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic16516.html

Quote:

and what do I need to change to have the Slingbox pass through correctly?

When you've got just one subnet and all of your switches and devices are on it, then you should not have to do anything special except plug the slingbox in.

Quote:

If I convert the 2442 to a switch, can I plug one of the "Ethernet" ports into the "Internet" port to use the phone?

to use the phone you need to plug the internet port of the 2442 into your subnet somehow. It makes the most sense to me to plug it into the dir-655 LAN port, but the link above shows that someone just plugged it into a LAN port on the 2442 and had success.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 09, 2009 Posts: 3

OK, plugged the laptop into the 2442 and disconnected from the wireless network so I could log into the 2442 and that worked well. All I had to do is check one box and move one cable and everything is working great. I had a short cable to plug the "Internet" port into an "Ethernet" port and the phone works now as well. Thanks for all the help.