VoIP and Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4

Posts: 33 · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:45 pm Post subject: VoIP and Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4

I am seriously considering the Vonage service to replace my Bell service. I currently have 2 residential lines plus I have a Network of 4 computers. My LAN utilizes a Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 Router/Access Point whose WAN port is connected to a Motorola SB5100 Cable modem --my ISP is Rogers and I subscribe to the Rogers High-Speed Extreme service.

My Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 Router supports 802.11e [QoS] -- so my question is; Does anyone have any experience setting up the Vonage service using the Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 and exploiting the 802.11e aspect? If so can you please articulate your experience?

Does Vonage provide a Phone adapter model that enables 2 lines and takes advantage of the QoS feature built-into my Router?

Thanks

Posts: 33 · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:59 am Post subject: Signed up -- will give it a try.

I'm going to give this service a try -- just signed up on March 9/05 and see how the Linksys Phone adapter interacts with my router.

Hopefully one day soon --- number portability may become a reality in Canada ... however, I'll make the assumption that Bell Canada will attempt to delay this aspect for as long as they can exploiting the fact that the CRTC moves like a snail traveling through a bowl of frozen molasses. For the American reader the CRTC is somewhat equivalent to the FTC in the USA.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject:

Number portability does exist in Canada now. Primus Broadband can port your number, Sprint can do it, Eastlink can do it, Videotron can do it, and most of the other cable and telephone companies in Canada can port your old number. I am not sure why Vonage chose not to offer this feature, but they have sent me an email a month ago stating that it was coming soon. It's been here in Canada for a long while. Ten years ago I had my MT&T/Aliant phone number transferred to Eastlink when I lived in the Maritimes.

Posts: 33

DarKev wrote:

I am not sure why Vonage chose not to offer this feature, but they have sent me an email a month ago stating that it was coming soon. It's been here in Canada for a long while.

Very interesting .... thank you for setting me straight. Smile

Posts: 33

mozerd wrote:

I'm going to give this service a try -- just signed up on March 9/05 and see how the Linksys Phone adapter interacts with my router.

OK I got the phone adapter/router set up and working -- the installation was without a shadow of doubt very easy and smooth.

All I had to do [based on my existing LAN/WAN infrastructure] is
[1] attach a 25 foot Ethernet cable from one of my Belkin F5D8230-4 Router's Ethernet LAN ports into the Internet port on the Linksys RT31P2
[2] attach my wireless Telephone base station RJ11 phone cable to the phone1 port of the Linksys device
[3] attach the power adapters to the Linksys and the wireless Telephone base station THEN plug both power cables into my APC UPS, place my Telephone handset in the base station cradle, and turn the UPS power on.

Within 8 minutes the Linksys found everything it needed automatically. I picked up the phone handset, dialed some numbers and made calls all of which worked to my satisfaction. So this part of the experience went very well.

My only current disappointment is that I had to locate the Linksys device some 25 feet from my desk. I did not have the desk space to fit the Linksys RT31P2 -- I would have preferred the Linksys PAP2 because its form factor would have enabled me to place it on my desk where I could observe the interaction with my Router much easier and I do not need a 2nd router.

On the day that I received my phone adapter I did email Vonage to see if they would exchange the phone adapter however they have not responded to my email request [3 days ago] which is from my perspective poor customer service.

Posts: 33

[quote="mozerd"]

mozerd wrote:

On the day that I received my phone adapter I did email Vonage to see if they would exchange the phone adapter however they have not responded to my email request [3 days ago] which is from my perspective poor customer service.

Just to let everyone know that I have terminated my Vonage relationship primarily due to my highly unsatisfactory experience dealing with Customer Care. And when I state highly unsatisfactory experience that is a dramatic understatement.

Its really too bad because Voip ala Vonage works just great for the short time I used the service -- however Customer Care for me is just as important as the actual phone service itself..

Good Luck to all.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:09 am Post subject:

I agree, customer service is important. Myself, I have not had any need to call Vonage Customer Service. Although I had called them once and waited for several minutes for them to answer. Most companies these days are like that. It does not make it right, but that seems to be the trend.

So where are you going? What are you switching to that is better?

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 91

mozerd wrote:

My Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 Router supports 802.11e [QoS] -- so my question is; Does anyone have any experience setting up the Vonage service using the Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 and exploiting the 802.11e aspect? If so can you please articulate your experience?

What type of configuration parameters does your router have?

What I do is give my Phone Adapter's MAC address premium bandwidth. That way all packets that come out of the Phone Adapter has maximum bandwidth - it works well this way.

Posts: 33 · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:56 am Post subject: switching to that is better

DarKev wrote:

I agree, customer service is important.
So where are you going? What are you switching to that is better?

This recent Vonage Customer Care experience has left me wondering how I should proceed. I did not give up my Bell service so this is not an urgent issue. I may just wait until the Fall of this year when Rogers may be offering a Voip service or if Customer Care improves dramatically at Vonage I may reconsider – because the phone service worked very nicely.

Yes, I do agree with you that the TREND insofar as Customer Care is concerned is negative --- and apparently people are willing to accept poor service without much struggle. In the end however thsi will come to bit everyone.

Posts: 33

coolspot wrote:

What I do is give my Phone Adapter's MAC address premium bandwidth. That way all packets that come out of the Phone Adapter has maximum bandwidth - it works well this way.

The Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 provides each one of 4 Ethernet LAN ports with Auto QoS capability so no additional parameters need to be set.

On some Routers one would have to associate QoS with Port/device MAC address etc --- not so on the Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 or the Linksys WRT54GX -- both devices use the Airgo Networks True.MIMO chipset technology.