Speed and connections issues with Vonage Router

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 03, 2005 Posts: 2

I have a Vonage Router (Linksys RT31P2-VD) that I assume is the standard router sent to customers. I a Cable modem (Toshiba PCX2200) and I have 2 Macs with Gigabit internet (via the Ethernet port) and Wireless Airport (Snow) pumping speed out the cable modem.....

Everything worked flawlessly until I plugged the Vonage router to my net.

Since Vonage recommends to plug their router directly into the cable-modem and plug the rest of your network out of the ethernet ports in the back of the Vonage Router I have noticed a unbearable decrease on the speed of the entire network (Internet browsing, printing and sending e-mails)

To solve the speed issue, I tried to plug my switch (Linksys SD216) directly into the Cable-Modem and the Vonage router into one of the ports of the Switch... The result: NO phone service at all, even after power-cycle-restarting all the boxes.

So I went back to the recommended configuration:
Cable modem+Vonage Router+Hub/Switch = Voip and VERY slow internet connection

Is there a solution to this situation? How much bandwidth output we get out of the Linksys-Vonage router that's sent to Us as Vonage subscribers...

Is there other than me having this issues?[/b]

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 27, 2005 Posts: 18

K my best guess is the Toshiba has some kind of router built into it that allows you to have a hub or switch pluged directly into it rather than having to use a router. in that case on the Linksys what you need to do is 2 things: find out the local IP address for your toshiba and set the Linksys to have a Static IP rather than Obtain one automatically;enther that IP as the gateway and DNS And give yout linksys an IP. then turn the DHCP server off in the Linsys. I wish i could word this a lil better.
This should work if you put the Linksys infron of Or behind your curent switch. If you put it infront youll have to change the Gateway, DNS and IP settings on your comps, if you put it behind you wont really have the QOS capability.

I think there are 2 main problems: there are 2 DHCP servers hooked together when add the Linksys, and the Linksys does not like optaining IP address from other routers.
Just something to try, again Im not too familiar with that Toshiba Modem.

Posts: 18 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 27, 2005 Posts: 18

heres another posibility from something else I just read, u might have one of those ISPs that you have to tell them when you hook certain things up to your home network (some ISPs like to control or charge you based on how many PCs you hook up to there connection) Id try checking with them to see if thats the case.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 03, 2005 Posts: 2

Thank you for the suggestions. I already called them (My ISP provider) and they said that the issue seems to be on the Vonage end. I did what you suggested with no results.... I'l keep trying.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 3

I have also been having trouble with airport and linksys. In my case, i needed to VPN into my work network, and the only way to accomplish this was to put the airport INFRONT of the linksys (i.e., cable modem, Airport, Linksys). VPN and Voip work great, but i now get my internet connection dropped every 20-30 minutes. It re-establishes itself if i wait a minute or two, but of course, it is a major pain. I just unplugged the Vonage, and changed the DHCP addressing to 10 base instead of 192... i don't know if that has ANYTHING at all to do with my problem, but it was also something that changed at the time my internet started acting up. I have verified that my airport works perfectly without the Linksys attached, and a few minutes ago i re-attached the linksys to the airport. On the phone, the service guy said that the Linksys will take its settings from the airport, and I don't even know why it should matter since it sits behind the airport and I'm connecting wirelessly.

I don't want to have to turn DHCP off in the Linksys, since it is plugged into the only ethernet port on my airport, and I'l like to be able to plug in an additional ethernet cable to the Linksys. I guess i just have to wait now to see what happens, but so far, my internet hasn't been dropped. I googled some of the weird sys log messages, but i have no idea which ones are related to my internet problem. It's a puzzle. Oh, and I know that when my son is playing internet games that require a constant connection, it doesn't drop him, so it seems to be related to what happens when it has to reconnect (but it's not the DHCP lease time, i already tried that).

SRS

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 21, 2005 Posts: 1

I found the following solution on the web. My basic knowledge of Linksys routers tells me that this is the way to go.

http://pete.kruckenberg.com/blog/archives/2005/01/setting_up_vona.php

The critical part of Pete Kruckenberg's text follows:

"1. Install the Linksys software that comes with the router. This requires Windows and that you plug your computer physically or logically directly into the Vonage router. You may have to read the instructions and divine how to get yourself connected to the router. Good luck with that.

2. Once you can get to the Linksys Vonage router via Web browser to configure it, make the following changes:

Under MAC Address Clone, disable MAC Clone Service

That's all you really have to do, but you may also want to do the following:

Under Setup, disable Local DHCP Server to prevent the Linksys from trying to be your DHCP server (unless you'd like it to be your DHCP server, in which case you should configure the DHCP pool and such.

Under Advanced Routing, disable NAT (though NAT really won't affect traffic unless it goes through the Linksys

Note that you have to save your changes on each page, which requires a reboot, which will disrupt your phone service. So you should make these changes when you don't expect to be using the phone.

At this point, you can plug the Linksys port labelled Internet into your local Ethernet LAN and it will not try to do anything more than just connect to Vonage for phone service.

As a bonus, by making these changes, the Linksys turns into a 3-port 100Mb switch, so if you were needing a couple of extra switch ports, you're welcome."[/url]

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 14, 2005 Posts: 3

rbrook,

Great!!! I'll try it out and let you all know what happens. Thank you!

SRS