Best router/switch to manage Vonage traffic

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 08, 2003 Posts: 12

I have been having complaints about people not being able to hear me at times or sounding like I am on a cell phone line from my Vonage line. I know that as of now i do not have QOS implemented at all on my network. I am wonder which router preferably would be the best that has a built in firewall and does QOS. I know that linksys has some router that does this. From the experienced usage which routers do members of the Vonage forum use. Thanks.

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 18, 2003 Posts: 24

I use a Netgear Rp612v2 and it works great(with the Motorola ATA), altho, it does not have QOS. I believe the only Netgear ones that do have QOS, are the wireless ones. If you have the Motorola ATA, you could hook the ATA infront of you current router. This would help, since the Motorola ATA has QOS built in.

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:24 pm Post subject:

From Vonage website, seems like they are shipping the VT1000 from Motorola which prioritize voice packet over data packet so that talking on Vonage won't be affected by uploading files.

http://www.vonage.com/corporate/press_news.php?PR=2003_06_19_0
http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/productdetail.asp?ProductID=212

Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:24 pm Post subject:

From Vonage website, seems like they are shipping the VT1000 from Motorola which prioritize voice packet over data packet so that talking on Vonage won't be affected by uploading files.

http://www.vonage.com/corporate/press_news.php?PR=2003_06_19_0
http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/productdetail.asp?ProductID=212

Posts: 1 · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 9:04 am Post subject:

My Linksys BEFSR81 has what it calls "port-based QoS," as in ethernet ports. It's much simpler than what it calls "Application-based QoS" which works on TCP/IP ports. I plugged in the Cisco ATA box into the Linksys port 1, and set port 1 to be high priority.

It works very well, and I can saturate my upstream connection and still make perfectly clear calls. SNMP monitoring shows the Linksys modulating the the other traffic to give the Vonage priority.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2003 Posts: 9

In my experience the netgear routers are really bad, and I have had severe problems wiht the RP614, where it requires constant resets, and doesn't properly support some basic protocols. The netgear technical support is also terrible. I'd strongly recommend getting something else, unless you can pick up a Netgear for $10.

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 18, 2003 Posts: 24

jl wrote:

In my experience the netgear routers are really bad, and I have had severe problems wiht the RP614, where it requires constant resets, and doesn't properly support some basic protocols. The netgear technical support is also terrible. I'd strongly recommend getting something else, unless you can pick up a Netgear for $10.

I dunno, maybe there is something to the v2(version 2) of the router, vs your version 1. I've had Vonage, with the VT1005 connected thru my RP614v2, up and running for over 2 weeks straight now, without any issues. I have not had to reset it or anything.

Make sure you have the most recent firmware, for your router, installed.

One of the things someone suggested to do was assign or "reserve" an IP for the VT1005, within the router's setup page(I do this). If that doesn't work, try port triggering(not forwarding) the ports listed by Vonage.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2003 Posts: 9

I've tried everything, it's just a crappy little router.

It hangs, where only a hard reset will make it work, does this regularly, and i have the latest firmware. Netgear service is bad enough to make me never buy another Netgear product even if the hardware was OK.

Posts: 24 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Nov 18, 2003 Posts: 24

jl wrote:

I've tried everything, it's just a crappy little router.

It hangs, where only a hard reset will make it work, does this regularly, and i have the latest firmware. Netgear service is bad enough to make me never buy another Netgear product even if the hardware was OK.

It's gotta be the version 1 vs the v2 cause mine works like a charm. I haven't shut off my router in probably a month and haven't turned off or rebooted the VT1005 in 2 weeks(I've never been forced to do a reboot of the ATA).

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Nov 18, 2003 Posts: 28

I too have been using the RP614v2 with Vonage for about a month now, and I have had zero problems. Everything has been online during that entire span.