router vs phone adapter

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

Hi
I have not signed for service yet, but I've been looking around these forums for a while to decide how I'm going to do this before taking the plunge
My questions is - I already have a befr41 linksys router, and from what I've read on these forums, the RT31P2 that Vonage sends out free isnt' any good, so I dont' want to replace my befr41 with this new one. I can probably put the RT31P2 behind my existing router, but I think I'd just rather get a phone adapter instead of Vonage router.
I called Vonage and they said that I can't use anything besides the router that they ship with my service subscription - so someone please explain - can I get a phone adapter on, let's say, ebay, and use that instead of their router?

Posts: 3198 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:34 pm Post subject:

highly unlikely one off of ebay will work, but you could go down to best buy, etc and pick up a pap2 for free sometimes with rebates. of course rebates are a story in themselves for some people.

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 7:57 pm Post subject:

I don't think the RT31P2's really as bad as this forum makes it out to be. The thousands of people who don't have problems just don't have much reason to post about it.

Posts: 605 · Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:08 pm Post subject:

Have yet to have a problem with my RT31P2. Very nice device for what I need it for.

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

reebok wrote:

highly unlikely one off of ebay will work, but you could go down to best buy, etc and pick up a pap2 for free sometimes with rebates. of course rebates are a story in themselves for some people.

yes, but then by that time I'd already have my Vonage service activated with the router that they ship to me, so then will they allow me to use this pap2 adapter instead of their router that they sent??
or do i sign up for Vonage at Best Buy at the time that I buy the pap2 adapter?

Posts: 199 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Mar 26, 2005 Posts: 199

If you go through Vonage to setup your service you get the RT31P2. If you go through Best Buy (or another retail outlet) you get the PAP2.

I've been working with the RT31P2 for a couple of months now. I thought I was having troubles with it. I will admit I'm very picky and I feel the quality is different from Qwest. I run into some quirks occasionally. I would however like to compare it to the PAP2 as I was told by Vonage support it's rock solid. Who knows. Personally I feel this service is too new yet and there are kinks to work out. But, for the price and all the features I thinks it's worthwhile. I do hope they get the E911 situation worked out.

I also discovered that the RT31P2 is a 10Mpbs router not 100. I thought this was very strange. But anytime I connect my desktop (capable of 1000) or my laptop (capable of 100) it tells me it's connected at 10Mpbs only. I originally had the RT31P2 connected to my cable modem then to my existing router. By my web surfing speeds varied greatly.

My recommendation would be to have your hardware setup as (using the RT31P2):

1) Your cable modem
2) your existing router
3) the RT31P2 router

I ran a cable from port one on my DLink router to the WAN port on the RT31P2. You can still login to the RT31P2 by using your browser and going to 192.168.15.1:8080. You have to configure your hardware before moving to this setup though. So initially plug a cable into port 1 on your existing router and say port 1 on the RT31P2 and configure the RT31P2 for a static IP like 192.168.1.2. I know Linksys likes to use 192.168.1.1 as the default IP.

I found this was the best way to setup. If you simply go from port 1 on your existing router to port 1 on the RT31P2 your Vonage connection will drop. The only way I could get this arrangement to work is to plug into the WAN port on the RT31P2 and then setup the Admin option using port 8080.

If you go with the PAP2 you can only plug it into your existing router so it doesn't matter.

If you end up with the PAP2 and the RT31P2 try them both and find out which is better. I would if I had that option. But I'm not interested in paying for another piece of hardware at this time. I'd love to know the comparitive results.

Hope this helps.

Posts: 16 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 22, 2005 Posts: 16

First, let me say that, so far, I've been very pleased with the T31P2 that I got direct from Vonage. The only thing (at this point in time) I will complain about -- and will continue to complain about until they do something different --- is the fact that the blasted thing comes with a 110v only power supply. I have lived and worked internationally for 11 years and I have purchased a myriad of electronic devices from Mp3 players, ISDN routers, portable DVD players to laptop power bricks and anything with even the remotest level of portability to it is able to receive any voltage from 110v to 220v. It is beyond my comprehension that anything these days --- especially something like the Vonage telephone adapter with such obvious benefits for international usage --- would not be able to receive any worldwide voltage. Ok, pardon me while I climb down from my soapbox.

Ok... I also have my RT31P2 setup with my existing SMC wireless router in the same manner as suggested (DSL modem -> SMC router -> RT31P2) and it seems to work just as well as when I by-passed the router and used only the telephone adapter hooked into my DSL modem.

Now, with this setup, I just wanted to clarify that assigning the Vonage box a local IP address is not the same as setting it up with a "static ip" as is sometimes required by various service providers. In the drop-down menu, you will still want the telephone adapter to be automatically assigned an IP address. A little further down (at least in the web interface I use) I disabled DHCP and assigned the adapter a LOCAL IP address in the same IP range as my router in order to facilitate their communication.

"And there you go."

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:07 pm Post subject:

Hmmm..I tried the recomendation you guys had, with the RT behind a Microsoft Wireless G router, running wired instead of wireless, and my internet speeds went from about 6.9 mbps to almost 3. any suggestions?

Posts: 646 · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:15 pm Post subject:

What was your former setup, and what is your current setup? Where were/are the routers, computers, and modem connected?

7Mbps is pretty quick for an Internet connection, and some broadband routers might not be able to chug through packets that quickly.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:32 pm Post subject:

I am standard now, Motorola SB 5100 to the Linksys to the computer...