voip behind or in front of router?

Guest

I am new to this and I have a Netgear MR814v2. Should the VT1005 go in between the cable modem and the router or should I place the VT1005 in after the router?

Posts: 15 · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:23 am Post subject:

I've had my unit just for about 6 days now. As I'm sure you have seen, the installation instructions for multiple computers are ambiguous, with the Vonage manual showing the Moto unit directly to the cable modem as the primary configuration, or with it behind the router as an alternate. The Motorola manual just shows it behind the router.

Initially, I just plugged in the VT1000v directly to the cable modem. I also installed a small UPS on the circuit to help assure AC stability, in case of mometary AC interruptions. It worked with no immediate problems, but I experienced very disappointing stability, with the unit frequently going into either one of a couple of states. One where I was able to call out, but all incoming calls were redirected to my Network Availability Number, or one where I lost dial tone, and all incoming were diverted to the NAN. Either of these conditions occured at least one to three times every day, and typically required a reboot of the Moto unit to restore operation (I waited over two hours on one instance before acting, just to see if it would ever heal - it didn't). I even had it fail in the same way with no router or PC's in the configuration at all. I went on this way betweeen Friday and Tuesday morning, with several calls to Vonage support.

I can live with an occasional dropped call, or momentary digital oddities, but the notion of having to pull power on the VT1000 with any frequency to restore operation would not be acceptable to me, and it's especially bad to lose incoming service. Finally, on Tuesday morning, I reconfigured to put the VT1000 behind my Linksys router, and applied the Forwarding changes exactly as described in the Vonage User Guide. At the risk of jinxing it, I can say that in almost 48 hours so far I've not had any interruptions to normal operation, and I've been testing for incoming and outgoing access quite frequently. I plan to go on this way for perhaps another week, to be sure that there is enough stability, before I pull the plug on my old phone.

That's been my experience so far. I can't offer any technical explanation, but I'm just about convinced it needs to be behind the router, at least in my home.

Posts: 83 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 16, 2003 Posts: 83

A technical explanation has been posted before but as you found out, the VT1005 is much more reliable behind the router.

Posts: 9 · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 3:12 pm Post subject:

For what it's worth, I has the exact same experience as Vicw.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 4:16 pm Post subject:

I have somewhat of a unique setup. My setup consist of:
CM -> Netgear 814 -> Motorola vt1000 -> Netgear 814. I had to go with this setup because the vt1000 doesn't support IPSEC passthru. I wirelessly access the Netgear thats directly connected to the CM for VPN access. All other computers connect to the other Netgear router. To-date I haven't had any real problems with this setup.

One thing to remember is that QoS comes into play when there's traffic congestion and only effects outbound traffic (kinda). The vt1000 has very little impact on inbound traffic (i.e. downloading) since your ISP doesn't do QoS (a.k.a prioritization) on their side. Therefore an FTP download will still clobber your incoming voice traffic regardless of where you position your vt1000. The only way to get around this problem is to bandwidth limit bandwidth hungry applications or computers.

Posts: 15 · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 5:02 pm Post subject:

johnson89 - That's an interesting configuration. So far, I haven't encountered any problems with the loss of QoS by putting the VT1000 behind my router, but if that becomes an issue, I may try the second router approach that you are using.

The problems I had encountered when I had the VT1000 directly connected to the cable modem made it totally unacceptable to me, so for now, I'm happy as a clam to have a stable setup with it moved behind the router.

Posts: 23 · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 5:29 pm Post subject:

vicw wrote:

johnson89 - That's an interesting configuration. So far, I haven't encountered any problems with the loss of QoS by putting the VT1000 behind my router, but if that becomes an issue, I may try the second router approach that you are using.

The problems I had encountered when I had the VT1000 directly connected to the cable modem made it totally unacceptable to me, so for now, I'm happy as a clam to have a stable setup with it moved behind the router.

Fully understand... I also ran into problems connecting the vt1000 to my cable modem. But abandoned that approach once I found out it didn't support IPSEC.

I'm just glad you can now pickup a Netgear router for under $30. Very Happy

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Nov 20, 2003 Posts: 27

Posting my port-triggering thread in case it helps. Been up well over a month and have not had a single problem.

I have my ATA inside my linksys.

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic506-0-asc-0.html

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 06, 2004 Posts: 1

All,

I got my Motorola ATA today and promptly ignored the instructions to place it between the cable modem and my linksys wireless router. I just added it as another dhcp client on the wired side of the router and my internet connections do not go through the ATA.

Despite all the warnings about linksys and port forwarding, and firewalls, etc., everything just worked fine right out of the box.

To review:

linksys cable modem -> linksys wireless access point/wired router -> ATA

My computers access the access point, bypassing the ATA.

Loving life without Verizon land lines in Virginia!

-john

Posts: 89 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Feb 04, 2004 Posts: 89

I am in a catch 22 situation now. To get Vonage to work with my ADT alarm I need to put my ATA in front of my router so the ATA can do QoS. If I put my ATA in front of my router, it freezes and kills my Internet connectivity. Is Vonage aware of this problem with the Motorola ATA? Is Motorola fixing this problem? If so, do we have an ETA?