WRTP54G Issues

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 3

I am a new Vonage customer.

The rent-a-body in the call centre that recruited me forgot to ask whether I had high-speed Internet, but fortunately I knew enough about what was going on (I was planning to use Vonage anyway) that I knew more answer than he did.

Alas, I forgot to mention I was using a wireless network, and they sent me the RTP300. I daisy-chained it through my Netgear, and it worked sorta-OK. Biggest problem was a bad echo on my end, though the remote end of the phone call was very happy with the sound quality.

So I phoned them up and whined and whined until they eventually shipped me a WRTP54G as a replacement. No charge.

All is well, except for one remaining problem: VPN does not work. My wife uses VPN to connect to her work, and it did not work with the RTP300 and it does not work with the WRTP54G. It always worked like a charm with my two-year-old Netgear, and not with this new Linksys iron.

I emailed Linksys, they suggested I turn on port triggering for ports 47, 50, 1723 and 500. Have not tested it yet.

Vonage's website is useless, their knowledge base simply claims it works.

I do not want to daisy-chain routers together to make this work, but I will if I must.

Has anyone else managed to get VPN working using the WRTP54G?

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Apr 17, 2005 Posts: 11

Since I'm the latest to complain about this router, I should be the first to say that mine works now... the unit *was* shipped to me with the latest s/w. The phone worked first time out of the box. What nailed my VPN were changes on the back side of the VPN. Updating the VPN client s/w corrected the issue. The only thing I can say is make sure the IPSec is enabled. Before ragging on Vonage, try calling your company's IT support. It is almost certain they've dealt with this before.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 10, 2006 Posts: 2

I am new to vonage and must say that this router is a nightmare.
I got vonage less than a week ago and have had to power cycle this router alteast 5 times. The phone would just stop working, can't make any outgoing calls and can't get any incoming calls. they get diverted to the call forwarding number. I am already tired of this router and if I can't figure out a way to get this to work without having to reboot it every day/other day then I will return it before the 30 days period.

Can anyone help me with what can be done to fix the power cycling problem in this router.

Thanks

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 27, 2006 Posts: 3

Well, I finally got an answer from Vonage second-level technical support.

First-level blathered along about all the boiler-plate stuff about port forwarding yadda yadda yadda in an attempt to make it work.

Futile.

I made VPN work by putting the affected computer in the DMZ, and all was well.

Two days later I got an answer from second-level technical support, and they stated that new Linksys routers often have problems, one of them is that VPN does not always work, and the solution (I would have called it a bypass, not a solution) is to put the computer in the DMZ.

So: The problem is Linksys, not Vonage.

As for the router losing connection with the proxy server and thus losing phone service: Has happened to me once in three months. A power-cycle fixed it. One would have thought that the router would have reconnected automatically -- score one more for Linksys (this thing is NOT one of their better efforts).

Vonage 2nd-level said the router will automatically download new firmware when it becomes available. I don't know whether I am pleased to hear this, or not.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 6:51 pm Post subject:

A bit of advice for any of you experiencing problems with the WRTP54G as a VONAGE DEVICE:

Make sure you are running the latest firmware, which as of the time I am writing this is "1.00.60" and will appear in the upper-right-hand corner of the login screen and all configuration screens for your router.

If you are on 1.00.20 or earlier, you may need to take a few extra steps to get the firmware to upgrade. If you are having trouble with Caller ID and/or Call Waiting, it's very likely you are on older firmware.

http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic12967-0.html

A bit of advice for any of you experiencing problems with the WRTP54G as a ROUTER, or with its QoS:

Stop wasting your time, and buy a real router. I'm not trying to be rude, just to get to the point. If you are having problems with the WRTP54G in terms of networking, I don't think CyberTAN/Linksys/Vonage is going to fix them. You can save yourself a lot of angst by just throwing in the towel right now and getting a real router.

Posts: 17 · Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 10:15 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

A bit of advice for any of you experiencing problems with the WRTP54G as a ROUTER, or with its QoS:

Stop wasting your time, and buy a real router. I'm not trying to be rude, just to get to the point. If you are having problems with the WRTP54G in terms of networking, I don't think CyberTAN/Linksys/Vonage is going to fix them. You can save yourself a lot of angst by just throwing in the towel right now and getting a real router.

I can agree with what your saying NateHoy. I have had only minor issues with the WRTP54G. However, I don't need the advanced features all that much. I am starting to believe, that Vonage should get away from these bundled router/adapters and go back to just supplying adapters and telling their customers to get a router that fits their needs. Both Vonage and Linksys sold us all a bill of goods when the advertised the WRTP54G. They made many people believe this was a state of the art wireless router/adapter that could be used for anything you needed to do with a router. That is just plain not true. They must have known this. For me, it isn't a major issue, but for those who bought this router with the belief it could handle QoS and VNP correctly, it is a serious issue. Problems far less then this have lead to class action lawsuits in the past. Both Vonage and Linksys need to address the issue.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 01, 2006 Posts: 3

I am a new Vonage users and have been to tier 3 Vonage tech support and have had little luck getting the Linksys to router and act as a reliable access point.

Linksys WRTP54G
Insightbb as ISP
Windows XP CAT5 to the Linksys
HP3310 printer via wireless
iMac G5 via wireless

This system worked great with a DLink wireless router.

Vonage phone seems to work fine, however I cannot get all the devices to work at the same time. I finally got the iMac to connect by clonng the mac address, but now the PC cannot connect.
Am I asking too much of the Linksys/Vonage device to do a printer, iMac and a PC?

How could I pass all the wireless access back to my DLink and not have the Linksys do any of that, just the routing and Vonage?
Thanks
Mark

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 8:40 am Post subject:

mfitch -

Do this:

Where the Dlink is your "primary router".

Look at "option 1" in this article for more details http://vonage.nmhoy.net/tworouters.html

Posts: 77 · Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:11 pm Post subject:

NateHoy wrote:

A bit of advice for any of you experiencing problems with the WRTP54G as a ROUTER, or with its QoS:

Stop wasting your time, and buy a real router.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

All of my network issues went away when I relegated my WRTP54G to a simple phone device. I learned an expensive lesson but where I was seeing my router lock-up every 72 hours, I haven't an issue since it became an ATA only.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:48 am Post subject:

mwmcclure wrote:

NateHoy wrote:

A bit of advice for any of you experiencing problems with the WRTP54G as a ROUTER, or with its QoS:

Stop wasting your time, and buy a real router.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

All of my network issues went away when I relegated my WRTP54G to a simple phone device. I learned an expensive lesson but where I was seeing my router lock-up every 72 hours, I haven't an issue since it became an ATA only.

It's a tough lesson, and it's something that we shouldn't HAVE to do. But, to be fair, the money I spent on my router:

1. Was paid for with less than two months' savings on Vonage.
2. Puts ME back in control of the router that runs MY network.

Given that Vonage was one of the first to make AFFORDABLE VoIP devices available to the public, I guess I can't get too riled up about the fact that they are far from perfect. I mean, the voice quality is top notch, and once you stop making the poor little thing do routing and other jobs, it's a really fantastic VoIP adapter.

And, for some people, they do the job. I took my WRTP54G to my father's house when I went visiting for a week, and had his computer, my laptop, and my Vonage line all working. My father lives in a more urban area, though, and has 784k upstream bandwidth available, and he leaves his computer off all but once a day for a brief period, so there were no fights over bandwidth like I have on my 200k upstream at home. Wink