Help connecting LInksys RT31P2 & BEFW11S4 home network

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 27, 2005 Posts: 1

I have gone through the post here on the Vonage site quite a few times searching for my answer. I cant for the life of me find one that helps me. If anyone has this setup at home or knows how to set this config up please let me know how. I need to know all of the internal settings including what ip addresses to use and in a plain simple to understand language. Thanks in advance.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

scharley,

2 questions.

1. Who is your Internet Service Provider and what is your modem type and model # etc.

2. Have you been using your internet with your BEFW11S4 up until now and you want to add Vonage to your system?

These questions help us help you.

Also, what configurations have you already tried?

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

scharley,

I have just taken a look at the quick setup guide for your BEF wireless router and it appears that I could be able to walk you through this install.

I would strongly recommend that you have the following order.

Internet -> Cable/DSL Modem -> RT31P2 -> BEFW11S4.

The reason for this particular order is that the RT31P2 from Vonage is able to handle which internet traffic gets priority. In this case, you phone will always get the highest priority even if other people are on the internet using their computers. This is called QoS. Your BEFW11S4 wireless router does not have that capability.

If you have some computers that connect with a direct ethernet cable then connect them to the RT31P2.

Unless you have more than 2 computers that connect via an ethernet cable, your BEFW11S4 will now only act as a wireless access point for your computers that connect with a wireless card.

If you look at my signature at the bottom, you will see that I have done something very similar except with a DLink DI-524 wireless router.

Anyway, I would be glad to walk you through this install once you get back to me on the questions that I asked you in my earlier post.

looking forward to walking through this with you,

Mundy5

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: May 25, 2005 Posts: 11

I have mine setup as :

Internet -> Cable/DSL Modem ->BEFW11S4 -> RT31P2

And have never had a problem.

Made no changes.......plug n play.

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

miadlor,

that's great. I hope that scharley will give that configuration a try. I am always a bit careful because if someone is on the internet and is doing some serious downloading or gaming, it could affect the phone conversation. That's why I was suggesting my configuration.

that's for the empirical evidence that it works with your setup right out of the box.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 19

Do you think that the connection you are suggesting would affect gaming?

Posts: 1179 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1179

that would depend on how much upload bandwidth your game requires. I don't think there is an universal bandwidth.

Posts: 19 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 19

Mundy (or any other benevolent soul)...

I have tried the following without any success (for 2 days Sad

)...(please be aware of great newbiness here Confused

)

Background: I already had a working network based on the BEFW11S4 wiress router which had a Cox cable modem connected to the WAN, a PC connected to a LAN port and a Laptop connected wireless.

Attempt #1

- Cox cable modem to RT31P2 WAN
- RT31P2 LAN to BEFW11S4 WAN

Outcome:
- if I connect my PC to a LAN port on the BEFW11S4 then I can't access internet, of course I get nice Quos. Laptop can't recognize the wireless network and thus no internet

- If I connect my PC to the RT31P2 then I have internet on the PC but the Laptop can't recognize the wireless network. This is the current state of the network.

Variants:
- I followed a forum post: I disabled the RT31P2 Local DHCP Server, then enabled the DMZ with the IP of the BEFW11S4 and made a port forwarding to the BEFW11S4 IP. In order to do that I had to set an specific IP for the BEFW11S4. It was really cumbersome (cause I'm a newbie). Once that I turn the DHCP Server off I can't access anymore the web utility. This never worked and I ended up resetting the RT31P2 so that I can access the web utility and thus, the internet in search of any solution.

Attempt #2

- Cox cable modem to BEFW11S4 WAN
- BEFW11S4 LAN port to RT31P2 WAN
- PC connected to BEFW11S4 LAN port

Outcome:
- PC works, Laptop can't connect to Internet and no Quos on my phone line.

Am I doing something wrong? Please advise me.

Thanks!

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 03, 2005 Posts: 1

HI,

I just got my RT31P2 and (with the help of Linksys) have managed to integrate it into my wireless network(BEFW11S4). Here is what was done:

SETUP : DSL modem ==> RT31P2 ==> BEFW11S4, using a direct connection between the router Ethernet (numbered) ports.
This order is best to avoid 'dropped' voice packets (QoS).

RT31P2 SETTINGS:
..Setup Basic - Local IP Address = 192.168.0.1
........................Local DHCP Server = Enable
..Setup/MAC Address Clone - Service = Enable
................................................MAC Address = addr of BEFW11S4

BEFW11S4 SETTINGS:
..Setup Basic - Local IP = 192.168.0.2
........................Local DHCP Server = Disable
............Advanced Routing - NAT = Disable

Basically, the Wireless router is operating as a "passthru" from the RT31P2. Any cabled connections should be to the RT31P2. This seems to be a functional solution, but my wireless Internet connection get dropped occasionally. I'm no expert on networking, but I don't get a warm & fuzzy from this setup. I suspect that the best way to run Voip and wireless is to invest in consolidated router (like the WRT54GP2).

Anyway, good luck and feel free to contact me if you want more detail on my settings.