Please forgive these questions. I know that most of you will find these to be silly....
Quick Facts: - I am a network engineer/architect (Yeah, one of those) - I work out of a Home Office - Work from home, travel when I don't - Sprint DSL in North Houston TX area - Currently have Sprint DSL (3mg down/512 up) and Sprint phone Service - Currently have a Linksys WRT54G router connected to a Sprint DSL Router (Bridged) - I use the DSL service for Browsing, FTP, Gaming and work (VPN)
Questions: - Is the WRT54G a bad router to have? - Is my hardware configuration not ideal for my situation? - What is the ideal HW setup or configuration to have given my setup? - How will using Vonage effect my other online activities or vice versa? - Do service providers (Sprint) allow you to have DSL and not a phone line? Never asked before, so I don't know. - Is the Soft-Phone feature standard with the Premium Unlimited or extra?
paul248 Vonage Forum Evangelist
Joined: Nov 25, 2004 Posts: 646
Location: Mountain View, CA
The adapter you'll likely be getting from Vonage is the just-released Linksys RTP300. From what members have said on the forum, that one has excellent voice quality, but its reliability as a router might be questionable at the current firmware version.
However, the WRT54G is regarded as one of the best routers available, as it runs Linux and can do QoS to give priority to your voice packets.
So, the ideal configuration in your case would be to disable the NAT and Firewall on the RTP300, and connect it after the WRT54G. Flash the latest firmware onto the WRT54G (or use the Sveasoft firmware if you're feeling adventurous) and set up the QoS to give high priority to the Vonage box. That should prevent your computer traffic from lagging the voice packets.
Be sure to go to www.testyourvoip.com first to confirm that your connection is "good enough" for Voip. You need at least 90kbps of up/down bandwidth, but the most important thing is a low-latency, low-jitter connection.
There's only one option for the softphone: it's $10/month on top of the normal plan, and that includes 500 outgoing minutes.
Naked DSL is an option with some providers in some areas, but not all.
- Do service providers (Sprint) allow you to have DSL and not a phone line? Never asked before, so I don't know.
This service is referred to as "naked DSL" and I do not believe Sprint is offering it. However, do not let me discourage you from calling and asking.
Back in March the FCC overrode state utility commissions' rules forcing carriers to provide unbundled access (naked DSL). The specific case involved was Bell South in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana. The intent of this was to speed deployment of DSL into areas as yet unserved by broadband by allowing the ILECs the opportunity to recoup the investment in DSL more rapidly.
The only information on Sprint's site is ambiguous,
Quote:
Sprint high-speed Internet is only available to Sprint Local Telephone customers due to the regulated territorial design of local telephone companies. Sprint is only able to provide Sprint high-speed Internet inside of the Sprint Local Telephone territory.
The answer implies that the service is only available to phone customers, but the explanation given does not in itself require phone service.
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