looking into vonage, equipment setup/suggestions needed

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 02, 2005 Posts: 7

we're looking into getting vonage phone service for our house. i've read through most of the setup and don't really have any issues except for one - I'm curious/concerned how the phone adapter/router will work in conjunction with our existing network here.

We have comcast cable service (southeast michigan area). Cable is connected to a motorola sb5100 surfboard, then the Ethernet connection goes to a linksys BEFSX41 firewall/vpn endpoint router. there is also a switch on the network downstream from the router.

my big question is which setup is generally "better" with an existing router - placing the phone adapter behind the existing router (http://www.vonage.com/help.php?article=88 ) or in front of the existing router (http://www.vonage.com/help_knowledgeBase_article.php?article=61 )

i currently need outside access to my network through various ports (for ftp, remote desktop, etc...), as well as a VPN tunnel which is all configured on my linksys router. Because of this, i'd rather not put the phone adapter in front and have to reconfigure all of that through the new router, mainly because i don't know how the VPN would cooperate with having to go through another router here before getting to the BEFSX41.

On the other hand, it's extremely important to us that our phone service be a solid as possible, so i'm concerned with putting the phone adapter behind the other router and losing the ability to have the voice data prioritized. it seems many of the users here are in fact running their phone adapters behind another router, so is the voice data prioritization even worth worrying about?

alternatively, if the linksys RTP300 is capable of acting as a VPN endpoint, that would eliminate the need to even have the BEFSX41, but i haven't been able to find out for sure if the RTP300 is capable of that.

Thanks

Posts: 2257

Based on my experience, which is not to be considered gospel or a sign of a trend, I'd buy the simplest Vonage adapter and put it behind your firewall.

I've been very disappointed in the performance of my WRTP54G. I think adding VoIP capability to the unit has kept it from being a star performer in other areas, such as routing large amounts of traffic.

I'm actually considering purchasing a separate router and relegating my Vonage router/adapter to "Vonage duty only" to keep the load off it. It seems to be pretty stable as long as I don't unleash things like BitTorrent on it.

Posts: 101 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jun 05, 2005 Posts: 101

I have to have outside access into a few of the PC's running also. Here is how I have it setup and it works GREAT

Cable into house --> Linksys Router

Linksys Router has 4 ports
Port 1 - PC
Port 2 - PC
Port 3 - Vonage
Port 4 - Wirelss Router

This still lets you control the incoming traffic and I still get great phone service.

Posts: 1178 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1178

I didn't see any qos control on your router but it doesn't mean that you will have bad call quality. at this point, qos would be the only reason for having the vonage router in front. you can try qrizzley's setup and see if it works. no quarantees that your current router will work well with vonage though.