Hooking up Linksys wireless Voip box behind Smoothwall

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 9

What up all, just got Vonage.

I originally had a smoothwall firewall/nat router box hooked up to my cable ISP that ran to a switch for my PC and PS2. I signed up for Vonage with the wireless Linksys box. I would still like to keep my smoothwall with it.

Is there a way I can hook up the linksys router after my smoothwall router? Someone told me to turn off the NAT/Firewall option which would turn off the DHCP server of the linksys.

Now, would I plug the CAT 5 from my smoothwall into the WAN port or into a LAN port on the router?

Any help would be appreciated.

Posts: 2257

groveboy wrote:

What up all, just got Vonage.

I originally had a smoothwall firewall/nat router box hooked up to my cable ISP that ran to a switch for my PC and PS2. I signed up for Vonage with the wireless Linksys box. I would still like to keep my smoothwall with it.

Is there a way I can hook up the linksys router after my smoothwall router? Someone told me to turn off the NAT/Firewall option which would turn off the DHCP server of the linksys.

Now, would I plug the CAT 5 from my smoothwall into the WAN port or into a LAN port on the router?

Any help would be appreciated.

I don't know a lot about Smoothwall, but I can tell you that putting your Vonage router behind any good firewall should.. just... work.

I just added a WRT54G in front of my WRTP54G because the WRTP54G couldn't handle my network traffic and kept locking up on me. I added HyperWRT to the WRT54G so I had real, honest-to-goodness QoS, plugged the WRTP54G into WRT54G Port 4, set Port 4 QoS on the WRT54G to HIGH, turned off almost everything on the WRTP54G, and relegated it to Vonage duty ONLY.

Net result, simply plugging the WRTP54G into a LAN port of the WRT54G gave me full, unfettered Vonage access with no problems whatsoever. No port forwarding, no messing about, it just worked.

I assume the Smoothwall firewall will do the same. If not, you may have to forward a bunch of Vonage ports to the Vonage router (10,000-20,000, and a few others - see the Vonage help pages for a list). But I doubt that will be necessary with a good router.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 9

Cool....

In essence, I want to have the cable modem hooked to the smoothwall which is a NAT router/firewall the smoothwall has one lan port. I used to use a SMC switch for my pc's, but it always locks up. So i want to put the linksys in its place for the wirelss but have it function as a switch. I want the smoothwall to handle the DHCP serving.

Posts: 114 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 114

I'v never tried my Vonage box behind my smoothie, since the smoothie is at work. But I do have a similar setup to NateHoy I have my RPT300 behind a WRT54G with DD-WRT firmware. I forward the ports that Vonage recomends to forward just because I feel like it.

BTW welcome to the forum, are you Cmccul5149 on the smoothie forum?

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:02 am Post subject:

groveboy wrote:

Cool....

In essence, I want to have the cable modem hooked to the smoothwall which is a NAT router/firewall the smoothwall has one lan port. I used to use a SMC switch for my pc's, but it always locks up. So i want to put the linksys in its place for the wirelss but have it function as a switch. I want the smoothwall to handle the DHCP serving.

Hmmm.. That SHOULD work. Just turn off all the NAT on the Vonage router (but I think you knew that already...)

I gotta be honest, though, that I'm less than impressed with the Vonage supplied routers. I have a WRTP54G, and I just put it behind a WRT54G (HyperWRT) due to performance/reliability problems.

In my opinion, just my opinion mind you, it might be better for you to just go out and get a switch, and connect all your computers and your Vonage router to the switch. Then the Vonage router is just another client, and doesn't have other traffic crammed through it.

But, it could be that disabling all of the DHCP and most of the other features of the Vonage router makes it a workable unit. Worth a try, anyway. Then if it gives you trouble, you can always add a switch in the middle and turn the Vonage router into a Vonage-only unit like I have.

Posts: 282 · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:10 pm Post subject:

Alternate solution is to pick up a PAP2 and use it with your existing router (in my case the WRT54G with QoS). I know there are lots of folks who don't think it has good voice quality, but I have no problems with mine and I don't rely on Vonage firmware or support for my router which is important to me. I also picked up a "spare" PAP2 from Staples for $25 after their rebate (that required NO service activation), so if you look around, you can get one pretty cheaply.

Posts: 9 · New Forum Member Joined: Nov 30, 2005 Posts: 9

HunterMcD wrote:

I'v never tried my Vonage box behind my smoothie, since the smoothie is at work. But I do have a similar setup to NateHoy I have my RPT300 behind a WRT54G with DD-WRT firmware. I forward the ports that Vonage recomends to forward just because I feel like it.

BTW welcome to the forum, are you Cmccul5149 on the smoothie forum?

Lol...yea that was me. Whoring around for any kind of help/info.

Gotta say tho..I'm impressed with the phone service. Crystal clear so far.

Posts: 114 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 114

ChrisFix wrote:

Alternate solution is to pick up a PAP2 and use it with your existing router (in my case the WRT54G with QoS). I know there are lots of folks who don't think it has good voice quality, but I have no problems with mine and I don't rely on Vonage firmware or support for my router which is important to me. I also picked up a "spare" PAP2 from Staples for $25 after their rebate (that required NO service activation), so if you look around, you can get one pretty cheaply.

My PAP was _GREAT_ other than one day I came home and it was a solid red light, called tech support and they said that it's dead and I need to go to the store I bought it from and have them exchange it, which then I informed them that I had was _told_ by Linksys that Vonage handels all faulty equipment and not to bring it back to the store, then I followed up with reading them the warrenty paragraph in the manule

I love that my Vonage is crystal clear also, only problem I am starting to run in to is I use to play Diablo 2 online and not it lags a whole lot.... Even when not on the phone, but that may have something to do with QoS or the Beta DD-WRT firmware thats out of date... ( I need to update)

Posts: 282 · Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject:

HunterMcD wrote:

ChrisFix wrote:

Alternate solution is to pick up a PAP2 and use it with your existing router (in my case the WRT54G with QoS). I know there are lots of folks who don't think it has good voice quality, but I have no problems with mine and I don't rely on Vonage firmware or support for my router which is important to me. I also picked up a "spare" PAP2 from Staples for $25 after their rebate (that required NO service activation), so if you look around, you can get one pretty cheaply.

My PAP was _GREAT_ other than one day I came home and it was a solid red light, called tech support and they said that it's dead and I need to go to the store I bought it from and have them exchange it, which then I informed them that I had was _told_ by Linksys that Vonage handels all faulty equipment and not to bring it back to the store, then I followed up with reading them the warrenty paragraph in the manule

I love that my Vonage is crystal clear also, only problem I am starting to run in to is I use to play Diablo 2 online and not it lags a whole lot.... Even when not on the phone, but that may have something to do with QoS or the Beta DD-WRT firmware thats out of date... ( I need to update)

I agree with you that the lag on Diablo 2 is in all likelyhood associated with your DD-WRT firmware and has nothing to do with the PAP2.

What happened with your warranty claim? The PAP2 manual clearly says that we have a warranty with Linksys - so you would think that they should be the prime in dealing with it.

Posts: 114 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Aug 05, 2005 Posts: 114

ChrisFix wrote:

I agree with you that the lag on Diablo 2 is in all likelyhood associated with your DD-WRT firmware and has nothing to do with the PAP2.

What happened with your warranty claim? The PAP2 manual clearly says that we have a warranty with Linksys - so you would think that they should be the prime in dealing with it.

Linksys said that all support for the PAP2 is provided through Vonage. I was able to get my , hard to understand, tech support personal to do an RMA so it was all good in the end Smile