[ale] Vonage redux

[Jason Fritcher]

Mills, John M. wrote:
> Q1: Does Vonage service require any inbound ports be forwarded to its modem,
> or does the modem initiate the connection and get only repies, even for
> inbound phone calls? Vonage' installation notes list a potload of ports
> which shouldn't be blocked, but don't say if any must be specifically
> forwarded to their modem.

I did have to forward UDP ports 5060 and 5061 to the Vonage box.

> Q2: Does Vonage typically provide the modem, or do most customers go buy one
> (LinkSys or whatever) from a third party? Any strong preferences? (I know I
> could replace the simple Airlink router with a "known brand" - is this
> useful?)

I believe you can either buy one directly from Vonage, or you can go to 
most electronics stores and buy one there. But you will need to buy the ATA.

> Q3: If Vonage service requires inbound port forwarding, do they provide a
> modem that can use a fixed IP in my LAN?

I'm using the Linksys PAP2 ATA, and it can do DHCP or static IP. I left 
mine as DHCP and assign a static IP through the DHCP server.

> Q4: Vonage' notes suggest that putting their interface behind the modem does
> sacrifice some functionality (e.g., QoS control), but that it should work.
> What should I anticipate happening to the phone link when another system is
> keeping the LAN busy?

I haven't experienced this myself, but you'll experience breakups in 
conversations from latency and jitter. One project I've been meaning to 
start is setting up QoS on my linux router.

-- 
Jason Fritcher
jkf at wolfnet.org