SPA-3102 as a router in the UK

A friend who has no router ,and only a laptop, wants to use voip.
I've never tested the SPA-3102 as a router. Has anyone tested it in
the UK (PPoA) and found it to work reliably? This would be operating
with a VM supplied cable router.

 

PPPoA has nothing to do with cable, so forget about it. It should just work.

 

I wondered about that. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Why use the 3102 as a router if the friend already has one supplied by
VM? Just stick it on an unused port.

However do beware of one problem with VOIP - if the router is using NAT
then you will almost certainly need multiple port fowarding. I had a
Belkin wireless router which would only allow one port to be forwarded
to any one given IP address downstream and I just could not get VOIP to
work. Switched it with a Netgear and all worked/works perfectly.

 

Woody presented the following explanation :

I suspect he means "supplied cable modem"

This should be completely unecessary with most if not all VoIP
providers.

I have no ports forwarded whatsoever & have multiple
providers/devices/pbx behind my router

 

You are correct. I see the mistake I made. Yes, he has no router just
a cable modem.
Presumably though, if this was an ADSL situation, then there would be
problems using it as a router unless, possibly, on AOL, where,
certainly at one time, if not now, I do believe they used PPoE.
I have set up an SPA-3102 on VOIP, not my own, but I never bothered
with the router part. In the case of someone without a router, who
only wants to run one computer, it is an ideal product to operate with
a cable modem but not, generally, I would assume with the vast
majority of UK ADSL ISPs who use PPoA. Why Linksys don't make it
compatible with PPoA I can't imagine. It seems to be typical US
parochialism.

 

Sorry to argue Jono, but I'm only speaking from experience.

I signed up with Sipgate (no credit) and downloaded the free
ready-customised XLite softfone. It would work with incoming calls but
no way outgoing (to their free test number or another Sipgate user.)
Interminttently I spent about a month trying to get it to go with no
joy. Then I bought the SPA2000 - and had <exactly> the same problems. It
wouldn't work with voip.co.uk either, as wouldn't a non-customised
XLite. Even Sipgate and voip helplines were unable to come up with a
solution.

I picked up a Netgear at the right price and had the same problem. I
then set the router to fixed internal addresses (still using DHCP from
the cable modem,) put on the port forwarding, and behold it worked and
still does.

I am also on VM (well, ntlworld actually.)

 

After serious thinking Woody wrote :

I do not dispute that your Belkin device couldn't be configured
suitably, nor would I disagree that port forwarding used to always be
necessary, However, with a decent router & service provider, you
should'nt need to these days.

I have a Linksys WRT54G & have no ports forwarded anymore. In fact,
IIRC, I /solved/ some issues when I disabled port forwarding a couple
of years ago.

ex-BY for me.

 

my configuration to the one in question is almost identical

VM - cable modem - linksys 2102 voip/router - single pc

Line 1: Voxalot - 2 VSP - Voipcheapcom for outgoing and Orbtalk for
incoming
Line 2: Voxalot only - so I can natter with friends & family who also
have a Voxalot account, and leave Line 1 free for business calls!

 

The Linksys SPA-3102 doesn't have an ATM interface, so PPPoA would be of no
use whatsoever.

 

Woody schreef:

I guess that's why the SPA3102 worked for me instantly, because i
connected the SPA on a LAN port of my router, only did set the LINE1
voice menu, en left DHCP on router still running, guess that QoS is not
running, so this would be a other case, if i had a ADSL modem only
device, > seperate switch > SPA3102 on switch > router on
SPA3102....with DHCP switch on, on SPA and swited off on router ?