Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


mattz

23 posts

Geek


#13434 10-May-2007 08:24
Send private message

I've recently got set up with VFX must say the call quality is excellent, my question is does anyone have any experience with the WRTP54G (router only) being unreliable I tried to call the USA and it would ring once then go silent, I then tried several other numbers all with the same result.  After rebooting the router all was fine...

The firmware on it is 3.1.17 should I upgrade or can I run the 'open' firmwares on it and still use VFX?  I'm thinking this is either a heat or firmware issue, could be a faulty router to I guess....

Also anyone know what port to forward for the QOS for VFX is it 5600??



View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2 | 3
maverick
3594 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
WorldxChange

  #70097 10-May-2007 08:40
Send private message

I use the WRTP myself at home since I'm on wireless and all works great for me, I will take a look at your Call records and see if I see anything


can you PM your VFX number as I have a number of Matts in the system Laughing




Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well Wink

             

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

 
 
 
 

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Hatch (affiliate link).
Niel
3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #70106 10-May-2007 11:04
Send private message

Modems and routers consume a lot of power, especially if they also have WiFi built in.  This is because of the high output power required to drive an ADSL/WAN line, WiFi and Ethernet.  Add to it the current drawn by your analogue phone, and there can be serious heat issues.  As an example if you have a proper power-over-Ethernet system you can draw up to 15W of power per connection out of the router!  The WRTP54G can not do that, but it gives you an idea of what could happen.

I have tested my WiFi connection and dropped the power level to the lowest acceptable to give the range required.  In addition to limiting power and increased security, this also means that you have less interference with other equipment (the whole EMC/EMI thing).  Obviously less power = lower temperature.

Ensure the router is not in an enclosed or semi-enclosed space where the air is trapped in a pocket (like a bookshelf), the holes in the top and bottom of the case is there for a reason.  Also try giving it higher rubber feet (or bottle tops) to allow more air in underneath.  Even better, see if you can find a quiet fan (or run a 12V fan at 5V).  You do not need much ventilation, but you do need some.  Best to blow air in from the top.

I have not yet thought this through, but possibly you get better convection cooling by mounting the router vertical against a wall using the mounting holes in the case.  It also frees up desk space!

Have only one phone plugged into the router, and it is slightly better to have a phone that has it's own power adaptor (like a cordless phone).

If using a cordless phone, use a DECT phone.  The 2.4GHz phones interfere with WiFi and they fight over radio frequencies, so the WiFi router has to work harder to sort it out.

If you use Bluetooth, get version 2.0 where you can because it does selective frequency hopping to avoid problematic frequencies (frequency hopping is determined by the device establishing the connection, slaves do not have to be version 2.0).  Most Bluetooth devices are either 1.1 or 1.2, but version 2.0 has significant advantages.  Alternatively try to move your Bluetooth devices a bit away from the router which will also improver the WiFi SNR.

Hope this helps, please give feedback of any findings.




You can never have enough Volvos!


hairy1
3331 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #70117 10-May-2007 11:46
Send private message

Hi Mattz,

I too have a WRTP54G which has been having some reliability issues. It has been dropping 1-2 calls a day and recently started reseting itself during phone calls (most annoying). I spent some time on the phone to WXC to see if the dropped calls were at their end or my ISP (wired country) but it was inconclusive. At the moment I am pretty sure it is the router causing the problems. I have stood mine up vertically a couple of weeks ago as it was getting very hot and the day before yesterday did a full reset using the reset button at the back. It has been OK ever since the hard reset.

I have also been on the phone with Linksys and they have sent me a new firmware which is in Beta (3.1.22) to try but I haven't gotten around to that yet. They have said that if the new firmware doesn't work they will replace the unit. I have also set up some logging on the device last night which will better enable me to keep an eye on it.

The instructions for setting up logging are here: http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic7833.html

I hope this helps a bit. I have never had any issues with calls not being connected however. Otherwise the phone quality is great, WXC customer service has been excellent.

Cheers,

(Another!) Matt.




My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.




exportgoldman
1202 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #70125 10-May-2007 12:34
Send private message



We have had massive and unfixable problems with the Linksys routers, from the WAG54G's to the broadband (ethernet to ethernet) and VPN routers.



They seem to make routers which either physically overheat, and then die, or the software is missing features documented in the manuals, or simply crash and are buggy. We have had certain models with wireless slowly but consistantly increase the latency across wireless until ping times reach 1500ms to the router, rebooting the router is the only fix. No firmware ever came out to fix that particular bug.



They release public firmware updates very infrequently, so many sites have sprung up to supply the 'unofficial' beta firmwares.



I remember our most annoying bug was running a tracert through one of their models of routers would cause the router to reboot - latest firmware, totally reproducable and occured on any hardware of that model. That was fun to track down!



If I have a bias towards Linksys it is only because we originally thought the Cisco brand backing them, and their cheap and feature complete products seemed like a router sent from heaven. We began using them across all our sites, and had no end of problems.



We even looked into the growing open source market for firmware which you can put on the Linksys devices, and they have some very powerful features and are more reliable - but then you are outside of warranty coverage. Not ideal.



We have started using Netgear DG834G's and they have been super rock solid for the 30 sites we have and the numerous home installs we have done. They also do VPN and QoS for VOIP - but this doesn't work with VFX as far as I know because VFX are using special VOIP ports (non-standard, security reasons etc wink wink.)





Linksys Phones on the other hand seem to have a very good firmware stack on them, and we have not had any problems with them. We use the 942's mainly.






Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

mattz

23 posts

Geek


  #70140 10-May-2007 13:09
Send private message

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have looked into installing an Open firmware such as Open WRT or DD-wrt but doesn't seem to have the best (any) support for this router.

My setup is very basic, router is in a cabinet with about 1.2 m of space around it.  No blue-tooth or cordless phones in use.  Standard phone plugged into router.  Only one lan port in use and wireless in use, wan has cable modem on.  Someone mentioned turning down the wireless signal strength I gather this is only something that can be done with a custom firmware?

This router seems to have been buggy from the start had problems with computers via DHCP not receiving DNS addresses (DNS Proxy issue), but after a while this came right...



exportgoldman
1202 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #70141 10-May-2007 13:13
Send private message

mattz: Thanks for the replies guys.

I have looked into installing an Open firmware such as Open WRT or DD-wrt but doesn't seem to have the best (any) support for this router.

My setup is very basic, router is in a cabinet with about 1.2 m of space around it. No blue-tooth or cordless phones in use. Standard phone plugged into router. Only one lan port in use and wireless in use, wan has cable modem on. Someone mentioned turning down the wireless signal strength I gather this is only something that can be done with a custom firmware?

This router seems to have been buggy from the start had problems with computers via DHCP not receiving DNS addresses (DNS Proxy issue), but after a while this came right...




I've seen the DNS via DHCP missing issue before on routers, this usually happens when the router doesn't do DNS proxying and instead hands out the DNS addresses given to it by the ISP. What happens is if your internet connection is down, the router still issues clients with DHCP addresses but doesn't know what DNS servers to give the clients... so it doesn't.

When you get a DNS address, is it the router address, or the ISP? If it's the ISP you should be able to hard set this in the DHCP scope on the router.




Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

hairy1
3331 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #70144 10-May-2007 13:17
Send private message

Forgot to add that Linksys say on their website to enable QOS for the WRTP54G as follows:

Login to router -> Applications and Gaming -> QOS -> Secific Ports -> Enter 256 in one specific port and 512 in the other specific Port.

You can turn off the wireless completely under the wireless settings in the router. Or if you want to just take the power down it is under advanced wireless settings.

Cheers....




My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.




maverick
3594 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
WorldxChange

  #70149 10-May-2007 13:31
Send private message

mattz: I've recently got set up with VFX must say the call quality is excellent, my question is does anyone have any experience with the WRTP54G (router only) being unreliable I tried to call the USA and it would ring once then go silent, I then tried several other numbers all with the same result. After rebooting the router all was fine...

The firmware on it is 3.1.17 should I upgrade or can I run the 'open' firmwares on it and still use VFX? I'm thinking this is either a heat or firmware issue, could be a faulty router to I guess....

Also anyone know what port to forward for the QOS for VFX is it 5600??




Thanks for the Info Matt,

The numbers you dialed in the States all terminated fine that was why you heard one ring, after the Call was connected you did not get the audio sent to the router, your PR show 0 even though we show that a number of packets were sent, the issue appears to be the router, One question though is this unit direct connected or behind another device.

We are also in the process of upgrading the firmware to 3.1.24,  check when you get home.

What Your WRTP rxed
Timestamp     : 07:29:03.997 2007-05-10
Direction : RX
Remote IP/Port: x.x.x.x/8060
Local IP/Port : x.x.x.x/8060
Transport : UDP
----------------------------------------
BYE sip:00120975XXXXXX@as.wxcnz.net:8060;maddr=x.x.x.x.;transport=UDP SIP/2.0
Via: SIP/2.0/UDP x.x.x.x.14:8060;branch=z9hG4bK-d9136752
From: 048311293 <sip:4831xxxx@as.wxcnz.net>;tag=11a6233c111cf99ao0
To: <sip:0012097xxxxx@as.wxcnz.net>;tag=96141c3a-1f7c-464220ea-4865649f-6d76948
Call-ID: 587df564-75a70d92@x.x.x.x.
CSeq: 102 BYE
Max-Forwards: 70
User-Agent: WRTP54G-3.1.17
P-RTP-Stat: PS=556,OS=23352,PR=0,OR=0,PL=0,JI=0,LA=0,DU=18,EN=G729a,DE=G711u
Content-Length: 0


What was sent
Media Typeaudio/g729
urimostimestampself-madebegin-ex-seqend-ex-seqpackets-passedpackets-droppedpackets-lostcurrent-jitter
From:sip:00120975xxxxx@as.wxcnz.net
less...
4.1307:29:04.002 Thu 2007-05-10true0055430





Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well Wink

             

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

hairy1
3331 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #70154 10-May-2007 13:47
Send private message

Hi Maverick,

Linksys sent me firmware version 3.1.22. They recommended upgrading my firmware however I am unable to as it is locked out with the VFX firmware. Are you able to upgrade mine also to 3.1.24?

Thanks hairy1.




My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.


Nety
2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #70159 10-May-2007 14:06
Send private message

hmmm seems I have heard of this before... I have now tried two different versions of the WRT54G (1.1, 5.0 and 7.0) the 1.1 on both the linksys firmware and on DD-wrt and in all cases still get the occasional call where there is no sound.

The 1.1 which is what I am running now is MUCH better then the 7.0 revision or even the 5.0 was but still had the issue.

Out of interest are you on Telstra? I had a chat to the guy at Dick Smiths and he said that they get a LOT of returns of the WRT54G's from Telstra customers. Most with the same main issue that I had with the 7.0 which was it would just stop communicating with the internet. The activity lights would all stay on but it was like the routing table would get screwed. If you either waited (for several hours) or rebooted the router it would start routing correctly again.








Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

maverick
3594 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
WorldxChange

  #70160 10-May-2007 14:08
Send private message

Actually it is 3.1.22 but you will see 3.1.24 on the router, fat finger problem ......devices are being done at present so you may find your box may be already running this, we have had this code under testing for a while and I wanted to run it for a little while longer, but looking at the issue today I am releasing the code for these units a bit early




Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well Wink

             

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

mattz

23 posts

Geek


  #70174 10-May-2007 15:30
Send private message

I haven't had the issue where it stops responding to the internet, I suspect heat was probably the issue as it had been uploading !:( (by accident) a torrent all night or it may have filled up the routing table.  As I understand it XNet VFX now has absolute control over my router with regards to the firmware it runs etc. No problem if it runs fine, I'm over the tickering for the sake of it tickering phase.

Yes i'm on Telstra with the router directly connected to the cable modem.  Telstra connection is great I can max out the 4mbps connection, I only ever got sub 3 mbps on DSL (despite line sync of 8mb).



Niel
3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #70305 11-May-2007 08:28
Send private message

My sync speed drops about 10% if I (correctly) plug the line filter between the modem and wall socket compared to plugging the modem streight into the wall and the line filter on a different wall socket.  It also changes if I use a different cable for connecting the modem.  Wiring often makes a big difference on ADSL, especially when mixing different types of wires and increasing the number of series connections.  It has to do with impediance matching and reflections, it also means the modem has to work harder and get hotter.

As for firmware upgrade, did it actually happen yesterday?  This morning before 7 mine was still on 3.1.17 but the router has reset a few times as I was about to turn off the PC and then lights started flashing for a minute or so, then steady as usual.  By then my PC was off and I had to go to work so I do not know if that was the upgrade, but I thought it was supposed to have happened yesterday afternoon.

As for phone reliability, last night I spent about 5 minutes "talking" to the VFX voice portal and no problems at all.





You can never have enough Volvos!


maverick
3594 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted
WorldxChange

  #70308 11-May-2007 08:35
Send private message

Niel:


As for firmware upgrade, did it actually happen yesterday?  This morning before 7 mine was still on 3.1.17 but the router has reset a few times as I was about to turn off the PC and then lights started flashing for a minute or so, then steady as usual.  By then my PC was off and I had to go to work so I do not know if that was the upgrade, but I thought it was supposed to have happened yesterday afternoon.

As for phone reliability, last night I spent about 5 minutes "talking" to the VFX voice portal and no problems at all.



What actually happens each device is on a timer 48 hours or on reset so they will pick up any changes over a time frame 48 hours, yours probably happened this morning, if the power lights was flashing that would have been the firmware upgrade.




Yes I am a employee of WxC (My Profile) ... but I do have my own opinions as well Wink

             

https://www.facebook.com/wxccommunications

hairy1
3331 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #70580 13-May-2007 16:21
Send private message

Hi Maverick,

My WRTP54G is now running 3.1.24 (or 3.1.22 if looking at the voice page on router administration) and all my gremlins seem to have disappeared. However, the router is not receiving any date / time information. On the status page it says the current time is unavailable and on the voice page it gives the date as April 2003. Does the WRTP54G get the date and time from my ISP or does it grab it from somewhere else? It is causing my cordless phone to tell me people are calling in 2003.Surprised

Otherwise all is great.

Cheers,

Matt.




My views (except when I am looking out their windows) are not those of my employer.


 1 | 2 | 3
View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic





News and reviews »

Māori Artists Launch Design Collection with Cricut ahead of Matariki Day
Posted 15-Jun-2025 11:19


LG Launches Upgraded webOS Hub With Advanced AI
Posted 15-Jun-2025 11:13


One NZ Satellite IoT goes live for customers
Posted 15-Jun-2025 11:10


Bolt Launches in New Zealand
Posted 11-Jun-2025 00:00


Suunto Run Review
Posted 10-Jun-2025 10:44


Freeview Satellite TV Brings HD Viewing to More New Zealanders
Posted 5-Jun-2025 11:50


HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14-inch Review
Posted 3-Jun-2025 14:40


Flip Phones Are Back as HMD Reimagines an Iconic Style
Posted 30-May-2025 17:06


Hundreds of School Students Receive Laptops Through Spark Partnership With Quadrent's Green Lease
Posted 30-May-2025 16:57


AI Report Reveals Trust Is Key to Unlocking Its Potential in Aotearoa
Posted 30-May-2025 16:55


Galaxy Tab S10 FE Series Brings Intelligent Experiences to the Forefront with Premium, Versatile Design
Posted 30-May-2025 16:14


New OPPO Watch X2 Launches in New Zealand
Posted 29-May-2025 16:08


Synology Premiers a New Lineup of Advanced Data Management Solutions
Posted 29-May-2025 16:04


Dyson Launches Its Slimmest Vaccum Cleaner PencilVac
Posted 29-May-2025 15:50


OPPO Reno13 Pro 5G Review 
Posted 29-May-2025 15:33









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.







GoodSync is the easiest file sync and backup for Windows and Mac