Hi there,
I will try to make this as clear as possible, but if you have nay questions, please come back here and let me know.
You will need 4 things: 1 Surfboard Modem, Wrt54G,
vonage router, computer. Put them next to each other without having plugged in anything ( no ethernet, no power cable!). Make sure that the WRT54G router is back to default settings by pressing the reset button on the back of the router for 10 seconds.
- Connect the power cable to the Modem. Power light on?
- If yes, connect the coax cable from the wall to the modem. (The one that looks like a TV cable)
- Connect the power cable to the router and wait until the power light is on steady.
- Connect your modem to the router. Plug an ethernet cable first into the modem and THEN into the WAN port (the label says "Internet") of the router.
- Plug an ethernet cable into one of the router LAN ports and connect it to your computer.
- Power on the computer.
- Open the Control panel and the Network Connections applet.
- You should see something called "Local Area Connection".
- Double-click on it and click the Properties button.
- Double-click on "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" and make sure both radio buttons are set to "Obtain...automatically".
- Close all Windows by clicking "OK".(The second one takes a moment, because it applies the settings.)
- In the open window choose the Support tab and you should see your IP address, your Default Gateway (192.168.1.1) and your DHCP server (192.168.1.1)
- Open Internet Explorer and type "192.168.1.1" in the address bar.
- If you have reset your router to factory defaults, leave the username blank and type "admin" in the password field.
- On the first page (Setup), you should set the Internet Connection Type to "DHCP", unless you get a static IP from comcast (which i doubt).
- Go to the Wireless tab and ensure that wireless is enabled.
- Go to the "Security Tab - Wireless Security" and ensure that NO security is enabled for now.
- Open a new browser window and see if you can open a web page. Use an address that is unlikely to be in cache - try "http;//www.mit.edu" or so.
- Close your browser for now and come back here later to setup your wireless security etc.
- Now power on your vonage router and wait until the power light comes on steadily.
- Connect an ethernet cable from a LAN port of the router to the WAN port of the vonage router. (Plug it into the router first!)
- The vonage device should blink and establish a connection (Internet light is steady on). This might take a moment, because the device is downloading the newest firmware as well.
- Once the vonage router is on and the lights are steady (you didn't say which vonage device you have, so I can't tell how many lights there are), plug normal telephone ( not a wireless one) into the vonage router and see if you can get a call signal.
- If you were successful - sit back for a moment, enjoy the triumph and treat yourself with a nice drink!
There are a couple of things you still have to do, but the main thing is done.
- Make sure that you can access the internet from your wireless laptop before you start changing settings.
- Get a manual for the router here.
- Go back to your router's web page and set up wireless security (don't use WEP - that is not secure enough)
- You will have to setup QoS (Quality of Service), in order to prioritize your VOIP traffic, so calls go through clear even when you are surfing/downloading.
- You can setup QoS via IP or MAC address. Use your vonage router's MAC address (you'll find that on the bottom sticker), because it creates less overhead.
- If you plug in anything else into your vonage router, it might be on a different subnet and might not be able to communicate with your other computers (vonage router often use 192.168.15.x as their IP address)
- Once you're up and running and feel familiar with the settings for your router, I would change to a different firmware, because QoS is a crucial point for VOIP and I never was really satisfied with the Linksys firmware. I use tomato, for the simple reason that I was afraid of other more complicated firmware and you can always go back to Linksys, of you don't like it.
So...my fingers are bleeding now, but I hope this helped you out.
If so, please come back and let me know. Others might have a similar question.
If not, just tell me where you got stuck and we will go from there. According to the movie 'Galaxy Quest':
"Never give up, never surrender!"
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