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idbit
join:2008-12-04
Florida

idbit

Member

[Equipment] Router - Use old Belkin or Yealink's built-in router

Hi, I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle my router situation. I bought a Yealink SIP-T38G that has a built-in router. My regular router is several years old - Belkin F5D8230-4. I see alot of old threads going around discussing how QOS doesn't work on the v2000 series of this router. I happen to have the v2000 series. So it looks like I have 3 options:

1. Use the built-in router on the Yealink - with my home office computer feeding off of it for internet. I'm wondering how secure that would be though for the computer - compared to the regular router? Right now, if I run the ShieldsUP test, I score 100% stealth on all 1056 ports. I'd like to continue that way if possible.

2. I could just get it over with and buy a new router. I have a question though. I noticed in my Belkin router setup that QOS only applies to wireless. Is that how it works with all routers? Right now, I have wireless turned off. The network is hard-wired. I really don't want to go wireless unless I have to.

3. I can also just try using the old router I have without QOS and see what happens. It's a regular Roadrunner connection that's only being used for internet. There's no splitters or anything sharing. The wire comes straight off the pole, connecting to a 50 ft wire that ends right at the cable modem in the cabinet/hub in the hallway. I ran a couple tests in the Tools section here:

Flash Speed Test: Download: 14,649 Kbps, Upload: 1,071 Kbps, Latency: 34 ms.
Line Quality: All Pass. No lost packets. Latency lowest 69.5 ms to highest 85.4 ms. "You are 8 ms to your first hop."

In the next couple days, I'll be switching the service over. Finally, no more getting raped by AT&T! Any suggestions on router setup are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
IB
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

Re: [Equipment] Router - Use old Belkin or Yealink's built-in ro

How do the Yealink and Belkin compare in terms of NAT firewall and any other firewall function?

Presumably you have a software firewall also on your computer. Many people find these ratings useful though there is a bit of a political controversy floating around about them:
»www.matousec.com/project ··· ults.php

You might want to use this port test in addition to the ShieldsUp page. I just use the personal/home office test:
»www.securitymetrics.com/ ··· scan.adp

My initial feeling would be to use the Yealink router if you wish, see how your security is, see how your internet functionality is....
idbit
join:2008-12-04
Florida

idbit

Member

said by PX Eliezer704:

You might want to use this port test in addition to the ShieldsUp page. I just use the personal/home office test:
»www.securitymetrics.com/ ··· scan.adp

Thanks PX. That one is a little different. I like their explanations of each port.
said by PX Eliezer704:

Presumably you have a software firewall also on your computer. Many people find these ratings useful though there is a bit of a political controversy floating around about them:
»www.matousec.com/project ··· ults.php

Yeah I remember that test - the Matousec test page. You're right, there is/was controversy surrounding it. A few years ago I came across that when I had caught a virus and decided to buckle down on security. At the time, the issue people had is that the tests covered HIPS functions - in addition to firewall functions. So the all-in-one firewalls that came with HIPS function, like Comodo and Outpost, always won the tests. Some people thought that was a good thing and some people thought it was deceptive.

I had (and still do have) an old Windows XP system. I had trialed Outpost and it was too much for my system to handle. So I removed it. At the time, for an old system, it was recommended to use a low resource firewall that only does firewall. Look 'n' Stop was recommended because it's very configurable, while being low resource. So that's what I went with. I've been really happy with it. I never realize it's there until I install something and that something tries to dial out for the first time. I probably should add a low resource HIPS program so I'm covered for the rest of the stuff they test for on the Matousec tests. I do everything else you can though for an XP machine - like a Local Security Policy - allowing exe's to run only from the Programs folder, the NoScript plugin for Firefox.
PX Eliezer704
Premium Member
join:2008-08-09
Hutt River

PX Eliezer704

Premium Member

said by idbit:

I probably should add a low resource HIPS program so I'm covered for the rest of the stuff they test for on the Matousec tests.

The free version (or paid version, nice to support the guy) of WinPatrol. Not full HIPS but there is scant left in the stand-alone HIPS market. Still very useful.
»www.winpatrol.com/

Totally passive, the free version of SpywareBlaster.
»www.brightfort.com/spywa ··· ter.html

And HostsMan for passive protection for your Hosts file.
»www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman
idbit
join:2008-12-04
Florida

idbit

Member

said by PX Eliezer704:

The free version (or paid version, nice to support the guy) of WinPatrol. Not full HIPS but there is scant left in the stand-alone HIPS market. Still very useful.
»www.winpatrol.com/

Yeah that looks pretty straightforward. They still support XP.
said by PX Eliezer704:

Totally passive, the free version of SpywareBlaster.
»www.brightfort.com/spywa ··· ter.html

And HostsMan for passive protection for your Hosts file.
»www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman

I used to use SpywareBlaster years ago and got away from it for some reason. I forgot why. Now I juse Hostman to do the same thing as far as blocking sites. It can be annoying at times when it blocks a domain that some software you're using needs access to and you can't figure out why it's not working. Now I know, whenever something doesn't work for no logical reason, disable Hostman to see if that was the problem.
idbit

idbit

Member

I wanted to update this old thread. I was concerned about how secure the Yealink's built-in router would be.

I'm using the Yealink's built-in routher now. If I run a report at ShieldsUP, all ports are closed, not stealth. Ports 80 and 443 (HTTP and HTTPS) are open if you have the Yealink set to enable its web interface. You can disable that or set it to HTTP, HTTPS, or HTTP & HTTPS. When I disable the web interface, ports 80 and 443 then appear as closed at ShieldsUP. I decided to leave it that way in order to close the ports. If I want to configure something, I just have to use the phone's interface instead.
mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA

mazilo to idbit

Premium Member

to idbit
I can probably be able to flash your old Belkin F5D8230 router with an OpenWRT firmware that has a much better QoS.
idbit
join:2008-12-04
Florida

idbit

Member

duplicate
idbit

idbit

Member

Thanks mazillo. That's interesting. Would that be wireless only though? I noticed in the router setup (with the stock firmware), that the QOS only applies to wireless. I want to stick with a wired setup.

What I also thought was weird is that even when I removed everything else from the network, I still had the same audio problem. The network was simply a Roadrunner feed coming off the pole, a single connector connecting one long wire all the way to the modem, one wire connecting the modem to the Belkin router, then the Yealink being the only thing connected to the Belkin router. Very simple, with the Yealink having the entire Roadrunner feed all to itself. But still the audio was bad. So I guess that would say that the QOS is faulty? Because I thought that QOS is not even needed if you only have one item attached to the router. My situation would suggest otherwise though.
mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA

mazilo

Premium Member

said by idbit:

Would that be wireless only though? I noticed in the router setup (with the stock firmware), that the QOS only applies to wireless. I want to stick with a wired setup.

My Netgear WGT634U and Linksys WRT54GS v3.x are all running on a self-built OpenWRT firmware. Although they both have a wireless module, I never use it. I don't have a problem with VoIP calls using such a QoS setup from OpenWRT. There are many reasons I go with OpenWRT. One of them is the ability to easily compile and build firmware + SDK from source.
idbit
join:2008-12-04
Florida

idbit

Member

said by mazilo:

My Netgear WGT634U and Linksys WRT54GS v3.x are all running on a self-built OpenWRT firmware. Although they both have a wireless module, I never use it. I don't have a problem with VoIP calls using such a QoS setup from OpenWRT. There are many reasons I go with OpenWRT. One of them is the ability to easily compile and build firmware + SDK from source.

Thanks for that info. I'll probably have to go back to a standard router soon because the Yealink only has 1 pc connection. So I don't know if I'm limited to just the one device or not. Maybe if I hooked up a cheap hub. For now, I'm happy with the setup. I'll leave it be for a couple months. But as soon as I want to add something else to the network, I'm going to have to either figure out how to expand on the one pc connection or go back to a standard router.
mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA

mazilo

Premium Member

said by idbit:

Maybe if I hooked up a cheap hub.

Or, you can connect your existing Belkin router to the LAN port of your Yealink phone and configure it with no NAT/Firewall. This way, all your computers and/or WiFi devices can connect to Internet through Yealink. You will yet have to find out if heavy traffics may and/or may not cause Yealink to crumble.
idbit
join:2008-12-04
Florida

idbit

Member

said by mazilo:

Or, you can connect your existing Belkin router to the LAN port of your Yealink phone and configure it with no NAT/Firewall. This way, all your computers and/or WiFi devices can connect to Internet through Yealink. You will yet have to find out if heavy traffics may and/or may not cause Yealink to crumble.

Oh yeah. Thanks!