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korosy
join:2000-04-27
Fresh Meadows, NY

korosy

Member

[Vonage] Linksys WRT54GP2 problems so far

Got the Linksys Wireless thing from Best Buy. Tried it for a day or so. It has a weird electrical noise, almost like a modem carrier in the background. This noise increases if the line becomes quiet, for example between digit dialing. Vonage help line says to exchange it at BB since they've seen this problem happen with these new TAs. Going to do that tonight and see if its better. Has anyone had this problem? Suggestions?

montee4
Premium Member
join:2004-02-15
Chicago, IL

montee4

Premium Member

I know there has been posts about noise on the PAP2 device, but I think you are first to report hearing line noise on the WRT54GP2.
korosy
join:2000-04-27
Fresh Meadows, NY

korosy

Member

Spent 30 min holding then 1.5 hours on the phone with the tech. He tried a few things, but it did not make much difference. He says that it could be due to my slow line (speed tests show ~300Kbits upload speed. He says I need 90Kbytes for best codec. Is this true? He escalated the ticket since he says I am one of the first people to call with that new wireless TA. Lets see what happens...

wrt54gp2user
@Judiciary.State.NJ.U

wrt54gp2user to korosy

Anon

to korosy
I have same problem purchased at Best Buy going to return tonight...Air noise in background and when someone calls on the call waiting sometimes it disrupts the call I am on and my call is disconnected and I go to a dial tone. I have spoken to cable provider, Vontgage and Linksys...No one knows whats wrong. I have had previous optimum voice and vontage router (non wireless) and phone quality was fine.

garys_2k
Premium Member
join:2004-05-07
Farmington, MI

garys_2k to korosy

Premium Member

to korosy
300 kbps is fine, Vonage uses only 90 of that.

I do wonder if the settings on that box's "silence noise" are wrong. Don't some providers deliberately put white noise into the receiver to reduce the feeling that the line is dead? Maybe that's just set way too high.

wiretrip
join:2002-10-18
Bronx, NY

wiretrip to montee4

Member

to montee4
I have the PAP2 and have not experienced any noise on my line with Vonage.
taycounty
join:2003-10-28
Medford, WI

taycounty to korosy

Member

to korosy
korosy,

same deal with my WRT54GP2, I don't think its defective actually just some tweaking done elsewhere needs to be done. Routing for voice on this thing is a lot better that the motorola. I did have a strange disconnect last night but no problems now.
taycounty

taycounty to korosy

Member

to korosy
Intermittent phone WAN drop offs? anybody with this unit ONLY chime in. Comeon there has to be a few out there with this thing.

ShawnD1234
@comcast.net

ShawnD1234

Anon

I purchased this unit two days ago and I had the same problem with the line noise. Both Vonage and Linksys said to take it back and get a new one. I did and this unit drop the phone line off after 5 to 10 minutes. I just hooked up the original Cisco ATA and have been using that with no problems. I might try taking it back again but I don't think it would do any good.

Shawn
korosy
join:2000-04-27
Fresh Meadows, NY

korosy

Member

I cancelled Vonage since it was not working right and gave it back to BB. I got the same wireless adapter for AT&T Call Vantage and so far it has been very good both on my old and new cable modem providers. I know that a lot of people were complaning that the AT&T adapter does not have QOS, but I think it does, there is just no menu settings for it visible from the user interface. I bet AT&T controls it from their end so that you dont get degraded quality. I have not tested it though, so this is just speculation.
i080654
join:2004-04-14
Mountain View, CA

i080654 to korosy

Member

to korosy
I switched from the Vonage Cisco ATA and WRT54G to a WRT54GP2 - and experienced the same line noise problem. After by now having exchanged 3 units at my local Fry's, I found the following:

- the noise level varies from unit to unit, and also from port to port
- the noise has nothing to do with internet connection or bandwidth, the noise is there as soon as you plug in an analog phone, with no network or anything else connected
- in my opinion, the Linksys units are simply defective (expect a recall or a V2.0 model)

I will keep trying and let the forum know as soon as something works...


cjjwww
@169.xx.209.ts46v-08.

cjjwww to korosy

Anon

to korosy
I've had my WRT54GP2 for a week now. I'm not noticing any significant noise problems, but I am experiencing dropped calls because this unit reboots itself 2 to 3 times per day. If you're on the phone when it happens, the call drops & no dial tone for about 20 seconds. The switch ports also drop, but they re-establish link in just a few seconds.
taycounty
join:2003-10-28
Medford, WI

taycounty to korosy

Member

to korosy
cjjwww,

call them please and refer to ticket # 877640

have them add ya to the mix...they seem to think its like my fault. ummmm positive its not. Have same stupid issue here.
mediacoretex
join:2004-11-14
Naperville, IL

mediacoretex

Member

i had that problem i changed my phone and it was fine
taycounty
join:2003-10-28
Medford, WI

taycounty to korosy

Member

to korosy
update on the disconnects and rebooting phone port...

Vonage is filtering my router and proxy issue was causing disconnect. So they changed a few things on their end. Also note that this is now running on the wired versions firmware 1.24.01. It don't seem like these update by themselves as others have said. The firmware update had nothing to do with the disconnect issue for some people here. Will see how its workin and will note later. cheeers ok peoples.
tinkererguy
join:2004-09-21
06109-2410

tinkererguy to i080654

Member

to i080654
With a bit of encouragement by Linksys tech support, my tip-off that the background noise might be able to be adjustable was when placing calls. I noticed the waterfall-like white noise momentarily went away (say .2 seconds), just before a dialed-call actually connected. The quality of the voice itself was never a problem, it was just very distracting to have this loud background noise.

I have (briefly) activated 5 different WRT54GP2 units (returning perhaps-defective units from different serial # ranges). After activating one of them, the background noise actually went away. I don't really know if it was the Vonage tech or the particular device that made the difference yet, but this unit DID have the same white noise as the other 4 units prior to tech's parameter tweaking. The voice quality is excellent, and has passed the WAF (wife-acceptance-factor) as well, after hours of phone calls.

This took several calls to different Vonage techs over 3 nights (1.5 hours on cell phone each night), using variety of hardware. I am installing another WRT54GP2 at my brother's home tomorrow. I hope to post details of serial #s & such soon, especially if I get success twice.

So, after testing all of these setups:
Cablemodem --> Linksys WRT54GS --> Motorola VT1005V
Cablemodem --> Linksys WRT54GS --> Linksys RT31P2
Cablemodem --> Linksys WRT54GS --> Linksys PAP2
Cablemodem --> Linksys RT31P2 --> Linksys WRT54GS
Cablemodem --> Linksys WRT54GP2
only one resists all my attempts to degrade call quality (with simple ftp upload test), that is the WRT54GP2. I must say that it sure is a lot simpler to setup, and hopefully to maintain/troubleshoot. I especially like that I can output the log to a syslog server on my LAN as well, and I don't have to worry about QOS any longer. For instance, on the WRT54GS, Linksys recommended I set the VOIP adapter's MAC address to HIGH QOS priority, but only after resetting to factory defaults AFTER applying this firmware:
v3.37.2, Nov. 9, 2004
Unfortunately, this just didn't work, calls still degraded during any ftp upload, whether I used one or both VOIP lines . I tried many other Linksys .17 and .37 firmware QOS options as well, none worked, most made it worse, and Sveasoft firmwares QOS just never worked at all for me.

Interesting notes
a) when first checking out the web interface on a WRT54GP2, it said a Sep firmware (I think 1.20), but once activated it quickly had "1.24.01, Nov 2 2004" firmware, with no action on my part.
b) the VT1005V was the only unit that ever worked with Hughes HDVR2 TiVos (only with recent VT20_01.2.d4 firmware, .17 never worked for me, dial prefixes do nothing on this model TiVo), but I'd hope Vonage will fix the WRT54GP2 as well. And I have an old Sportster (and a $7 TiVo serial cable) that I may end up using, if they don't fix TiVo support within a month or two.

I'll followup with a bit more detail soon!
tinkererguy

tinkererguy

Member

Hmm, then again, tonight after hours of misery trying to reach tech support at my 2nd install site (my brother's home), no luck with the 2nd WRT54GP2, loud background hiss. We even tried using the same tech who got the first one working, to get all Vonage-controlled parameters setup the same way, but no noticeable improvement.

So perhaps I'm back to thinking it is the hardware after-all, surely hope they find a trend with bad serial #s or something. I will stay in touch with the same techs to see how this plays out, and post results here...
dorosz
join:2003-06-28
Cumming, GA

dorosz to tinkererguy

Member

to tinkererguy
said by tinkererguy:

Interesting notes
a) when first checking out the web interface on a WRT54GP2, it said a Sep firmware (I think 1.20), but once activated it quickly had "1.24.01, Nov 2 2004" firmware, with no action on my part.
FYI I'm currently on 2.0.10(LIc) firmware
tinkererguy
join:2004-09-21
06109-2410

tinkererguy

Member

FYI, both my GP2s (the noisy one and the quiet one) are on:
Firmware Version: 1.24.01, Nov 2 2004
Voice Version: 2.0.11(LIc)
RockinRay
join:2004-08-18
Lakeville, MN

RockinRay to wiretrip

Member

to wiretrip
My new PAP2 is dead quite... No issues at all.

Ray
dorosz
join:2003-06-28
Cumming, GA

dorosz to tinkererguy

Member

to tinkererguy
said by tinkererguy:

FYI, both my GP2s (the noisy one and the quiet one) are on:
Firmware Version: 1.24.01, Nov 2 2004
Voice Version: 2.0.11(LIc)
Hmm...1.20.01 Sep 3 2004
and still 2.0.10 and no problems

lozano
@aol.com

lozano to i080654

Anon

to i080654
I would like to now if there is a possible way to increase my upload speed, since am having trouble communicating, I have Vonage as my phone system, an direcway as my internet provider. They are having problem hearing me but I hear them find, they tell me its because my upload speed is to slow, since this is my primary mode of communication any help will be appreciated.

thank you
lozano

lozano to i080654

Anon

to i080654
I would like to now if there is a possible way to increase my upload speed, since am having trouble communicating, I have vonage as my phone system, an direcway as my internet provider. They are having problem hearing me but I hear them find, they tell me its because my upload speed is to slow, since this is my primary mode of communication any help will be appreatiated.

thank you
tinkererguy
join:2004-09-21
06109-2410

tinkererguy

Member

OK, here's my promised list of serial #s I've tried, in hopes of somebody at Linksys/Vonage/broadbandreports spotting a trend of some sort. I'm honestly not into Linksys/Vonage loosing $ with all these returns. I did all these swaps at the advice of both companies tech support, and am hoping to help out by sharing this info.

I should add that I tried different models of corded phones plugged directly into WRT54GP2 Line 1 or Line 2. Also note that this isn't a subtle hiss, it's either there or it's not, obvious to anybody. I'd say that the noisy WRT54GP2s are 5x noisier than the quiet ones, about 10 seconds after powering up (before even activated by Vonage).

Linksys WRT54GP2

Serial# Store (Hartford area of CT, bought between Nov 19-21st '04)
BACKGROUND HISS:
CGZ00D905754 Best Buy, tested with Vonage, returned
CGZ00D905755 Best Buy, tested with Vonage, returned
CGZ00DA00044 Best Buy, tested with Vonage
CGZ00DA13211 CompUSA, tested with just phone, returned
CGZ00DA12830 CompUSA, working (with hiss, brother's house)

NO BACKGROUND HISS:
CGZ00DA01630 Best Buy, working (my house)
tinkererguy

tinkererguy

Member

I'm delighted to say that both Linksys and Vonage are actively investigating this issue, and are aware of these posts I'm making. I do believe strongly in this product, and will likely be signing up more friends-and-family for Vonage. I'm confident we'll get through this early-adopter phase very soon!

PS: You may notice at the retailers shelves that the serial #s are listed right on the bottom of the Linksys boxes, and usually on your receipts as well. Also, the cheapest way to get started with Vonage (if you don't already have a wireless router) appears to be by buying one of these WRT54GP2 routers and getting a $50 rebate by mail. You won't be needing the Linksys RT31P2 Vonage normally sends to new customers that need hardware at this time.
tinkererguy

1 edit

tinkererguy

Member

I was at Best Buy, picked up this serial#
CGZ00DA04589 Best Buy, tested with Vonage

this is close to the serial# that I had working, but it has the background hiss problem and will have to be returned. I didn't notice the hiss much until activated, so no good in-store test, activation with Vonage seems to be the best true test.

So, now back to using my known-good hiss-free WRT54GP2 (although not quite as quiet as the RT31P2). I tried a different configuration, works nicely, even with heavy ftp upload through the WRT54GP2, allowing me to travel with the RT31P2, a big blessing:
Motorola Cablemodem ===> WRT54GP2 ===> Line 1 (removed)
\===> RT31P2 ===> Line 2 (removed)

Will keep informed!
tinkererguy

tinkererguy

Member

That didn't space correctly, to clarify, the cablemodem is hooked to the WAN port of the WRT54GP2, and the WRT54GP2 LAN is connected to the WAN port of the RT31P2.

Medic63
join:2004-02-15
Butler, PA

1 edit

Medic63 to tinkererguy

Member

to tinkererguy
said by tinkererguy:


Line 1 (removed)
\===> RT31P2 ===> Line 2 (removed)
Will keep informed!
Those are fake phone numbers, right? You wouldn't post your real phone numbers on the internet, would you?

bewale
Killemall
Premium Member
join:2000-08-08
Royal Oak, MI

bewale

Premium Member

Guys, any update on the status of the Linksys WRT54GP2 device? My father is looking to go wireless and subscribe to Vonage... and this seems to be the perfect fit... assuming these issues have been worked out. If not, I'll be picking up the PAP2 for $9 and separate Wireless B/G router.

Thanks.
taycounty
join:2003-10-28
Medford, WI

taycounty

Member

Im one of the chief cheerleaders and not a good one on this router. The "air noise" issue still there but minimal and you tend to forget its there after continued use. QOS is perfect. No more phantom reboots with the current firmware 1.25.0, 1.24.01 was junk....so really I can tell ya go ahead and get it. Make sure its running 1.25.0 firmware and he will be fine!