VoIP Box Review & Setup Guide (SPA-2102)

For the record, this is my configuration:

CABLE

- cable modem

WAN

- Apple Time Capsule (video server, nat/dhcp on)

LAN

- 2102 (nat/dhcp off)

I'm not sure if these links will work or for how long, but...




There are two ways to update the firmware, "push" and "pull". The .exe's do a push but requires Windows OS. I describe the pull method in post 1, where you log into the 2102 and specify a path where the .bin file is located (like a lan based web server).

OK. Excellent. So, the 2102 is immediately downstream of the modem, with QoS on. I set it for NAT and DHCP. Then the Linksys WRT-54GL wireless router, which is plugged into the 2102, is set to "bridge". I had people here at work suggesting to do DHCP on both. That didn't seem right to me. But neither did setting the router for the static IP of the 2102!

As for my question about static IP, when I was talking about upstream and downstream, I was just meaning input and output, as it were, and was assuming that the 2102 is always downstream of the modem, and the router downstream of the 2102, with QoS on in the 2102. But, I see the confusion in my terminology! Anyway, you'd already answered the question by then, so it's academic at this point.

I'll try out the new firmware for sure at some point, but for now, I think I'll see how it works as is.

Enjoy! And let us know how it goes.


Extra info: Provided both routers are active (no bridging), both should have dhcp turned on. This gives WAN + LAN-A + LAN-B. But if bridging is turned on (router off) in the downstream box and that box is still running dhcp, there are two dhcp servers in the same environment. In this case, a client box asking for for an IP would get one or the other server and unless the two are setup carefully, can result in fun things like two client boxes with the same address (address conflict). Fortunately, most boxes (including Apple Airport units) tie nat and dhcp together so they turn off and on together.

OK. So, IE7 does work just fine and allows me to change my router settings. However . . .

There is no "bridge" mode setting, but I think I've figured out what to do. First of all, in the "Internet Settings" section, there are the following choices:

Static IP
Automatic Configuration - DHCP
PPPoE
PPTP
L2TP
Heartbeat Signal

So, the only choice here is DHCP, and must be exactly similar to telling your computer to use DHCP to get IP addresses via the DHCP server.

Below this there is the network setup section, and you can assign the router and IP address and name and such-like, and below this there is a "Server Settings" section.

Here, you can enable or disable the DHCP function, and if enabled, you can chose from the following:

DHCP server
DHCP forwarder.

I assume that choosing "DHCP forwarder" is equivalent to bridge mode?

Also of note is the VLAN tab where things look like this:
VLAN ---port----
VLAN-W-1-2-3-4-assigned to bridge
0______*_*_*_*_LAN
1____*_________None
2______________None
3______________None

etc.

and something about auto negotiate at the bottom.

I assume that I should just leave all of this alone, as it is setting up the four hard-wired ethernet ports to bridge to the same LAN, and the wireless to NOT look for a bridge (???) Or something I don't understand.

Anyway, obviously, I'm going to do some research and actually learn about this enough to know what the heck I'm doing, but in the mean time, if you have any thoughts ElectronGuru, please feel free to share them.

Anyway, obviously, I'm going to do some research and actually learn about this enough to know what the heck I'm doing, but in the mean time, if you have any thoughts ElectronGuru, please feel free to share them.

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Lets do a networking primer.

The Internet started with a fixed number of IP addresses, public addresses. When it became clear that we were running out, we added private addresses. Every public address can support potentially thousands of private addresses. Each device in your home gets a private address, but all activity runs out onto the Internet via the same single public address. Your ISP has a whole bank of public addresses and (for now) gives one to each customer. In your network, that single public address can reside in the modem or in the first router. Routers create walls between networks (public/private or private/private), keeping all the IP addresses and the packets traveling between them, straight. NAT (network address translation) is how packets travel from one side of the wall, through the router, to the other. DHCP is merely a system to automatically dispense IP addresses within a given network, NAT defines the actual network that creates the wall.

So the Internet Settings tab of your router defines the WAN (Internet) side of the router, and how the box is to create or receive its IP address for the WAN (outside/upstream) side of the wall. A router with its wall turned on, routes packets only to ports on the same side of the wall as the origin of the packet - unless the packet is prescribed to travel through the wall. A router with its wall (NAT) turned off, is basically just a hub/switch. All packets landing on any port, get repeated on every other port that cares to listen. Have a look at this screen grab:

http://tj.tntluoma.com/files/airport-dual-band-bridge-mode-selection.png

Apple routers include an option to turn the wall off, that they call bridge mode. I'm not familiar with yours, but I don't think DHCP forwarding is the same. This sounds more like passing DHCP address assignments through the wall, than turning the wall off itself.

These are your options:

1a) Have the 2102 downstream from the wireless router with one NAT in the WR.
1b) Have the 2102 downstream from the wireless router with two NATs
2a) Have the 2102 upstream from the wireless router with one NAT in the 2102
2b) Have the 2102 upstream from the wireless router with two NATs

Having two NATs is not the best, but if there is no way to turn it off in the WR and the WR cannot do QoS, you won't have much choice. Most likely there is a way, but it will take work to find it. Tomato is even more likely to have it.

Alternately, you could do config 2a (preferred) but get yourself an Airport Express with known bridge/off capability.

ElectronGuru,

I do know some stuff about the internet and IP addresses!

I did research this and found that in order to put the router in bridge mode, you need to DISABLE internet, and yes, set it to DHCP forwarder, and put in the local IP address of the device which is the DHCP server.

Here is an example link on doing a WDS bridge of two of my exact routers running my exact firmware. The next to the last screen shot shows the relevant stuff. Since I'm not doing a wireless bridge, I ignored all that stuff.

So, it seemed pretty straightforward. Disable "internet", which is bridge mode. Set the gateway. Set DCHP forwarder.

But I just tried it, and no dice. Then I noticed on the Advanced Routing tab, that there are also three modes "gateway" "RIP2 Router" and "OSFP Router" (or something like that). Reading the instructions, it was clear I should put it in "router" mode. I didn't know which one, so I tried both. Neither worked.

I'm so freaking annoyed and fed up right now. What a waste of an hour. This is really p***ing me off.

I know what NAT is. I know what WAN and LAN and local IP addresses are. I have to mess with the TCP/IP settings on my laptops at work all the time since they communicate with the API laser tracker instrument via the ethernet port. This SHOULD NOT be this frigging hard.

It's official. I am no longer a fan of DD-WRT. I'm thinking seriously about getting an Apple router device of some sort or another. Airport express probably.

I absolutely, positively, DO NOT want my VoIP box down-freaking-stream of the gateway. I want an SPI firewall on that drops all anonymous WAN requests on my router. And I want the VoIP box to have QoS and first access to the internet service.

And there doesn't seem to be a good "manual" on DD-WRT. There's a whole forum, though. Gee. Fun. Just what I wanted to do. Spend 10 hours configuring a simple setup that SHOULD HAVE ONLY TAKEN ME 10 MINUTES.

Damn I'm mad.

OK. I calmed down and did some more searching. I found this link on creating a WAP.

There are some key differences here, including disabling the DHCP server, as opposed to setting it to DHCP forwarder--that apparently is only for a Wireless bridge. Or maybe not only for it. Anyway . . . maybe I'll try again tomorrow.

I do know some stuff about the internet and IP addresses!

Click to expand...

Don't mean to offend. I'm writing assuming others are reading this too. Running screaming into the hills perhaps, but if they get this far, a bit'o context may help.

I'm so freaking annoyed and fed up right now. What a waste of an hour. This is really p***ing me off.

I absolutely, positively, DO NOT want my VoIP box down-freaking-stream of the gateway. I want an SPI firewall on that drops all anonymous WAN requests on my router. And I want the VoIP box to have QoS and first access to the internet service.

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Reminds me of how I felt a few days into configuring the 2102 for the first time. It may be that DD-WRT assumes that you would never want to turn off the router feature in a router.

At this point, I would try running double NAT. If both routers are active at the same time (each with their own dhcp), accessing OUT will be fine. The only trouble would be setting something up to be accessed IN.

It's official. I am no longer a fan of DD-WRT. I'm thinking seriously about getting an Apple router device of some sort or another. Airport express probably.

And there doesn't seem to be a good "manual" on DD-WRT. There's a whole forum, though. Gee. Fun. Just what I wanted to do. Spend 10 hours configuring a simple setup that SHOULD HAVE ONLY TAKEN ME 10 MINUTES.

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I havn't tried one yet, but the newest versions have some amazing features, like simultaneous dual band (requires Extreme) and quick add (Internet only) guest access.

ElectronGuru,

Right! Understood. No offense taken.

You can do this with DD-WRT and a Linksys WRT54GL, I'm sure, but at a certain point, I was just like "OK. Screw this."

And . . . I did indeed buy an Airport Extreme, with the simultaneous dual band feature. I had other stuff to do yesterday evening and today, but I did start digging into Apple's 77 page online manual, and just like I thought, this thing can do all sorts of sophisticated stuff, including WDS (wireless bridging, if you have two, or one of these and an airport express, etc.), but at the same time it is super easy to do the easy stuff, and probably pretty easy to do the difficult stuff, too. Probably all thanks to the Airport Utility program built into OS X . . . but still.

Seriously, though, about the time that I realized that I couldn't change anything important on my DD-WRT router without IE7, that was about the time I knew I was going to change one way or another. Either Tomato, or an Apple base station. Went with the Airport Extreme as I get an educational discount on all Apple products, being staff at Cornell University.

I'll report more later, once I've got everything up and running, but I did use the 2102 VoIP box to call my brother and talk for a bit, and I was very impressed with the sound quality. Pretty much as good as a plain old telephone line.

Anyway, back to my annoyance--I never thought that bridging the router to the 2102 was going to be the hard part! I figured getting the VoIP box up and running was going to be the tricky part. Go figure. Now I understand why I've heard some people criticizing DD-WRT, in any case!

In the interest of future readers and basic stuff, one thing that might be helpful to mention is about local IP addresses.

If you can't seem to connect to your VoIP box or router, then change the IP address of your computer such that the first three parts of the IP address are the same, and the last one different. This is especially a pro pos if you change the IP address of your VoIP box or router. For example, my 2102 came loaded with a static IP of 192.168.0.1, but my router was 192.168.1.1, and was handing out dynamic IP addresses starting at 192.168.1.100. So, I wanted to change the VoIP to 192.168.1.1 and the router to 192.168.1.2. As soon as I changed the IP of the VoIP, I lost connection with it, and even after typing in http://192.168.1.1 (the router was off-line, powered down, and already changed to 192.168.1.2 in any event), I got nothing. I immediately knew why and went into my network settings and set the IP of the laptop to 192.168.1.107, and then reloaded the URL of the VoIP box GUI, and voila, I had access again. If your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, it means that the first three parts of the IP address of all the things on the LAN had better be the same, otherwise, they ain't all on the same LAN and won't talk to a web GUI that requires you be on the same LAN.

Oh, and that also means that if your VoIP or router or whatever is a DHCP server, that you probably want it to be giving out local IP addresses that have the same first three numbers as itself. i.e. before I changed the 2102, it's IP was 192.168.0.1, and it was giving out IP addresses starting at 192.168.0.2. I changed its IP to 192.168.1.1 and had it hand out IP addresses starting at 192.168.1.100. I had to make both changes. Think of the first three numbers as putting all the stuff on the LAN in the same room, and the fourth number giving them ID numbers so they can recognize and talk to each other. If you give two people the same number, it's bad, as they both answer to the same ID. Bad!

Please correct anything that isn't quite right here, ElectronGuru. Thanks!

And . . . I did indeed buy an Airport Extreme, with the simultaneous dual band feature. I had other stuff to do yesterday evening and today, but I did start digging into Apple's 77 page online manual, and just like I thought, this thing can do all sorts of sophisticated stuff, including WDS (wireless bridging, if you have two, or one of these and an airport express, etc.), but at the same time it is super easy to do the easy stuff, and probably pretty easy to do the difficult stuff, too. Probably all thanks to the Airport Utility program built into OS X . . . but still.

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Airport Utility is available for Windows too.

I consider the specialness (hardware+software) of airport base stations to be almost on par with iPods. Mine has a built in drive, on which sits about 800GB of music, movies, and TV shows, drawn from computers throughout the house. With the right settings, you can wirelessly stream 1080P! Speaking of which, assuming its still optional, turn on Use Wide Channels. Located under Airport>Wireless>WirelessOptions, it doubles the capacity of your N connections.

I'll report more later, once I've got everything up and running, but I did use the 2102 VoIP box to call my brother and talk for a bit, and I was very impressed with the sound quality. Pretty much as good as a plain old telephone line.

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Nice.

I figured getting the VoIP box up and running was going to be the tricky part. Go figure. Now I understand why I've heard some people criticizing DD-WRT, in any case!

Click to expand...

For me that was the hard part. I hope this guide contributed a bit.

In the interest of future readers and basic stuff, one thing that might be helpful to mention is about local IP addresses.

Please correct anything that isn't quite right here, ElectronGuru.

Click to expand...

Great advice (and correct) I would only add two extra bits.

DHCP works via a lease system. A dhcp server is configured with a set time per lease, usually a few hours. When a given machine's lease is up, it asks for a new lease - and generally gets the same address. If you're playing around with a network (as we are doing here) and address schemes are changed, it may be handy to get client machines to ask for a new lease sooner - getting them on the new scheme immediately. This is done in a variety of ways, depending on the OS. Recent version of OS X have a button in the Network preferences called Renew DHCP Lease. Press it, and a few second later, the new IP shows up and the network is ready to use.

In the midst of these changes, you can also change the private IP range in question. There are actually 3 private ranges to choose from:


Any private range can be any of these or any subset of these. Somehow, the smallest and most awkward (IMHO) became the standard. I like to set mine to 10.0.0.1+

Thanks for the info, ElectronGuru, and yes, this guide was, I'm positive, the main reason for the VoIP setup being easy. I really appreciate it! I certainly wouldn't have done the VoIP thing without it.

But, seriously, DD-WRT is screwed up. It takes about 2 minutes (tops) to set an Airport Extreme up in bridge mode. You tell it to get a DHCP addy from the WAN port / DHCP server. And you tell it to turn off (bridge mode) IP sharing. That's it. TWO SETTINGS (approximately). Two. Easy. Peasy.

Yet the thing can be set up for a roaming network with other stations, or can do wireless bridging, NAS, music streaming, network attached printer, etc. Not to mention the dual feature.

And yes, it does still have the wide channels option. Cool.

Hay, did you find the part of the AEB yet where you can plug an USB drive (including thumb drives) into it for use as a wireless file server!?

ElectronGuru said:

Hay, did you find the part of the AEB yet where you can plug an USB drive (including thumb drives) into it for use as a wireless file server!?

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Yup.

Setting up the AEB was an absolute joy--the quintessential apple "experience", where stuff just works and flows and makes perfect sense and where one step just leads naturally into the next. Beautiful. Such a pleasure compared to effing DD-WRT. And from what I can see, there's pretty much nothing that DD-WRT can do that Airport Utility can't. Bridging the AEB was as super-straightforward as such a super-straightforward and common thing SHOULD be. I just put it in bridge mode = DHCP server off. TA-DA! Done. Worked.

It just worked. Lovely.

Anyway, moving on, I still need to update my firmware so we're on the same page here, but right now, I'm having a few small sound quality issues. It seems that when the person talking to me peaks their volume, that I get a cut-out of the sound. As long as they are talking quietly, this never happens. But if they raise their voice a lot at points, those points get not just clipped, but totally cut out, and I miss what they said.

I'm using the 711u codex as my preferred codex, but I don't have the option to "ONLY use preferred codex" set. And I notice that there are some silence supp settings I could change, and I suppose I could change the QoS setting, right? At the moment I have it at 80 percent of my bandwidth. I assume changing that to 70 percent might improve sound quality? Or would it?

Like I say, first thing I'll do is update my firmware and see where that leaves me. And even if the sound quality never gets better, I'm still going to totally switch over to this VoIP. The value is just too good to pass up. So a few words get clipped now and then--still better than a cell phone--and I'll be saving like $50 per month.

I still need to update my firmware so we're on the same page here, but right now, I'm having a few small sound quality issues. It seems that when the person talking to me peaks their volume, that I get a cut-out of the sound. As long as they are talking quietly, this never happens. But if they raise their voice a lot at points, those points get not just clipped, but totally cut out, and I miss what they said.

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Have a look at these two settings under Voice>Region (Admin Login/Advanced)


These are like volume controls. If the problem is a true clipping from the sound being to loud, putting a larger negative number in here (-3 -> -6) may correct it. The same change also reduces echos

I'm using the 711u codex as my preferred codex, but I don't have the option to "ONLY use preferred codex" set.

Click to expand...

Actually, I have the option and leave it OFF. Think of it like a fallback mode. If the first codec doesn't work for any reason, it can try the second. In this case, since the first (711u) uses more bandwidth this can be very handy when bandwidth is tight.

And I notice that there are some silence supp settings I could change, and I suppose I could change the QoS setting, right? At the moment I have it at 80 percent of my bandwidth. I assume changing that to 70 percent might improve sound quality? Or would it?

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You want to be very conservative when it comes to settings. Change as few as possible, change as few at a time as possible, and change them as little/gradually as possible. Once you're down the rabbit hole (think Matrix), its a challenge to get back on solid ground.

That being said, there is no harm in writing down a setting you want to play with and changing it back when you are done. The firmware MAY be causing your sound issue, the QoS MAY be causing it, or the percentage MAY be causing it. The only way to know for sure is to try. But of these, the only likely suspect is the firmware.

As with preferred codec's, QoS is mearly a prioritization scheme. The best way to test if bandwidth is a factor with an issue is to unplug the rest of the network. QoS or no QoS, when the box is by itself - your voice packets are getting complete priority.

Like I say, first thing I'll do is update my firmware and see where that leaves me. And even if the sound quality never gets better, I'm still going to totally switch over to this VoIP. The value is just too good to pass up. So a few words get clipped now and then--still better than a cell phone--and I'll be saving like $50 per month.

Click to expand...

Looking at my last few months, my main/voice line has 1000 minutes use, costing $6.38 (+monthly's). My fax line is $0.08 total. The value is silly better.

The firmware process on Mac's is a bit tricker because there is no dedicated firmware app. Let me know if you get hung up.

Well, damn it, I inadvertently locked myself out of access to the 2102--at least as admin.

I disabled web interface or something like that, because I thought it was asking me if I wanted to be able to modify the settings of the 2102 from the WAN. I can log in as user, but not as admin. Even if I am directly hooked to the ethernet port of the 2102, I can't log in as admin.

Is there anything I can do other than totally reset everything but the firmware?

Oh, and I did successfully update the firmware by uploading the .bin file to my webspace and putting the URL in the upgrade rule filed and restarting the box. I set my second preferred codex to 729a and set the QoS to "On when phone in use". I also undid the QoS Qdisc (whatever that is) from TBF to none, which is how it started.

Unfortunately, I changed the DMTF method to AVT, as they talked about that in the firmware upgrade notes, with the strict mode of holdoff and a 70 for holdoff time or something like that, but that was only for IF you were using AVT, and you told us to use Auto. I figured I'd change it in a second. Then locked myself out of admin access. Damn, damn, damn.

Nice work on the firmware. Just make sure to blank out the upgrade rule field when you're done or it will be flashing every time you restart.


So you changed the password for admin or just WAN access for admin? If its the later, try this:

pick up a phone, dial ****, then
7932# [plus password# if set], then press 1#


I've also experienced an issue where I could not log in as admin unless I first logged in as user. Try typing in the user name/pass on the first go, then clicking the admin link followed by admin name/pass.

Take a deep breath and remember: You can always reset the box (section D, last line), then follow from step 1 again. Think of it like unscheduled practice! Its also a good way to guarantee that all settings are as expected. Just make sure you have your Call Centric info first.

I disabled web access for admin. I can log in as user, but there simply is no admin link at all to click!

As for the **** and 7932#, that's all well and good, except that I do have a password entered for both admin and user, and they are NOT numbers? Is the "password#" you're talking about different than the admin password? Anyway, I'll try it and see what happens.

Although . . . I don't really need to, as I already blanked the upgrade rule field and updated (seemed like the smart thing to do), and more importantly,

. . . the sound quality is now . . .

EXCELLENT!

It could be the firmware upgrade, or it could be that I set DMTF to "AVT" and strict holdoff and a value of 70, just as the firmware notes suggested (if using AVT, anyway).

Is there a problem with using "AVT" mode as opposed to "Auto"?

Anyway, I could just leave well enough alone, really.

My next step is to port my old number over to Callcentric. I'll look into that tonight maybe. Or I may give the VoIP setup just a day or two more just to be sure.

Oh, and for anyone who decides to do this, I can give you the URL to my webspace .bin file for upgrading to the latest firmware version.

It's funny, in my phone bill for this month I got a notification of rate increases. HAH! Not for me, you *******s!