Network Connection

[oderus13]

I've been a VYL customer for about 2 weeks and the service has been very good so far. However, since I switched my old voip box (SR Gizmo) to my new SPA-2102, my wife has been losing her VPN connection to work frequnetly. It happens randomly and at different intervals (sometimes every few minutes other times not for hours). It doesn't seem to be related to inbound or outbound calls. She's had it go down mostly when there were no calls. Our SPA2102 is in front of our router. The setup is cable modem to SPA2102 to router to computer. ARe there any SPA2102 settings that could be affecting network connectivity?

Thanks

[VYL|Allen]

Try taking our adapter (SPA-2102) and placing it behind your network router. This will allow the VPN connection through the correct ports.

[oderus13]

Thanks for the response Allen. The same day that you responded my wife found a FAQ at work that described the same problem that she was having. It suggested changing some VPN tunneling settings to correct the problem. That fixed the issue. We thought it was an issue with the SPA2102 since the VPN started going down the day after I installed it. I guess it was just a coincidence or some combination between the voip router and the VPN that didn’t exist with the older gizmo. I’ve left my SPA2102 in front of the router and it is working just fine.

[hankqp]

My company recently switched to a cisco vpn client. Now the only way I can connect is to remove the voipyourlife Spa2102. (Which is between my cable modem and my router.) With the 2102 in, I connect to the remote site ok, but if I look at status/statistics I can see data being sent but nothing received. I cannot connect to any servers. When I remove the 2102. It works fine. I have a linksys 54GL behind the 2102. Other employees connect using similar equipment but they have AT&T as a provider. I tried moving the 2102 behind the linksys and the vpn works but my phones don't. Any help would be appreciated.

[VYL|Gary]

My company recently switched to a cisco vpn client. Now the only way I can connect is to remove the voipyourlife Spa2102. (Which is between my cable modem and my router.) With the 2102 in, I connect to the remote site ok, but if I look at status/statistics I can see data being sent but nothing received. I cannot connect to any servers. When I remove the 2102. It works fine. I have a linksys 54GL behind the 2102. Other employees connect using similar equipment but they have AT&T as a provider. I tried moving the 2102 behind the linksys and the vpn works but my phones don't. Any help would be appreciated.

hankqp,

Have you reset the 2102 and router after you reposition it behind your network router? Additionally, do you have port forwarding enabled in your router?

Thanks,

Gary

[hankqp]

I just unplugged the 2102 and moved it. I didn't know there was a reset on it. What ports need to be forwarded? I can set that up on my router.
Thanks for following up on this.

[VYL|Allen]

Here are the port ranges you should have forwarded:

5060-5161 (UDP)
16,382-16,484 (UDP)

Make sure to forward this to your adapter's external IP.

Once you have these ports opened, it is recommended to power cycle your network.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Thanks,

Allen

[hankqp]

I powered down my router, cable modem and the 2102. Turn on the modem and let it boot up. Then booted my router. After I could connect to the internet. I tried the cisco vpn and it worked. Then I plugged in the 2102 and the phone and the phone worked. What happened? I checked the cisco vpn and it still worked. Should i do the port forwarding anyway?

[VYL|Gary]

I powered down my router, cable modem and the 2102. Turn on the modem and let it boot up. Then booted my router. After I could connect to the internet. I tried the cisco vpn and it worked. Then I plugged in the 2102 and the phone and the phone worked. What happened? I checked the cisco vpn and it still worked. Should i do the port forwarding anyway?

Hank,

Port forwarding is always a good idea but not always necessary. I am a big fan of if it is not broken then we do not need to fix it. Enjoy the service!

Thanks,

Gary

[bclee_0000]

I have a similar problem. Prior to joining VYL, I have been using Cisco VPN Client for years with no problems. But since I've started using VYL and configure the SPA2102 as follows, I cannot use my VPN.


PC<---> router <---> SPA2102 <---> cable modem


The VPN authenticates and connects, but no VPN traffic can get through, i.e., I cannot ping or connect to any servers.

However, if I swap the position of the router and SPA2102 (so now the SPA2102 and the PC connect to the router), the VPN works fine.

PC <---------> |-------|
SPA2102 <---->| router| <-------> Cable Modem
.......................|-------|

However, now I'm worried that my voice calls could be affected by high traffic volume by the PC. What is the right solution here?

Thanks
Ben

[VYL|Allen]

Ben,

In this situation and VPN being an essential, the best configuration is to place our device behind the router. We do have customers who can still use VPN with it in front of an existing router but it's not really guaranteed.

Placing our device behind a router eliminates the QoS properties, however if your router has that function it would still work okay. Furthermore, I would recommend taking a quality test and sending us the results and we can reconfigure the adapter for optimal call quality.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Allen

[bclee_0000]

Thanks for the quick response Allen. Unfortunately my router is very old residential router and doesn't have any QoS features. I guess I'll need to investigate buying a new router.

Also, what do you mean by a quality test? Can you post a link to where I can run said test?

Thanks,
Ben

[VYL|Allen]

Ben,

Sorry for the delay on my response!

You may not have to purchase a QoS router, depending on your network usage. If you have a lot of traffic back and forth such as uploading/downloading it may be in your best interest so you don't lose any call quality, but through my experience and on my service at the house I get crystal clear quality even during downloads. Not uploads though.

You can take the test here - www.voipqualitytest.com

Send us your results with your account and the device's MAC address and we'll take a look at it.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks,

Allen

[rfportilla]

What type of vpn are you on? L2TP or PPTP??? The fact that you have a specific device for it leads me to believe that you are using L2TP. Generally, L2TP VPN can not be used through NAT (aka your preconfigured voip adapter). I don't know if this is your issue, but it might be worth finding out. If this is the case, then changing from NAT to Bridge mode on the voip adapter should fix it. Before doing anything, find out if it is in fact L2TP from your network admin and then get a recommendation from him/her.