Linksys 802.11b Wireless Broadband Router with 2 Phone Ports The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router is really four devices in one box. First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect both screaming fast Wireless-G (802.11g at 54Mbps) and Wireless-B (802.11b at 11Mbps) devices to the network. There's also a built-in 3-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Connect four PCs directly, or attach more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. The Router function lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection The fourth function is the phone adapter which enables high-quality feature-rich telephone service through your high-speed connection even while you're surfing the Internet. There are two standard telephone jacks, each operating independently -- like having two phone lines. With Vonage, you'll get low domestic and international phone rates, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Distinctive Ring, and lots of other available special phone features. Choose any free local dialing US area code, regardless of where you live. Add a virtual phone number in any area code, or even a US-wide toll-free number. To protect your data and privacy, the Wireless-G Broadband Router can encode all wireless transmissions with up to 256-bit encryption, and supports both Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and the industrial-strength wireless security of Wi-Fi Protected Access (W
1 Poor quality service - don't use Vonage
Low sound quality, difficult to reach customer support, and frequent service outages. Even though my cable internet connection is very good, the vonage service is mediocre at best. In 3 months of using the service, I have had at least 5 days of no vonage service, and many have reported that when they call me they can't get through.
2 No Rebate Check / Poor Quality Sound
I've been a loyal Linksys router customer since 2001 when I purchased one of their first wireless products, the BEFW11S4. However, I've been sorely disappointed with this particular product.
First off, I purchased the unit in late December 2004, meticulously filled out the rebate information, included all documentation that was requested, and mailed in the rebate form immediately. In late March 2005, I received a postcard saying that I had not properly submitted the MAC address. I've kept copies of all of my submission so I will be writing back, but this may raise a red flag for anyone purchasing this unit.
Next, the hardware in particular: historically I have had small issues with Linksys routers that have been resolved through firmware upgrades. For this unit, however, only Vonage can update the firmware. After having been a customer for three months, my unit still has not been updated by them, yet I am suffering from one particularly annoying bug that I have read has been fixed in later firmware releases. While I am speaking on the phone, the phone completely disconnects if there is significant non-voice traffic on the line, i.e., from a computer on the network. I have fully enabled QoS and yet the problem persists. I've been trying to get a firmware upgrade for months - I've e-mailed Vonage twice about it and sat on hold for a very long time but to no avail. I haven't even gotten a non-automated e-mail response.
You've read about the "modem noise" on the phone jack: I have this problem. However, if you put a phone into the secondary phone jack and leave it off hook, the noise goes away. Still, it's an example of poor quality on this item.
Vonage's service - when it's up - has been fine. However, it is by no means a 99.999% available per year service, like your typical POTS line; I have tried to use the phone twice previously when the service wasn't working. Once there was no service at all, and another time I could only receive calls.
Like many, I hope that VoIP technology increases in popularity over the coming months and years, but to me it's clear that this service, and in particular this hardware, is still in its infancy. Of all the problems, though, I'm most concerned about what I feel is an attempt to block payment of the rebate.
3 Update on noise problems with this unit
Postings on other sites have reported noise problems with this unit. Noise is white noise, sounds like a hiss. I talked to a Vonage customer svc. rep (a capable one) on 3/25/05 about this, and he said the problem was caused by a faulty capacitor, which as batch of these routers were built with. This batch is no longer in production, and isn't being distributed anymore.
Also, if you have another non-Vonage Linksys router that you're replacing this unit with, the AC power adapters for Vonage routers are 12v, but for non-Vonage are 5v. I was too lazy to swap adapters, and was powering my Vonage router /w the 5v adapter. The router-part worked fine--except the phone-part would never register with Vonage. Linksys should report this on their configuration page.
4 Thumbs Up For Vonage
This section is reviewing Vonage, not this product, so I thought I'd chime in. Great is the word for it. Easy to set up. Good reception. Minimal problems. Goodbye SBC, FINALLY. I really recommend it.
5 Vonage is Bad News
Don't switch to Vonage beside poor sound quality. They have no Customer Service whatsoever. I have been trying to contact them for over a week and nothing. They do not respond to your emails, and tech support does not answer the phone. The only people you can get to answer is Sales, and they won't help you with problems. This is the worst company I've ever run across. Do yourself a favor and stick with your normal phone company or pick another VoIP provider. Vonage is Bad News!
6 Worked right out of the box
I had the service up and running within 5 minutes, did not need any installation other than plug and play. I was making international calls to the United Kingdom within the hour at 3 cents a minute.....Very impressive. I set it up so that it rings my cell as well as the home number so friends can find me with just one call. I gave it 4 stars only because I could not get a local area code number (Topeka KS ) and set up a 1-888 number for local friends to call in on.
7 Vonage=poor service, stay away
I signed up for Vonage three months ago, received my router and had VoIP running in a couple of weeks. However, I also applied to transfer my existing number to Vonage at that time. Three months later, no sign of the number transfer. Emails to Vonage go unanswered. I have called Vonage perhaps 20 times, about half the time I cannot get through, when I do get through (after a wait of 8-35 minutes) I get a different story every time from the customer service person but basically they have absolutely no idea whatsoever as to what is going on with my number transfer.
I'm going to cancel the Vonage service, request my money back (I haven't used the service) and will look elsewhere. "Disappointed" doesn't begin to cover it. The consensus of my coworkers who have Vonage is either it works and you're happy or you have a problem and you're unhappy, because they have zero customer service. Good idea, poor execution.
8 Stay away!
I feel the need to tell how very unhappy I am with Vonage's lack of customer service and policies. Because of them they lost a potential new customer, permanently. My husband and I spent two weeks reseraching the feasibility of voip for our home to replace our current phone service which is costing us nearly $50 a month. Vonage looks great "on paper" (or rather, on the computer screen), and we decided to give them a try over others such as Packet8 and AT&T CallVantage. However, I was sorely disappointed when I finally did call to try to speak with someone about the few remaining questions I had. Answered through their site or other sources were questions about fees and charges and reliability of service. A stumbling block still, in all of that, was the overwhelming number of people who report a problem with the phone adapter and the lack of support. But, we figured we'd risk it since we have a good broadband connection, and we would cancel if we felt the service was bad. My remaining questions to customer service were: did they have any numbers in our area, and could we use a fax machine once or twice a year on our line, and NOT have to pay an additional $10/month for the privilege?
The Vonage customer service agent was about as clueless as they come. First he wants all my information up front before he will even TALK to me about ANYTHING, then he tries his first attempt to sign me up without answering my questions. He then tells me that no numbers are available in our area, only numbers which would be long distance for our friends and relatives to call. This wasn't acceptable, so I asked about porting of our current number. This wasn't an option we had wanted to pursue, because of the nightmare wait time. It wasn't acceptable for us to have to hold on to our current phone service at $50 a month for the privilege of keeping our number. We didn't want to pay it, but they had nothing else available. He said they could port the number, but there was no way to speed up the process, and we'd have to keep paying our current phone bill for as long as they decided to take to port the number. At $50 a month, no way! And by the way, AT&T CallVantage only takes 8-10 days to port a number. What's the deal with Vonage's horrendous wait times???
And so, after that one question was answered to HIS satisfaction, not mine, he decided to try to sign me up again. NO! Hello? I told you I had another question, and I'm not too happy with you right now. So I asked about the fax option. We have a fax machine that we use only a couple of times a year at most, and I asked if we could use it on our regular phone line. Then the customer service agent was downright rude with me. He said no, absolutely not, if we did not pay for an additional line we would not be allowed to use our fax machine, don't even try it. Wow! Why did he have to be so rude? Then he tries to sign me up again, this time with an additional line. I said that this was absurd, we only used it a couple of times a year, and no, I didn't want another line. He then gets snotty and tells me that if we only use it that much we should go to the local copy store instead. Well, that was it for me. He tries a third time to sign me up, and I said I was no longer interested. He askes why, and I laugh as I tell him back the two issues we just talked about. He acts like he doesn't even remember them! Then he puts me on hold for I don't know what reason. Probably to put us into some database, I'm sure. At this time I am REALLY sorry I ever bothered with Vonage. Then he comes back, tries to sign me up again, I said no, and hung up.
If this is what Vonage calls customer service, it's a joke. By the end of it I felt like I was talking to a brick wall. Every time the customer service agent didn't want to respond to a question I was met with silence, then another attempt to sign me up, like he hoped that if he didn't acknowledge my question it would just go away and I would magically change my mind. After this, if we ever decide to think about voip again, it WON'T be Vonage we call.
And, but the way, I wouldn't even bother with AT&T either. Though their customer service agent was better informed and nicer that Vonage's, she was really, really pushy about signing me up. I don't like agent who won't take no for an answer. It's our policy in our family that we don't make split-second decisions, we talk to one another before making a final decision. And so, when I called AT&T for information only, she tried to sign me up, I said no, we went through this three times, then she asks me if I need permission from my husband. That was very insulting. Why I even bothered to stay on the
phone with her after that I'm not sure, but I DID give her a piece of my mind about that particular comment.
The bottom line for us is we've decided not to bother with any of them. Between questionable quality of service, nonexistent customer service, and very pushy business practices, I'm staying FAR, FAR AWAY.
9 Unacceptable background noise, get PAP2 instead
As another reviewer noted, the WRT54GP2 has a constant background noise that sounds much like a modem. There is no cure for this, and it is extremely annoying and unacceptable. The noise has nothing to do with the Vonage service; it is some kind of crosstalk generated inside the router. It happens even if nothing but a phone is plugged into the WRT54GP2.
I replaced my WRT54GP2 with a regular WRT54G router and the separate Linksys PAP2 phone interface. The PAP2 provides clean sound with only a faint hint of background noise. I highly recommend this combination instead of the WRT54GP2.
With the separate router and PAP2, the PAP2 normally goes on the LAN side of the router. There is one issue you need to deal with that the WRT54GP2 takes care of automatically: Quality of Service (QoS). You don't want data traffic to interrupt a phone conversation. Go to the router's Applications & Gaming / QoS page and give the highest priority to the PAP2, using either its MAC address or the WRT54G port number it's plugged into. (If the QoS page isn't there, go to www.linksys.com and upgrade the router's firmware to the latest version.)
After setting that up I've been thoroughly pleased with our Vonage service. When some friends of ours saw what it could do (and how it sounded) they immediately signed up for two Vonage lines themselves.
10 Router is great... But phone has background noise
I had already been using Vonage for about 6 months before I purchased this router. I had been using the Motorola VoIP device that Vonage sent me when I signed up. I had never heard any background noise before. In fact, my phone calls seemed clearer than when I had BellSouth.
Now, with this device I hear "humming" or "static" in the background when I am on the phone. This happens on most calls, incoming or outgoing. I have emailed Linksys and Vonage support and I am waiting for a response.
Other than the background noise this router is great. One thing to note is that this router is a little different than the WRT54G without the phone ports. This router has only one antenna. This also means that if you would like to replace the antenna with the Linksys high gain antenna you will need the SMA antenna and not the TNC antenna. I learned this the hard way after Linksys sales told me to use the TNC, which was just wrong.
11 vonage lock not disclosed on packaging, otherwise 4 stars
The out of box experience was decent, the router's Mac address was scanned at the point of purchase, and I was able to activitate the vonage service and make calls within about an hour of plugging the unit in. There is a 39.95 deactivation fee unless you take advantage of the money-back guarantee, or return the 'device' (not likely for a router costing $100)
When you call for support, the vonage contract staff will not tell you where their support center is, geographically, due to unspecified "security reasons". Nor can they say why the service is not available in certain area codes (including 513)
Software:
The unit has typical Linksys firmware features, making it easy to configure firewall rules and DHCP, as well as your mechanism for configuring your internet connection.
The hardware:
Pretty standard D-link hardware, although I was distressed to see how hot it gets, such that it's unconfortable to put your hand near the air vents on the bottom of the unit.
One bad experience where the ring voltage dropped was experienced so far, after two normal sounding rings the clapper in my Conair 2500-style phone started to clatter, rather than ring.
