Linksys router and Voip? new firmware?

[amheck]

Hi gang,

I'm considering getting the AT&T CallVantage VoIP service. I have a 54GS Linksys router, but I'm really only using the wired ports for now. Anyway, I've seen some discussion on updating the firmware for the router to make the VoIP service better. Am I understanding that correctly? What exactly is the new firmware doing? Are there settings that need to change? Or is installing the new firmware enough?

Thanks for taking a look.

Aaron

[sfollenius]

I think you may be talking about updating the firmware for QOS (quality of service) When you are on a phone call it eats your upload bandwidth, but if you utilizing your upload bandwidth elsewhere (ie your computer) it could make the call quality bad. Examples would be file sharing, uploading files etc. Qos allows you to prioritize bandwidth the VOIP service so sound quality isnt degraded. The linkys router that comes with callvantage has qos built in and some of the new linksys routers have firmware that supports qos, or you can find a third party firmware update not supported by linksys.

[mgd2win]

I have Vonage for my work phone lines with Roadrunner and I have not had any problems with the phone quality or my computer speed. I work out of my house so on both all day. So far has been pretty good for the month or so I have had it running

[sfollenius]

For just regular surfing you probably would not notice a difference, if you have road runner, VOIP will usually only about 1/4 of your upload bandwidth at the best setting. You will notice a difference however if you are constantly uploading, sending e-mails with large attachments etc. When use my file sharing when I had vonage (did not have qos) my sound on the calls would breakup alot, enough where the other party had problems hearing what I was saying.