Modem-Ooma-Router .vs. Modem-Router-Ooma

[joe123]

Hi all. I am a new Ooma owner, but not new to VoIP or Network configuration.

I read a lot of posts here regarding if the Ooma Telo should be placed BEFORE or AFTER the Router with respect to the quality of service and thus quality of voice calls with Ooma.

I currently setup my new Ooma Telo as Modem-Ooma-Router - all is well. I am thinking about switching to Modem-Router-Ooma to get around a few issues that broke with my network, but I can live with those broken services so long as the quality of voice service is not degraded with Ooma.

Even if I setup a fixed IP and QoS maxed on my router for Ooma, I am still thinking that my Netgear Router will degrade the performance of my Ooma voice quality and / or intruduce some delays.

I currently have TimeWarner Cable modem with high bandwidth (commercial speed), but I am thinking that my Netgear Router still has to do a lot of processing with Ooma packets going back and forth. Add wireless connections that my router has to also manage, I am thinking my home Netgear Router will ultimately slow down when it's busy passing packets back-and-forth and no matter what QofS I setup on my Router, my Ooma voice quality will suffer.

So my question is: For those of you with Ooma behind your home router configured correctly with QoS, have you noticed any degration is Ooma voice quality or slowness? Slowness in the sense you say something and it takes a bit to have it acknowledged.

[thunderbird]

joe123:
Probably the best bet would be to just try the Modem-Router-Ooma configuration. With most Routers it makes little difference. But some Netgear Routers behave a little different, so...

First you can search "NetGear Router" in this forum and read the posts for Netgear problems and solutions.

If it were me, I'd at least give the Modem-Router-Ooma configuration a try. You can always change back if you can't resolve any problem that might occur.

In any case the following may help, which ever way you decide to set up.

To help stabilize your Ooma Internet connection turn off MAC address Spoofing by doing the following:
If your Ooma device is connected Modem-Ooma-Router, access your Ooma Setup pages by typing http://172.27.35.1 in your computer browser window. The Ooma Setup pages open. Click on Internet, go down to INTERNET Port MAC Address: and change setting from Automatic to Use Built In. Click on Update device. Remove power from your Modem and the Ooma Device. Repower the Modem. When the Modem is done booting repower your Ooma device.

If your connection is Modem-Router-Ooma, temporarily connect a network cable from your Ooma device home port, to the wired LAN port of a computer. Temporarily turn off Wi-Fi in the computer, if turned on. Reboot the computer. Access your Ooma Setup pages by typing http://172.27.35.1 in your computer browser window. The Ooma Setup pages open. Click on Internet, go down to INTERNET Port MAC Address: and change setting from Automatic to Use Built In. Click on Update device. Remove power from your Modem, your Router and Ooma Device. Repower the Modem. When the Modem is done booting repower your Router. When the Router is done booting, repower your Ooma device.


Access the Ooma Setup Advanced page. Under Quality of Service set both the Upstream Internet speed and Down Stream Internet speed to 90% of the measured Upload and Down load speeds as measured by http://www.phonepower.com/speedtest. After running Phonepower Speedtest, click on the Advanced tab at lower left side. Take the Download Speed and the Upload speed, and multiply .9 times for each number. The resulting numbers are the numbers that you enter into Ooma Setup, Advanced page under Quality of Service Upstream Internet Speed (kbps): and Downstream Internet Speed (kbps): boxes. Click on Update. Then test making and receiving calls.

[joe123]

Thanks for the info Thunderbird.

I was able to set it up as Modem-Router-Ooma. Works great, but I ran into a glitch.

I was able to access the Ooma device web page and I set the static IP to 10.0.0.150 and the home ip to 10.0.0.151. Hit apply, rebooted Ooma and not, I cannot get to Ooma device web page. I did run an ethernet cable from Ooma "Home" port to my router. Rebooting router makes no difference.

So I cannot get to it via http://10.0.0.151 nor http://172.27.35.1. I even tried 10.0.0.150, no cigar.

I am able to make and receive calls just fine with Ooma, I just can't get to Ooma device web interface.

[thunderbird]

Thanks for the info Thunderbird.

I was able to set it up as Modem-Router-Ooma. Works great, but I ran into a glitch.

I was able to access the Ooma device web page and I set the static IP to 10.0.0.150 and the home ip to 10.0.0.151. Hit apply, rebooted Ooma and not, I cannot get to Ooma device web page. I did run an ethernet cable from Ooma "Home" port to my router.

I am able to make and receive calls just fine with Ooma, I just can't get to Ooma device web interface.

Temporarily connect a network cable from the Ooma Telo Home port to the wired LAN port of a computer. Temporarily turn off Wi-Fi in your computer, if Wi-Fi is turned on in your computer. Reboot the Computer. Type http://172.27.35.1 in your computer browser window.

If the Ooma Setup pages don't open, do the following:
In you computer, click on Start, then Run. In the blank following the word Open: type cmd. A dos window opens. To the right of the C:\ (And what ever else is behind the C:\) type ipconfig. The IP address that follows the words Default Gateway, will be the address that you will enter to open Ooma Setup. Example http//:10.0.0.1 or http//172.27.35.1

If you want to access Ooma Setup without connecting a network cable from a computer to the Ooma Telo home port, you must first go into your Router and assign an IP with a permanent lease to the Ooma Telo.

Next go into Ooma Setup and click on the Advanced page. Go down to Port Forwarding. Click on Add New Rule. The Start Port is 80. The End port Blank is left blank. Type: is TCP. Forward to IP Address: is the IP address that you used to access Ooma Setup. Example 172.27.35.1
Click on add new Rule. Click on Update just above the word Add New Rule. Remove power from, and then repower the Ooma Telo. The address you type into a computer browser window, that is connected to a Router LAN port or Wi-Fi, will be the permanent IP address numbers that you assigned to Ooma Telo in your Router. Example: http://10.0.0.134
Connect nothing to the Ooma Telo Home port because of file sharing and network printing problems, except to access Ooma Setup, if port forwarding isn't working.

[joe123]

Is there a linky to describe the steps needed to get to the Ooma device web page?

My Ooma is working great, but I cannot get to the web interface while under Modem-Router-Ooma.

I followed all these steps but no cigar. My router is set to 10.0.0.1 giving out IP's in the range of 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.200. I setup a static IP on my Ooma to 10.0.0.150 and it's working great, but I cannot get to the device web page.

[thunderbird]

Is there a linky to describe the steps needed to get to the Ooma device web page?

My Ooma is working great, but I cannot get to the web interface while under Modem-Router-Ooma.

I followed all this steps but no cigar. My router is set to 10.0.0.1 giving out IP's in the range of 10.0.0.2 to 10.0.0.200. I setup a static IP on my Ooma to 10.0.0.150 and it's working great, but I cannot get to the device web page.

You already went into your Router and assigned an IP address for the Ooma Device 10.0.0.150

You must go into Ooma Setup Advanced page and port forward 172.27.35.1:80: and Save. After doing this, disconnect the Network cable from your computer LAN port to the Ooma device Home port.

The browser address that you type from a computer connected to one of the Router LAN ports or the Router Wi-Fi, is http://10.0.0.150

[joe123]

You already went into your Router and assigned an IP address for the Ooma Device 10.0.0.150

No, I had it set but I took it out since Ooma now has a static IP of 10.0.0.150. So to clarify, I went into Ooma (after having to reset it back to factory settings) and I set Ooma with a static IP of 10.0.0.150.

I should not have to tell my Router to assign an IP unless I am missing something here (Ooma now has a static IP). Also, for some strange reason, my Ooma has hardware address of: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:AC on the bottom cover but my router sees it as xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:AD ( must be the second network interface from Ooma?)

You must go into Ooma Setup Advanced page and port forward 172.27.35.1:80: and Save. After doing this, disconnect the Network cable from your computer LAN port to the Ooma device Home port.

The browser address that you type from a computer connected to one of the Router LAN ports or the Router Wi-Fi, is http://10.0.0.150

Ok, I will setup port forward on my Ooma.

Couple of questions:

1) In my Ooma device web page, I setup DNS to be 10.0.0.1 (which is my router). Should I set it to something else? Does Ooma have their own prefered DNS I should be using?

2) The web page also had a option to change the Home port from 172.27.35.1 to something else. Is this not the prefered way instead of port forwarding?

Thanks again for your help.

[thunderbird]

You already went into your Router and assigned an IP address for the Ooma Device 10.0.0.150

No, I had it set but I took it out since Ooma now has a static IP of 10.0.0.150. So to clarify, I went into Ooma (after having to reset it back to factory settings) and I set Ooma with a static IP of 10.0.0.150.

I should not have to tell my Router to assign an IP unless I am missing something here (Ooma now has a static IP). Also, for some strange reason, my Ooma has hardware address of: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:AC on the bottom cover but my router sees it as xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:AD ( must be the second network interface from Ooma?)

An alternate way is to assign a Static IP address in Ooma Setup using an IP address from the Router.

Note: When using a wireless Ooma Telo USB Wi-Fi dongle Internet connection, you can not use a static IP address added to the Ooma Setup Internet page.

Each Ooma device has two MAC addresses. The one on the bottom of the Unit is for the Ooma Home Port, the other is for the Internet port.

You must go into Ooma Setup Advanced page and port forward 172.27.35.1:80: and Save. After doing this, disconnect the Network cable from your computer LAN port to the Ooma device Home port.

The browser address that you type from a computer connected to one of the Router LAN ports or the Router Wi-Fi, is http://10.0.0.150

Ok, I will setup port forward on my Ooma.

Couple of questions:

1) In my Ooma device web page, I setup DNS to be 10.0.0.1 (which is my router). Should I set it to something else? Does Ooma have their own prefered DNS I should be using?

2) The web page also had a option to change the Home port from 172.27.35.1 to something else. Is this not the prefered way instead of port forwarding?

Thanks again for your help.

Port forwarding is perfered.

You will have better success if you use the Ooma Setup Home Network factory defualts and leave the Home port's IP Address: at 172.27.35.1 accessed by clicking on the Ooma Setup Home Network tab. Net mask: is 255.255.255.0. The Start Addresss: is 172.27.35.10, and the End Address: is 172.27.35.160

[joe123]

Ok, I can now access my Ooma device web page via http://10.0.0.150 and with the Modem-Router-Ooma setup ( and no Etherner cable from Ooma Home port ). Thanks!

One last question. On the Internet page setup, where I specified my 10.0.0.150 static IP, I entered 10.0.0.1 for DNS. My router is 10.0.0.1 which serves DNS requests. Should I be specifing Ooma DNS or some other DNS for this field?

[thunderbird]

Ok, I can now access my Ooma device web page via http://10.0.0.150 and with the Modem-Router-Ooma setup ( and no Etherner cable from Ooma Home port ). Thanks!

One last question. On the Internet page setup, where I specified my 10.0.0.150 static IP, I entered 10.0.0.1 for DNS. My router is 10.0.0.1 which serves DNS requests. Should I be specifing Ooma DNS or some other DNS for this field?

All the numbers come from your router that is entered in Ooma Setup the Internet settings page, Static IP Address Options:.
DNS Server 1: & the Router IP will be the same number 10.0.0.1. Normally nothing is entered in the DNS Server 2: blank. The Net Mask: comes from the router also, and in most cases is 255.255.255.0