coastalcruiser wrote:Cyberchat wrote:Also, the VLAN functionality which would allow you to segment (separate) your LAN into multiple segments to manage collisions and congestion will likely be important to you.
Oh. VLANs. I have never used them, although I sort of understand the principal. But I wonder, would VLANs help here? Let's see... if the telos make a full duplex connection to the switch, the boxes can send and receive at the same time, which I guess may help call quality. And once the switch populates its MAC address table it will never repeat packets on to any port other than the one destination port, which will be the router. So I am thinking this will be a mostly collision free network just based on the home run Ethernet runs and the switch. So where would further segmentation with VLANs come in? I am not challenging your suggestion at all, rather I just happen to be contemplating VLANs lately in terms of how they might benefit the few networks I manage.
jim
Jim,
This message is based on the presumption that your LAN topology would look like this:
1. Satellite Modem
2. Router
3. 16-port switch
4. ten (10) OOMA Telo's, each on their own switch port
VLANs in terms of your planned configuration and usage, one Router and one Switch for VOIP only, would provide little to no benefit in terms of the reasons VLANs were originally conceived and created. Minimizing collisions, minimizing broadcast domains (and broadcast storms) and the grouping of hosts (connected devices) with a common set of requirements do not really apply to your situation. Collisions are not an issue because Ethernet switches made this a non-issue since each switch port is effectively a collision domain and broadcasts aren't an issue because of the single devices connected to each switch port. If over time your usage of this network evolves into multiple types of information, voice, video, data, …, then VLANs might become more relevant.
However, since the NetgearProSafe Plus Switch, 16-Port Gigabit Ethernet (GS116E) which we've been discussing does contain VLAN functionality I believe it can be leveraged to eliminate a potential issue about which the members of your community might be passionately concerned and that issue is "Security". The apartment model of services has been fraught with problems since the beginning of the multi-tenant model (pre-Roman in history). Whether its noise, utilities or shared common spaces/resources if they're not deployed/managed in an obviously fair and equal manner then disputes can erupt. When it comes to something as personal as telephone calls its very important that privacy be unquestionably maintained. Mini-wars erupted in neighborhoods and rural areas from shared telephone party-lines a few decades ago.
I might be dating myself, but I lived through the party-line telephone era. Its an understatement to state its annoying to be having an intense telephone conversation with your girl friend when the sound of your neighbor's Grandfather Clock begins chiming in the background of the call!!! Not to imply that the OOMA Telo VOIP technology is anything like a party-line but you get the picture. (Now that I've conjured up a bunch of interesting images for the readers, back to the main theme.)
So, my thoughts about VLANs being relevant to your current situation was to place each OOMA Telo into its own VLAN, thus creating an environment where the community of Users are assured that not only will each OOMA Telo only respond to voice packets for calls originated by or with that Telo, for even more security not even the packets of their voice communications will travel down the wire to any residence other than their own. Its perhaps a small point but don't be surprised if it becomes a larger point in the multi-tenant model.
VLANs can be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to administering/managing your network of Telos. With everything (all Telos) in one VLAN (the default case) you could assign static IP addresses to each Telo, then port-forward each Telo's “Home Network” setup page to Port-80 within the Telo and it would be accessible to your laptop by simply entering an HTTP address of that Telo's IP address. You could administer all of the Telo's from one network position. Under a separate VLAN approach, you would either have to connect to each VLAN or physically go to each Telo and connect to its “Home Network” port. But this setup is a very infrequent event, probably only an initial setup, so this might not be a big deal for you. But if you have any techy-type of Users in your community, the separate VLAN approach would help limit any exploratory or hacking activities to just their VLAN.
The other features of the switch will probably be much more important to your needs, such as:
Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize traffic by port or by type of data
Automatic protection against Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks
Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) support for separating traffic, such as offering a guest WiFi network that is walled off from the OOMA Telo network
Traffic monitoring and control through a non-technical graphically based software utility
Deployment thoughts:
You would configure both the upstream and downstream QoS settings within each of the ten Telos to zero (0).
Cat-5e (or better) cables would be connected between the Satellite Modem and the Router, between the Router and the Switch and also between the Switch ports and each OOMA Telo's "To Internet" port.
A telephone handset or base station (for wireless remotes) would be connected to the Telo's "Phone" port. Optionally, a telephone patch cable could be used to connect between the Telo's "Phone" port and a phone jack in the wall of the residence to distribute dial-tone to each wall jack in the residence. Then telephone handsets connected to the residential telephone wiring would be usable with the OOMA VOIP service. You can also use telephone wiring splitters for LIne-1 to connect both a telephone handset and a wall jack to the OOMA Telo's "Phone" port. The OOMA Telo does not provide an electrical connection to the Line-2 wires within the RJ-11 jack of the Telo. If any of your Users opt for the OOMA Premier service and acquire a second telephone number, the second number is “logical” not physical. There are several discussions in this forum about this topic. Here's one which explains how it works:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12974&start=10#p92674For normal day-to-day operation NOTHING would be connected to either the Telo's "Wall" port (if it exists on your Telos) or to the Telo's "Home Network" port. The only exception is that to perform the initial setup of each Telo you would temporarily connect a laptop PC to each Telo's "Home Network" port to perform the initial setup of the Telo (QoS for example). Follow the instructions in
the "Configuring Quality of Service" page to which I sent you a link earlier in this topic.
Here's a couple of links to Netgear's product information which might help you further qualify the approach we've been discussing:
NETGEAR Extends its Ground Breaking Category of Plus Switches
http://www.netgear.com/about/press-rele ... 105_7.aspxProSafe® Plus Switch Utility User Guide
ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/ProSa ... Sept10.pdf