Opening up router ports?

[jganders]

I have Ooma Telo behind my firewall. All seems to work. However, I'm curious whether setting up port forwarding on the router - to the ooma, would help in any way speed things up. What ports does Ooma Telo use?

[Groundhound]

When I was running Telo behind my router this was my port forward configuration:

portforward.jpg (109.13 KiB) Viewed 10144 times

You may find it easier to just put it in your router's DMZ

[feartheturtle]

Groundhound:
Good information for Telo users. Do you know if this listing is the same for those who have the hub? I've been tempted to move our hub behind our Netgear router.

[Groundhound]

I'm not aware of any difference. The ports I listed worked well for me when I had it located behind my router. At the time I had my hub in front of the router and the Telo behind, and both worked well.

[jganders]

When I was running Telo behind my router this was my port forward configuration:
You may find it easier to just put it in your router's DMZ

I dont see the Telo listed in my Linksys WRT54G "DHCP Clients Table".
I see my windows Home Server. I see my wife's laptop. I see my son's Wii. But no telo... I'm gonna have to figure out it's IP address before I can forward stuff to it. Ooma is actually connect to a hub that is connected to the router. Seems like the router should show it's address. but i'm not a network expert.

[Groundhound]

If you connect a computer to the Telo's "Home Network" port and then go to http://setup.ooma.com/ and click on Status, you will see the IP your router has assigned to the Telo listed beside "Modem: Connected:". If you're going to forward ports to the Telo the first step will be to make sure your router always assigns the same IP (static).

[jganders]

If you connect a computer to the Telo's "Home Network" port and then go to http://setup.ooma.com/ and click on Status, you will see the IP your router has assigned to the Telo listed beside "Modem: Connected:". If you're going to forward ports to the Telo the first step will be to make sure your router always assigns the same IP (static).

me thinks this will only work if the Telo is upstream from the router. In that configuration, all URLs emanating from behind the router will go thru the Telo. The Telo will intercept the special URL (setup.ooma.com) and redirect the request to it's own internal web server. However, if the Telo is behind the firewall, the router does not know its supposed to send the URL to one of it's clients for URL evaluation. So this is a case of the cart before the horse. Behind the router I think the Telo is only reachable by a subnet address like 192.168.1.102.

[murphy]

If you connect a computer to the Telo's "Home Network" port and then go to http://setup.ooma.com/ and click on Status, you will see the IP your router has assigned to the Telo listed beside "Modem: Connected:". If you're going to forward ports to the Telo the first step will be to make sure your router always assigns the same IP (static).

me thinks this will only work if the Telo is upstream from the router. In that configuration, all URLs emanating from behind the router will go thru the Telo. The Telo will intercept the special URL (setup.ooma.com) and redirect the request to it's own internal web server. However, if the Telo is behind the firewall, the router does not know its supposed to send the URL to one of it's clients for URL evaluation. So this is a case of the cart before the horse. Behind the router I think the Telo is only reachable by a subnet address like 192.168.1.102.

You think wrong. Connect a computer to the Telo's Home port and it will work.

[jganders]

You think wrong. Connect a computer to the Telo's Home port and it will work.

The quick start guide does not seem to support your opinion Murph. Connecting a computer to the Home port is optional per Option 2B. Option 2A does not involve plugging in a computer. My Ooma works fine with the following configuration, which was approved via online support tech a couple weeks ago.

Me: Internet --> Cable Modem --> LinkSys WRT54G Router --> LinkSys Hub --> Ooma Telo

The QSG identifies 2 options
2A: internet --> Cable Modem --> Ooma --> Home Router
2B: internet --> Cable Modem/Home Router --> Ooma --> Computer(optional)

The 2 QSG options are preferred by Ooma tech support because they put the Telo upstream from all your local network activity, thus maximizing Telo prioritization of internet traffic. However, if you have good connect speed (See http://www.speedtest.net), you can put the Telo inside your network and get acceptable voice quality. I assume you have your computer plugged into the Telo Home port. Then you probably assume that yours is the only way to get to the Telo setup GUI. Maybe a lot of bad assumptions going on here Murph.
Any webserver must have an IP address to be accessible by web browsers. Ooma Telo is no exception. My problem is finding the Telo IP address so I can type it into my browser. I do not want the Telo between my computer and the internet, and I'm convinced it doesnt have to be. For one thing, this would put the Telo in a prime position to monitor, log and report my internet activity, a big privacy concern. I do not want to plug my computer into the Telo just to be able to access the setup GUI.
So, if there is an Ooma Telo tech engineer that monitors this forum I'd appreciate their expert/qualified advice on this topic.

How does one obtain the Telo's network IP address so that a router can configure it for port forwarding, QOS, etc...?

Thanx

[murphy]

It's not optional if you want to get to the configuration screen inside of ooma.
It's not a permanent connection but it is absolutely necessary to change the ooma's configuration.