Hi all
Just got a Linksys phone adapter and bought a new Philips cordless phone/answer machine as the new number is a dedicated line for my business..

Set it all up as per the instruction booklet and, hurrah, it all worked - the handset is charging, but I tested the set-up by calling from my mobile and leaving a message etc, all good.

Just noticed a moment ago that the the 'Line One' telephone light on the Linksys box has gone out and, when I dial the new number, I'm getting a 'temporarily unavailable' message.

The box is linked to a Belkin wireless router and I haven't touched anything since I first set it up and it worked - I'm just leaving the handset to charge.

The router is working as I'm on my laptop at the mo, wirelessly - that can't be the problem as it was also on when I first set the phone etc up, and it worked then.

Anybody got any idea why this might have happened, if it's a common occurrence or whatever? As this is a business line, it's going to be a real pain if so.

Please do try rebooting your router (just power off for a few moments, then on again) then reboot the phone adapter once your router is back

My personal experience of Belkin routers and VoIP is not good.. You don't happen to have another router lying about?

Also, which provider are you using? It could be a problem with the provider you're using.

Hi Sean
I'd already tried rebooting and the same thing happened - phone light came on and then went off after a while.

My broadband provider is Virgin Media, and the VoIP adapter is from the Utility Warehouse. Sadly, I don't have another router - I got the Belkin one in the first place cos I'd generally heard good things, never had any problems - can't believe I've chosen the one make that isn't happy with VoIP!

We had a V+ box installed the other day and I had to get the guy to move the wireless router as otherwise I wouldn't have had a wireless network - he muttered something about he couldn't believe they hadn't offered me a cable modem. To be honest, this meant nothing to me and I didn't pursue it - but might that be something that solved the problem, do you think?

Is it a Linksys PAP2 adapter?

So after rebooting, the adapter does work for a little while - then fail - how long does it work for?

Does your Belkin router connect to the back of your cable TV box somewhere? This is Virgins old and cheap way of connecting customers up - but you won't get a very fast service. You should have a separate cable modem.

I work in VoIP support, and often have people with Belkin routers complaining things don't work properly

One of the first things to do is see what firmware your router has, check if it's the latest.

The box says it's model SPA2102-R3.
It doesn't always work after the reboot - I've done it several times - but bizarrely, about an hour ago, I noticed all three lights were on (the internet and power lights are always on, it's the phone one that's the problem).

So I tried to call the phone, successfully, and also used it to call out on.

Now, an hour later, the 'phone' light has just gone again and if I try to call the number I get either 'the person you are calling is temporarily unavailable' or a dead tone.

The Belkin box is connected to the original cable tv box - the Virgin guy moved it for us when he installed the V+ box. Virgin - or ntl as it was then - didn't supply it, I bought it myself so that we could use our laptops wirelessly. That would have been probably a couple of years ago.

If I asked Virgin to provide us with a cable modem, would I be able to connect the Linksys box directly to it, and might that solve the problem? I've noticed that one of the original broadband connections - we got them to run one upstairs when they first installed everything, as we had the house computer up there - no longer works - presumably because it was connected to the original tv box, which is now somewhere else.

Sorry this is so long - but you clearly know what you're talking about, and I do appreciate it!

OK- the 2101 has two network sockets I believe... It has 'Ethernet' and 'Internet'

At the moment you have, Cable TV Box > Belkin Router > Internet port on the 2102?

Try connecting as, Cable TV Box > 2102 Internet Port > Belkin connected to 2102 Ethernet port.

That would mean your phone adapter is connected directly to the internet and your computers can access things wirelessly via the Belkin.

Do you know what speed connection you're supposed to have from Virgin?

When connecting via the Cable TV box you can only get a maximum of 1Mb - i think - you should request a cable modem to get faster speeds.

Same thing, happened, unfortunately - the power and internet lights came on, the phone didn't.
Do you think the box might actually be faulty, as it was connected directly to the internet, or am I clutching at straws here?

There was the added problem that, even though the wireless light was lit up on the router, and my laptop said I had an 'excellent' connection, I couldn't get on the net. I had reset everything when I changed the connections round, so I don't know why not.

Having just booted it all back up again (on the original connections), the 'phone' light came on for five minutes - but is now off again.

What a pain.

You could try forwarding some ports on the Belkin router to the SPA.

Such as:

5060 - 5063
8000 - 8012
5004
10000 - 10012
3478 - 3479

Set static IP on the SPA, with DHCP set to no.

If SPA is in the 192,168.1.x range....

Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Maybe something like:

Primary DNS: 208.67.222.222
Secondary DNS: 208.67.220.220

DNS Server Order: Manual, DCHP
DNS Query Mode: Parallel


Unfortunately Belkin don't have a great reputation in the field, Utility Warehouse have poor reputation too.

On the SPA under the Line details you could try:

Register Expires: 55
Proxy Fallback Intvl: 360

Did you also power off your cable TV box for a little while before connecting up the 2102?... The box probably needs powering off a little while to allow it to unassociated itself with the Belkin.

What speed broadband do you have?

If 4Mbit or more they will give you a cable modem, just post a request in the support newsgroups: text.news.virginmedia.com is the server, virginmedia.support.broadband.cable is the support group for broadband.

Who is the VoIP service provider, is that UW too?

Good thinking there, yes that does require doing when using items as routers etc.

Yes, turned off the box too. Possibly not for long enough, I don't know... Maybe I need to unplug it all overnight and start again tomorrow.

First Cut, I'm afraid the above has gone totally over my head..... I'm not particularly technical, I'm afraid.

Speed on my wireless icon is showing as 54Mbps.
Phone, broadband etc is all VirginMedia; the VoIP adapter has come from UW, and they are providing that bit of the service.

You'll need to access the Belkin router's set-up page, in there somewhere should be port forwarding, where you can enter the require forwarded ports.

Then you'll need to access the SPA set-up page.

The 54Mbps is the speed the router communicates with the PCs connected wirelessly. The speed of your actual broadband connection is based on the service you take from VM.

VM currently offer M broadband which is 2Mbps, L broadband which could either be 4Mbps or 10Mbps depending if your area has been upgraded to 10Mbps yet or XL broadband which is 20Mbps.

Really no one should be using the STB now for broadband, the V+, you can request a modem, they'll usually send it out as a kit, however often when having a V+ installed they'll get the engineer to install a modem too, however if you kept the old box and didn't request a modem they may not have put it on the order.

Just an update, as you were both kind enough to try and help me.....

Ascertained that all the different factors were working - router, Linksys box, new phone - and the very lovely and helpful Utility Warehouse technical customer service bod said that it sounded like the router and Linksys just weren't communicating, and that it would be a case of port forwarding.

So you were right, First Cut... As I said in an earlier post, this kind of things goes right over my head but luckily I met somebody the other day whose husband runs a computer support firm.

Somebody popped round and sorted everything out for me in about 20 minutes, so now is all up and running and working fine.

Hurrah!
But many thanks both of you for the advice.

Excellent.

Actually, not so excellent after all.

The phone is working, but there's a sort of blip, so when you're talking to someone the sound cuts out briefly every half second or so.

There used to be a comedian called Normal Collier who did this sort of stuttering type talking as part of his routine (yonks ago) - it's a bit like that.

Happens on both incoming and outgoing called, and on all three phones I've tried - both corded and cordless.

UW don't know what it is at the mo and it's being referred higher up the technical support food chain.

I'm really hacked off. I'm at the point of asking them to take the box back and credit what I paid for it towards the cost of them putting a proper phone line in. I know I won't get the local-rate international calls (which is one thing I wanted) but at least I'll have a second line that works, and which is cheaper than BT.

www.18185.co.uk have low cost calls to International destinations, when used from a BT line from 0.5p/min slightly dearer from non-BT lines / cables lines etc.

There could be a lot of jitter on the broadband connection, if you go to the Line tab of the PAP2 configuration page and find the Network Jitter Level: option and set to high and then Jitter Buffer Adjustment: set to Up and Down. Maybe chosing G711a CODEC on that page as preferred CODEC and disable all the other CODECs.