This is the third of seven parts of the story of how I killed my answering machine. How complicated can it be to replace a simple little device with something a little more geeky? About 17 months, $500 and countless hours – that’s how complicated.
Part III: Lingo
Plan D: Lingo
I lived with my unsatisfying answering machine though until December when I signed up for the Lingo VOIP service. We barely use our landline anyway (if it were up to me I’d drop it altogether), so this was cheaper than what we get from SBC ($14.95 a month for 500 minutes). Plus it included free long distance. And it had this little feature where it can email voicemail to you. I unplugged my answering machine PC.
The setup kit arrived in mid-December. The installation for the VOIP modem says you can install it behind your router, but I couldn’t get that to work. When I put it in front of my router, it messed all kinds of things up, even though that configuration prioritizes voice traffic. There’s a web interface to the router that I played with to try to get it working, but didn’t have any luck. Sometimes I couldn’t get to it at all. I also discovered it had a telnet interface where you could change many of the same settings. After messing around in there, I managed to get it in a state where it wasn’t pingable anymore. Oops. I ran out of time before Christmas vacation to get it working right, so I just left it.
Of course while we were on Christmas vacation, Lingo finished transferring my number over and my local phone service was cancelled. The Lingo voicemail was working though and we’re getting messages via email which is fine while we’re not home.
When we returned in January, I set out to get it working. There are absolutely no buttons on the thing and no obvious way to reset the thing to factory defaults. Figuring all was lost, I called Lingo support. The Indian guy that answered walked me through the braindead troubleshooting rituals – turn everything off, and turn it back on. That didn’t work? How about turning everything on and off again? Finally he gave up and set he would escalate to level 2 support; they would call me back sometime.
The next day I finally got back into the router by plugging the ethernet port directly into my laptop and accidentally pinging the broadcast address which reminded me what random IP address I had assigned to it. I then got it working again by putting it in front of my router, but then I remembered why I didn’t like that last time – all kinds of networking stuff got messed up. Lingo kinda assumes that you have one computer connected directed to a cable modem or DSL line. I’ve got something like 5 behind a router.
Moving it back behind the router just wouldn’t work. I tried messing with the router (an SMC7004VBR) settings, but it wouldn’t go. I did some research on some messageboards and people mentioned which routers worked well for them. Lots of people also seemed to have a poor opinion of SMC routers.
I decided it was time to upgrade to 802.11g anyway and headed to Fry’s on Jan. 3 after checking the prices for the router I wanted, the Linksys WRT54G. This one seemed to be pretty popular and what’s better is that it has a unique (for consumer routers) QoS feature which would allow me to prioritize voice traffic over data so calls wouldn’t get dropped if I’m downloading a file or something at the same time. And it wouldn’t require me to put the Lingo modem in front of it.
For once, I had a mostly positive Fry’s experience. At first I couldn’t find the router. The shelf they should have been on was empty. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Fry’s is that they put the same item in at least two different places. Sure enough I eventually stumbled upon a Linksys kiosk with the router I wanted. Amazingly it was the same price as Amazon ($50) with the same rebate! I happily paid the extra sales tax as my fee for “having it right now.”
When I got home, I quickly realized that my old router sucked. This new one was slick. It started up very quickly, unlike my old one that took at least a minute to get going. The web interface had lots of cool options. The box had all kinds of stickers and warnings to run the setup CD first to configure it. I tried that, but it couldn’t find the router. I gave up and just plugged it in. It worked right away. Even better, Lingo worked perfectly when plugged into it. Amazing! It was fast too. It is a bit ugly, but I can live with that. I spent some time configuring it the way I liked, spat on my old router, and went to bed.
The next day I finished the phone setup, plugging the wall’s phone outline into the Lingo and all the phones in the house lit up. Cool! (Of course I did this without reading the warnings that if you did this and there was still power coming through the phone line from the phone company, it would fry your VOIP modem. Good thing it didn’t.)
There was only one problem left – the TiVo.
Next, Part IV: Modem Misery
Jeff,
I was reading you article “How I Killed My Answering Machine” and think that you may have solved my problem.
I am converting my old analog phone system over to Lingo VOIP. I have the Linksys WRT54G router and am having troble getting my Lingo adapter to function with the router.
My preferred setup is the cable/modem connected to the Lingo Adapter then to the router (the router would then be connected to my other 2 PC’s). I can get Lingo to work in this configuration, but then my router does not work. I have cloned the MAC address so that is not an issue(if it might have been).
The alternate solution is the cable/modem connected to the router and then the Lingo adpater and the other PC’s would be connected to the ethernet ports. This works fine for the router, but my Lingo adapter does not function.
If I understand your article, you have found a way to get the Lingo adpater to work behind the router. You mentioned a way to get the voice traffic to have priority over data. How did you set that up??? I can access my router and can get to the QoS section. I have tried setting the port 1 to high priority, but I still can’t get my Lingo Adpater to work behind the router.
My Lingo adapter is a Primus adapter
Model Name: iAN-02EX
Model Number U53V005.00
Any advice that you could lend would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Again!!!
Bill
I am having loads of issues with my Lingo. I bought a Linksys WRT54GX$ router but one of Lingo’s rep’s suggested I downgrade to a Linksys WRT54G. I was getting loads of static from Lingo calls with the SRX400 router. From your note above, it sounds like this has to me my next move.
Thank You.
I’m having the same or similar issues. Would love any insite. I got the lingo box working in front of my router and in fact had a small stream of interenet connection to my pc, but it was a trickle. So that wouldn’t work. I put the lingo box after the router, the WRT54G, and I get busy signals or it actually makes a call (testing to my cell phone and the cell phone rings) but no sound comes through the lingo phone.
I tried setting up QoS, which I’ve never used before, but it seems straightforward enough. I just entered the MAC address of the lingo box and set it to highest. BUt that doesn’t seem to work. I know it would be completely useless to call lingo support.
thanks!
This’ll probably never get read, but what the heck.
Scott: Your ATA’s (“lingo box”) port speed is set incorrectly, thus the ‘trickle of internet’ when it’s connected directly to the cable. With your computer connected to the ENET port, open IE, go to 172.25.25.1, user/ph3taswe, “WAN”, Port speed, set to Auto. Save configuration, save, reboot. Good idea to set that regardless of where you’re going to leave it. To get it working behind the router: Go into your router config page, Status, Local Network, DHCP clients table, grab the ip address of the lingo device from there, probably the only one without a host name or just compare the MACs. Then go to applications and gaming, DMZ, type the ip address in there. Option b, if you don’t want to DMZ, go to port forwarding, forward 1024-1030, 5060-5065, and 10000-20000 to that IP address. If you feel like it, then type the ATA’s ip address into the address bar, user/ph3taswe, WAN, make that IP static instead of DHCP.
Irish: See if you get the static with the ATA connected direct to the net, and with another, preferably non-cordless phone. If so, complain to your ISP. Then, after they refuse to help you, call Lingo to have them switch you to the G729 codec. You lose the ability to fax, but a call now requires half the bandwidth. If you still get static, http://www.testmyvoip.com . If your latency’s over 150 and/or you’ve got over 1% packet loss/discards, your ISP hates you and there’s nothing practical to be done about it.
Bill: Copy off Scott.
Disclaimer: The above is the sort of useless support I spend my days providing, neither I, nor Lingo, take responsibility for any incidental damages, fees, or functional ATA’s that may result from its use.
I had the same problem with the same device. I spend 5 weeks in try and error until I got everything working perfectly well. There tech support doesn’t know anything about that product. Here is how, keep in mind my router is Netgear WGT624
1- Don’t install it in the front of your router. The device restarts every time it gets updates and of course disconnects your internet. So if you are in middle of a big download you will lose it. YOU MUST HAVE IT AS INETRNET/MODEM THEN YOUR ROUTER THEN THE LINGO DEVICE.
2- Don’t change any of its factory settings. It does not work if you do so. I tried changing some settings. It failed to respond after that. Even if I just change the device name from 0 to lingomodem it failed to work after that.
3- Here is how you reset the device. Make sure it’s powered. Make sure a phone is connected to line 1. Use that phone even with out a dial tone to dial the following number #26845#. That number again is “pawned two 6 8 4 5 pawned”
Good luck
Sorry, correction, the number is *#26845#. i forgot the star in the begining.
Thanks! After 3 pass’s yours is the one that works! You rock and it was read. 😉
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You guys are great! I recently ran out and got a Slingbox – – I run a Lingo / Router / PC setup – – – and have not been able to port forward jack squat. After about 7 days looking all over the internet, and calling Slingbox (which takes 45mins to connect, then when they reset your modem it disonnects THEIR call) I’m close to returning the Slingbox.. YOUR POSTINGS ACTUALLY MAKE SENCE AND HOPEFULLY WILL WORK!! THANKS!!!
I’m gonna try putting the lingo behind the router and seeing if my slingbox will connect….