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General discussion

VONAGE and wireless laptop

Mar 21, 2005 10:00PM PST

OK--here's the deal and a MAJOR question---we have a wireless laptop. At our cottage away from the masses we have DIRECT LINE OF SITE to the antenna of our ISP provider so we DO NOT need a modem of any sort to connect to the internet. We bought a VONAGE phone adapter and signed up for the program so that we can use the VONAGE phone thru our wireless laptop to communicate with the outside world. Connecting the adapter to the laptop with the ethernet cable did not enable the syster. As has been posted by several others, VONAGE customer service is less than no help. It seems that this kind of attempt at using VONAGE is new----the attempt to connect with a wireless computer that uses only line of sight to connect with the internet. It is either new or NOBODY has addressed the connection issues before. Does ANYONE out there have an answer for us?? Again, we're trying to use the VONAGE service with a WIRELESS laptop connecting to the internet with a line of sight hotspot. thanks--Meinda Symmes

Discussion is locked

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Vonage Phone Adapter
Mar 24, 2005 3:23PM PST

"Connecting the adapter to the laptop with the ethernet cable did not enable the syster."

The Vonage phone adapter needs to be connected directly to the "internet" via router or modem, it will not function when connected to your laptop via ethernet.

There is one possible souloution that may work and that is to allow the vonage adapter to connect via "line of sight with your ISP" wirelessly. The Vonage adapter out of the box will only allow a cable connection. A small device called a bridge will allow you to convert a wired ethernet device to wireless. This will allow you to connect your Vonage device to your wireless service

http://www.dlink.ca/product.php?PID=275

If you are succesfull in connecting the bridge with your wireless ISP, you will have wireless VOIP "Vonage" service. You may be able to obtain some help or assistance from your ISP in setting up another wireless device on the network.

Hope this helps Happy

http://www.mopo.ca

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Wireless Connection to Vonage
Mar 25, 2005 1:24AM PST

Yes, you must have an internet connection for your Vonage adapter(which is a router). So you need a wireless access point device(has an antenna) for your router Internet input connection. The access point device must be able to communicate LOS with your ISP antenna. You can then cable your computer to one of the router's ethernet ports...or stay completely wireless and use a wireless ethernet adapter device to connect the computer to the router, with yet another wireless access point device on the router. The phone connects to the router phone port as usual. I would talk to the LINKSYS people (or whatever brand Router you rcvd from Vonage) for components needed and hookups

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Bridge/Access point
Mar 25, 2005 1:53AM PST

I believe the bridge that you reference is also called a wireless access point(see my message)