Question re Differences of Obi200 and Obi202 & QoS

[m4paws]

I just bought the Obi200, but didn't realize there is an Obi202.  Is there hardware the same in both devices, but just that the Obi202 has an extra phone port, has router built in?

Do you have to use the router's ports on the 202 in order to have QoS?  I have a Uverse gateway, the Motorola NVG589, and I can't figure out how to configure QoS in it.  I do have another router I can use and put the NVG589 behind it, but I'd rather not.

Is it pretty much required in order to get good voice quality to have QoS?

Any help or input would be greatly appreciated.

[drgeoff]

Do you have to use the router's ports on the 202 in order to have QoS? ....

Is it pretty much required in order to get good voice quality to have QoS?

Yes, the 202 can only control (ie throttle back) other uploading sources if those other sources are connected through it.

QoS is not an absolute requirement to get good voice quality on VoIP.  Very dependent on the upload rate of your internet connection and what else could be sending data to the internet during a call.

[m4paws]

Do you have to use the router's ports on the 202 in order to have QoS? ....

Is it pretty much required in order to get good voice quality to have QoS?

Yes, the 202 can only control (ie throttle back) other uploading sources if those other sources are connected through it.

QoS is not an absolute requirement to get good voice quality on VoIP.  Very dependent on the upload rate of your internet connection and what else could be sending data to the internet during a call.

Thank you very much for the reply.  My download speed is 23mb and upload is 1.5mb, so hopefully that will be good enough.

In the meantime, I wonder if you could answer another question.  I just bought a Obi200, but now I'm wondering if I should exchange it for the 202 (I haven't hooked up the 200 yet).  I have a Directv receiver that has on screen Caller ID that works by connecting the Directv receiver into a phone jack.

If I get the Obi202 instead, will I be able to plug my regular cordless phone into one port, and my Directv receiver into the second port and have Caller ID work on the Directv receiver?  Or does the second port not get its information from the first port?

[m4paws]

Also, I was wondering if the Obi can be connected via a gigabit switch, rather than directly into the router, and if so, do you think there will be any degradation?  Thanks!

[drgeoff]

The 23 Mbit/s down rate is probably high enough that you won't have any problems when downloading files or streaming video.  However, the 1.5 Mbit/s is not that high if you have uploads running such as backup to a cloud server or Bit Torrent sharing.  (But BT clients can usually be configured to limit the upload rate.)

Yes, you can configure a 202 to direct incoming calls to both of its phone ports.  However, the 200 (or any OBi) is perfectly capable of driving several phones connected to one phone port.  You just need an ordinary socket doubler to plug both your phone and DirecTV box into the 200.

[m4paws]

The 23 Mbit/s down rate is probably high enough that you won't have any problems when downloading files or streaming video.  However, the 1.5 Mbit/s is not that high if you have uploads running such as backup to a cloud server or Bit Torrent sharing.  (But BT clients can usually be configured to limit the upload rate.)

Yes, you can configure a 202 to direct incoming calls to both of its phone ports.  However, the 200 (or any OBi) is perfectly capable of driving several phones connected to one phone port.  You just need an ordinary socket doubler to plug both your phone and DirecTV box into the 200.

Thank you so much.  I was thinking of returning the 200 and getting the 202 so I could plug both the phone and the Directv box into the Obi.  So there shouldn't be any degradation to the phone by using a socket doubler,right? 

I don't do much uploading to the cloud, but sometimes do use BT, but I"ll just configure the upload rate as you say. 

The only other concern would be whether or not I need QoS.  I guess if I do, I could always hook up my Netgear R6300 router to my Uverse router using IP passthrough, although it sounds a bit complicated to get it to work from what I've read.  Now if I did get the 202 and want to implement QoS, I'd have to use the 202 as a router or connect it to my Uverse router?