Quote from: SnowLion on December 15, 2019, 12:18:57 AM
Hi,
A bit of background ...we've been aware of Obihai VOIP for a while, but our home internet was not able to support VOIP reliably. However, this summer fiber was brought into the neighborhood and within weeks we hooked up. We have the 300 / 300 service and over wifi get 300+ / 250+ reliably. We settled on an Obi202 because we'd like to be able to use our fax machine in addition to phone. Also, it would be great if we can use the existing phone wiring that terminates in the junction box mounted next to the fiber gateway (ONT).
I'm thinking about a set-up such as the following and would greatly appreciate input from the great experts in this very helpful forum! By the way, LL = Basement and UL = Upper Level.
------------- phone 1
Phone Junction Box ------------- phone 2
(LL) ------------- fax
|
|
Obi202
(LL)
|
|
ONT --- Old Router --- Decent Gaming Router ----------- Router 2 as AP
(LL) (LL) (UL) used for wifi (UL2) to extend wifi
Would I configure both Routers in Routing mode? Would I configure the Obi202 in Bridge mode?
Or, is there a better way to set things up and configure the various components in order to take advantage of the phone junction box and wiring throughout the home? Here's what is available:
o Obi202 that arrived 2 days ago! Already working with GV.
o Actiontec T2200H (Old Router in diagram) - wifi is terrible, only 1 band, etc. but it is Gigbit. Was the Tel Co's standard issue modem / router.
o Asus AC2900 - (Gaming Router in diagram) - dual core, Gigabit, dual band AC.
o Asus RT66U - (Router 2 in diagram) - also Gigabit, single core, 2 band, but only N. Was the only router until we upgraded to the AC2900 in anticipation of hooking up to the fiber service. Great routing and wifi.
Many thanks for your expertise and guidance!
If you now have fiber to the house, can you retire the old Actiontec T2200H xDSL Wireless-N hardware?
I would make the new Asus RT-AC2900 hardware your (only) site router. It supports AiMesh and has hardware encryption for best VPN performance. Disable WAN\SIP Passthrough in case it messes with your VoIP traffic. See
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/official-release-aimesh-firmware-v3-0-0-4-384-20308-for-all-supported-products.44375/page-14#post-381537 for configuration notes.
I would put the OBi in Bridge Mode so it's just a 100 Mbps switch on your LAN, and connect its Internet jack to the router LAN.
Disconnect ALL sources from the house telephone wiring before connecting the OBi. The OBi Phone1 jack = Line1 and Line2 (L1+L2). Use a 2-pair, 4-conductor cord to connect both lines to the house wiring... to a wall plate jack wired for both lines. Or wire it in at the junction box. Leave any junction box Earth Ground connection in place.
Wire a duplex wall plate top jack for Line1 and Line2 (L1+L2); wire the bottom jack for Line2 as L1 (splitter configuration like the OBi202). The OBi Phone1 could feed the top jack; the fax machine could connect to the bottom jack or to Phone2 on the OBi. Typically, Line1 is the red, green (blue, blue/white) pair. Line2 is the yellow, black (orange, orange/white) pair.
The OBi is rated REN 5. The sum of the connected phones RENs should not exceed 5. This is to prevent too many ringing phones from overloading the OBi output circuit. Consider turning OFF unnecessary phone ringers.
The Asus RT-N66U is also old Wireless-N hardware. You can use it as an n-only WiFi repeater, but I would retire it and add a new RT-AC86U (AC2900) as a wired/wireless AiMesh node to the site router to finish your network upgrade. If you do this, make the new 86U your site router. The OBi can also be connected to the node LAN and will perform well over an AiMesh wireless backhaul.
Finally, if the site router and OBi are located together, I would put them on a UPS for secure power. Ideally, locate both near your office/admin work space for convenient management... the router WAN Ethernet cable can be very long, if that helps, and the OBi can feed the house wiring from any wall plate. One concern if you want guest WiFi isolated from your LAN/WLANs... guest WLANs only broadcast from the AiMesh router for now, not from the node.
Prove OBi service is working first before connecting to the house wiring, since you can't be sure what's going on inside your walls and wall plates.
Merry Christmas!
OE