Using BOB2 as your VoIP service with Linksys WRT 1900ACS as your NBN Modem

So I swapped out my old but faithful iiNet supplied BOB2 router for a shiny new Linksys WRT1900ACS.

BOB2 was happily running the whole NBN fibre service but I wasn’t able to get the 100Mbs I was paying for – especially over WiFi. Also BOB predates the 5GHz 802.11ac wireless technology by a few years, so I was missing out on squeezing all those bits out my airwaves.

Setting up the Linksys WRT 1900ACS was very straightforward. Just plug the ethernet port marked INTERNET on the back of the WRT into the NBN Fibre  modem and connected to the default WiFi SSID and followed a few prompts.

The Linksys WRT 1900ACS is an industry leading wireless router with plenty of speed, power and features to keep your network running as fast as possible. Alas, though, it does not support any of the VoIP protocols so I would have been without a VoIP service.

The following steps show how to configure BOB2 to support just a VOIP service, so you can continue to have a phone service active with the Linksys WRT 1900ACS as your main internet router.

Here is the main wizard configuration screen required ;

 

[click for larger view]

The cabling looks like:

NBN Fibre Modem <–> Linksys WRT1900ACS <–> BOB2

The WRT is now the NBN router, the port marked INTERNET on the WRT is connected directly to the NBN Fibre Modem.

Any of the 4 GBE ports on the WRT is connected to the BOB2 port Ethernet 1 (lowest yellow port when BOB is standing)

To get the configuration into BOB, disconnect Ethernet 1 and connect a laptop via Ethernet. Factory default BOB. When BOB restarts, connect to the web interface using the laptop http://192.168.1.1 password=admin

Configure the following on BOB on the wizard page.

1. Modem is currently configured for FTTH/NBN
2. Configure Port, Select your port: LAN1
3. VoIP Setting, 4. my VoIP phone line 1 username is : 08xxxxxxxx
4. VoIP Setting, 5. my VoIP phone line 1 VoIP password is: XXXXXXXXXXX
5. VoIP Setting, 8. select the state you are in : WA

[Save settings]

Now connect LAN1, the port you have designated as the “internet” port, on BOB2 to one of the GBE ports on the Linksys.

The internet LED and phone one LED will light up and you will have a voice service.

Notes:
1. after adding this configuration, you will not be able to manage BOB whilst connected through the Linksys, you will need to keep an ethernet cable and laptop handy.
2. disable the wireless on BOB to stop it interfering with your shiny new wireless beast.
3. no extra configuration is needed on the Linksys – no port forwarding for eg.

Thanks to Asa Stallard from iiNet for pushing me in the right direction.