Home Network Equipment Questions

Networking, connecting to the internet, wi-fi and home entertainment
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BobH
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Home Network Equipment Questions

Post by BobH »

Searching the Internet, I have not found an answer to the question: Would it be reasonable to find an Internet interface device (router and/or cable modem) that would have the usual features for connection to an ISP and home network wifi but also VPN and VOIP built in?

What I learned about data telecommunications was back in the day of analog facilities up to the very early days of digital facilities. There is much that I do not know about IP, TCPIP, VOIP, and VPN technology; however it seems to me that a gateway device with configurable updatable firmware that would address all of this signalling technology in a single hardware device - including wifi and all the latest router capabilities for multi-channel, beam-casting, MU-MIMO et al - would be a convenient package. In the diagram below taken from wikipedia, what I envision is a device that incorporates the 'broadvoice router & phone adapter', the 'DSL/Cable modem' and the 'router/hub/switch' into a single box.
VOIP.gif
I'd really like to hear from those of you who have a background in telecommunications signalling engineering to address why such a device would be impossible, impractical, or whatever.

:cheers: :chocciebar: :thankyou:
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John Gray
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Re: Home Network Equipment Questions

Post by John Gray »

I have been doing a lot of work recently with Draytek Vigor 2860 routers, creating LAN-to-LAN VPN tunnels to interconnect three major sites (sometimes called 'meshing'), both for VoIP voice and for data. But we have a separate VoIP phone system to handle all the phone extensions, and the like. Our remote workers connect in to our data system and to 'the internet' using Microsoft VPN or Draytek VPN software.

I'm not sure what having VoIP on the router itself would actually mean, if anything, and how you would use it.
And you may be wanting to use VPN in a different way to how we use it.
John Gray

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BobH
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Re: Home Network Equipment Questions

Post by BobH »

Thank you, John. I'll see if that router is available in the US.
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John Gray
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Re: Home Network Equipment Questions

Post by John Gray »

BobH wrote:Thank you, John. I'll see if that router is available in the US.
It's just one of many 'medium-end' routers which support VPNs. There are much more expensive ones designed for business, such as Ubiquiti or Cisco. Even the high-end TP-Link Archers are probably worth a look.
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BobH
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Re: Home Network Equipment Questions

Post by BobH »

Cheers, John!

:cheers: :chocciebar: :cheers:
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