Should a VoIP phone have an IP address?

MGAstra

I'm trying to set up a VoIP phone, but I cant get it working.

I have plugged into into my router, read the phone's IP address then used this to access its configuration settings and enter my account number, password, and SIP server address. Everything looks ok so far.

Then, when I remove it from my router and plug it directly to my cable modem, it does not have an IP address. Should it?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks in anticipation.

thewizard

How are you connecting it? USB or with a etherenet/modem cable?

afro_2

Thats a very confusing message MGAstra!

Why, if you have a router, would you plug the phone directly into your modem?

MGAstra

I've only been using it with an ethernet cable.

I used to router to set access the settings of the phone, but after setting it with my voip service provider details it didnt work. I then removed the router in order to simplify the situation and its then when I noticed that it doesnt display an IP address when connected directly to the modem.

I have a telewest cable modem, but I'm not sure if I would need to enter my telewest details into the phone, or would the modem be always connected?

Little_John

The phone requires an IP address yes.
Your cable modem will have 2 ip addreses, the WAN ip set by the ISP and the LAN ip which is what your router uses to direct traffic to for internet access.

The cable modem proberbly wont be using DHCP and that is why you dont have an IP address when connected to that. Your phone needs to be connected to your network if it is possible set the IP address to static and specify the IP address.

telewest are the carrier for the voip signal nothing else you need to enter your voip suppliers details in to the phone. make sure the IP address is 1 for your local network.

MGAstra

Turns out that the cable modem records the identity of the first PC it see's when it first turns on (records the MAC address of the ethernet port) and will then only let this one PC connect to the internet!

So when I removed my PC from the modem and connected the voip phone to the modem, I needed to re-boot the modem so it picks up the new MAC address (of the phone)

Further more, I've been informed that Telewest (and perhaps NTL as well) try to limit you to only changeing devices connected to the modem 5 times. Apparently they record the MAC address too and the 6th one wont work untill you've contacted them to delete one of the previous 5!

When I was using the router, I had some other settings wrong stopping it all working.

Thanks to everyone for the tips/help.

ALL WORKS AS IT SHOULD DO NOW