Vonage V-Portal User Manual page 32

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Vonage V-Portal User Guide

Local Network Setup

In addition to providing up to 2 lines of Vonage digital phone service, your Vonage V-Portal also has

integrated router functionality built in. This means it can be used to create a Local Area Network (LAN).

A Local Area Network is a group of computers and related devices that share a common communications

line. The connected devices are typically within a small geographic area such as an office building or a

home. To put it another way, the V-Portal lets more than one device share your Internet connection. This

means that you can be talking on the phone and your child can be surfing the Internet at the same time.

Assuming you did not have a LAN setup before you installed the V-Portal; your Internet connection probably

looked similar to the following:

You can think of your telephone as a device that needs to share the Internet connection with your computer.

If the V-Portal did not have router capability, you would not be able to connect your computer to the Internet.

Now, using the V-Portal your computer and your telephone can share your Internet connection. This means

that you can be talking on the phone and surfing the Internet at the same time.

(In the diagram above, we show a computer connected to your V-Portal. You could have connected a

different device such as a video game console, router or DVR instead.)

If you'd like to connect an additional device, such as a PC, video game console, router or DVR, to your V-

Portal, you can simply plug the device into the yellow Ethernet port on the back of your V-Portal. (This is

assuming that the device you are plugging in to the V-Portal Ethernet port has DHCP enabled. If not, follow

the manufacturer's instructions to enable DHCP.) In most cases, your Vonage device requires no additional

configuration to use it as a router. Once installed, it will function properly right out of the box because your V-

Portal is pre-configured to function as a DHCP server. A DHCP server assigns IP addresses to devices on a

network. Remember, an IP address is like a street address. Every device on a network needs a specific

location.

NOTE: We do not recommend you change any of the default network settings unless you have networking

knowledge.

If you had previously configured your V-Portal to not work as a DHCP Server, for example if you had setup a

Static IP network, and would like to now use DHCP you will need to re-configure it.

Network Setup sub-menu. The following screen will be displayed:

View the Terms of Service by visiting the Vonage website at www.vonage.com/tos. Pay particular attention to

Section 11 which explains limitations on Warranty, Remedy and Liability.