New Linksys AC1200 - Odd that I didnt need to Port Forward for Vonage

[DaveLembke]

Found it interesting that the new Linksys AC1200 that I bought for $29.99 after instant $30 savings on $59.99 price tag at BJ's didnt require any port forwarding to get my Vonage VoIP phone to work.

Do new routers now detect the devices connected to them and know what needs forwarding?

All other routers in the past Vonage wouldnt work unless I went in a port forwarded. Usually I had to create a reservation for that mac address to Vonage device to have a set IP and then port forwarding for that IP for ports 21 thru 10000 for tcp and udp.

Received phone call while configuring router live tonight and tested phone after that call and Vonage is happy and no forwarding added which is cool but also like how does this work correctly without forwarding configuration.

https://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-EA6100/

Other thing strange is I guess Belkin bought out Linksys because the web interface for configuration states 2017 Belkin towards the bottom of the page. 

[BC_Programmer]

The router probably provides something like SIP-ALG (Application layer Gateway) that the VOIP software can utilize.

There are a few games and game consoles which use similar router features in order to avoid having to advise the end-user to set up port forwarding stuff, too.

[DaveLembke]

Cool that must be what it is then.

 I remember seeing a check box for SIP Enabled so that must be what that is. I left it enabled by default not exactly knowing what it is, but figured its important enough for the router manufacturer to have it enabled by default so leave it enabled. In devices connected its able to determine what is what from the mac address manufacturer identification too. It shows the Playstation 3 etc. It interestingly knew it was a VoIP Phone device with mac address with the icon it gave it but it didnt state Vonage, but I was able to go in and rename it for easy identification if I ever need to check on things in future with many devices connected I can know what is what. I verified the mac address to know what it is before renaming it.