Vodafone Sure Signal

[George]

We’ve created this thread to help with an issue that some people find during setup.

This issue has the following symptoms:

-The power light either constantly flashes or remains steady

-No other lights flash or light up

Please note that whether the power light is flashing or remains steady, this still points to the same issue - the Sure Signal hasn't established a connection to the internet.

The only difference is that if the light’s steady, then the Sure Signal has previously downloaded a profile from the server, if it's flashing then it hasn't.

Troubleshooting steps:

Check the physical connection between your Sure Signal and the router/modem.

In order to work, the Sure Signal needs to be connected to a spare Ethernet port on your router or modem, or a Hub/Switch that is connected to an internet gateway.

In some cases, it’s possible for an Ethernet cable to be faulty, in which case it may not allow your router and Sure Signal to talk to each other.

To verify that the Ethernet cable works, check the lights at the back of your Sure Signal where the cable is plugged in.

There should be a link light on permanently which indicates that an electrical circuit has been established through the cable.

There should also be a light which flashes whenever data is being passed through the cable. If either the data light or the link light do not come on, this could indicate a problem with the cable itself. Please try a spare cable, or plug the cable into a different port on your router/modem.

Check that you’ve got an active internet connection.
Make sure you can connect to the internet on another device, such as your PC or phone. If you can’t connect, this indicates a problem with your router or your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

We recommend rebooting the router to see if this then allows you to connect to the internet.

Reboot your router/modem.
-Turn off your router or modem at the wall for 10 seconds and then turn it back on

-Wait for the lights on your modem/router to indicate that an internet connection has been established

-Press the reset button on the Sure Signal

Check that your Sure Signal has been assigned an internal IP address by your router.

The Sure Signal must be assigned an internal IP address by your router. If your router supports DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), this must be enabled as doing so will enable the router to assign an IP address to your Sure Signal automatically.

For more instructions on how to do this, please check your router manual or contact your ISP or router manufacturer.

If your router or network configuration doesn’t allow DHCP, you’ll need to assign a static IP address to your Sure Signal's MAC Address by using your router's configuration panel. Please contact your ISP or router manufacturer for instructions on how to do this. The MAC address can be found on the sticker at the back of the Sure Signal.

BT Infinity Customers.

If you’re a BT Infinity customer, you’ll need to log into your router admin page and select port clamping.

Once this has been selected please restart your router and Sure Signal.

Check your MTU settings.

Log into your router admin page and find the location of the MTU field. This varies depending on the make and model so you’ll need to look for it.

Change the value of the MTU size to 1500.

Log out of the router, this will usually result in a reboot.

Perform a reset of the Sure Signal:

-Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid

-Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in

-Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead

-Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

The Sure Signal will now try to contact the network and download its profile. This can take up to 6 hours.

Post your router/ISP details and Sure Signal serial number.

If you’ve done all of the above, or you’re struggling with configuring your router, please post your router's make and model number below. Please also include your Sure Signal serial number and the name of your ISP.

We find that other users of the same router will usually be able to share tips with you, to get things working.

We’ll also attempt to help with this, but due to the number of different manufacturers and models, it is not always possible. We don’t officially support any form of router configuration, so we’ll always recommend contacting your router manufacturer or ISP for assistance first.

Thanks,

Jenny

[George]

Hi guys,

As this thread was originally intended to be a troubleshooting thread, I'm currently in the process of reviewing all of the content contained within the original thread in order to make it easier to read and manage.

As with the previous thread, please feel free to ask for help regarding these specific symptoms within this thread. If you're having issues with your Sure Signal but are experiencing other symptoms then please see our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread first. If none of these apply then please start a new thread.

George
eForum Team

[George]

I had the flashing power light issue and the Sure Signal took out my internet connection then my Dlink DSL 2640_R rebooted. Could not get the Sure Signal on the network. It appears that my problems were two fold – firstly the ports the Sure Signal needed were blocked by my dlink router and secondly my router did not have the option to set up a static IP address to a network client (which is needed before port forwarding can be done). I pieced together 4 sets of information provided by helpful people – I paid Justanswer.com for the right firmware link to fix the static DHCP issue in my router, then copied two posts from TalkTalk forum members and added these to information emailed to me by Vodafone support. Here is what I had to do:

1 – download the updated firmware for my Dlink DSL2640-R router following the advice below


(Notes: the person who left this advise updated their firmware to resolve a "VPN connection reboots router" problem. I HAD TO TURN OFF MY MCAFEE FIREWALL TO GET THE FIRMWARE TO LOAD)

First things first, I have no idea if the following is TalkTalk approved and whether or not it will invalidate any warranty; execute at your own risk!



The OEM TT version with one I used to resolve my issues was a later version to the one used by the forum member (they used 1.06 to resolve the VPN issue), the one I used (vEU1.09) can be found here:

ftp://ftp.dlink.pl/d...river_software/

(If this link isn't working, simply search for 'DSL-2640R' in the support section of http://www.d-link.co.uk.)

Before you go any further, please make a note of your router configuration (especially your ADSL username and password). There is a backup option within the Maintenance Section – I strongly advise that you take a back-up of your current configurations

Unzip the new firmware to your desktop. In the ‘Firmware Update’ Section on your interface, select the .ras file and load this.

If you are trying to load a different version of the firmware, please note that for some reason the OEM TT firmware has a little piece of javascript validation that wants to see the filename end in ras. So make sure the file is renamed if it does not already have this extension - you should then find that the router will accept the new firmware, install it and reboot.

My router managed to keep all it's settings, with the exception of the wireless configuration, which I simply reconfigured. Now when I login to the router, I no longer get the grey TT opening page with the status lights and instead go straight to the ADSL setup page, with firmware version reporting:




2 – Set up a static IP Address for my Sure Signal (via it’s MAC address found on the router) following the advice below:


Log into the router configuration pages by typing 192.168.1.1 - User and password are both admin.

Click LAN Setup and scroll to Add Static DHCP (Optional).
•Select Enable
•IP Address: 192.168.1.2
•MAC Address: I typed in the Sure Signal’s MAC address here
Click Save
Static IP will be listed in the Static DHCP List
Click Save Settings
Repeat for any other Static IPs you want to assign.
Click OK to reboot



3) Set-up port forwarding to the Sure Signal static IP address, using the advice below:

This below is the link to a website called portforward.com but I have attached the exact link for your particular router

http://portforward.c...40R/default.htm

Plus here is the port information that you will need

Ports protocol

8 TCP

50 TCP

500 UDP

4500 UDP

123 UDP



This fixed all my issues -hope it helps

[George]

I am on Virgin Media and have a Netgear WNR2000 Router.. When I plugged in my VSS box, (after registering the VSS box!) all I was getting was the flashing power light.. so I read around the forum and did the following:

- On router LAN settings -> added a permanent reservation for the VSS box, noting the IP it had been assigned
- On port forward page -> opened ports 50 (tcp), 500 (udp) 4500 (udp) by adding a custom service for the IP the VSS was assigned

I then rebooted everything in the hope it would work - but no result.. still same power light flashing.

after some digging I stumbled on the "wan" setup page where I saw a "VPN passthrough" section.. By default the three options here are disabled: I had read somewhere that the VSS box establishes a VPN connection so decided to turn these options on. (IPSec, PPTP and L2TP)..

Gave it another reboot - and amazingly it started flashing in sequence!! 30 mins later.. the VSS box was fully functional.

So - my point I guess is, although with this particular router, the way to fix the issue was to enable the VPN settings to get it to work the problem was still masked as a IP address issue because only the power light was flashing. Ops, I hope you can use this info to help other people!!

[George]

Yipee after 2 days I've managed to get our Sure Signal connect to the older style LIVEBOX.

Tried speaking with the tech guys at Orange our ISP, but they refused to assist in the configuration of the router, their advice was to use the pairing button, very poor considering.

I'm not technical in anyway, I know what to look at but thats my extent. I tried the details on the threads to configure the router firewall, but nothing worked, after a second call to Vodafone tech guys, although they can't configure the router as it's the responsibility of the ISP, but they could answer the questions I asked.

For those of you with little technical knowledge, a unhelpful ISP and a LIVEBOX, here's some helpful advise I hope, I used the Orange website help and support selected Livebox ASDL Status and followed the link to the livebox configuration, from here you can confirgure the router, under SECURITY select firewall, select advanced, then settings, then add rules. You need to set up rules for each port and protocol, under SERVICE select from the list a drop down will appear select HTTPS, (vodafone protocol is IP, livebox is TCP) so select TCP, TARGET is ACCEPT, enter the port number into the designation port box and IP address into the designation IP, then press submit repeat process until all rules are entered. This must be completed for IP address 212.183.133.177, Protocol TCP Port 50, IP 212.183.133.177 Protocol UDP Port 4500, IP 212.183.133.177 Protocol UDP Port 500, IP 212.183.133.181 Protocol TCP Port 8, IP 212.183.133.181 Protocol UDP Port 123, IP 212.183.133.182 Protocol TCP Port 8, IP 212.183.133.182 Protocol UDP Port 123, once this has been done select " Ping back on WALan" then select configure update, this takes care of the outgoing packets not the incoming from vodafone, to do this go to configuration then advanced then to router under port forwarding - NAT (NAT will only allow 1 rule for each protocol) select add, and add rules as with the firewall under service select HTTPS from the drop down, then I have entered IP 212.183.133.181 Protocol TCP Port 8 for both external and internal IP 212.183.133.182 Protocol UDP Port 123 for both external and internal pressing submit after every entry.

If you use the suggested IP 212.183.131.128/26 the livebox alarms invalid IP address, so don't use it.

If the sure signal has power on with light flashing press and hold the resest button count to 10 and remove the power supply whilst still holding the reset button in, count to 10 refit the power supply still holding the reset button in, count to 10 after the power light is lit and release the reset button. For the next hour I had the power light, @ light and phone light flashing slowly, then the power and @ light became constant, for the next 5 hours nothing more, on waking this morning we have lift off all is now operational.

We now have full 3G signal through out the house.

[r1chardc]

This thread has been created to discuss, and troubleshoot a specific issue that some Sure Signal users may encounter during setup.

This issue presents the following symptoms:

• The power light (light 1) on the Sure Signal flashes constantly, or the power light remains steady
• No other lights on the Sure Signal flash or light up.

Please note that both the light flashing and the light being steady indicates the same issue, that is the Sure Signal hasn't established a connection to the internet. The only difference is that if the light is steady it means that the Sure Signal has previously downloaded a profile from the server, if it's flashing then it hasn't.


Troubleshooting steps:

Check the physical connection between your Sure Signal and your Router/Modem.
In order to function, the Sure Signal needs to be connected to a spare ethernet port on your Router or Modem (or a Hub/Switch that is in turn connected to an Internet Gateway.) In some cases it is possible for an ethernet cable to be faulty, in which case it may not allow your Router and Sure Signal to talk to each other.

To verify the ethernet cable works, check the lights at the back of your Sure Signal, where the cable is plugged in. There should be a Link light which is on permanently to indicate that an electrical circuit has been established through the cable. There should also be a light which flashes whenever data is being passed through the cable. If either the data light or the link light do not come on, this could indicate a problem with the cable itself. Please try a spare cable, or plugging the cable into a different port on your Router / Modem.

Check that you have an active Internet connection.
Make sure you are currently able to connect to the internet on another device, such as your PC, or a Wi-Fi enabled phone. If you are not able to make an internet connection, this indicates a problem with your Router or your Internet Service Provider. We recommend rebooting the Router to see if this then allows you to connect to the internet.

Reboot your Router / Modem
Turn off your Router or Modem at the wall for 10 seconds, then turn it back on. Wait for the lights on your Modem/Router to indicate an internet connection has been established, and then press the Reset button on the Sure Signal.

Check that your Sure Signal has been assigned an internal IP address by your Router
In order to connect to your network and the Internet, the Sure Signal must be assigned an internal IP address by your Router. If your Router supports DHCP, this must be enabled. Doing so will enable the Router to assign an IP address to your Sure Signal automatically.
For detailed instructions on how to enable this, please consult your Router manual, or contact your ISP or Router Manufacturer.

If your Router or network configuration does not allow DHCP, then you will need to assign a static IP address to your Sure Signal's MAC Address, using your Router's configuration panel. Please consult your ISP or Router Manufacturer for instructions on how to do this. The MAC address can be found on the sticker at the back of the Sure Signal unit.

Post your Router details
If you have successfully followed all of the above, or are struggling with configuring your Router, please post your Router's make and full model number below. Quite often other users of the same router will be able to share tips with you around setup and any extra security settings that may need to be enabled/disabled to get things working correctly. Wherever possible, we will also attempt to assist you with this, however due to the vast number of different manufacturers and models, it is not always possible, and we do not officially support any form of Router Configuration. For that reason we will always recommend contacting your Router Manufacturer or ISP for assistance first.

George
eForum Team

George

Is the old thread dead? I had an email notification of a reply to a post but the link but led to an error page: likewise when I tried to use browser history to get into the thread.

As regards the single solid light indicating a profile has been downloaded, a previous question (unanswered) was whether a factory reset removed or corrupted this profile. My thoughts are that since once a steady light has been achieved, the single flashing light is not repeated, (ie goes straight to solid) ,suggests something remains configured inside VSS

Regards

[sbraynor]

It seems that the thread containing my previous request for help has vanished. I have been trying to set up a new VSS for the past week, with no success. All I get is a flashing power light. The back of the box shows a green and amber light. I have followed the troubleshooting steps as shown in the top post above, but they make no difference . MY router is a DGN 2000.

When replying, please bear in mind that I have very little technical expertise, as I (wrongly it seems), assumed I could just buy this box and plug it in.

Thanks

Shirley

[shauny123]

Hi

I have the same issue, apple airport extreme router.

I waited 24 hours, as advised by support. Reset the unit, and the router.

I have set the suresignal to a fixed IP, and mapped 50,123, 500 and 4500 (all UDP). The router logs show a connection to the suresignal (i.e. it has an IP address), and all my other machines can see the internet perfectly well.

Is there something else I need to do - does anyone with an apple airport extreme have this working, or does the lack of UPnP mean it never works?

TIA
Shaun

[grmartin]

does anyone with an apple airport extreme have this working, or does the lack of UPnP mean it never works?

Some do, but I think you will have to look at problems with how the airport extreme is connected to the internet - search for posts concerning pppoe connections.

[shauny123]

Some do, but I think you will have to look at problems with how the airport extreme is connected to the internet - search for posts concerning pppoe connections.

Sorry, but there are no problems with how the AE connects to the internet. I have been connected to the internet perfectly for years.

Surely the fact that the Suresignal is the only device which can't connect points to a deficiency in the suresignal? My popcorn, pc, mac, htc phone, etc, etc all connect perfectly through the airport extreme.

If there are some specific ppoe settings I need to change, just for the suresignal, then please can you detail these, as the help desk are unaware of them.

Shaun

[George]

Hi shauny123,

Firstly, a very warm welcome to the eForum Family, it's always great to see new faces on here .

I notice that you've mentioned PPPoE settings. The Sure Signal isn't currently compatible with PPPoE, it will work over PPPoA though. If you're connecting via PPPoE then it may be worth contacting your ISP to see if you're able to connect over PPPoA instead.

Give that a go and keep us updated with your progress .

George
eForum Team

[shauny123]

Hi shauny123,

Firstly, a very warm welcome to the eForum Family, it's always great to see new faces on here .

I notice that you've mentioned PPPoE settings. The Sure Signal isn't currently compatible with PPPoE, it will work over PPPoA though. If you're connecting via PPPoE then it may be worth contacting your ISP to see if you're able to connect over PPPoA instead.

Give that a go and keep us updated with your progress .

George
eForum Team

Hi

Actually I only mentioned ppoe because the reply to my first post suggested I check it - I already connect to BT over PPoA (Draytek Vigor Router, Airport Extreme wifi). I have added the 4 UDP ports, set fixed IP, and have no problems with the internet connection in general, just the sure signal :-(

Any suggestions?

Shaun

[shauny123]

Hi

Actually I only mentioned ppoe because the reply to my first post suggested I check it - I already connect to BT over PPoA (Draytek Vigor Router, Airport Extreme wifi). I have added the 4 UDP ports, set fixed IP, and have no problems with the internet connection in general, just the sure signal :-(

Any suggestions?

Shaun

Hi

I'm confused as to how the Apple Airport Extreme would ever work with the suresignal if you say it doesn't support PPoE - according to the Apple discussion forums the AE doesn't support PPoE.

So my draytek connects to BT over PPoA, and then uses a PPoA-PPoE bridge to speak to the AE. According to the product page, the supported protocols for the AE are:

NAT, DHCP, PPPoE, VPN Passthrough (IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP), DNS Proxy, SNMP, IPv6 (6to4 and manual tunnels)

Given that, does this mean that the sure signal can never work with the Apple Airport Extreme? If so, shouldn't Vodafone state this?

Shaun

[r1chardc]

George

As you might remember I have had a problem with VSS since July, both here and at a colleagues.
This week VSS connected and no matter what I did (turn off / on, reboot router to get another IP address, switch it off for 24hrs, hot swap leads) it still connected. I plugged it through another router (Netgear DG384) which had the same Firewall settings. No problem in connecting (but I noticed a lot of UDP 123 activity not noticed with the first router.

Pleased with my self I took the whole working assembly to my colleagues house: Single power light, outgoing on UDP 4500 / 500 to the 179 server only. Internet connection speed same slightly slower than mine.

Back to my house plug in, up and running again in less the 5 mins

The only difference is that I am with Virgin (ADSL broadband)and pathping to 212.183.133.181 shows routing through Virgin Media servers'

My colleague uses Fasthosts and the pathping route seems to be via Oneandone or Init7 in Germany (according to IP look up). Pathping often shows a packet loss somewhere to these servers and from my house the ping time is long and again pathping shows packet loss at times.

Obviously these packet losses and ping times suggest internet slowdown possibly not noticed in web browsing.

Fasthosts say they have no firewalls or devices restricting VPN or UDP traffic

Are there timeouts on the Vodafone servers that might be rejecting the VSS attempts to log in?
Are there measures that query the IP address of VSS?

regards

[grmartin]

I already connect to BT over PPoA (Draytek Vigor Router,

I'm guessing you may have a Draytek Vigor modem, rather than a router - or are using it as a simple modem. Again, look at threads re pppoe/airport/draytek. Problem seems to be down to Draytek, not the Airport per-se.

[shauny123]

I'm guessing you may have a Draytek Vigor modem, rather than a router - or are using it as a simple modem. Again, look at threads re pppoe/airport/draytek. Problem seems to be down to Draytek, not the Airport per-se.

Sorry, you're right - I meant Modem. The draytek modem is connected over PPoA. The router (apple extreme) does not support PPoA, only PPoE, so there's not a lot I can do about that.

However, plugging the VSS directly into the draytek still has the same problem.

I've searched the forums, the net and asked Vodafone, but no-one seems to know anything.

The modem is a draytek vigor 110, connecting to BT ADSL on PPoA, then connecting to Apple Airport Extreme. There is only 1 network port on the modem, which I use to connect to the router, and then the router (using the VSS mac address) gives a fixed IP to it.

Any suggestions?

Shaun

[grmartin]

However, plugging the VSS directly into the draytek still has the same problem.

That certainly won't work

I've searched the forums, the net and asked Vodafone, but no-one seems to know anything.

Sorry to mislead you - I know the posts exist on this forum, but the search function is not finding them. VODAFONE????

http://forum.vodafon...oe-connections/

Any suggestions?

None printable when it comes to Draytek and Apple

My only choice would be to ditch the Draytek modem (100/110/120) and try a modem that does the PPPoA authentication itself (PPPoA/Ethernet Bridge) and connect the router as a direct ethernet device.

[leesavage]

Hi

I have a steady power light and no other light.

My router is a Belkin F5D8636-4 v1 (01) and has DHCP and UPnP enable. I can see from the security log that the router has assigned an ip address to the VSS, although it dose not list in the DHCP client list. (The VSS is the only DHCP client on the network the rest are static outside of the DHCP range)

I have tried forwarding ports to this ip with no luck.

The VSS wont respond to pings, although the cable is showing the solid green and flashing orange indicating that it is in communication with the router.

I have also tried putting the VSS ip in the DMZ with no luck.

Have been messing with it for 3 days now. I have also just tried leaving it for 24 Hours also with no luck.

I don't know what else to try?

[George]

Hi guys,

Thank you all for posting.

shauny123, if the Draytek-Airport Extreme setup can only connect over PPPoE then it definitely won't work. However, I do recall seeing a post from a customer with the same setup that was working correctly (I can't seem to find it though ). I do know that one issue that other customers were experiencing with Draytek Routers was down to them not allowing fragmented data packets through as default. This can be changed by going to IP filter > Firewall Setup > General Setup. Give that a go and let me know how you get on .


r1chardc, I do remember your previous issue from back in July, I'm pleased to hear that your own Sure Signal is working correctly . In regards to your friend's issue, do you have the IP address of where the packet loss occurs? If this is happening before our Sure Signal servers then the issue doesn't lie at our end. If there were timeouts on the servers then the packet loss would only occur at our end.


leesavage, a very warm welcome to the eForum . It sounds like your router simply hasn't established a connection with your router correctly, do you have a firewall in place? If so, it may be worth just temporarily disabling this to allow the Sure Signal through to make a connection. It may also be worth trying another router if possible.


George
eForum Team

[shauny123]

Hi guys,

Thank you all for posting.

shauny123, if the Draytek-Airport Extreme setup can only connect over PPPoE then it definitely won't work. However, I do recall seeing a post from a customer with the same setup that was working correctly (I can't seem to find it though ). I do know that one issue that other customers were experiencing with Draytek Routers was down to them not allowing fragmented data packets through as default. This can be changed by going to IP filter > Firewall Setup > General Setup. Give that a go and let me know how you get on .


r1chardc, I do remember your previous issue from back in July, I'm pleased to hear that your own Sure Signal is working correctly . In regards to your friend's issue, do you have the IP address of where the packet loss occurs? If this is happening before our Sure Signal servers then the issue doesn't lie at our end. If there were timeouts on the servers then the packet loss would only occur at our end.


leesavage, a very warm welcome to the eForum . It sounds like your router simply hasn't established a connection with your router correctly, do you have a firewall in place? If so, it may be worth just temporarily disabling this to allow the Sure Signal through to make a connection. It may also be worth trying another router if possible.


George
eForum Team

George

The draytek config page has no firewall - its just a modem not a router isn't it? Does it even have a firewall?

Maybe I could just think about replacing the modem and router with a single device - is there a combined ADSL2 Modem/Router that you can *guarantee* works with the VSS?

Shaun