Latest from BT: SureSignal does NOT work on BT Infinity for Business

[crobinuk]

Hi all,

I'm running a SureSignal V3 on BT Infinity for Business.

I was originally trying to set up my SS via a BusinessHub 5 which did not work despite following all of BT and Vodafone's recommended settings.

Had lengthy web chats with both BT and Vodafone who all insisted it should work. The chap from BT told me that Vodafone and BT had worked together at some length to get all the right settings to communicate to customers.

After booting up, the power light would flash, the internet light was off and the two remaining lights (signal & mobile phone icons) would flash amber.

I spotted in the router logs that packets were getting blocked by the firewall:

15:43:19, 15 Apr.

IN: BLOCK [5] Fragmented packet (IP 88.82.13.169) fragment_offset=1480)

This isn't something that can be turned off on a BusinessHub, so I swapped in a HomeHub 5 and voila - it worked, magically, for about a week. Then it stopped working.

BT LiveChat have today confirmed that SureSignal is NOT supported on BT Infinity:

The suresignal is design do work on a broadband line which uses an MTU of 1458, fibre broadband uses an MTU of 1492 which is where the issues lies, as we can change the MTU with the router, but it will always revert back to 1492 so it will work for a small while till it changes this is not something we can change.

We have seen them work on fibre and have seen them not work on fibre, we have been advised that because fibre is PPPoE Vodafone wont support it either 

Would be grateful if Vodafone could comment on this?

[jim2020]

As requested in the original post please could Vodafone confirm whether the SureSignal is supported on BT Infinity or not.  Furthermore, if it is supported, does this include the SureSignal models 1, 2 and 3?

I've already spent a lot of time trying to get mine working without success and I don't want to put any more effort in if it's a non-starter.

Many Thanks,

Jim

[Retired-Rodney]

Hi @crobinuk @jim2020

For more information on this, please see our statement here.

Thanks,

Rodney

[crobinuk]

Thanks Rodney.

"We’ve become aware that a very limited number of BT infinity for Business routers have difficulties with the Sure Signal device"

I don't think this is the whole picture... This statement suggests that there is an incompatibility in a "limited number" of hardware models (ie. there is a hardware fault in a batch, or only a certain firmware is affected), but the information I received from BT (earlier post, above) suggests that ALL HomeHubs and BusinessHubs are incompatible, because BT's Infinity for Business service periodically attempts to reset the MTU value on their devices.  (NB. On BusinessHubs this is a value you can manually reset - for a while, until it is over-ridden - but on HomeHubs it is not.)

BT went to far as to suggest that Vodafone will support the device on PPPoE services due to MTU - is this correct?

For the record, I have tried both a BusinessHub v5 AND a HomeHub v5 on our BT Infinity for Business service. Both work perfectly for everything bar SureSignal (VPN, etc).

The BusinessHub was 100% incompatible with SureSignal (it would not even sync once) but the HomeHub worked for about 7-10 days before the BT line randomly forced a reset on the MTU which then engaged its "Fragmented Packets" firewall rule.

So, The issue isn't related just to the hardware - the Homehub worked for 10 days - it's a combination of hardware & BT's service...

We’re very happy to refund Sure Signal devices within the first fourteen days of purchase

I was previously assured by both Vodafone and BT that it would work on the BT Infinity for Business service, and as a result more than 14 days have passed. (More like 6 weeks now).

Sounds like a more accurate description of the situation is "The Vodafone SureSignal v3 will not work on BT Infinity for Business where the customer is running a BT BusinessHub v5 or HomeHub Router v5 with latest firmware."

(Surely this is ALL new customers - would have thought BT only provide v5 hardware to new customers?)

More helpful would be "Supported Routers on BT Infinity for Business include XXXXXX, XXXXXX and XXXXXX."  

I've now bought a Draytek 2860 as other users have reported some success. Will let everyone know how I get on.

[jeffkinn]

I have a SureSignal working very happily in BT Infinity so the idea that they are not compatible is not true.

I've had an SS 2 and 3 and more than one router and never had a problem.

[crobinuk]

Hi @jeffkin, awesome news - encouraging!

Just to confirm, are you running a BT HomeHub v5 or BT BusinessHub v5 (ie. BT-provided hardware, latest versions) on BT Infinity for Business (ie. not the residential service)?

You mentioned various routers over time - were they all BT provided, or did you have to resort to 3rd party routers to get a SureSignal v3 running?

Thanks in advance.

[crobinuk]

Update to my previous post. Bought a Draytek Vigor 2860n+ and can confirm after a bit of setting up the SureSignal now works on our BT Infinity for Business Line with MTU set at 1492.

So, it looks like the previous problems can be pinned firmly on the BT BusinessHub v5 and HomeHub v5 which are not compatible with SureSignal because of the Firewall rules around fragmented packets.

In summary: if you want to use SureSignal v3 on BT Infinity for Business you can't use the BT-provided hardware, it won't work.

Would be good if Vodafone could add this info to support documentation as the current advice ("set up the port forwarding and you'll be OK") is wrong and customers could spend hours messing around without success.

Perhaps Vodafone could also provide a list of 3rd-party routers that have been tested to work with SureSignal?

[Amanda]

Hi @crobinuk

Thanks for the update. I'm pleased that it's up and running for you. 

I've also fed back your suggestion.  

Thanks,

Amanda 

[crobinuk]

Thanks Amanda. Hope this post helps other BT Business / Vodafone customers. Have been struggling to get this to work on and off for 9 weeks, is good to know what the root cause is!

[hooker1uk]

the buisnesshub is the issue, they're a total pile of junk. 

Also, as the device is not supported by bt (they say this about everything) they'll always blame vodafone.