Official Line on Apple Airport Extreme

[drewgriffiths]

Hi

I have bought a Sure Signal and am unable to get it to work with my home setup which is:

- Airport Extreme connecting to a fibre infinity connection over PPPOE (fibre does not use PPPOA)

- Airport Extreme with all ports delated in other forwarded to SS

- Internet connection with 80mb download / 15mb upload

I am getting a solid red light even though box is registered and left connected (with multiple reboots) over 3 days.

So, before I return it, is there official support for the Airport Extreme over PPPOE or does this fall into an ever growning crack of sot supported?

I have followed all the other tips etc with no success

Cheers

Drew

[allegoricus]

The VSS plugs in to an Ethernet port on your router; that's all that matters. Protocols/whatever between there and the Vodafone backend are of no concern. The VSS doesn't give a flying one.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi there drewgriffiths19,

Thanks for coming back to me.

I can see the IP is on our whitelist and the trace route, ping and speed tests look fine.

Although the thread goes on about the different protocols; have you tried any of the suggestions in the linked threads?

If not, now is the time to try.

I've also forced a resync of the VSS in the event it kicks it into life. You need to factory reset it to complete the process.

• Hold the reset button till all the lights come on or flash (about 30 seconds)
• Keeping the reset button held, remove and re-insert the power lead
• Once all the lights come on or flash, release the reset button
• The VSS will come online within the hour

If the suggestions don't work and the resync doesn't fix it then please could you try the VSS on another connection such as at a friend or relative's house? This will help determine whether the VSS is faulty or not.

Cheers,

LeeH

[adambern]

I cannot get my VSS3 to work with a 5th Gen Airport Extreme. I plug in and switch on. I get the white internet light flashing. When it goes out the other two lights come on permanent orange. I've an email from Vodafone saying that the registration is live but...

I'm with BT Business. VSS serial is 40131628238. The VSS3 is a replacement for a VSS2. I've tried (via the control panel in My Vodafone):

Updating with the new serial. 

I've tried deleting and re-registering. 

I've tried a direct connection and a home plug connection.

I've tried resets. 

I've waited 12 hours.

I was told by tech support: "For the sure signal to be working the router must have the below ports to be opened for the Suresignal box under 2 protocols TCP UDP through the ISP Port No 8 Port No 50 Port No 123 Port No 500 Port No 4500". I've tried to do this, but no joy.

Traceroute shows:

traceroute to 212.183.133.177 (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 0.349 ms 0.320 ms 0.209 ms
2 host81-134-96-1.in-addr.btopenworld.com (81.134.96.1) 180.595 ms 221.743 ms 226.484 ms
3 213.120.182.141 (213.120.182.141) 244.854 ms 24.331 ms 22.571 ms
4 213.120.161.82 (213.120.161.82) 24.035 ms 199.422 ms 250.766 ms
5 31.55.164.183 (31.55.164.183) 251.105 ms 227.186 ms 193.471 ms
6 31.55.164.107 (31.55.164.107) 193.177 ms 245.372 ms 251.275 ms
7 acc1-10gige-0-2-0-7.bm.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.248.110) 291.558 ms 208.435 ms
acc1-10gige-0-2-0-6.bm.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.248.108) 161.914 ms
8 core2-te0-15-0-17.ilford.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.248.42) 198.854 ms
core2-te0-15-0-16.ilford.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.248.32) 134.123 ms
core2-te0-15-0-15.ilford.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.248.36) 178.148 ms
9 peer1-xe1-1-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.254.136) 211.692 ms
peer1-xe3-3-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.254.207) 115.572 ms 117.713 ms
10 lndgw2.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.124) 124.955 ms 189.099 ms 248.564 ms
11 85.205.116.14 (85.205.116.14) 143.272 ms 166.744 ms 154.840 ms
12 * * *

[Retired-Dave]

Hi adambern,

The traceroute is used to show the time taken for each step. Anything over 200ms would cause the Sure Signal to time out waiting for a response.

Looking at your results, although you're reaching our server there are a number of steps which are going over this mark. Any time it does this, the Sure Signal would drop its connection.

You mention that this is a BT Business line. Business networks often have additional security which can delay or block traffic. Are you able to check with the company IT team to see if there's anything in place which might do this. Similarly, are you able to try the Sure Signal on a personal connection at home?

Keep in mind that the traceroute measures the connection from your computer to your router and from there to our servers. The Sure Signal doesn't actually make up part of the test, so these delays are showing irrespective of the Sure Signal itself.

Dave

[adambern]

Thanks Dave.

I fixed the problem this morning and I'm testing it now.

I followed a posting elsewhere and in essence:

I changed the modem from a TP-Link to an old Netgear (DG834G) that I had in a cupboard.

Disabled the wireless elements of the Netgear leaving it as an ADSL modem (with DHCP on)

The Netgear uses the logon details for BT Business broadband

I also went into the Airport Extreme (5th Gen) and opened ports 8, 50, 123, 500, 1723 and 4500. (BT Business did say that they don't block any ports)

The ethernet out from the VSS is connected to the Airport

It all seems to work fine with the exception of a double NAT error in the airport. However, I'm ignoring it as everything else is OK - phones, broadband, the connection to a repeating airport and the guest networks.

[adambern]

Update: The setup works with the exception that the Double NAT problems screws up connection other devices - Sky box, Sonos etc - on my internal network. Turning off DHCP and NAT on the Netgear (leaving the Airport Extreme to configure things) only serves to take the whole setup down.

I think it's a conflict between PPPoA (modem) and PPPoE (Airport Extreme).

If I can't fix this, four lines will be moving from Vodafone to another network that offers better coverage at home. Sadly.

Ideas anyone?

[adambern]

OK. So further testing (and fiddling) seems to have fixed the problem even with a double NAT error.

The setup now:

Netgear DG834G - DHCP and NAT on. BT Business broadband user/password details entered. Wifi off.

Suresignal 3 plugged directly into DG834G.

Main Airport Extreme: (Internet tab) set to DHCP, (Network tab) Router Mode set to DHCP and NAT and Ports (as above) set to open. Also Double NAT error set to ignore.

[Retired-Kay]

Hi adambern, 

Thank you for this, I'm sure it will help other community members as well. :smileyhappy:

Kay