Vodafone Sure Signal

[madjoew]

Hi,

Today I installed 3 VSS. The first 2 I did at work, making my work phone (on a VF business account) the 'owner' of both.

On one of these I added 4 colleagues as 'Users', however only my work phone (iPhone4) worked. The other 'User' phones (all iPhone4S) all just got stuck Searching for signal - as soon as you turn the VSS off they go back to poor signal from the 'proper' VF base station.

I did all tests with the 2nd VSS which has only my phone as 'owner' and no 'Users' turned off, just in case of interference (my phone did work on it when it was turned on alone though).

I took another VSS home and registered my personal phone (Nokia N900) as the 'owner'. It works fine, but my girlfriends iPhone3GS, my work iPhone4 and my iPad1 (which is under the same VF account as my N900) all do the same indefinite Searching for signal.

Clearly in both cases the 'User' phones are connecting to the femtocell but something (authentication?) is failing via the internet connection tunnel to the VF core network. Considering I ran into this on 2 different VF accounts and with different phone types I am amazed other people haven't run into it as well (I did some serious forum/web trawling!)!

The 2 VSS on the business account are S/N 40114607290 (me as 'owner' on iPhone4, 4 other 'Users' on iPhone4S) and 40114607282 (just me as 'owner' on iPhone4, no 'Users').

The one on my personal account is S/N 40114607308 (me as 'owner' on Nokia N900, my iPhone4/iPad1 and girlfriends iPhone3GS as 'Users').

Also - as a side note, when I log into my VF business account I can see my iPhone4 is 'Registered' as able to use my Home VSS (40114607308). So the VF network is definitely aware that my iPhone4 should work as a 'User' on that VSS.

I hope you can work out what is going on and get my 'Users' working ASAP!

Thanks in advance.

Joe

[Andy]

Hi madjoew,

Can you take a look at our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread, and then post back your results if you’re not directed to an existing thread?

Thanks

Andy

Moderator

[madjoew]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the quick response! The closest thing to my issue is "Correct Lights on but not Picking up 3G Signal", however it is not exactly the same, my issue is very specifically on 'User' phones only, and they do connect but seem to not authenticate - I have already tried all that it suggested regardless (aside from the 'Contact Us' RE "EFT135 Sure Signal Camping On" recommendation - This is a nicely cryptic subject line which I assume means there is a known bug!). Do you think I actually have this issue and should go ahead with the 'Contact Us'.

I work with GSM/VoIP and my companies software/hardware is actually used by Alcatel Lucent in their test lab as part of the femtocell development for VF so I have a pretty good idea how the technology works! Please suggest if there is anything you need to help investigate - don't be afraid to get technical!

Thanks.

Joe

[Lee]

Hey madjoew,

Thanks for your post.

The fact the VSS is providing a signal to at least one handset means there's nothing wrong with the device itself and definitely nothing associated with the 'camping on' issue which is normally related to a faulty device.

From what I can make out you have three Sure Signals and there are two at work and one at home.

Serial numbers 40114607282 and 40114607290 are at work and 40114607308 is at home.

All three provide a 3G signal to the owner number but any other registered 'users' do not receive a signal?

Tell me; have all the associated numbers had confirmation texts to confirm they've been added to the relative VSS'?

Have all devices got 3G switched on? (I know this is academic but I have to be sure)

Could you remove and re-add any users that are not picking up a signal?

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers,

Lee

[dayaae]

Hi - Just received my VSS today.  Registered - Power Light on - System Light on - so far so good.  The iphone4 i need to get the signal on (my works phone)  is registered as an additional user - the phone that the VSS is registered to (Personal phone) is not in the house today. 

I have had a text on the iphone (works phone) stating it can be used on the VSS - and all looks good on the registration site.

The iphone 4 (Works phone) has 3G set on, but I do not get a 3G signal, I am still only getting the weak signal from the normal phone base station. 

But what is worse - is that now my phone continuall goes to "Searching" and when this happens I cant make or receive any calls - so the addition of the VSS has actually made the ability to make and receive calls worse, and in fact more unreliable.

The phone light on the VSS does not come on when I attempt to make an external call - even when the call is successful.

I checked the support pages - for "Correct Lights on but not Picking up 3G Signal", however as per Joes post - it is not exactly the same issue.

Please advise ASAP.

[Wayne]

Hi dayaae

Thanks for your post here. Can you please go through this thread as it relates to your issue. If the issue remains at the end of the thread, there is information on what to do next and how to contact us.

Sure Signal

Thanks

Wayne

If you have a spare minute could you please take the time to fill out a short feedback form about me?

You can do so here

[nicon2k]

I have exactly the same issue as madjoew. My phone which is the owner works fine. The two other phones registered as users (both received text confirmations) do not appear to use the VSS device.

How was this issue resolved?

[dayaae]

I am very disapointed with the response.  You have directed me to a thread which I have already reviewed as stated in my problem description.  

[dayaae]

This issue is now resolved for me as follows for those who still have problems - this might help:

I phoned customer support and explained my problem.  

When I first got the unit yesterday, the initial registration of the VSS went fine and I got the texts to both iphone4 handsets which I need 3G on.  

The power light was on, and the system light was on steady, the phone light was off on the VSS

On my "My Account" page for the sure signal the status was active.

With 3G activated on the handset the phone was constantly "searching..." for a signal

With 3G switched off on the phone a got a mediocre signal from the main vodafone network

When I spoke to support they checked their end and everything looked like it should be working - they could see the VSS on the network so it should have worked.

They believed the VSS had not downloaded - or synchronised the phone numbers from the my account page correctly - so they initiated a manual synchronisation from the vodafone end.  

They asked me to unplug / reset the unit after 1 hour, by which time the synchronisation should have completed.

Once that was complete everything worked correctly and I now have the 3G at full strength.

If you provide the VSS serial number in any posts you make and ask for the VSS to be manually reset from the vodaphone end it may work for you - good luck - I suspect if you are reading this thread you will need it - it should not take 24 hours to get something like this working.

[dayaae]

Sorry - forgot one more point.

They asked me to switch off WI-FI and bluetooth on the phones prior to resetting the VSS - to ensure it looked for a 3G network.

[Lee]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your posts.

@ nicon2k - I've just replied to you here.

@ dayaae - Thanks for updating the thread with your good news and thanks for sharing what fixed it for you

Cheers,

Lee

[squeales]

Hi,

I installed Sure Signal yesterday but can't get one of our Iphones to connect to it! It works perfectly with my wifes Iphone and all the settings are the same as mine but does not connect. We both have Iphone 4 and have the same update. I have had the text saying the phone is authorised to use the SS but does not work.

I have tried the following:-

1/ turning off and on the phone.

2/turning off and on 3g

3/removing the authorised mobiles and re-installing them

4/reset the Sure Signal

But nothing has worked, what would you suggest to do!

Cheers Rob

[Dave]

Hi squeales,

Can you confirm the serial number of the Sure Signal for me so we can take a look from this end?

Dave

[cjs3uk]

Hi I have been suffering the same problem.  My Iphone which is the account holder works fine, but the user that I have added don't benefit from the Sure Signal. if anything actually suffer.  Each user has received a message telling them that they have been added as a user.

Reading through it is suggested that users have to be manually synchronised by vodafone. 

Can you help please my SS S/N is 40114665991

Many thanks

Chris

[Dave]

Hi cjs3uk,

I can see that there have been some failures when trying to register users recently, so I've performed a re-synch of the device to see if this will clear the issue for you.

Can you please try a factory reset for me and let me know if this resolves things for me?

• Hold down the reset button until all the lights show (about 30 seconds)
• Keeping the reset button held down, remove then re-insert the power lead.
• Once all lights display release the reset button.
• The Sure Signal will come online in around 1 hour.

Dave