Vodafone Sure Signal

[gwyn_carwardine]

I'm I think the latest victim of a Sure Signal. First of all I couldn't register the device on the website so I called Vodafone on Sat night. Allegedly registered for me but next day still nothing showing on the website and no text so rang again and had it registered again. This time text came through and told to wait 24 hours.

It is now 22 hours and 30 minutes.and it doesn't work. So I think we can see which way this is going...

Now, what's interesting is that the product is a fairly complex piece of networking equipment that has to join the local network, find the vodafone servers and presume set up some sort of VPN. Multiple phones can then talk to it. And yet the status and diagnostics is supposed to happen through 3 LEDs on the unit.

This is some sort of joke. Everything other piece of intelligent network equipment I own (some costing less than £20) have an HTTP interface allowing you to talk to it via a web browser, change settings and perform diagnostics. This doesn't. It insists on using DHCP and yet every other piece of networking equipment I own allows you to set a static IP address. How do you see which phones are connected to it? You can't. There is an indicator that shows if one or more phones are connected but if you were having issues with one you wouldnt be able to tell if that phone was connected to the device or not without turning all others off so it's the only possible one that could be. And even then I bet you wouldn't feel confident.

No I'm sorry but the fact is that this device is a piece of ###### and it is not fit for purpose. I do hope Vodafone are refunding people without fuss because a fit for purpose claim would succeed through te small claims court. Looks like my piece of ###### is going to be heading back to the vodafone shop in the next day or so. Waste of bloody time.

If yours doesn't work consider emailing Watchdog. If enough people contact them then they'll warn the public about it.

[charlesr]

Hi. Please can I have a resync? (another power cut seems to have caused it to flip out again).

[James]

Hi Guys,

Thank you for all of your post here, I will respond to everyone in turn.

@ whm, when it comes to the Sure Signal the advice of forwarding the ports will normally apply to customers where they have never been able to establish a connection to he server however, we will recommend this to any one with the solid power light as it rules out any kind of blockages where the ISP has made changes to the setup from their end.

The only thing that we can see is when the Sure Signal last made a connection with the server however we can’t see what activity this was.

Looking at your Sure Signals I can see that the last connection was;

40120543554 – 05/04/2012 at 23:32

40112840612 – 05/04/2012 at 23:21

So that we can get a better understanding of how the equipment is set up at your home please can you let us know exactly what equipment you have been supplied by BT (router, home hub ETC) and how these are set up and where the Sure Signals are connected.

@ ghotihed, I can see that your Sure Signal is yet to make a connection to the server, I can see that the traceroute is fine and your IP address is already on the White list.

However there is a possibility that the issue is with the Sure Signal not being able to create a VPN connection due to packet loss or speed.

So we can check these please can you let me know the results of a speed test and a ping test.

@ redsquirrel, I can see that the traceroute and your external IP are both fine.

However the Sure Signal hasn’t connected to the server since Thursday. Can you confirm if the Sure Signal is currently connected to the netgear router or the home hub?

Has this moved since the problem began?

@gssaw, can I ask if you have disabled the firewalls on the Home Hub?

The reason I ask is that these can sometimes prevent the Sure Signal from being given an IP address.

@skudmissile, Everything looks fine with the registration of your Sure Signal however please can you try a factory reset on both your Sure Signal and your router to see if this will reconfigure the units.

VSS Factory Reset

• 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.

@ gwyn_carwardine, I understand your frustration however this is how they are made by the manufacturer, unfortunately it is not made by Vodafone but simply implemented and supported by us.

When it comes to diagnostics, we do use the light as indicators to show what we need to do next and it is also made in a way for none technical people to give us an idea of what is happening with different light sequences.

I do agree that a web based portal where we would see certain information would be very useful, unfortunately we don’t have this and simply work with what we have.

From your post it isn’t very clear as to what your issue is and what you have tried, if you can let me know this information with your Sure Signal serial number then one of the team will be able to advise you further.

In regards to it not being fit for purpose, there are thousands of Sure Signal users currently using the service with no issues.

The problem that we have is that it is impossible to know before hand what router, ISP, IP address, internet speeds and packet loss there is with a customer’s broadband setup and as such there is a lot of different combination available that can sometimes need configuration by the user or even investigation on the line with the ISP.

@ charlesr, I have re-synced the Sure Signal for you today, let me know if you are still having any issues.

James

[ghotihed]

---

James wrote:

@ ghotihed, I can see that your Sure Signal is yet to make a connection to the server, I can see that the traceroute is fine and your IP address is already on the White list.

However there is a possibility that the issue is with the Sure Signal not being able to create a VPN connection due to packet loss or speed.

So we can check these please can you let me know the results of a speed test and a ping test.

James, thanks for taking the time to respond.  I do a regular SpeedTest, due to some previous problems with Sky, but it's been consistently "good" for some weeks. Just now I received 8.62 Mbps down and 0.77 Mbps up, which about typical.

The PingTest is one I haven't run in a while, and that is, indeed, showing a problem.  The ping is at 42 ms, and the jitter is at 4 ms, but for some reason the packet loss test doesn't seem to want to run.  Looking at their help, they say they're looking to use an outbound TCP/UDP port of 5060 (to be changed to 8080 in the near future). As far as I can tell, there's nothing on my router that is blocking any outbound ports.  Essentially, I have the following set:

Outbound Services

#	Enable	Service Name	Action	LAN Users	WAN Servers	Log
Default	Yes	Any	ALLOW always	Any	Any	Never

Inbound Services

#	Enable	Service Name	Action	LAN Server IP address	WAN Users	Log
1	Yes	SS 50	Allow always	192.168.1.13 (50:50)	0.0.0.0 (1:65535)	Never
2	Yes	SS 123	Allow always	192.168.1.13 (123:123)	0.0.0.0 (1:65535)	Never
3	Yes	SS 500	Allow always	192.168.1.13 (500:500)	0.0.0.0 (1:65535)	Never
4	Yes	SS 4500	Allow always	192.168.1.13 (4500:4500)	0.0.0.0 (1:65535)	Never
5	Yes	SS 8	Allow always	192.168.1.13 (8:8)	0.0.0.0 (1:65535)	Never
Default	Yes	Any	BLOCK always	Any	Any	Never

Do you have any ideas before I start the long and extremely arduous process of ringing Sky to get their take on the matter?  I suppose I could try a factory reset of my router and go from there, but that would be a bit cumbersome.  Do you see any reason why I shouldn't try a factory reset on the VSS, first?  (I worry that perhaps I interrupted something when I shut it down after that first six-to-seven-hour flashing session.)  Perhaps try logging some of the port usage on my router to see if I can find anything out there.

As others have mentioned, let me add my support behind any future development of an embedded web server in the VSS that could provide more detailed diagnostic information.  It might make some of this stuff a lot easier on you, let alone us, in the future.

Thanks again, for your responses.

Me

[redsquirrel]

@James

Thanks for responding both here and in the "new handset" thread.   My normal router is the Netgear WNDR3700 and it was this router it was working on until the factory reset of the SS signal on Thursday.     Several attempts were made to get the link going and eventually one of the telephone tech support people told me to set some ports, the usual 5 plus 1723 (I think) for both TCP/UDP.    I did this on the netgear but still no joy.

Another call to the support line got a response to speak to BT.   This is I did, but before doing so I replaced the Netgear with the BT supplied HH3.    As well as the port forwarding rules I even put the SS as the DMZ device on the HH3 and completely disabled the firewall altogether.   Effectively the SS was sitting there on the internet with all traffic routed to it.    Still would not connect.

I have now gone back to using the Netgear, had two or three further attempts to resync, but still nothing

[gssaw]

James,

Thank you for your reply. 

Yes, I have disabled the firewall in the BT Homehub.

Several hours and several resets later, notwithstanding lights on the RJ45 socket suggesting comms with the Homehub, there it still seems that the VSS has not been allocated an IP address.

gssaw

[SkudMissile]

James,

ive reset both the router amd the suresignal box yet again as requested. (i waited for the internet connection to be up amd running again before doing the vss reset)

still no signal and still i get a general failure for ping or trace route to the vodafone server - this suggests to me there is a server issue and its nothing to do with my equipment!

[gwyn_carwardine]

Hello James and thanks for your response.

First of all this is a bit of a cop out: " I understand your frustration however this is how they are made by the manufacturer, unfortunately it is not made by Vodafone but simply implemented and supported by us."

Vodafone chose to procure this piece of ###### to sell to its customers (or they commissioned alcatel to make it) so any fault for poor hardware is firmly and well and truly laid at Vodafone's feet. 

Are you sure that you'd call this fit for purpose? Of course you have to say so on here but I would hope you may feel differently personally. Anyway - enough of that for now

I spoke to a chap within vodafone at length and he got me to set up port forwarding as my box "couldn't connect to the internet". This already showed some sort of ignorance because port forwarding does not allow the box to contact the internet, it allows something on the internet to make unsolicited communications to my box. Having setup the port forwarding (which differed slightly from what I've seen on here but I double checked and he said it was correct) he told me that I would need to reset the box and then wait 2-6 hours at which point it would work

Well, it still doesn't work (10 hours later). I don't really understand what the purpose of resetting the box is - after all nothing had changed that the box would know about. I also asked chummy why it took 2-6 hours and what would the box be doing for that 2-6 hours before it tried "connecting to the internet". He didn't have an answer. So - what is it doing that means it can't confirm the connection for this time? It's going to be pretty frustrating if everytime you try something else you have to wait 2-6 hours to see if it worked or not.

Anyway, my serial is 40120127283

[DieTryin]

Hi

VSS Srl No: 40111624231

IP Address: 192.168.1.99

BT Home Hub 3

I've tried the Port Forwarding/Fixed IP address/factory re-boot/router re-boot/de registering/re registering/checked both modem lights on the back of the VSS/checked the internet connection/all the things I can find mentioned in this thread.

Will you re-sync for me please.

I appreciate that this is not your fault, but by the large number of posts on this forum about Sure Signal, Vodafone should be making some sort of official statement.

Thanks

David

[Danny72]

Hi,

I can't get my Sure signal  (serial no.40120929738) to work.

Due to my local Vodafone mast being down since the 29th of April and having no signal.  I requested and was sent a suresignal box

I've have a solid power light at the moment.  Everytime I reboot, I get flashing symbols for 10 mins then it reverts to the solid power light.

I've followed all the troubleshooting points.

UPnP is enabled

DHCP is enabled

Ethernet connection is OK

I'm using a Thomson Livebox from Orange.

Please help.

[chrispayze]

After a lot of reading, changing my router, assigning a fixed IP and setting up the port forwarding, my Sure Signal was working (although it occasionally dropped out, requiring a reset to reconnect).

However, it has now not been working for several days. I have checked my connection speed, 1020kB/s upload, 13MB/s download; my ping, all 1-45ms. The correct ports are forwarded (it has been working afterall). I have conducted numerous soft and hard resets and it now does the following:

After a hard reset, power light comes on, then after a short time both system and phone lights flash for a while then turn off, leaving just the power light.

The serial number is 40114677327. What is wrong?!

It seems there are a lot of peopl ehaving problems with Suresignal. Have Vodafone released a product that was not ready for market?

Thanks

Chris

[RacineFan]

Seems to me that something has changed very recently. I've also had a working system up until very recently and now there's a spate of this exact problem. You're not alone...

Best of luck with it. If I get any luck I'll post back here.

[mouldy3]

I am having this problem too, i have had the necessary settings put on our router, i have reset the unit, i have also reset, de-registered and re-registered my SS2 and still no joy.

My speed and ping tests are ok.

My SS2 serial number is 40113704890

My tracert results are as below please help:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Lee>tracert 212.183.133.177

Tracing route to 212.183.133.177 over a maximum of 30 hops

1     1 ms     2 ms     1 ms  192.168.30.254  

2     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  network2-adsl.demon.co.uk [62.49.97.249]  

3    25 ms    25 ms    25 ms  anchor-hg-3-lo100.router.demon.net [194.159.161. 34]  

4    25 ms    25 ms    25 ms  anchor-access-4-s2010.router.demon.net [194.217. 23.37]  

5    23 ms    24 ms    24 ms  gi7-0-0-dar3.lah.uk.cw.net [194.159.161.90]  

6    25 ms    85 ms    24 ms  xe-0-1-0-xur1.lah.uk.cw.net [193.195.25.66]  

7    29 ms    26 ms    27 ms  LNDGW2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]  

8    24 ms    25 ms    25 ms  85.205.116.2  

9     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

10     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

11     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

12     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

13     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

14     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

15     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

16     *        *        *     Request timed out.

17     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

18     *        *        *     Request timed out.

19     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

20     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

21     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

22     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

23     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

24     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

25     *        *        *     Request timed out.

26     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

27     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

28     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

29     *        *        *     Request timed out.  

30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Lee>

I am connecting through a network on a HP procurve switch if that helps?!?

[drewyd]

Hi,

I have a new VSS arrived yesterday and have gone through the troubleshooting advice & waited 24hrs as instructed. Still not working. 

My setup is BT Business Hub 3.0 which is connected around 8Mb downlink speed & works fine otherwise. VSS serial 40120904665, registered fine on the Vodafone site.

I have attempted to set up the port forwarding as described and this looks OK, but I can't find a "whitelist" to add the IP ranges to. All to no avail - still not working. Can you help please?

Andy

[gwyn_carwardine]

Eventually managed to speak to someone - vodafone internal systems have been down much of the day.

Helpful chap, hopped onto my pc and confirmed router etc all ok. But it still doesn't work. He did something called a "resync" but I've no idea what this means. I also have to hard reset the box but again no idea to what avail.

Now it strikes me that this chap knew some bits but he didn't understand how this system works. So the question for the tech team is... do you?

When you register on the vodafone site - what does it do?

When the suresignal box starts up - what does it do?

1. gets an ip address from DHCP server.

then what?!

I have tried telnetting into ports 8,50,500,4500,123 to see if I can get any response but dead in all cases. So not sure quite whether it is using TCP because I'd expect a response of some kind. Unless it's got an internal firewall which is stopping traffic unless from a vodafon server in which case any sort of self-diagnostic is even more bloody difficult.

So I'm guessing that after it starts it sends a message to the vodafone server or attempts to create a vpn or similar. And it must expect a pretty instant response or does it just fire and forget a UDP packet and sometime later the vodafone server gets back to it? I would have thought it needs to be pretty instantaneous because following a power cut it's not reasonable to expect it to take 2 hours to come back online. Or is it just this very first conversation that takes a long time whilst some back-end registration goes on? I would guess not because after a power failure the router could itself get a new WAN IP address on reconnecting which is pretty much back to square one - message from VSS saying "Hello I'm 40120127283" which will come from the user's new IP address which needs to be set in the backend database.

So - what is it doing precisely?

Anyway - after session initialisation and the thing is connected - what happens next? Is it polling periodically? What are the different ports for? If it's set up a VPN then the ports would be immaterial as all traffic will be going down a tunnel.

If you don't know please say "I don't know"

And then find someone who does and get the details from them

Thanks

[danhowes]

Hi,

I got a Sure Signal at the weekend as I live in a basement flat and am tired of pressing my face to the window to make a call !

Following the initial setup all was very straight forward, first registering, then connecting - the twin lights flashed together for around 10 minutes, then stopped and I was left with just the power light.

Following the troublshooting steps on this forum (waiting 24hrs, the box is registered, checking connections, internet is on, I can see the sure signal as a 'known device' attached to the router and my router supports UPnP).

Reading the forum I see there seems to be a problem with sky routers due to them running a MER network type?

Being that some of the threads are now quite old, can you tell me if there is a solution to this problem now?

By the way I ran a trace, the results are below.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Dan

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>212.183.133.177
'212.183.133.177' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>tracert 212.183.133.177

Tracing route to 212.183.133.177 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    40 ms     1 ms     1 ms  myrouter.home [192.168.0.1]
  2    91 ms    22 ms    22 ms  027e23be.bb.sky.com [2.126.35.190]
  3    20 ms    23 ms    21 ms  10.245.136.241
  4    33 ms    30 ms    30 ms  te0-2-0-2.er11.thlon.ov.easynet.net [89.200.131.
89]
  5    29 ms    29 ms    28 ms  LNDGW2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
  6    39 ms    39 ms    39 ms  85.205.116.2
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Windows\system32>

[SkudMissile]

Finally after two whole days without service it has now come back online in the last few hours. This is after multiple resets of both router (which has always been running fine) and the vss box and a complete lack of any useful I formation from Vodafone about the problem. The best I got was some bull about an "upgrade" that was happening today (when I phoned on a landline to complain!) which obviously did not account for all the downtime.
This box is a joke, it spends more time down than up and if any other pc in the house is in use then forget being heard on a phonecall.(I can hear them perfectly due to better download speeds than upload!) Roll on feb 2013 when I can ditch Vodafone for good!

[redsquirrel]

@SkudMissile - what a coincidence - mine has also come back online this evening.   Almost as if, just perhaps, someone at Vodafone has fixed the problem.    I wonder how many, if any, other suresignals have started working again this evening.

[ghotihed]

Update: When I got home from work today, I noticed a change. Instead of the System and Phone lights being off, or both blinking, instead the System light, alone, was blinking. I could also see a blort-load of activity on the router for the network port in use.  This went on, from the time I got home at 5pm until around 1am (probably earlier, as well, but nobody else in the house noticed), when the System light finally went solid. My phones now have full signal.

Whew!  It took a while, and some hard resets of the VSS, but it all seems to be working for me now.

Me

[mouldy3]

Turned it off and on again today and it seems to be working ok