Sure Signal V3 solid red light slow flashing, white, internet light

[robsown]

I'm starting a new thread , it's an old problem and judging by the number of existing threads something that surely by now Vodafone should have sorted out, but I can't figure out which of the 500+ threads to join, that says something about sure signal - doesn't it ?

I have a shiny new Vodafone V3 made by Alcatel- Lucent, it replaces a 2 year old VSS1 which went blank and gave up a few weeks ago.

After spending over two hours, over two sessions on Vodafone service chat, I have ditched the netgear router and installed a new TP-link, which I'm assured has UPnP capability, as does the V3 - Joke !!

I've worked my way through dozens of threads they all seem to come back to port forwarding and manually entering over 70 IP addresses is that right !! I don't have the time or techinical knowledge to do that , all Vodafone seem to do by way of help is direct you to the "Portforwarding web site" which shows how to port forward on the router I have but not how to enter the IP addresses. 

So I've mastered the port forwarding....

Before port forwarding was set up the V3 had a flashing red light and an orange service light

After port forwarding it has a soild red light and a slowly flashing , white , internet light... it's been like that for days !

I've tried a hard reset

I've tried de-registering and re-registering, the dashboard shows registered.

I've tried Tracert which just puts up a row of * * *'s and then times out.

I'm obviously missing something ,

All help gratefully received before the whole lot goes in the skip !

Thanks

Rob

[robsown]

Paul,

I think we are clutching at straws, the IP address hasn't changed for 36 hours , that is plenty of time for the VSS to at least contact your servers, test results below, the ping speed is within the parameters suggested by your colleague.

I have assigned the VSS a static IP address on the LAN and I've checked the situation regarding securing a static external IP address see below from BT Broadband,

Quote..

Answer:An IP address works like your home address, telephone or credit card number, to identify your computer and allow it to go online. It acts like a door to the internet, and without one your PC can't communicate with other devices or access the web.

Most home broadband services offer a dynamic IP address, where new sets of numbers are assigned at regular intervals, but some packages do offer the option of having a static (aka: a fixed) IP address, where your computer keeps the same set of numbers each time you go online. A static IP address allows you to run your own website, gaming server or remotely connect to your computer from another PC.

BT Broadband's (Visit www.BT.com) home internet packages come with a dynamic IP address and you do not have the option to upgrade to a fixed or static IP address

Unquote

This means that no one on BT broadband can get a static IP address, so based on your answer none of them can connect the VSS .... does this make sense to you ??

With regards to testing the unit are you saying that it has absolutely no diagnostic capability at all and the only way to find out if it is faulty is to waste even more time finding a friendly neighour who doesn't mind me connecting the VSS to their router for 24 hours. If it connects it confirms it works on their network and doesn't solve my problem , if it doesn't work it proves nothing, the only way to find out if it is faulty, and not the same problem as I have would be to give it a static IP address, configure the port forwarding , and then if it still doesn't work go through all the checks again .. your are joking !

I have a more sensible suggestion, Vodafone courier me a brand new tested VSS V3, I try it out and if it works I will send the faulty one back to you,

[DeanUK]

Hi there

I had this irritating solid red light and flashing leftmost white light and it was driving me nuts!

I changed my router in the end (to an old one I had) and it is strongly suspected that the MTU set in the router was the problem.  The old router (a Netgear DG834GT) can have an MTU of 1500 set (as advised in the troubleshooting guides) but the much, much newer (and more expensive not to mention shinier) Netgear DGND3700 v2 would not allow an MTU greater than 1458 for PPPoA connections.  None of the other settings differed in any other way - the port forwarding, the DMZ, the static addresses etc etc so hence the assumption that the MTU was the culprit.

Try and check what MTU is set in your router. I don;t know what router you are using but most having an option to change it somewhere. 

Once I had changed the router it did take nearly 24 hours for the SSs to connect but they have been solid and the  signal great ever since.

Give it a go...

[robsown]

Hi,

Really appreciate the input , at least its not another series of reboots and wait !!

The router I had before was a Netgear DGND3700 v2, new , shiny and expensive ...all I could get with that was a flashing red and orange light , tried all the usual and failed miserably to connect.

Have now changed it for a simple straightforward TP-Link router the max MTU is set to 1492 which is as near to the recommended 1500 as it will go.

Thanks

[Retired-Lee]

Hi there robsown,

Thanks for your post.

Can you reset the VSS as I've forced a resync for you?

If it's not possible for you to try the VSS on another connection please click the link below for your next steps.

I'm afraid the swap suggestion isn't something we'd be able to consider. We could arrange for a postal repair for you instead.

Thanks,

LeeH

[robsown]

Lee ,

Have reset the VSS now have flashing red light and solid orange service and user lights , been like that for three hours !

[robsown]

Have carried out reset and left overnight , still solid red and flashing white.

I gave brought the unit to work and our IT team will test it from here.

I can half understand the returns policy , but by the time I have returned the unit , it's been checked and sent back or replacedf I am without phone cover for at least another week with no guarantee it will work when it comes back.

I think we are getting to the point where we have to conclude that for whatever reason the VSS has ceased to fuction from where I live , this seems very odd as we have used an original VSS for probably the last 18 months without issue, and I only replaced it as the old one died.

As I bought the unit from the Vodafone store locally  I will be returning it as unfit for purpose we will then have to transfer to another provider which is a shame as we have been with vodafone for years.

I'll post the results of the test today later.

[Retired-Dave]

Hi robsown,

The only issue we sometimes see with using a works network is the security which may be in place such as company firewalls, so for any test they'd need to make sure that this is being bypassed or allowed through in some way.

We have many customers with BT Internet who have confirmed they are able to use the Sure Signal, and we've worked with them to test it with the supplied equipment successfully before, so rest assured that there is no incompatibility in that regard.

I notice you mention that the Sure Signal had a different light sequence on the previous router - flashing orange. This is a specific indicator that the Sure Signal is overheating so it can't function properly. With that in mind, if you still have that more advanced router, can you give it another go with the Sure Signal in a more open space allowing better ventilation? If this works then you both get a working Sure Signal and your more advanced router back in play.

Dave

[robsown]

Hi Dave,

Understand the potential problems with the corporate environment but we have a direct feed out of our network so have managed to "get around" a lot of the common security issues.

The company has a static IP address, a state of the art 30/100 broadband connection and a full IT team so hopefully we can at least determine if the unit is faulty.

The current status is that after 9 hours the unit is showing a flashing red light and two solid amber lights.

The IT guys are opening up the relevant ports right now and we will reset the VSS and leave overnight.

I still have the netgear router but all the threads I've looked at suggests it doesn't work well with the VSS, I'm quite happy with the TP Link router I'm using now it seems to do all I need it to do and .. hopefully.. will work with the VSS eventually, it would be nice to get the simple arrangement working and then maybe play around with the more advanced router.

Will post the results of the port forwarded tests tomorrow.

Rob

[robsown]

The VSS connected succesfully overnight from the office so that eliminates a fault with the VSS.

[Retired-Andy]

Hi robsown,

Thanks for the update; it’s great to hear your Sure Signal is now active. I can confirm, after checking our systems, it connected to our servers at 19:19 yesterday evening. It would look as though your IT guys have worked their magic.

Let us know if there's anything else we can help with.

Thanks

Andrew