Sure Signal not transmitting a 3G signal

[Retired-George]

This issue presents the following symptoms:

For version 1 Sure Signal (the one with four lights on the front):

• Lights one and two are solid which indicates the Sure Signal is connected, but isn't giving a 3G signal.
• Light four doesn’t light up or lights occasionally and then goes out at certain times of day.

For version 2 Sure Signal (the one with 3 lights on the front): 

• The power and system lights are both solid, indicating that the Sure Signal is giving a 3G signal.
• Your registered phones don’t pick up a 3G signal.

For version 3 Sure Signal (the plug in version):

• Power, internet and service lights are solid and the ‘in use’ light is either solid or flashing
• Your registered phones don’t pick up a 3G signal

Troubleshooting steps:

Check that your broadband connection meets our minimum requirements.
Please run the broadband speed checker.

If your connection fails any part of the test, this indicates an issue with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and you’ll need to contact them to discuss this.

Your connection speed will vary throughout the day, so we recommend running it at various times to get an accurate reading.

To ensure the Sure Signal broadcasts at the correct frequency, it sends and receives small amounts of data to a Network Time Protocol Server hosted by ourselves. If these packets of data take longer than 240ms to make a round-trip, the accuracy can no longer be ensured and so the Sure Signal will automatically stop broadcasting and light four will go out.

Check for planned maintenance.

Planned maintenance can cause periods of downtime, so check the forum for any planned maintenance. If there is, this will be announced at the top of the Sure Signal forum.

Reset your Sure Signal:

1. Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid
2. Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in
3. Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead
4. Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

The Sure Signal will be back online in around 1 hour.

Configure your Router Firewall.
The IP address and ports used for NTP (Network Time Protocol) synchronisation are listed below. You may need these to configure the correct firewall settings on your router.

This step isn’t usually necessary, but it may help if you’re using a complex network (such as a corporate or office LAN), or a complex router.

We recommend contacting your ISP or router manufacturer directly for detailed instructions on exactly how to change your router settings. Alternatively, select your router make and model over at http://portforward.com and follow the default guide there.

Destination IP addresses:

• 212.183.133.181
• 212.183.133.182
• 212.183.131.128/26

• Protocol = UDP
• Port = 123

Please note that in the list of IP addresses above, the notation "212.183.131.128/26"means the entire range of IP addresses between 212.183.131.128 and 212.183.131.191

Perform a PathPing to our server.

In order to check if the Sure Signal's able to communicate with our NTP server, a PathPing can be performed as a test. In order to do this, you'll need to open the command prompt in Windows as follows:

• For XP just click Start > Run and type cmd then hit enter
• For Vista/Windows 7, press Start and type 'cmd' into the search bar
• Right click the result and click ‘Run As Administrator’

Once you're in the command prompt, type in PathPing 212.183.133.181. This will perform a trace route to the NTP server and will show you the route it took to get there. One of the columns will display packet loss, if this occurs before hitting our server, you'll need to contact your ISP for further assistance.

If you've completed all the troubleshooting steps above and not identified the cause of the issue, your Sure Signal may be faulty. Please post in this thread and we can look into it further.

Thanks,

Jenny

[grolschuk]

The tracert timing out is a red herring, the servers are set not to reply to ping requests, which is common on public facing servers.

What Vigor do you have?

9 times out of 10 it is just a mis-setting in the router config not allowing all of the traffic through.

[simon_perkins]

It's a Vigor 2925. It only blocls outgoing netbios traffic. Also, the settings haven't changed since before the Sure Signal started failing.

The whole things seems pretty shoddy. What's with the waiting 6 hours to get a connection? Why doesn't the portal show connection information for registered Sure Signal devices? Shouldn't the Sure Signal have it's own in-built web status page? VOIP services and devices are streets ahead of Sure Signal.

[Retired-Laura]

Hi simon_perkins,

Has this started working for you now?

I can see this has connected to the network on 19 October at 10.12 am.

If this is still not working, please can you give us an update on the light sequence you can see?

Cheers,

Laura

[simon_perkins]

Laura,

I get lights 1 + 2 solid for a while while light 4 flashing, but after a while it just goes to solid light 1 only.

I read another forum thread saying that Sure Signal dooesn't work if you router connects using PPOE. Is that correct? We have a Vigor 2925 using two OpenReach modems using PPOE to connect to FFTC.

[Retired-Simon]

Hi simon_perkins,

That’s correct. The Sure Signal won’t work over a PPPoE connection.

Unless your router can bridge the connection to PPPoA or you have an option to change it to PPPoA, the Sure Signal won’t work.

Thanks,

Simon

[simon_perkins]

That's going to make Sure Signal useless as FTTC gets rolled out across the country. Must ISPs won't support you unless you use the OpenReach modem which requires PPOE.

Why is Sure Signal so fragile in it's requirements? We've got tens of other network devices on the same connection that work just fine, e.g. VOIP devices, phones, PCs, etc

Is there are any difference in SureSignal V3 ?

[grolschuk]

No difference in the V3, did you try removing the vpn service tick in the settings? as that is normally the bottleneck on dreyteks.

[simon_perkins]

Yes, all VPN enpoints are switched off

[simon_perkins]

Actually, you can get Sure Signal working with PPOE. Here's the setup we're using:

Draytek Vigor 2925

2 Openreach modems connecting with PPOE to BT Infinity/FTTC using Zen as ISP

Vodafone Sure Signal v3

When I initially connected up the Sure Signal V3 it didn't seem to work but I followed the advice in http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/BT-Infinity-and-Sure-Signal/m-p/1109577#M25066 . After power cycling the Draytek the SureSignal V3 connected in about an hour.

Here are some conclusions:

1) Suresignal V3 can work with PPOE.

2) With the Draytek 2925 it seemed to require the 'wan DF_check off' command through telnet followed by a power cycle. (Perhaps it would have connected anyway if I waited long enough).

3) No port forwarding or DMZ is required

4) All that tracert diagnosis stuff on this thread is bogus

5) My Sure Signal V1 still refused to work. I'm not sure if it is faulty or incompatible with this setup so it's going in the bin.

[wvandyk]

My Sure Signal V1 failed about a week ago. Lights 1 and 2 are constant, 4 flashes.  We have good internet connection, none of the other elements (phones, router, etc.) have changed and I've been through all the reset procedures I've read on this thread to no avail.  Do I just have to accept I need to buy a new box or is there anything else I can try?