Vodafone Sure Signal

[newbuilder]

Message sent.

[ernie29]

Guys,

I am pleased to report a second week of stability I havent changed anything, so can only assume the last reset completed by the support guys has sorted things out for me. Long may this continue!

[Robster2007]

I think I am now getting close to a month without dropping the signal.

I think I am now fixed!

Robin

[Lee]

Cheers folks, that's fantastic news!!!

Lee

[newbuilder]

What made the difference? New sure signal?

Got a new box arriving Monday. Concerned about what tech. Support (who weren't very technically minded, could not look up previous notes) said. Minimum upload speed is 0.4 MBps. Although I meet this, does that mean any blips and the SS freezes and needs human intervention?

[nontech-Lorna]

Hi, Ive always had this exact same problem with my SS. What do I need to do? I'm due to receive a second phone on my exsisting contract on Monday and am now thinking I may just send it straight back because I'm sick of turning the SS on and off every few days.

[DaveCD]

Hi newbuilder

Thank you for your post and if you can keep us updated that would be awesome.

Hi nontech-Lorna

Please can you try the steps advised by James earlier here and let me know how you get on, if you are still experiencing issues I can then add you to our investigation.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

eForum Team

[newbuilder]

The new box has now been stable for about two weeks without once needing to be reset, it picks up the HTC Sensation XE as well. The other box needed a "Airplane Mode" switch over.

What do I do with the old one?

[rud]

I stumbled across this thread today. for months now ive had issues with my sure signal where it will disconnect and cannot reconnect without me pulling the power cable out and re-pluggin it back in. sometimes I have to do this a couple of times before it will reconnect.

serial number is: 40113136887

any advice will be great.

[Dave]

Hi guys,

newbuilder - you don't need to send the old one back, so you can dispose of it, use it as a bookend or doorstop, it's entirely up to you.

-------------------

rud - I've performed a re-sync on your Sure Signal at this end. Can I get you to perform a factory reset on the device to complete the process?

• 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.

Should you need to reset the box in future, can you follow these factory reset instructions again rather than just pulling the power, as these ensure the box is reset properly and reconnecting to the network.

Dave

If I've helped today, please pop me a little feedback!

[algev1]

Hi again James, Lee and Dave

I last posted on 26th April 2012. My replacement VSS: Serial No: 40114639293, Rev 00 was registered on 18/04/2012. The unit was working well and I had great hopes for it. However the drop-outs problem didn't go away completely, just the frequency reduced, albeit quite dramatically, to weeks rather than days. We peresevered with this for a few months but when a drop-out occurs it disrupts the router and NAS server that then have to be re-booted and it becomes a liability. If you check with the service records you'll see that the unit hasn't been used for significant chunks of time (longest probably about a month) but now I have some time to re-address the issue - having paid for a box it may as well be a fully operational box. Please could you re-synch at your end, I can then do a factory reset and we will be able to see then if there is any change, hopefully to an uninterrupted service status without any drop-outs. I'm assuming that you will post a message in this thread to let me know when a re-synch has been done. Thanks.

For completeness:
Router: Netgear N600 DGND3700
ISP: BT Business

Router LAN connections:
VSS S No 40114639293
Belkin Network USB Hub F5L009
QNAP TS-412 Turbo NAS (Raid 5 Array)

Router WLAN connections: various laptops, dongles and devices.

[James]

Hi algev1,

Thanks for getting back to us with an update.

As requested I have re-synced the Sure Signal for you please perform a factory reset of the Sure Signal and let me know how you get on.

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.

James

[algev1]

Thank you James. I will have an opportunity later on today to do the factory reset and I will confirm its completion with you. I will not get into daily updates since this box is performing rather better than its predecessor. If we get beyond three/four weeks without drop-out then I will give you an update unless, of course, we get a drop-out before this period is over.

I may well have missed the relevant feedback from the tech team but do you now have a definitive answer as to why these drop-outs have been occurring. If so, why? If not, what have you managed to rule out? I ask because I would like to know if there is any 'toxic' relationship between the devices that I'm using or how I'm using them. If it is a Vodafone system issue then what is its nature?

Thank you for your fast and appropriate response to my request for a re-synch and the service team's help generally so far.

[algev1]

Hi James

I have just completed the factory reset; depending upon what happens and when, I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.

[James]

Hi algev1,

To be honest we are not sure what is causing the drop out for you and we are continuing to investigate this with users that are affected.

If you can keep us updated with how you get on over the next week or so, it would be great.

Thanks again

James

[algev1]

Hi James

Sorry for the delay in coming back to you. My VSS dropped out in the very early hours of Monday 10th Sep with the consequential need for a reboot on router and data server (I should have noted the exact time so apologies if the drop-out was late on 9th; hopefully your system may hold this info). I think this is the most frustrating issue with the VSS in that it is not a reboot of one device but that reboots of several devices are needed to restore full networking connectivity. This happened whilst I was working on the network and the loss of Internet access was able to be verified simply by looking at my mobile phone to confirm loss of 3G in the dead spots in our premises; one dead spot just happens to be my work space so I know that if my phone connectivity changes then there is a high probability that the network has gone with it. Right now we are running with a reserved IP address on the server only, but drop-outs occur even if the VSS is allocated a reserved IP address (as reported in an earlier posting). Since I was the only user on the network at the time of the last drop-out then I know that there were no IP conflicts existing. What I haven't been able to rule out though is any drop-out on our ADSL causing the VSS to then drop and so on into a full network re-start. When I have more time I will interrogate the router logs to see if anything unusual occurred and has been recorded. The VSS remains on but not rebooted and network connectivity (LAN and WLAN) is sound. I will not reboot the VSS until you have had an opportunity to comment.

Thanks again for your help.

[Lee]

Hi there algev1,

Thanks for your input.

To be honest, the systems that James and I have access to do not show us this information so I can't comment on whether the drop-out was on the 9th or the 10th, sorry.

Your theory of drops in service from your ISP sounds like a plausible avenue to investigate, as are firmware upgrades to routers and the like.

Cheers,

LeeH

[algev1]

Hi Lee

Unfortunately the logs in the router are of a rolling overwrite type so I can't interrogate too far into the past; if a glitch occurs then I'll try and get to it more quickly. I keep the router to the latest firmware/software builds and I'm beginning to exclude the router as the source of the problem in this respect. However, I had an interesting event earlier today - I noticed after lunch that Internet access had been lost so I rebooted the router and then went straight to the router logs. There was an Internet disconnection report timed at 11:34. Now as I'm the only network user right now then I can rule out conflicts etc, but if this log entry means that it was a service provider drop-out that occurred then it looks as though it may well be the cause for the latest reboot. How does the VSS respond to loss of ADSL? I would have expected an auto attempt at reconnection but if it doesn't or fails to reconnect successfully then I guess it could explain part of the problem. What I don't understand is that if this is the nature of the problem then why is it that this current VSS unit is weeks between drop-outs whereas the previous unit was days between drop-outs? Are some units more susceptible to loss of ADSL than others and can cope better with brief losses of Internet connectivity better? Are some boxes better at making a successful auto reconnect than others? All this speculation rests of course with the router making a successful auto reconnect, and that doesn't seem to be happening and I need to dig around with this now.

As an aside, our local mast after a week of service mayhem is now outputting more power and where I had a dead spot before, I now have an EDGE connection. If we can't get to the nub of these problems I might just have to ask Vodafone for a refund and live with the mobile EDGE connection and a reduced problem as far as drop-outs is concerned.

Any comments or thoughts gratefully received.