VSS ver3 and pppoe

[Martin222]

I seem to be stuck with the common problem. in short: VSS ver 3 red light on and first white flashing. We are on fibre optic hence pppoe . Have tried all the usual stuff - resets , resynch, port forwarding and changing mtu . All to no avail. I have a netgear wrn1000 router. My question is (and i am no techie): Is anyone running successfully with pppoe with a normal router in which case I might
change to that router ?

[Retired-Andy]

Hi Martin222,

It looks like grolschuk has already given you great advice about a router.

We can’t give any specifics but providing the router has an inbuilt bridge then it will work with the Sure Signal.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Martin222]

Thanks Andrew. Could you say a bit more about an "inbuilt bridge" please. Does it have a technical name? Then if I buy a router to replace my Netgear Wrn1000 (which I assume has no inbuilt bridge?) I know exactly what to insist on.

[Ben_H]

Hi Martin222,

It's a term to transform from PPPoA to PPPoE. It's literally just known as a 'bridge' in technical terms too.

It's something most routers such as a BT Homehub or Virgin Media Superhubs have as default for fibre customers for example. 

Cheers, Ben

[Martin222 · Accepted solution]

Update - for anyone else with similar problems!

I tried numerous further minor adjustments to the router settings, without any success at all. I contacted Vodaphone one last time, who suggested returning the VSS unit and getting another one. I was pretty sceptical about this, but did so anyway. After some initial problems, and a re-sync, much to my surprise the replacement VSS has started to work pretty well. In the last 10 days it has been on 95% of the time and mostly when it goes off it manages to recover by itself. However, there are times when only a reset will do the trick.

To summarise things I did (although I am not totally sure which one helped):

I replaced the VSS unit (was the last thing I did)

As advised by Vodaphone I set up Port Forwarding, and a Static IP address.

I messed about with the MTU size, but eventually just went back to the default setting of 1492

I put the VSS IP Address into the DMZ, which I understand takes the VSS out of the firewall (thanks grolschuk)

I didn't need to replace the router.

Fingers crossed.

[Ben_H]

Hi Martin222,

I'm pleased to see a replacement helped. Thank you also for putting your guide up. This will no doubt help others who may be in a similar situation searching for answers.

Cheers, Ben

[robforsyth]

I have previously posted my problems with trying to get VSS3 to work on a fibre optic network elsewhere on the forum - under red flashing power 2 orange lights - and have had extensive discussions with Vodafone and my provider Zen (TG 582N router) and my IT support person. None of this resulted in any sucess; but Zen continued to worry about the problem for me. They came up with a potential solution in the router set up so, after taking the VSS3 back out of its box (after a 4 week respite in it!) I plugged it in and was about to set the Zen's solution into their router but before I did so I noticed that I had 3 white lights on the VSS3 and strength 5 on my phone. Eureka - but why! The only difference between before and after is that on this occasion I could not find the  thin white ethernet cable that came in the VSS3 box and so used a much thicker spare one from my come in handy drawer that had come with another router or DLink mains plug. I have since tried the thin white Vodafone cable again - no go - so replaced it with the thick one and gotr near immediate re-connection. This is more than a co-incidence. So.....is there something about the Vodafone thin white cable that does not like 80mbps high speed Fibre Optic Broadband? Perhaps Vodafone could run some tests?

[robforsyth]

I spoke to soon - have now joined the throng of steady red power flashing white internet (searching) and calling you to get a reset your end followed by one my end. Discouraging.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi robforsyth,

I've had a search of your posts and can't find the VSS serial number.

Could you let me know what it is?

Cheers,

LeeH

[robforsyth]

Hi Lee

After a reset your end and mine yesterday afternoon I am back on line. Serial No 0C43909D3BD. The following is a brief case summary which may help you and other VSS3 users.

After 3 months of inability to get my VSS3 to work at all it started to work when I inadvertently substituted  a more substantial ethernet cable supplied with a Draytek router (I think) for the Vodafone supplied thin white ethernet cable in the VSS box . I retried the Vodafone white cable a couple of times and got the flashing red light 2 steady orange indication that I had had for 3 months and is widely discussed elsewhere on your forums. I think Vodafone need to look at the cable in relation to Fibre Optic speeds.

Various parties advice that  there was a PPPoa/PPPoE mismatch iseems to have been a red herring in my case as I have now had it working successfully twice.  Why it dropped off yesterday I know not but it is running OK today. Why the VSS drops off connection to the internet sometimes I (and numerous othres on the forums!) would be interested to know. If you have a steady power light and a flashing white connection light for over a couple of hours then the only thing to do is call 191 and ask for a reset - which is a pain!