Vodafone SureSignal v1

[TekaTK421]

Hi, 

My SureSignal has been working for about 4 years now and asside from needing the odd reset and a new power supply about two years all has been well.

Last weekend it got itself into a funny state and I'm fairly sure it's a network related issue. I did try ringing 191 but they kept going on about needing to hard reset my iphone 6 even though I was talking to them on it and clearly the lights on the box tell me it's not working (sigh).

The power light is on but light two blinks goes solid for 1 second or so and then light 4 blinks but light 2 starts to blink again. They get themselves into a flashing state go off and start all over again.

I've reset the box about 4 times now, power restarted, power retarted with reset in, power restarted my router with the sure signal disconnected also. So I've exhausted everything I could think prior to calling 191, so hopefully someone on here can point me to something as my signal strength is shocking without it.

My IP is 151.224.171.84

Ping is 13ms and my downlink is 30 Mbps with my uplink at 5 Mbps.

Serial No: 21221072651

I ran traceroute on my mac and it's just not making it across to the VF servers:

traceroute to 212.183.133.181 (212.183.133.181), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1  skyrouter (192.168.0.1)  2.163 ms  1.267 ms  0.914 ms

2  97e7fe76.skybroadband.com (151.231.254.118)  28.767 ms  6.292 ms  8.997 ms

3  te2-0-0.ar8.enhmi.isp.sky.com (89.200.135.186)  19.307 ms  17.520 ms  12.896 ms

4  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.124)  14.378 ms  16.978 ms  14.365 ms

5  85.205.0.86 (85.205.0.86)  14.286 ms  13.900 ms  18.283 ms

6  * * *

7  * * *

8  * * *

9  * * *

10  *

This seemed to happen fairly suddenly which made me think it's a config error in the ISP's network but I checked with sky and they are seeing nothing wrong and everything else is working on my router. Has there been a network update on your side or an update pushed down to the boxes recently? Seems suspect but it is 4 years old, I'm massively disappointed that 191 couldn't take the initaitve and just put me in touch with someone technical, they where clearly out of the depth when I said I'd already done all the stuff they said I needed to do.

Thanks!

19/11/2104 - Hi, I've not heard or seen anything and this does seem to be a common theme and it looks like a firmware flash has been used to sort the problem (looking at other threads). Could I get my box flashed please because I've been stuck with one bar since the weekend now and I work at home so it's vital I get back up and running. Thanks.

[DaveCD]

@TekaTK421 

I've checked and I can see the Sure Signal has been trying to update the software for a few days. 

I've tried communicating with the Sure Signal and I can see it keeps failing, and this appears to be a hardware fault.

Please try this on another connection such as a friend or family members.

If the fault still occurs, the Sure Signal will need to be replaced.

DaveCD

[philofsurrey]

Hi Dave

I have exactly the same problem as above, Tracert doesn't get past 85.205.0.86

I have ping 8ms Download 62.83Mbps Upload 17.87 Mbps so I don't think it's a speed issue...

Serial no. is 21196889725 VSS mk 1

Power light on steady, no others, ethernet light on back showing activity.

Been working for 3 years, now not...

Help! Next to no VF signal here at all.

Phil

[Retired-Simon]

Hi @philofsurrey

Your Sure Signal needs a firmware update.

I've done this now and it'll be pushed through in the next 24 hours.

Please don't disconnect your Sure Signal from the router or power supply and don't make any changes in the next 24 hours.

Thanks,

Simon

[philofsurrey]

It had come back to life this morning after a call with your techs on Friday (I couldn't wait any longer), but is now dead again... Just top light flashing, but I'll leave it until tomorrow to see if it comes back.

Thanks

Phil

[Retired-Kay]

Hi philofsurrey, 

I can see you're now running the latest firmware version. 

If it's still not working, please try the traceroute again and post the result. 

Thanks, 

Kay

[philofsurrey]

Hi Kay

Yes it has been working for a few days now, but out of interest I did Tracert again and curiously it still hangs at the VF IP address:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Phil>tracert 212.183.133.181

Tracing route to 212.183.133.181 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 152 ms <1 ms <1 ms BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * 7 ms 7 ms 31.55.186.133
4 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 31.55.186.164
5 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms 195.99.127.56
6 9 ms 8 ms 8 ms peer1-xe8-3-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [213.121.1
93.109]
7 11 ms 11 ms 10 ms lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
8 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms 85.205.0.93
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 *

That IP address seems not to be playing a part in whether the VSS works or not...

Phil

[TekaTK421]

Hi,

I realise it's been ages since I posted this but after much searching and the fact I really couldn't find a new Sure Signal in stock anywhere I thought I'd try changing out the power adapter. I had seen it had fixed the issue for some people on here, turns out that did the trick. At only £8 it's a snip compared to the cost of a new Sure Signal and only took me just over two months to work out.

Cheers!

[cineriv]

Hi TekaTK421,

How on earth did you mange to live without it for all this time!  :smileyfrustrated:

The original  power supplies have been failing left right and centre since the end of last year although there have been some  (like yours) during last year. But since Christmas, I guess there have been over 50  failed power supplies, 

The power supplies are only domestic units, but are mainly running continuously 24/7 for the past 4-5 years. Unfortunately they don't last forever!

Well done for trying the power unit as it isn't very obvious that the problem is power related.

Regards,

Mike.

[AndyWheeler]

Hi - I have exactly the same problem with my SureSignal v1 - it started to fail last week around Thu-Fri 27-28 Nov. I am also on Sky broadband and get same light sequence as you and have done all the resets etc to no avail. So I called vodafone tech support who said the SS was not connecting to the internet properly and I need to set up port forwarding. They sent me a list of ports/protocols to enable. My SS has been working for years without this, so why should I suddenly need it? They reckoned something must have changed and suggested contacting my ISP. So I called Sky who said nothing had changed on their side and couldn't help. When I mentioned the port forwarding, they wouldn't help other than to suggest  looking up "using port forwarding" with Google. This revealed lots of generic stuff on the subject as you would expect, so searched Sky and found out how to configure the Sky hub at this location:

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Broadband/Sky-Hub-How-to-Configure-Port-Forwarding/ta-p/707150

I configured port forwarding as requested and this made absolutley NO DIFFERENCE!!  So I'm now tearing my hair out. Nothing has changed on my home network, so either Sky/Vodafone have changed something or my SureSignal v1 has gone faulty. But since at least one other person is having the same problem, on Sky, I'm going to try it out on a neighbour's (non-Sky) broadband service.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Cheers, Andy

PS - below is what I get from a tracert on my WIn7 PC:

C:\Users\andy>tracert 212.183.133.181

Tracing route to 212.183.133.181 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  SkyRouter.Home [192.168.1.1]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    16 ms    14 ms    16 ms  02780a00.bb.sky.com [2.120.10.0]
  4    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
  5    15 ms    14 ms    15 ms  85.205.0.93
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  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     *        *     ^C