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my week with a second VSS

planetlarg
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

‎30-09-2013 11:56 AM

No luck with a second VSS. This is my story so far. 

 

The first VSS and the network

 

I bought one VSS (Vodafone Sure Signal) v3 which works fine. If it is powered off, that's no problem. Within 5 minutes of powering up, it's back in action. Here are the links in the chain that let me get my 3G signal. 

  1. The device - a femtocell (http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/solutions/small-cells)
  2. my home network
  3. my ISP
  4. Vodafone network

One problem anywhere along here means the thing does not work. We all know computers are a bit rubbish and fall over, so there are transient errors - but on the whole it's good. 

 

The range of the first VSS does not reach my home office (OK, shed) so I bought a second one. 

 

the second VSS, resets and the Egyptian call center

 

When I power on the second one it will sit there with power light on and Internet light flashing for about two hours (see this link for photos of lights - http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/Version-3-Sure-Signal-Troubleshooting/td-p/13933... it drops into an error state. 

 

I call the very nice Egyptian help desk using 191 on my mobile (my first VSS allows me to make calls). They put me through to tech support, we go through the reset dance,and start again.

 

The box did spring into life and work for a while over the weekend, until a power cut sent us back to jail. Why? Who knows.

 

wild guesswork

 

So what does this tell me? 

  • Vodafone staff don't necessarily know how these Alcatel-Lucent boxes work. 
  • Is a reset really the only possible option? Vodafone staff don't have the troubleshooting tools needed to pin down VSS problems.
  • Why would anything on the Internet take hours to finish? The administration may be done by batch processes, possibly overnight.That's not what I want from my suppliers. 
  • The customer self-service portal really ought to give some kind of feedback on the state of the VSS. Being left in the dark is a horrible powerless kind of feeling. 

 

So what do I do now? Maybe the box is faulty - I should take the box back to the store and replace it. Maybe something is wrong at the Vodafone end, so I should call support again.

 

I don't know what's wrong. And neither do Vodafone support. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 REPLIES 5

planetlarg
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

‎01-10-2013 08:57 AM

I've had another hour on a call to support, before my call was dropped. First to second line support (outsourced to Egypt), and after a while they put me through to third line support in the UK. 

 

  • Each VSS needs 4.7MB download and 0.4 upload to work. Two devices needs twice the bandwidth. 
  • The device establishes a VPN tunnel to the Vodafone network.
  • My ISP is like X ISP (I can't remember the name).
  • I'm lucky that my VSS works at all.

So a mixture of facts and guesswork. None of this was backed up by any kind of testing. So as all us nerds know, you may as well be fault finding by rolling dice. 

 

It's not right to tell customers this kind of thing. At best it's unhelpful and at worst it's deceit. I know data networks are complicated, but that's why I'm paying Vodafone, right? And I've already paid an extra £100 VSS penalty for not living in a city. 

 

The VSS works this morning. Why? I'll never know. 

 

 

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Sukhi
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)
In response to planetlarg

‎02-10-2013 12:25 PM

Hi plantlarg

 

Gosh what an ordeal you've had! 

 

It's good to see that your Sure Signal is now working. I'll be honest I'm not a techie person however the fact that the new Sure Signal box is working I'd imagine the first one was faulty.

 

Thanks

 

Sukhi

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planetlarg
2: Seeker
2: Seeker
In response to Sukhi

‎02-10-2013 01:25 PM

Many thanks for your reply.

 

I did not replace the VSS. It's possible the fault is in the device, but it is more likely that a nightly action in the Vodafone network fixed the fault. 

 

What kind of troubleshooting tools are you given (eg. Simple 'it's connected' light, complicated activity log, big resync button)?

 

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Retired-Dave
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)
In response to planetlarg

‎03-10-2013 03:13 PM

Hi planetlarg,

 

We have access to enough tools to do the main checks, and for anything more in-depth we can get your details and get you speaking directly with our technical teams.

 

We've seen issues which have resolved themselves before for a number of reasons, from the Sure Signal cooling down to a small change affecting the Internet connection to changes at this end.

 

We're not updating anything at this end at the moment, so it's hard to pin down the exact fix for you, but as Sukhi said, the good thing is that you're working! :smileyhappy:

 

Dave

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planetlarg
2: Seeker
2: Seeker
In response to Retired-Dave

‎07-10-2013 03:40 PM

Thanks for the reply.

 

new things - 

  • It is still working. That's both VSSs. I did not replace any products. 
  • Now after a power-off the VSS resumes within 5 minutes rather than overnight. What has been updated? A bit of config or the whole firmware? 
  • It rebooted once during a phone call. My usage has been light, so no pattern here yet.  

There is a lot more that can be done to support these boxes, but who knows - maybe the project managers and product marketers at Vodafone spent all the budget before the transition to operational support. 

 

If you can give me a bit more info for the questions above, I'm happy for you guys to close any tickets. 

 

 

 

 

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