BT Infinity and Sure Signal.

[Jimfew]

I have just changed ISP to BT Infinity. As expected, my Sure Signal has failed. I have tried all sorts of resets and have asked Vodafone support to reset my device and do a network reset. I have also done a hard reset myself. It still does not work. I have opened all the necessary ports on my router (not the BT hub but a Draytek 2820).

I wonder if I also need to ask BT to open ports on their servers? Is this necessary? My old ISP, Be*, did not restrict any ports but BT may be different.

Can anyone advise me.

My VSS number is 21221070754

Can anyone list all the ports the VSS needs to be open (as up to date as possible).

Many thanks, Jim.

[Jimfew]

What a star you are sparkiemike. If you manage to get Draytek to say something helpful after all this effort, I'll buy you a pint.

[sparkiemike]

Just to update from Darytek support, they can see the fragmented packets from the VSS. No solutions yet and the infomation has been forwarded to HQ.

They have not made any promises about resolving it, but it is still an open case.

[Retired-James]

Hi sparkiemike,

Thanks for the update here, please keep us posted as it will be very interesting to see what they say.

James

[sparkiemike]

Thank you James, wouldn't it be a good idea to get a two prong attack on this issue. What do the manufacturers of the VSS device have to say about fragment packets. Perhaps this is something Vodafone could take up with them?

[Jimfew]

I have to say that we (as a team) believe that the problem is how fragmented packets are dealt with when they are sent from the VSS. I must admit, the likely early solution to this is if the Draytek can be updated to deal with fragmented packets. They have already done an update to their Vigor 2750 to stop the instability of the fragmented packets from a device that sends out 1500 MTU packets over a fixed 1492 MTU network. This enables the 2750 to operate but does not allow the packets through the router effectively disabling the VSS. My 2750 was so unstable that I cannot use it and the 2820 is OK but will not allow any fragmented packets through.

Has Vodafone looked at this problem previously with the VSS?

[Retired-Simon]

Hi Jimfew

All of the official BT products have been tested with the Sure Signal device and are confirmed as compatible. Where the router used is not a BT product I'd suggest in this instance to switch back the BT equipment for Sure Signal usage as we know that this will work with the device.

Thanks

Simon

[Jimfew]

Hi Simon

Thanks for that but my BT Fibre hub does not work with the VSS. BT now say that it will never work with their hub as the MTU required is 1500 which is outside the official spec for PPPoE networks of 1492 in the UK. They say their is nothing more they can do until the VSS is re-designed to comply with the proper specs. They say they never gave a clear test verdict to Vodafone of the use of the VSS on their network. They said it depends on the hub used and their fibre hub was not guaranteed.

BT say that the VSS is NOT supported on their fibre network. They are adamant about this and I have confirmed this with their third line fibre team.

In any case, I need the advanced features of the Drayteks for my business which the BT hub does not supply.

It is not such a problem now as I have purchased O2 phones which work better here so I don't need the VSS now, I'm just waiting for the Vodafone contracts to run down on my old phones.

Jim.

[sparkiemike]

Simon I will support Jim's view on this. The BT kit is not good with very limited features.

I wish Vodafone would be proactive about this and take the bull by horns and deal with the technical issues. Get your technical guys to talk to BT's technical guys and make the VSS work with anybody's kit. I don't have problems with browsing, email, skype, video streaming and my VPNs - so why is the VSS not compatible???

As soon as my contacts run out - I will be off to O2 as well.

I had a cold call from Vodafone yesterday trying to sell me additional services, the call was very short when I told him the Vodafone service was terrible, needless to say I declined his offers.

[Retired-Lee]

Hey guys,

I can promise you that your thoughts and feedback has been passed on.

It's very interesting as we've been working very closely with BT and have sent units to them that we know are in working order for BT to configure their products with the VSS and on each occasion, using either version 1 or 2 of the VSS, they've come back to us claiming they've not experienced any issues with set-up and configuration, so long as the supplied equipment is used.

As I say, I've passed your comments on to our support teams. I can't guarantee an update but I expect we will be in touch with BT about this.

Cheers,

Lee

[sparkiemike]

Thanks for the update.

... "so long as the supplied equipment is used"

That is no good enough - we want to be able to use our own equipment.

What ever information Vodafone have made available please make available to others. Or better yet deal with the fragmented packets.