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.

[FelixDaHousecat]

Good enough or not, dude, the fact is neither BT or VF can guarantee the VSS will work with every router. I assume this is why BT can only test on the equipment they supply (unless they've got access to the thousands of routers available on the market)

Vodafone can only own one third of the set up which is the VSS and the network.

ISP's and routers can't be tested as it's out of their hands since they don't provide either the internet connection or the connection equipment.

Have you tried a different router, by any chance?

FDH

[sparkiemike]

Don't want to repeat myself so read the entire thread, dude.

[Retired-Lee]

Hey guys,

A further update for you:

Both product managers for Vodafone Sure Signal and BT Infinity have worked closely testing both products and have confirmed the VSS does in fact work on Infinity with the equipment supplied by BT.

Whoever you have spoken with at BT has misinformed you and BT have been made aware of this thread and are communicating to their customer facing teams that they are not to advise that the VSS does not work with BT Infinity.

BT however do not support VSS as it is not one of their products.

Cheers,

Lee

[sparkiemike]

This is all very good, and as you are repeating yourself I have do the same.

WE DO NOT WANT TO USE THE BT KIT AS IT IS INFERIOR.

It is well known that BT and Vodafone have a cosy relationship, afterall BT Mobile use Vodafone's network for their mobile service? So have BT added something to their kit to make it work with VSS?

Why can't Vodafone publish what specail requirement their VSS device requires, or better yet provide one that does not special handling - no fragmented packets.

To repeat myself  I don't have problems with browsing, email, skype, video streaming and my VPNs with the draytek routers - so why is the VSS not compatible???

[e630193]

Inferior to what? What you own, what I own? It's all a maater of opinion.

Anyway, I have at last got my (v2) Suresignal working. I have tried many different combinations of routers and settings but the combination that finally worked for me is the Openreach modem -> BT Business Hub 2 (2Wire) and a modified MTU setting of 1456.

I couldn't get the newer BT Business Hub 3 to work (couldn't find where/how to change the MTU on that.

In the current working setup I have given the Suresignal a public, static IP and the firewall is off on that port of the hub. I now intend to pull the suresignal back in to my private network and see if I can get that to work.

So, 5 bars for the the first time for over a month as opposed to zero/one bar.

As a side note, Vodafone tech support have _consistantly_ told me that the Suresignal would _NOT_ work on a PPPoE connection. BT on the otherhand have repeatedly said they believe it should work, and it does.

[pointone]

Who'd have thought you would have got conflicting (and incorrect) information from VF, surely not !

[sparkiemike]

Just to update, I have finally got the draytek router Vigor 2750n to work.

I received a firmware update from Draytek today to fix another unrelated issue, and the VSS is now working. I have not used the VSS for many months now, and did not check to see if worked prior to the frimware update. But it now works for me.

[Jimfew]

Hi Sparkiemike,

Excellent news. I think I'll try my 2750 now to se if the upgrade works for me as well. As you can see, I finally got the 2820 to work after some head scratching. At least we seem to understand what the issues are and that there are some solutions now to PPPoE wide area networking in the UK.

Jim.

[Jimfew]

Hi Lee,

Can you confirm what router the BT guys used as we cannot get ANY BT fibre router to work. The DSLAM in the cabinet is their latest version and is a different design. We have tried several different routers.

I seem to be getting different information from BT to you. My sources are with BT Business to Openreach, not BT Retail. Truthfully, how can BT be so sure it works when there are a growing number of people on here who are finding a problem.

My team and I here are no slouches when it comes to setting up these systems.

It might help us all, if you could put down a definitive guide to setting up the VSS on a PPPoE system. As I have also said before, I cannot use the BT Fibre hubs as I need to advanced features of better designed systems (we do prefer Draytek).

Truthfully, I am not having a go at Vodafone but it would help me (and others here) if you could mod the VSS to work on PPPoE systems. I think it is a simple matter of limiting the network MTU to 1492 or less which I believe could be done in firmwear. I truly believe this will help with the future direction of broadband in the UK and make the VSS more robust into the future. It is also true that router manufacturers could mod their hubs and modems to allow for 1500 MTU jumbo packets by fragmenting them rather than just discarding them.

[e630193]

Jimfew, as mentioned, a couple of posts up, I have the Suresignal working here with the BT issued kit. I agree that the root cause of the problem is the Suresignal but it does work. The MTU setting and fragmentation appears to be the problem, but for me, with the BT kit, an MTU setting of 1456, a public IP and a disabled firewall on the port did the job.

Cheers,
Mike.