Flashing/steady power light, no other lights lit

[Retired-George]

We’ve created this thread to help with an issue that some people find during setup.

This issue has the following symptoms:

• The power light either constantly flashes or remains steady
• No other lights flash or light up

Please note that whether the power light is flashing or remains steady, this still points to the same issue - the Sure Signal hasn't established a connection to the internet.

The only difference is that if the light’s steady, then the Sure Signal has previously downloaded a profile from the server, if it's flashing then it hasn't.

Troubleshooting steps:

Check the physical connection between your Sure Signal and the router/modem.

In order to work, the Sure Signal needs to be connected to a spare Ethernet port on your router or modem, or a Hub/Switch that is connected to an internet gateway.

In some cases, it’s possible for an Ethernet cable to be faulty, in which case it may not allow your router and Sure Signal to talk to each other.

To verify that the Ethernet cable works, check the lights at the back of your Sure Signal where the cable is plugged in.

There should be a link light on permanently which indicates that an electrical circuit has been established through the cable.

There should also be a light which flashes whenever data is being passed through the cable. If either the data light or the link light do not come on, this could indicate a problem with the cable itself. Please try a spare cable, or plug the cable into a different port on your router/modem.

Check that you’ve got an active internet connection.
Make sure you can connect to the internet on another device, such as your PC or phone. If you can’t connect, this indicates a problem with your router or your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

We recommend rebooting the router to see if this then allows you to connect to the internet.

Reboot your router/modem:

1. Turn off your router or modem at the wall for 10 seconds and then turn it back on
2. Wait for the lights on your modem/router to indicate that an internet connection has been established
3. Press the reset button on the Sure Signal

Check that your Sure Signal has been assigned an internal IP address by your router.

The Sure Signal must be assigned an internal IP address by your router. If your router supports DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), this must be enabled, as doing so will enable the router to assign an IP address to your Sure Signal automatically.

For more instructions on how to do this, please check your router manual, or contact your ISP or router manufacturer.

If your router or network configuration doesn’t allow DHCP, you’ll need to assign a static IP address to your Sure Signal's MAC Address by using your router's configuration panel. Please contact your ISP or router manufacturer for instructions on how to do this. The MAC address can be found on the sticker at the back of the Sure Signal.

BT Infinity customers.

If you’re a BT Infinity customer, you’ll need to log into your router admin page and select port clamping.

Once this has been selected please restart your router and Sure Signal.

Check your MTU settings.

Log into your router admin page and find the location of the MTU field. This varies depending on the make and model so you’ll need to look for it.

Change the value of the MTU size to 1500.

Log out of the router, this will usually result in a reboot.

Perform a reset of the Sure Signal:

1. Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid
2. Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in
3. Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead
4. Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

The Sure Signal will now try to contact the network and download its profile. This can take up to 6 hours.

Post your router/ISP details and Sure Signal serial number.

If you’ve done all of the above, or you’re struggling with configuring your router, please post your router's make and model number below. Please also include your Sure Signal serial number and the name of your ISP.

We find that other users of the same router will usually be able to share tips with you, to get things working.

We’ll also attempt to help with this, but due to the number of different manufacturers and models, it is not always possible. We don’t officially support any form of router configuration, so we’ll always recommend contacting your router manufacturer or ISP for assistance first.

Thanks,

Jenny

[Retired-George]

Hi R1chardc, JayBM,

Thank you both for posting. As the flashing/steady light issue means that the Sure Signal isn't establishing a connection to the internet it can be difficult from our end to establish exactly what the cause of the issue is.

Having said that, I'm going to speaking with the Sure Signal project team tomorrow and will be escalating this matter further. If there's any additional information I need then I'll let you know.

George
eForum Team

[r1chardc]

When is Vodafone going to take some responsibility for this?!?!

I have had a very lengthy technical chat with a sympathetic ISP tech support guy this evening. My ISP tech support has been round the houses and back again with the SureSignal long before my call and confirmed that there were no traffic issues for VPN through their network. Some of their users can use it, some cant. It makes no difference what exchange, or area they are in and there is nothing they can see from their logs that would indicate a pattern on their behalf.

They are adamant that the SureSignal box or the Vodafone servers are to blame. My own tests seem to support this as I can traceroute with no packet loss from here to the SureSignal servers fine, my firewall log clearly shows the VPN traffic being passed correctly in and out, so the problems are in the Sure Signal box or the VPN server after the handshake.

After a 4th separate so called "Sure Signal" specialist emailed me and told me the same exact thing, "Reboot modem/Reboot Sure Signal/Check Cables/Check Firewall ports 8, 123, 50, 500 4500" I am just throughly exhausted of explaining the same problem over and over. Have you never heard of a ticket system? Support continuity? let's just try Customer Service to start...

I even stupidly went out and bought a brand new router, just to prove I wasn't going mad. So thats now 3 different Sure Signals on 3 different Routers.

Routers used: Netgear DG834 v2; Netgear DG834GT; Thomson TG585n v2

I have seen at least 2 or 3 posts for the DG834G v2 and DG834GT saying they swapped to these routers to get them working with no config. Although you'll have to go back in time to see them now as Vodafone wiped about 36 pages of people complaining about this exact problem. Hence now why we are on page 4. My father is on the exact same broadband ISP package as me and using the router I just bought (Thomson TG585n v2) and he connected fine first time no config. His broadband line is flakey as he is miles from his exchange yet even he can get a connection. I'll say it slow again.. SAME ISP... SAME ROUTER... SAME ROUTER FIRMWARE... SAME ROUTER CONFIGURATION...got it? His works and mine does not.

And if I get one more email from another Sure Signal specialist asking me to reboot my Sure Signal I'm going to explode.

I work in IT and I know my way around routers, ports and VPNs. I have sent countless logs from my router, countless packet traces and every time I do the response is the same. "Reboot the VSS with the button held in". Will an IT manager at Vodafone please hire someone with a clue as your "Computer says no" staff are of absolutely no use to anyone.

Is there a comprehensive list of what routers and firmware are supported? No.
Is there a list of ISPs that are known to cause issue? No.

Why not?
Because it is irrelevant. A small number of people may have had issue with their routers or ISP (eg. Plusnet firewall) But I think these Sure Signal boxes are inconsistent. I think they are bad at establishing a secure VPN connection to the Vodafone VPN servers and Vodafone have absolutely no idea what is causing all these people to have such a headache trying to connect. It's easier for them to just blame ISP/Router/User and most ridiculously I even had a suggestion that connecting the Sure Signal to a 4way power adaptor could stop it from connecting. SERIOUSLY!? Come on!!!

Do I sound frustrated, disappointed and exasperated?

Jay

I can get VSS to work with both the Netgear routers listed above but only at my house. take the whole lot elsewhere and nothing even though all the ISP details tantamount the same. Bring it all back home and it works. Shame I am trying to sort this out for the person who owns the VSS but can't get it to work.

I started in the original (now removed) forum but found this to continue my quest for enough technical info to try and analyse the problem

regards

[r1chardc]

Hi R1chardc, JayBM,

Thank you both for posting. As the flashing/steady light issue means that the Sure Signal isn't establishing a connection to the internet it can be difficult from our end to establish exactly what the cause of the issue is.

Having said that, I'm going to speaking with the Sure Signal project team tomorrow and will be escalating this matter further. If there's any additional information I need then I'll let you know.

George
eForum Team

George

Thanks for this. However, from the first post in this forum by yourself:

"The only difference is that if the light is steady it means that the Sure Signal has previously downloaded a profile from the server, if it's flashing then it hasn't...."

QED if the VSS has downloaded a profile from the server, then it must have made contact with the server which means it has established an internet connection and so the problem must then be in how the config file works or whether it can be corrupted in downloading or needs certain parameters eg phone number for servers to authenticate each time ?

Perhaps that is why moving to a different phone causes a problem: after all the phone line is registered with the initial set up. To immediately counter this though is the fact that I can get VSS to work on an alien line, not the registered line.

Regards

[sainttrorey]

Ok here goes - any help greatly appreciated.

I've got the white BT Home Hub.

BT won't help and Vodafone 'technical help' won't help either.

I have added the following ports: 8, 123, 50, 500 and 4500 and assigned them to All I get is a flashing power light (after a reset).

Can anyone give me some sort of help?????

Thank you
Martin

[paulpenny]

I'm going to jump in here with an all too familiar story of woe!

Got my VSS a month ago. After a fairly long setup process everything worked as advertised without having to do anything on my Sky supplied Netgear DG834GT.

On monday of this week I came down to find just the steady power light.

Tried unplugging the router and the VSS but just got the same.

Reset the router and got a flashing power light rather than a steady light. I believe this relates to whether or not the VSS has a profile installed.

Tried resetting and leaving for 24 hours but still no joy.

Spoke to Vodafone customer service and they arranged to supply a new VSS.

Having connected the new VSS tonight I am still getting the flashing power light.

So, I have to conclude that something has changed either from my Sky broadband or at Vodafone's end. Nothing is different at this end.

Are there any other sky broadband users who have suddenly had their VSS stop working?

Has vodafone changed anything which would stop my VSS from working?

There has to be an explanation

[Retired-George]

Hi guys,

r1chardc, the difference between the flashing and steady power light when no others are lit is indeed that one hasn't downloaded a profile whereas the other has. All this means is that if you do have a steady light then the Sure Signal has been at least able to connect to the server at some point. In most cases this happens after the Sure Signal has been working correctly for a period of time but has then stopped. In some instances this isn't the case though, either way I'll be discussing this with the Sure Signal project team tomorrow.


sainttrorey, have you checked that your Sure Signal appears in your Router's DHCP table? If you're unsure of how to do this I'd recommend contacting your ISP or router manufacturer. It may also be worth testing a different ethernet cable or router if possible.


paulpenny, a very warm welcome to the eForum . I'd just like to clarify that we definitely haven't changed anything at our end that would suddenly prevent your Sure Signal from working. It could be a change that Sky have made at their end, or indeed new firmware downloaded to your router. I'd recommend contacting Sky to see if anything has changed at their end at all.


George
eForum Team

[paulpenny]

paulpenny, a very warm welcome to the eForum . I'd just like to clarify that we definitely haven't changed anything at our end that would suddenly prevent your Sure Signal from working. It could be a change that Sky have made at their end, or indeed new firmware downloaded to your router. I'd recommend contacting Sky to see if anything has changed at their end at all.


George
eForum Team

George

Just to update.

I went through the process of setting up the port forwarding as described for my router on Portforwarding.com and this did allow the VSS to connect. However, I did need to make one change from their instructions. They talked about leaving the WAN ip set to Any. This didn't work for me. I needed to put the Vodafone IP address range in for each service. I also opened the ports for both inbound and outbound traffic.

I'm still waiting for my handsets to connect but I do now have a steady power and internet light.

So if Vodafone didn't change anything then it must be something at the ISP level. I'm sure the router hasn't had a firmware update unless it happened remotely.

Anyway, providing the handsets do connect in due course, it looks like I'm OK again now.

Cheers

Paul

[mushnafen]

My groundfloor flat is unable to receive a signal with Vodafone, so I purchased theUnsure Signal kit. Problem solved. And yet not...

I purchased the kit in August. At that time I had to hold 5 or 6 conversationswith Vodafone to get it correctly functioning - we had to open ports on thewireless router, and reset it on countless occasions. Finally it seemed readyto function.

After 3 weeks it stopped working, the box was flashing a solid power light, andno other lights were on. Several more conversations with c/s and they concludedthat the BOX was at fault. It was sent to Vodafone for repair, and it arrivedback a week later. I plugged in the new box, connected it and still the powerlight was solid and alone.

I've spent the last few days constantly calling c/s, and have had the followinghappen - 1) the last 2 calls were cut off (I assume I wasn't hung up on...?),2) last night I was told that the box wasn't MY box and in fact registeredto someone else, and definitely wasn't the same one that went in for repair, 3)I received a text message referring to me as Luis - my name ins Matt - inthe HP1 postcode area (I won't write the full details here, because Iapparently have more understanding of people's personal data than Vodafone seemto!) and that my Unsure Signal is ready to go.

I then logged onto the Vodafone website, and can clearly see that the boxbelonging to Luis is now tied in to my account, IN ADDITION TO my original boxwhich had gone out for repair. I of course only have the one box. And I canonly assume that someone else has my box and data?!

During one call to the c/s team last night, some of the other lights brieflycame to life on the box. I told the operative this as "exciting" towhich he giggled. He then said he was putting me on hold...but infact -unbeknowns to him - didn't block the microphone at all. So I get to hearhim continuing to laugh saying to his colleagues "I have UK, UK, England,he is excited at the lights!! Excited!! UK England are excited". What onearth am I supposed to make of that episode? I am a figure of amusement forthem, when in fact this is a far from amusing situation.

It is worthadding to this that I am extremely proficient in IT issues, networking,computers and systems. I have carried out not just the obvious reboots, but themore complex procedures that are on the various online forums. From speaking toVirgin (my ISP) it would appear that Unsure Signal is incompatible with Virgin,as Virgin offer a nonstatic IP. If this is the case, it is likely to explainalot of the frustrations your customers are finding with the kit. Is this thecase?

So, the situation is that I am spending alot of my valuable time to try to sortthis out. And it costs me money each time to call the c/s team because I haveto do it from another network, hence it isn't free. And I am gobsmacked by therudeness of the c/s team - to have had the call "dropped" twice, inaddition to the mockery that they seemed to think was acceptable. And the wholekit is utterly ineffective.

I want this to be fixed, and want to invest no more of my time or money on thematter, because I've pretty much had enough of this charade.

If it helpsmy sure signal box currently has the power light flashing and nothing else!!!

[Retired-George]

Hi guys,

paulpenny, thank you for posting, I'm pleased to hear that some progress has now been made. Can you confirm whether your Sure Signal is now working correctly?


Matt Ford, firstly, I'm sorry to hear of the poor experience you've had, it doesn't sound acceptable at all. It sounds like something may be wrong with the way your Sure Signal has been setup and registered at our end. I've sent you an email so we can check on this, just reply with all the details and we'll be in touch as soon as we can .


George
eForum Team

[leigh272]

i have this problem i got sky sagem router with power light on sure signal flashing.