Not getting any response with my Sure Signal problem

[ayre78]

I'm having issues with my Sure Signal box and have been on the phone to Vodafone multiple times over the past week, but it has now got to the point where I last spoke with your technical support on 3rd Dec, emailed over the information he asked for the same day and have heard nothing back, despite sending another email chasing a response, so in desperation I'm trying here in the hope that someone will actually respond and sort this issue out.

For the past month, the signal on the 2 phones registered to the box have dropped to 1 bar, and there is no 3G available at all.  My phone is an iphone and my partners is a blackberry.  He upgraded his phone last week to the iphone 5, and that still has 1 bar of signal and no 3G.  I've reset the box like I was asked, you've re-synced the box your end, I've removed my sim card whilst the phone was still on, re-inserted and turned the phone off then on again as requested, but still nothing.  I was then passed through to your tech support who checked all the correct ports were open on my router, everything ok there.  They got me to do a speed test, that was fine too, so I was then passed to further tech support who took control of my laptop and started to test things by 'pinging' addresses from my laptop.  He said the results showed there was a problem and asked me to contact my provider to ask for mapping of how my router directs traffic.

I spoke to my provider, copied to them the ping results screen from my laptop and their response was "The vodafone guy was probably just getting confused with all those *'s in the first few lines. That is actually perfectly normal on Be as long as it continues later on. Be block the protocols that are required for traceroute and ping to work on their own core network, so you just see *'s as the traffic is ignored. The important parts though are the lower down bits.  Same goes for this trace - absolutely normal. 

The second hop times out again for the same reason - low ICMP response from a device n our network. But the destination is reached in the end, so no need to worry here"

I forwarded this email on 3rd to the address that the tech support gave me and have had no response since, despite a further chase from myself.  This is getting beyond frustrating as the signal is really poor and affecting phone call quality for both myself and my partner.  I think it's fairly safe to say that I've tried pretty much everything I can do from here, so has it not reached the point where someone turns around and says that the box might actually be faulty and offers a replacement?

[Retired-Lee]

Hi,

Please take a look at our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread. If this doesn’t resolve your query, please post your reply either below, or in the relevant thread, together with the details requested, including the following information.

Your speed test results from here.
Your ping test results from here.
Your external IP address from here.
The results of a traceroute.

Your Sure Signal serial number:

VSS Traceroute command

On a PC:
Click on Start and select Run
Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok
A black box will appear.
In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter
Paste the output of this command into your reply.

This will help us get the quickest possible resolution for you.

Thanks

LeeH

[ayre78]

Had already read through the trouble shooting guide and nothing there covers my problem, which is why I called tech support.  They have already checked the info you've asked for but I will go through it again for you.

My download speed is 10.4 meg

my upload speed is 0.92 meg

The ping test results are:

Packet loss 0%

Ping 20ms

Jitter 2ms

My external IP address:  87.194.205.117

Serial number:  21196989673

Traceroute results (again, bearing in mind the response from Be stating - :  "The vodafone guy was probably just getting confused with all those *'s in the first few lines. That is actually perfectly normal on Be as long as it continues later on. Be block the protocols that are required for traceroute and ping to work on their own core network, so you just see *'s as the traffic is ignored. The important parts though are the lower down bits.  Same goes for this trace - absolutely normal.   The second hop times out again for the same reason - low ICMP response from a device n our network. But the destination is reached in the end, so no need to worry here" )

Tracing route to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk [212.183.133.177]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 97 ms 98 ms 101 ms bebox.config [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * 18 ms 28 ms 10.1.4.241
5 23 ms 19 ms 25 ms LDNGW1.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.209]
6 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms 85.205.116.10
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 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

[ayre78]

Has anyone been able to look at this yet please?

[Retired-PaulE]

Hi ayre78, 

Looking at the results you've posted, everything seems to be fine - your ping & speeds tests are all well over the limits we would expect for the unit to work successfully.

Replacing the Sure Signal may well be the way to go, given that you're getting the same experience with 3 handsets, there's just a couple of other things I'd like to check first though.

Can you go into your router settings and choose MTU settings? If possible, can you change this to 1500 (it usually defaults to 1492)

Are you able to test the Sure Signal on another broadband connection? If it suddenly starts generating a 3G signal on another connection then it would suggest the problem lies with your ISP.

Can you let me know how you get on?

Paul

[ayre78]

Hi,

I'm not sure how to change the settings you've mentioned on my router, there doesn't seem to be the option for anything like that.  It's a Thomson TG585 v7.  Could I also ask what changing these settings will actually do, as I don't want to start playing around with router settings if it's going to affect my internet connection or other devices that I have connected to the router.

Thanks.

[Retired-James]

Hi ayre78,

I’m not too sure where on the router configuration page the setting will be however, it won’t affect your internet as it simply increases the amount of data that each packet can handle.

A larger MTU brings greater efficiency because each packet carries more user data while protocol overheads, such as headers or underlying per-packet delays, remain fixed; the resulting higher efficiency means a slight improvement in bulk protocol throughput. A larger MTU also means processing of fewer packets for the same amount of data. In some systems, per-packet-processing can be a critical performance limitation.

James

[ayre78]

Ok, I've gone through every page on my router settings and I can't see anythig anywhere to change this.  Meanwhile, myself and my partner have rubbish signal and it's affecting the quality of our calls and it's been 8 days since I initially emailed Vodafone tech with information, and I'm still sat here struggling with my phone signal and no 3G.

Given the results of the speed tests, ping tests, and other various checks, and the fact the Sure Signal has been working perfectly for 2 years and however months, is it highly likely that changing the MTU will solve what's happening as this seems to be dragging on and on, and by the looks of it, it could simply be down to the fact that the box has failed.

Is it possible to send out a replacement box and seeing if that solves the problem?  Obviously if the same problem occurs then I am more than happy to return the box, but I just feel that this has been going on for long enough now and I feel like I'm slowly getting nowhere.

Thanks.

[Ben_H]

Hi ayre78,

I'm sure that you can appreciate that before we send out another unit worth £100 plus facilitating costs for returns should that not fix it, we need to make sure we check the MTU mentioned and also test the unit on another broadband connection. Only when this is done and we can see you've exhausted all other remedies from our registry systems here will we be able to do a warranty swap. I trust you understand why we have to be so thorough!

Cheers, Ben

[ayre78]

I've checked with my provider and they have said that their entire network, by default, is already set to 1500.