Problem with BT Home Hub 3

[jaypeecee]

Hi Folks,

I had a BT Home Hub 3 installed today on a BT Infinity line. BT Infinity is BT's (optical) fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) superfast broadband connection. The problem is that, having connected my Sure Signal to the Home Hub via Ethernet, the Sure Signal doesn't work anymore. I tried holding in the reset button, then disconnect power, then reconnect and when the power LED came on, released the reset button. The two white LEDs then came on, flashed for a while and then stopped. I see that others have had problems with a BT Home Hub but I'm not sure what the solution is. Any suggestions, please?

[jaypeecee]

Hi Guys,

OK, here's the traceroute that I ran on my tablet (using Fing Network Tools) to the IP address provided by Dave. Looks like my Home Hub can't contact that IP address. It is attached as a screenshot.

JPC

[Retired-Lee]

Hey there jaypeece,

Thanks for coming back to us.

As Jimfew says, it's integral that BT customers have port 1723 opened.

As the traceroute hasn't been able to reach the detstination IP I'd suggest trying any of the others below:

212.183.133.177
212.183.133.178
212.183.133.179
212.183.133.181
212.183.133.182

Each step of the trace route should show the packets being sent and a response time against each. An example can be found below:

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

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms Vigor2750.lan [192.168.1.254]

2 20 ms 20 ms 20 ms host81-134-96-1.in-addr.btopenworld.com [81.134.
96.1]
3 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms 213.120.182.141

4 22 ms 22 ms 21 ms 213.120.161.82
5 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms 31.55.164.41

6 21 ms 21 ms 21 ms 31.55.164.107
7 22 ms 21 ms 22 ms acc1-10GigE-0-7-0-4.bm.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.
248.70]
8 35 ms 30 ms 31 ms core1-te0-3-0-2.ealing.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.24
8.16]
9 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms peer1-xe2-0-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.100]
10 32 ms 31 ms 34 ms LNDGW2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
11 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms 85.205.116.6
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.

I have highlighted in bold the packets that are sent at each hop (1,2,3,4,5 etc) If there are no packets being sent then the destination IP will not be reachable.

It's also worth noting that the average over the three packets has to be less than 200ms. If the average is any more than that, the VPN will not stay open.

At hop 11 in the above example the trace hits our servers at 85.205.116.6 and times out thereafter. This is perfectly normal as we cannot allow out internal systems to be seen in public for security purposes.

I trust this helps explain things for you.

Cheers,

LeeH

[jaypeecee]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for coming back to me.

I did a traceroute to each of the five IP addresses that you suggested. In all cases, there were 11 hops but nothing beyond. The maximum time recorded was 71ms.

The burning question is - where do I go from here? With the VSS out of action, I am losing phone signal repeatedly throughout the day.

JPC

[Jimfew]

The traceoute is not normally a problem. can I ask if you are having any issues with your internet connection, i.e. computer google searches etc, email, both send and receive.

Thanks,

Jim.

[jaypeecee]

Hi Jim,

I really appreciate your help - thank you!

You asked about the internet connection. It is absolutely fine. Still getting a reliable high-speed connection with no dropouts when browsing the internet or using email, etc. Please see:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2326801620.png

I will have a bit more time this weekend to try out a few things. What would you recommend I try first? Having tried the VSS with the original router as mentioned in one of my posts above, why do you think it didn't work? It was exactly the same setup that I had before the Home Hub 3 arrived. Can I just check with you the procedure for doing a factory reset? When I tried this a couple of days ago on the VSS, I found that it didn't do exactly the same as I was expecting. I can't remember but is this all-important procedure specified in the VSS blurb?

Although Dave and Lee have provided their inputs, I don't feel that I'm getting anywhere. Trying to resolve my problem via this forum is a very slow process. I thought Dave was going to get back to me in response to the info I provided. Wasn't he going to do a resync at the Vodafone end of things? Sorry, these are rhetorical questions - I'm not expecting you to answer on behalf of Vodafone.

Thanks again.

John

[Jimfew]

Hi John,

The VF tech team can only help so far as they are experts on their kit, the VSS but cannot offer much help on the router side of things. In fact with so many different routers and ISP's around, no-one can offer a complete service in this regard. That is why a forum like this is so helpful in your situation as we can offer advice which the VF Tech team cannot.

I am surprised they haven't yet done a re-sych on your VSS as all they need is your serial number to do that. Of couse, this is pointless if the VSS is out of reach to the VF servers.

A factory reset is easy. Do a search on the forum for "factory reset" and you'll get it quickly. To help, what you do is press te reset button on the VSS until the lights flash, then take out the power connection (whilst still keeping the reset button pressed) wait a few seconds, then reinstate the power and wait until the lights flash (can be 30 seconds) then release the reset button. After a couple of minutes the power light is on and the "internet" light starts to flash. After half to one hour the intrenet light will either come on permanently or go off signalling a connection failure.

There have been quite a few probelsm recently with the BT Router remote management server (A BT server) not performing properly but this shows itself as poor quality internet connection which you don't have.

I think you really need to double check you router setup, especailly the six open ports. If I was you I would put the VSS into the DMZ which opens all ports for the VSS by bypassing the router firewall. If this doesn't work, then you may be suffering from the dreaded "jumbo packets" problem and the only solution I can offer is to purchase a new router. I bought the ASUS RT-AC66U router which handles jumbo packets well and works well with my VSS as well as giving me some really up to the minute options on VPN, wireless etc. NO, I am not a salesman for ASUS but it works for me. The ASUS replaces the BT router but not the fibre hub as it has no internal modem at all (it's technically called an ethernet router for this reason).

If you are more interested in replacing the BT router, tnen look up "jumbo framing" on Google and see what you think.

Let us know how you get on.

Jim.

[Jimfew]

One thing I forgot to mention you could try, is not set any IP, DNS etc on your router and allow it to pick this information up from the BT server. In this way you get the latest routing information for the WAN BT network. It might be this which is causing some weird routing on the WAN which you are seeing on the traceroute. Not saying this will make a difference but it might be worth trying.

I assume you don't have a fixed IP? This is usually only available to business users (such as me, and I do have a fixed IP) and not residential user.

Jim.

[Retired-Andy]

Hi jaypeecee,

Many thanks for the help that jimfew has given. It all goes to help identify the root cause. I’m sorry it’s not happened as yet but, we can certainly try a resync for you, so I’ve actioned that just now.

To make sure the resync completes, can you perform a factory reset:-

• Hold down the reset button until all the lights show (about 30 seconds)
• Keeping the reset button held down, remove then re-insert the power lead.
• Once all lights display release the reset button.
• The Sure Signal will come online in around 1 hour.

Thanks

Andrew

[jaypeecee]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your input.

I followed your instructions for a factory reset. My VSS did not respond as per your instructions. When first holding down the reset button, all the LEDs did not illuminate simultaneously. When the power was disconnected and re-connected, all LEDs did illuminate for a fraction of a second. However, the job is done. At the moment, the red power LED is on and the left white LED is flashing. About 15 mins of the 1 hour have passed. Update to follow later this evening.

JPC

[jaypeecee]

Fanfare of trumpets!

Yes, my VSS is back in business.

Herewith today's lesson...

Factory reset + Vodafone resync = 1 Happy VSS Customer

In saying this, I am assuming that Vodafone actually did a resync.

JPC