SS V3 not connecting after power outage

[darzon_1970]

Hi there,

I have a very strange problem with my SS V3.

It's been working fine for a number of months now, but recently we had a power outage and the box is failing to reconnect.

This has happened before and I solved the problem by temporarily connecting an old modem/router to my ISP, connecting the SS and allowing it to fully connect. Then, I replaced the original modem/router - again the SS reconnected fine.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I don't have a spare router here, so I took the SS round to my parent's house and tried connecting from there. This worked fine, so I know the SS unit itself is fine and has not been damaged by the Power outage.

All other devices on my network are operating fine, so Internet up and running fully etc. etc. etc.

I have tried resetting the SS several times to no avail.

I have also tried changing the WAN MAC address on the router (to attempt to spoof being a different router)

Logic dictates this is something to do with my Router or ISP, but I have seen similar postings on the forum that required intervention from Vodafone to get things working again.

Ironically, I can't phone 191 for telephone support because errrrmmmm I have no signal!!!!!

SS Serial number is 40130621671

Router is Netgear DGND3700V2 with Firmware V1.1.00.15_1.00.15 (this includes the UPnP fix that SS needs to function)...

Shold also add I have tried the usual (replacement Ethernet cable, different switch port)

Power light is solid, left hand status light flashing, other 2 lights off

Any help appreciated

[Retired-Matt_Vo]

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

Matt
Moderator

[darzon_1970]

Hi there,

The Suresignal troubleshooting guide is of little use because the light sequence I am seeing on my SS is not listed:

Power Light - Solid Red

Internet Light - Flashing White..

Other lights - off (they briefly turn orange shortly after the SS is power cycled)

Here is the other info you require:

SS Serial Number: 40130621671

Speedtest:
ping 34ms
Download 2.82
Upload 0.34

Pingtest:
Packet Loss: 0%
Ping 41ms
Jitter 4ms

External IP Address: 87.114.86.48

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

  1     2 ms     1 ms     2 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    34 ms    35 ms    35 ms  lo0-central10.pcl-ag03.plus.net [195.166.128.184
]
  3    34 ms    36 ms    35 ms  link-b-central10.pcl-gw02.plus.net [212.159.2.17
0]
  4    36 ms    35 ms    34 ms  xe-10-2-0.pcl-cr02.plus.net [212.159.0.202]
  5    37 ms    42 ms    37 ms  ae2.pcl-cr01.plus.net [195.166.129.6]
  6    36 ms    35 ms    34 ms  xe-11-1-0.edge3.London2.Level3.net [212.187.201.
209]
  7    36 ms    36 ms    35 ms  vl-3101-ve-127.ebr1.London2.Level3.net [4.69.202
.169]
  8    35 ms    41 ms    35 ms  ae-46-46.ebr1.London15.Level3.net [4.69.159.70]

  9    36 ms    37 ms    35 ms  ae-43-43.ebr1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.167.26]
 10    35 ms    35 ms    36 ms  ae-58-113.csw1.London1.Level3.net [4.69.153.122]

 11    34 ms    36 ms    35 ms  ae-116-3502.edge3.London1.Level3.net [4.69.166.1
34]
 12    37 ms    37 ms    52 ms  CABLE-WIREL.edge3.London1.Level3.net [195.50.124
.138]
 13    41 ms    38 ms    49 ms  ae22-xcr1.lns.cw.net [195.2.30.61]
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *     ^C

(I cancelled out here after the first timeout)

Please let me know if there's anything else you require.

Thanks

Darren

[Ben_H]

Hi darzon_1970,

Apologies for missing your post on 15 July. 

Looking at your results, your internet speed falls below the minimum required 4.13Mbps download. I'd have a word with your ISP as everything else on the results check out fine.

Cheers, Ben

[darzon_1970]

Thanks for replying Ben,

My Broadband spped has always been in the same region ans the SS has worked fine. It is only the power cut that has caused it to stop working.  The only consideration I have to make to allow the SS to operate properly is to assign it a high QOS class in my router so it gets traffic priority over everything else.

As I mentioned in my first post, I took the SS to another property to check it wasn't faulty. This property has a similar Broadband speed as mine and it connected almost immediately.

I have also had this problem before (power in my area is incredibly flaky). I solved it by connecting a spare router to my Broadband connection, letting the SS connect, then switching back to the old router. Again, it reconnected fine.

Unfortunately, I do not have a spare router here at present, so I cannot try this.

I have read in similar posts that a resynch from the Vodafone end normally solves this.

Is it possible to try this please?

Thanks

Darren 

[Retired-Kay]

Hi darzon_1970, 

I've done a resync for you. Please do a reset to complete the process;

1. Locate the button on the base of the box next to the Ethernet ports.
2. Press and hold the button for approximately 30 seconds.
3. Once the lights come back on, release the button.

Thanks, 

Kay

[darzon_1970]

Hi Kay,

Thanks for doing this. However, I had managed to get my Suresignal working before you did the resynch from your end (I will detail how below). When you resynched, I saw connectivity drop and quickly re-establish again - to make sure though, I did a reset of the SS from my end - again it reconnected.

Then, on Saturday night, we had another power outage (due to the recent thundertstorms), so on Sunday morning, I awoke to find the SS down again.

Here's how I resolved:

1. Drove to my parents' house and connected the SS there. It connected almost instantly, and I left it connected there for about an hour - this seems to be the critical step - keep it connected for a fair while.

2. Drove back home, connected the SS and it came up almost straight away.

It seems to me that there is some cache somewhere that does not clear down. As the SS seems to use a closed/non-standard protocol, I can't work out what this is, but the only thing that seems to make any logical sense is the SS sends the MAC address of the router when it negotiates a connection. I can't imagine it's the IP Addr of my router because that changes whenever my broadband disconnects and reconnects.

When this has happened in the past, I managed to resolve this by connecting my old router back up at my house, reconnecting the SS, then switching back to my newer router - this worked. I have now ordered a router to use as a backup (I no longer have the other spare one), so in the event of another failure, I shall try that method again.

Is it possible to diagnose this further? I ask this because I have been a fair while without a reliable SS and it obviously causes significant inconvenience/impact to me.

I am more than happy to perform tests or gather diagnostics to help this along. From looking at the forum, this seems to be quite a common issue, so I am more than happy to work with you folks to progress this for the benefit of all SS users.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

Darren.

[Retired-Matt_B]

Hi darzon_1970,

When there are power outages, the Sure Signal will always need to resync with our servers.

Whilst you've found a workaround, it's worth sticking with this in the future. We can always resync the Sure Signal for you if required.

Thanks,

Matt B

[darzon_1970]

Thanks Matt,

Thanks for your reply. I'll be careful with my wording here, but if that's the case, and this is a well known fact, why did the first person who replied to my forum post insist on asking loads of extra details (making me read the troubleshooting guide, performing ping tests, speed tests, etc.) when they could simply have done a resynch for me. All of the info wthat they needed was there. I stated clearly there had been a power outage, that my SS did not appear to be faulty and included its serial number?

And, come to think of it, why was I then told that the reason my SS wasn't working was because my Broadband speed was too low (that fact is incorrect btw - Vodafone's own info pages state you only need a speed of >4Mbits/sec if you intend to have eight concurrent calls connected through the SS at the same time).

This caused me a significant amount of wasted time and inconvenience when it needn't have. It could have been sorted on the day I reported the issue.

Also, if it is a known fact/issue, would it not be a good idea to let the users themselves initiate a resynch via the web interface? It is surely worth bearing in mind that the vast majority of people that have SS boxes live in an area of poor reception which normally means a rural location, which in turn means they experience reasonably frequent power outages.

I am sure you can understand my frustration here.

[Retired-Matt_B]

Hi darzon_1970,

Matt is our Moderator and posted the information as a standard reply incase we needed any further information before we worked the post.

The 4.13Mpbs speed relates to running a maximum of 8 concurrent calls on the Sure Signal. It usually works at a lower speed for less calls than this but you may experience intermittent dropping of calls with the speed you have.

I'll certainly pass your feedback on regarding the resync option for users, it'd certainly help in situations like this.

Thanks,

Matt B