SS3 with BT Homehub 5

[heihei]

I know this has come up a number of times, but cannot get my SS3 to work reliably with my BT Homehub 5. This is the second SS3 I've tried. I've also tried the port forwarding too, but as I'm not a techy, I don't think I should need to tinker further to get this to work.

Any thoughts?

[heihei]

About 5% of the time it connects to the Sure Signal. The rest of the time there is no signal, apart from a few places in the house where there is a very faint signal.

When making a call when connected to the Sure Signal the light flashes.

Nothing is changed on the network so it's not that. The change was from an SS2 to SS3 - the SS2 worked until the unit died, the SS3 works only 5% of the time.

[Jenny]

@heihei - We’ll need some more information to get to the bottom of this:

• Where is your Sure Signal positioned and is there anything that could be blocking it?
• Have you tried moving it to another area in the house? If not, please try this.
• When it does work, are you in a specific location or is it in random parts of the house?
• Does this seem to work at certain times of day?
• Have you tried restarting your phone at home to see if it connects?
• Do you know if any of your neighbours have a Sure Signal?

The more info you can provide, the better.

[heihei]

• Where is your Sure Signal positioned and is there anything that could be blocking it?Ground floor dining room - nothing obvious blocking it
• Have you tried moving it to another area in the house? If not, please try this. Tried this - no difference.
• When it does work, are you in a specific location or is it in random parts of the house? Random
• Does this seem to work at certain times of day? Again random
• Have you tried restarting your phone at home to see if it connects? Yes - many times.
• Do you know if any of your neighbours have a Sure Signal? Dont know but we are in a detatched house with nearest other house 50 yards away

[Jenny]

@heihei - Thanks for getting back to me,

I’ve looked into this further and can see there’s patchy 2G and 4G coverage in your area. When a Sure Signal detects outside coverage, it can reduce the level of coverage it provides, or sometimes stop providing coverage altogether.

If you have a 4G phone, check to see if it’s picking up the 4G network. If it is, that will most likely be why the Sure Signal isn’t providing constant coverage.

You can try making sure 4G is turned off on your phones to see if it makes any difference, however the outside coverage is most likely what’s causing this.

[heihei]

Phone isn't picking up 4G at all so don't think this is the issue. No improvement either by switching to 2G. I'd also find it very strange that a device designed to improve patchy coverage could stop working properly due to....patchy coverage.

Any further ideas? TBH this is becoming very frustrating, and based on the number of problems people are having with BT Homehub and SS3, there is clearly an issue. I'm at the point where I will look into moving the whole family onto a different network to resolve the situation.

[Retired-Charles]

@heihei - We know the Sure Signal's working as you've stated previously, so there doesn't seem to be any issues between this and your router.

However as Jenny advised, there's intermitent coverage in your area which will be affecting the coverage provided by the Sure Signal.

Keep an eye on any changes within your area by checking the network coverage checker.

[heihei]

So why did the SS2 work perfectly up until the point the power supply stopped working?
How can a device designed to overcome patchy signals stop working because of a patchy signal?????

[heihei]

PS we are not getting and never have got a 4G signal at the house even temporarily so this cannot be the explanation.

[heihei]

Disappointed there is no more advice. If this isn't resolved, I will be forced to switch the whole family from Vodafone to a network that provides a more robust solution. Given my wife and I have been Vodafone customers for over 20 years, this is very disappointing.

[grolschuk]

I'm not sure if you have tried this - but there is an option in the HH5 called Port Clamping. (somewhere in the advanced firewall settings from memory)

Turning this on may help the SS connection settle down, as it stops a rotation of ports being used that upset some devices.

Although as you said, the SS2 working perfectly, and the SS3 not doing a lot, is a bit strange.

Have you un-registered the broken SS2 from the system? Maybe that could be causing a conflict if not (although not sure why it would)

I'm guessing you have tried a hard reset on it too so that it is forced to re-download the config and settings?

The internal network isn't going through a powerline adaptor before getting to the router is it?