Sure Signal - Call Audio Quality Issues

[Retired-George]

This issue has the following symptoms:

• Poor audio quality on both outbound and inbound calls
• Particularly affects customers using a Virgin Media cable connection

If you’re only experiencing poor audio quality one-way (for example, the call sounds fine to you, but the person you are calling reports poor quality), then this is most likely due to insufficient bandwidth on your broadband connection and is not an issue with your Sure Signal.

Troubleshooting:

If the person you are calling can’t hear you, this is usually caused by low upload speeds.

If you can't hear the person you've called, this is due to low download speeds.

Check if your broadband connection meets the minimum requirements.

Please run the broadband speed checker.

If your connection fails any part of the test, this indicates an issue with your Internet Service Provider and you’ll need to contact them to discuss this further.

Your connection speed will vary throughout the day, so we recommend running it at various times to get an accurate reading.

Check for planned maintenance.
Planned maintenance can cause periods of downtime, so check the forum for any planned maintenance. If there is, this will be announced at the top of the Sure Signal forum.

Reset your Sure Signal:

Sure Signal version 1

• Connect device to internet and power supply

• Press and hold down the reset button (located near the internet port) until end of the process which will be indicated

• Remove the power cable at back of the unit and wait for five seconds

• Reconnect the power cable back to device

• Wait for the LED sequence to flash from top to bottom and back to top

• Wait for five seconds

• Release the reset button

• Within 10 minutes, all the 4 LEDs will start to flash in sequence – 1^st & 3^rd then 2^nd & 4^th then 1^st & 3^rd – with the sequence repeated. This sequence indicates the start of the factory reset procedure.

Sure Signal version 2

• • Connect device to internet and power supply
  • Press and hold down reset button – located near the internet port
  • Wait for all the LED (power + 2 white LED) to light up for few seconds (power LED will always remain lit)
  • Wait for five seconds
  • Release the reset button
    
    
  • Within 10 minutes, 2 white LEDs will start flashing continuously – power LED will always remain constant in addition (unless there is an issue with local connectivity)

Sure Signal version 3

• • Connect device to internet and power supply
  • Press and hold down reset button – located near the internet port
  • Wait for 20 seconds
  • Release the reset button
    
    
  • All the LEDs will temporarily switch off for about 10 seconds. The power LED will then light up and remain constant whilst white internet LED flashes continuously.

The Sure Signal will be back online in around 1 hour.

Move Your Sure Signal Away from the Router
Sometimes the Wi-Fi signal from the router can interfere with the 3G signal from the Sure Signal and this could result in poor audio quality.

In order to prevent this from happening, please ensure that your Sure Signal is moved away from the router as far as the cable will allow.

If you’re still experiencing poor audio quality, post in this thread and we can look into it further.

Thanks,

Jenny

[pantsmcgraw]

Having read through this forum i now realise 1 thing...vodaphone doesnt want to take responsibility for this issue.

I have had a sure signal for a couple of years now, the first few months were great had good signal good call quality, then it turned rubbish it is either crackly or underwater or people can only hear every other word.

I have spoken to Voda several times about this over the phone and there answer is always the same= try restarting!?!

points to note- when i first got the sure signal my isp was virgin nothing changed between when it was working to when it first stopped working. ports are forwarded correctly- have tried ip reservation using ip and mac=no change-changed isp and was still poor changed isp recently again and yes call quality still poor.

speeds from 3 isp dl=9.94 u/l=1.97

                              dl=13.5 u/l=2.01

                              dl=29.5 u/= 2.56

these are my average speeds for all 3 isp's the first and last are very stable speeds very rarely had less the middle one was rubbish it fluctuated alot.

the only reason i still have a sure signal is because it allows me to be able to recieve my txt messages at home. I have even tried my SS at a friends address isp was talktalk and yes you guessed it poor call quality.

This is my 3rd SS box so im pretty confident in saying its not faulty hardware i also played with the firmware on a sky router, virgin router and a linksys router to no avail they all produced the same results.

This is a vodaphone issue and you need to look into it at your end. yes i have tried restarting it, yes i have checked ports, yes i have tried other isp's, yes i have previously done the traceroute, yes i have upgraded/downgraded firmware on routers?

If it was a virgin issue then why does this still not work on sky or talktalk.

If it was a hardware issue then are all your devices faulty?

[Retired-James]

Hi pantsmcgraw,

If this was affecting all of the units then we would have seen a higher number of reports about this issue.

In the past we have mainly seen this issue when a customer is either using a broadband connection where the speeds are on the boarder line of the required specs or in some instances they have been using a certain firmware on the virgin connection.

The first thing that we will need from you is the Sure Signal serial number that you are currently using.

Also whilst connecting to the Virgin router, which firmware version are you currently running and have you tried?

The strange thing is that it happens on different ISP connection which does suggest that there is something else that could be causing the issue.

Can I ask if you have used the same handset when connected to the different ISP’s?

If yes, what handset was this?

Also, have you been able to try different handsets and SIM combinations? What were the results of this?

James

[kevinlaban]

I have voice calls dropping in and out depite having full service on my iphone 4s when using my sure signal at home. It is fine everywhere else. I have  BT Infinity as my broadband giving upload speed of 8.15mps and download of 37.04mps. I have tried all your suggestions of moving the sure signal away from the router and resetting it but its still the same. I am getting so frustrated, I am thinking of moving to O2 the get a decent signal. The phone is unusable at the moment at home. Please help ASAP!!!

[DaveCD]

Hi kevinlaban

I’d like to help to resolve this VSS (Vodafone Sure Signal) issue for you, but to do this I will need to take some further information from you.

Can you post the following results to this thread?

 Speedtest and Pingtest.

Your IP address.

Traceroute.

• On a PC / Laptop :
• 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.

And finally, your VSS serial number.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

eForum Team

[DaveCD]

Hi everyone

Thank you for your patience,

Please could you let us know which hub you are using and which software this is currently running.

This information has been requested by the investigating team.

Many Thanks

DaveCD

eForum Team

[kstreater]

Second attempt at getting a response:

I have recently moved broadband provider and I am now getting long silent pauses of up to 30 seconds when making calls via my sure signal.  The broadband speed averages 5M with a 32ms latency.  I have followed the suggestion on the forums of doing a factory reset but the problem still occurs.  When using Skype, Lync, Facetime etc I have no connectivity issues - only on the Sure Signal.

My broadband test figures are:  http://www.speedtest.net/result/2130825416.png

Any suggestions as to what I can do as I don't have any other option for getting a mobile signal living in a complete not-spot.

Many thanks,

- Kevin

[Retired-Dave]

Hi kstreater,

This shows as your first post on the eForum, so I'm unsure where we might have missed a previous message from you.

So that we can look into this for you, can you confirm the following for me:

 - Your Sure Signal serial number

 - The new ISP

 - The router make/model

Also can you run a Traceroute for me and post the results here so we can see if there is anything which may be affecting this.

If possible, if you can try this twice - once at any time and once when the pause is happening this would allow us to compare the pair to see if there is any change.

To run the Traceroute:

• 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.

Similarly, if you're in a position to run a speed test during a pause this would be great, just to see if the available Broadband speed drops.

If you can provide this information for us we'll be able to get a better idea what's happening.

Dave

[TobyRobinson]

Hi,

Since moving house a few months ago, I am now with Vergin Media cable, and have the highest package avilable, but my SureSignal quality is terrible, to the point of being unusable.

Although the SureSignal connects and I have 5 bars fo 3G shwoing on my phone, the call quality is almost inaudible, and it seems to be worse on the outgoing than incoming line.

I have done the speedcheck, and as it's about 10 times more than I used to have with my old provider, so I'm sure this is not the problem.

My S/N is: 21224336913

ISP: Virgin Media

All the ports have been forwarded correctly.

The traceroute is similar to the following for all of the IPs listed:

traceroute to 212.183.133.182 (212.183.133.182), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

 1  0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0)  60.318 ms  33.801 ms  29.765 ms

 2  aztw-geam-1a-ge148.network.virginmedia.net (80.1.243.25)  10.153 ms  25.128 ms  46.210 ms

 3  aztw-core-2a-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net (80.1.241.9)  6.718 ms  7.193 ms  38.493 ms

 4  glfd-bb-1a-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net (80.1.240.173)  23.681 ms  11.786 ms  11.802 ms

 5  glfd-bb-1b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (213.105.172.6)  12.111 ms  13.207 ms  42.046 ms

 6  glfd-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net (213.105.159.46)  32.405 ms  36.752 ms  12.023 ms

 7  tcl5-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.185.78)  13.523 ms  31.605 ms  15.237 ms

 8  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.124)  39.023 ms  15.996 ms  15.207 ms

 9  85.205.116.2 (85.205.116.2)  31.229 ms  16.442 ms  60.408 ms

10  * * *

11  * * *

12  * * *

13  * * *

14  * * *

15  * * *

16  * * *

17  * * *

18  * * *

19  * * *

and so on.

Please help me to get this working again.

Many Thanks,

Toby

[daxible]

Hi

I have been using a Sure Signal for about a year and it has been fine. Over the last month we experience unusable audio quality in one direction. If we dial from home the receiver cannot understand us but we can hear them.

I have looked at the trouble shooting guide and am aware that this is usually due to poor broadband speed. We are getting a fairly reliable  2.5 Mbps down and 380 Kbps up these figures have always been in this range and until a month ago all worked fine. I have tested speeds at various times and these are representative.

What could have changed to cause the problem and what can I do about it?

Patrick

[Retired-James]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your posts here and welcome to the Vodafone eForum from all of the team.

When it comes to poor audio it would normally be caused by either a poor internet connection speed or something on the setup that is throttling the VPN connection.

However, from what you have both mentioned on your posts it would suggest that it isn’t a speed issue but something else that is causing the issue.

Firstly I would make sure that the Sure Signal is as far away from the router as possible using the cable that you have as it can sometimes cause electrical interference which can cause poor audio.

Also it is worth checking the MTU size on your router admin panel to see if this is set to 1500 if possible.

Once you have done this you will also need to perform a reset on your Sure Signal unit by doing the following;

Hold in the reset button until all the light go solid

Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in

Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead

Wait for all of the lights to come on then release the reset button

@ TobyRobinson, Can you confirm which router you are using and the firmware that this is running?

@ daxible, please can you let us know who your ISP is and also your Sure Signal serial number so that we can check the registration for you.

James