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

[Retired-Andy]

Hi markhill79,

Thanks for the speedtest results, to allow us to look further into your query, can you provide the following info please:-

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.

Hi sparx_300,

I'd suggest you log into your router admin console via your browser, you may find the firmware information there.

Thanks

Andrew

[markhill79]

Hi Andrew

Ping http://www.pingtest.net/result/73525134.png

IP Address = 81.97.127.142 

Serial Number = 40123685212

Software Firmware = R36

Tracert

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

  1     9 ms    30 ms    28 ms  cpc2-brmb7-2-0-gw.1-3.cable.virginmedia.com [81.
97.126.1]
  2    20 ms    11 ms    11 ms  bagu-core-2a-ae3-1651.network.virginmedia.net [8
0.5.161.113]
  3    51 ms    10 ms     9 ms  manc-bb-1d-ae10-0.network.virginmedia.net [80.5.
161.241]
  4    26 ms    11 ms    42 ms  manc-bb-1a-ae11-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.1
05.159.85]
  5   465 ms   177 ms    51 ms  glfd-bb-1b-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.175.146]
  6    25 ms    30 ms    27 ms  glfd-tmr-1-ae5-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10
5.159.46]
  7    37 ms    37 ms    32 ms  tcl5-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.
185.78]
  8    39 ms    38 ms    92 ms  LDNGW1.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.209]
  9    55 ms    42 ms    77 ms  85.205.116.14
 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.

C:\Windows\system32>

Regards

Mark

[markhill79 · Accepted solution]

Think I may have solved the issue.

I changed my superhub Wireless to Channel 1 and suddenly I am downloading over the suresignal at 7.2Mbps rather than 300k.

I will update in the next 24/48 hours if this has really solved the problem or it is just a fluke.

[Emmac77]

Hello

i have a sure signal box and virgin internet connection, which has high speed tests. My iphone 3GS shows full bars signal but people i call or who call me complain of a bad reception and can't hear me properly - i can hear them. I have tried resetting the box but its still the same problem.

What can i do to fix this?

Thank you, emma.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi there Emmac77,

Thanks for your post.

I've sent you a PM which can be accessed here. If you could follow the instructions in the PM and send us your details one of the team will be with you as soon as they can.

Cheers,

Lee

[carolinewatford]

We had the old version sure signal last year at our house, which seemed to work fine, we then moved the box to a temporary place of residence for 8 months.  We are now back at home, and since then we have had awful, or no reception via the sure signal 

Reception is so bad that we cannot hear people at all clearly, and they cannot hear us either.  I am now also intermittently getting call-failed messages when trying to ring out.

Both my husbands HTC Mozart and my iphone 4 are affected

Lights 1,2 and 4 are constant, and light 3 generally is not lit at all, but can sporadically flicker

I have checked the postcode has been changed back to our home location, have deleted and re-registered the sure signal and rebooted several times and moved the device as far away from the router as the cables allow

Is the box faulty? The serial number is 21231786078

[Retired-James]

Hi carolinewatford,

Thanks for your post here.

When it comes to poor audio quality on the Sure Signal it can sometimes be down to a faulty Sure Signal box or poor broadband speeds.

I have looked at the serial number that you have provided and it is showing as not recognised, Please can you double check the serial number for me.

Also please can you let me know the results of a speed test so we can check this for you.

James

[carolinewatford]

Apologies

Serial number is 21231786076

I did 7 tests over a couple of hours

Ping varied from 12 to 42 - although I did also get one of 250

Download from 5.2 to 14.49

Upload from 1.35 to 1.94

[Retired-James]

Hi carolinewatford,

Thanks for the update here.

Everything looks fine with your connection speeds and also the Sure Signal registration as it did connect to the server last night.

As this isn’t an issue with the speed of the broadband line we do need to look at other possible issues that can cause the issue however, the quickest way to rule out a faulty Sure Signal device would be to test this on an alternative broadband connection to see if the issue continues or if it can’t be replicated.

If it is the same on a different connection then it could be a faulty Sure Signal however, if it doesn’t happen on a different connection then we will need to look at your broadband and the router setup to see if there is any issues such as the MTU size not being set to 1500.

If you can give both of these a go and let me know how you get on so I can follow this up for you.

James

[StuTyrrell]

Hello

My sure Signal box was accidentally switched off at the mains socket for a few minutes. After switching back on it took a long time to settle and reconnect to the service (around 20 minutes). Once back up the signal reads full scale however the sound quality in both directions is beyond bad. Its so bad that I can't make out what the automated system is telling me when I dial 191.

I have 60+Mb download and around 3Mb upload speed currently with Virgin Media with around 20ms ping latency.

I have tried rebooting the whole system, router SS2 box etc but the problem remains the same. It really is totally unusable right now.

The serial number is 40120547472