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

[chris_enfield]

Over the past week incoming and outgoing calls on my phone have been breaking up.  I have full bars on my phone, htc wildfire. I have moved my sure signal away from my router by about 80cm, have changed the ethernet connection on the router and rebooted the sure signal.  All with no avail.  I checked the upload and download speeds of my virgin broadband and they are, upload - 1.8mb and download - 27.4mb.  My sure signal serial # is 21230043859.

[Retired-Andy]

Hi chris_enfield,

Thanks for the information, I’ve checked your serial number today and can see that your Sure Signal connected to our servers this morning at 03:01.

To make sure your Sure Signal is as up to date as possible, I’ve just forced a resync of your device.

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

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

Let us know how you go on.

Thanks

Andrew

[chris_enfield]

Hi Andrew

Followed your instructions but am still getting calls, both inward and outward breaking up.  Tested broadband speed a couple of times and still getting around 26mb download and 1.7mb upload.  Just tested calls again to wife in house where both of us registered to the same suresignal but the calls still break up. Same happens to outside calls.

[HakOmaN]

Hi,

Reading this thread, I have tried out all potential troubleshooting options - reset the box, reset everything etc but unfortunately there is no change at all. I remember this starting to happen after an update to the box but can't recall when exactly it started.

My DL/UL speed is: 16Mbits/1Mbits MTU size is set to be 1500 and I am using PPPoA. This setup was working fine until the last few months.

[Retired-Dave]

Hi HakOmaN,

Can you confirm the following details for me?

Your Sure Signal serial number

Your external IP address from here.

The results of a traceroute.

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

Dave

[HakOmaN]

Thanks Dave, Answers below:

• Sure Signal Serial Number: 40113835074
• External IP Address: 86.153.205.134
• Tracert 212.183.133.177 Results

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

  1     3 ms     1 ms     3 ms  172.16.5.1
  2    10 ms    12 ms    12 ms  217.32.147.11
  3    12 ms    13 ms    11 ms  217.32.147.78
  4    13 ms    15 ms    13 ms  213.120.156.74
  5   251 ms   305 ms   269 ms  217.41.168.229
  6    17 ms    13 ms    13 ms  217.41.168.109
  7    15 ms    23 ms    16 ms  acc2-10GigE-0-1-0-4.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.1
59.249.198]
  8    21 ms    21 ms    21 ms  core2-te0-0-0-16.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.
249.131]
  9    17 ms    19 ms    15 ms  peer1-xe8-1-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.191]
 10    18 ms    15 ms    17 ms  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
 11    16 ms    16 ms    17 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.
 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.

• tracert -d 212.183.133.177 results

Tracing route to 212.183.133.177 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     3 ms     2 ms     3 ms  172.16.5.1
  2    10 ms     9 ms    13 ms  217.32.147.11
  3    12 ms    12 ms    12 ms  217.32.147.78
  4    14 ms    15 ms    14 ms  213.120.156.74
  5    15 ms    17 ms    17 ms  217.41.168.229
  6    14 ms    17 ms    17 ms  217.41.168.109
  7    22 ms    13 ms    14 ms  109.159.249.234
  8    14 ms    25 ms    19 ms  109.159.249.131
  9    17 ms    18 ms    24 ms  109.159.254.191
 10    20 ms    18 ms    19 ms  195.66.224.124
 11    18 ms    17 ms    17 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.
 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.

So looks as if, after 85.205.116.6, my packages are lost in the void

[Retired-James]

Hi HakOmaN,

Thanks for the extra details.

Looking at the traceroute I am a little concerned about hop 5 on the first traceroute.

Although it’s hitting our server, this could be causing the VPN tunnel to close as the Sure Signal needs a ping time of below 200ms on each hop.

Do you only get the poor audio issue at random times or does it always happen?

Also, can you let me know who your internet provider is and what router you are using?

James

[HakOmaN]

Good point - checking RIPE.NET, I see it is registered under BT which is also my ISP.

During the calls, the remote party hears that the voice breaks - so for a subsecond it works fine and after a second it goes. That being said, it used to work like a charm until recently and I can use EE's FemtoCell solution without issues (and yes previously both used to work together and I tried killing EE's FemToCell to check if it fixes it or not).

The router is Netgear DGND3300v2

[HakOmaN]

Any updates, comments?

[Retired-Kay]

Good Afternoon HakOmaN, 

Thanks for the extra information. Do you know whether your router has had an update recently? 

We need to rule out an issue with the router or your Internet connection. Please try your Sure Signal at a different location (friend or family members etc) and let us know the outcome.  

Thanks, 

Kay