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

[bobsta]

Hi James,

I can see that plugging the Sure Signal box into someone else's connection would help prove whether the unit has a specific fault or not - but I suspect it's fine and would like to get it working on my connection.

Reading this forum and others, a common recommendation made is to set a router's MTU to 1500.

Another common trend seems to be people using PPPoE having issues (particularly on Virgin Media).

I'm using PPPoE in my setup, hence my maximum MTU is 1492. There's nothing I can do about that. However, all my other equipment operates correctly, including VPNs, Media Streaming, SSH tunnels, etc.

An MTU mismatch between the Sure Signal box (using 1500) and my router (using 1492) would, in my experience, seem the most likely cause of my issues. I've personally witnessed MTU mismatches causing this kind of problem (not with audio but with other data streams that appear to work fine, then suddenly halt for no apparent reason).

The normal cure for MTU mismatches - where some part of the network between the end-points uses an MTU lower than the end-points are configured - is to lower the MTU on the end-points. The Internet is full of how-to guides on how to set the MTU in Windows to overcome these types of problems.

So, the solution to me seems obvious - can you configure my Sure Signal to use an MTU of 1492 or lower please? If you're somehow able to remotely configure it, I'm sure that would solve the issue. Or if I need to configure it locally myself, please advise how to do that - I've tried pointing a web browser at the box but can't find it listening on any of the commonly used ports, or the ports that I've configured port forwarding on.

Thanks,

Bobsta

[Retired-Dave]

Hi bobsta,

Many routers do not allow settings as high as 1500 - I have one myself at home - which is why we advise setting MTU at 1500 or the highest value available as the system is designed to allow for that. We have seen many users where 1492 or lower has been sufficient.

We also don't have directions for setting specific routers due to the range of different ones available. We'd advise speaking with the manufacturer or checking their websites for any instructions which may be needed.

As Jenny mentioned, testing on another connection would give us a better idea of where the fault lies. It may show us that the box is faulty or it may not, but at this point we're both speculating to an extent.

One other thing I would check is that there is good airflow around the Sure Signal itself, as one cause of it stopping abruptly after working for a while may be overheating. 

Dave

[bobsta]

Hi Dave and team.

I'm not quite sure you understood my point correctly. You state that "Many routers do not allow settings as high as 1500 - I have one myself at home - which is why we advise setting MTU at 1500 or the highest value available as the system is designed to allow for that. We have seen many users where 1492 or lower has been sufficient."

.... the issue in my case is that I'm using PPPoE. The PPPoE protocol by its design/implementation needs an additional 8 bytes on top of each packet/frame meaning that with the standard Ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes, once you take off the 8 bytes for PPPoE you're left with 1492. Therefore it's not a case of a router "allowing a setting" or anything like that. It's just a fact of life when using PPPoE - you'll be restricted to an MTU of 1492 bytes.

This article covers the issue pretty well and is definitely worth a read: http://adsl.cutw.net/mtu.html

The problem seems to be that the Sure Signal doesn't correctly identify this and sets itself up using an MTU of 1500. It then is able to pass the majority of traffic but as soon as it tries to send a packet larger than 1492 it gets fragmented by the router and the connection falls over.

This seems a particularly poor design... and I'd be very surprised if it wasn't configurable, hence my request for advice/instructions from you on how to change the MTU of the Sure Signal. It has no web interface (that I can find) so I'm asking if there's a way to set it.

You also state that "We also don't have directions for setting specific routers due to the range of different ones available. We'd advise speaking with the manufacturer or checking their websites for any instructions which may be needed." .. but this isn't what I was asking. I don't need advice on configuring my router. I'm using PPPoE and therefore have a max MTU of 1492 which the Sure Signal needs to work with. Therefore I'm looking for info on how to configure the Sure Signal to use an MTU of 1492.

Incidentally, I was able to test my Sure Signal using a PPPoA connection (with an MTU of 1500) this weekend and, as expected, it works fine.

Same ISP. Same box. PPPoA (1500 byte MTU) = Works.

Same ISP. Same box. PPPoE (1492 byte MTU) = Fails.

Many thanks,

Bobsta

[Retired-Kay]

Hi bobsta, 

There is no interface to change the MTU on the Sure Signal itself. 

We will always send the data packets through at 1500 bytes, if the router MTU is set below this then the data packets may become fragmented and can sometimes be lost, causing the VPN tunnel to close. 

Although the Sure Signal isn't designed for use with PPPoE connections, it does work if the router has an inbuilt bridge for PPPoA. 

Thanks, 

Kay

[bilgeon]

Hi there at Vodafone.... unfortunately the SureSignal demons are back to haunt me again. My wife is also affected. Had extremely bad signal quality... just breaking up and not possible to conduct a conversation. Checked that MTU setting on VirginMedia hub were good - 1500 confirmed. Tried several resets as you suggest and now my wife has no signal (iphone 3G) and I have two bars from the local transmitter. Only top light is on the SS box. Looks like it has stopped connecting. If this doesn't work we are now having to consider other networks to get a minimum service at our home. Hope you can help.

Bill

[Retired-Dave]

Hi Bilgeon,

I've given the Sure Signal a resync, so can you reset it for me to pick that up?

If the resync doesn't help can I get you to reconfirm the usual details for me? That way we can see if something has changed from this older post.

• Your speed test results from here.
• Your ping test results from here.
• Your external IP address from here.

• The results of a 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.

Dave

[bilgeon]

Dave, a reset did not fix the issue. Top two lights on the sure signal box but no handset coverage on all registered devices.

Let me know if I need to do anything else.

Thanks, Bill

Here are the details:

Sure Signal serial number 21230527968

Using Virgin media Super Hub - MTU set to 1500 (maximum)

Speed test results: Ping = 37ms, Speed: Down -  60.13 MB/s,  UP - 4.61MB/s

Ping test results: Packet Loss 0%, Ping 21ms, Jitter 8ms

External IP address: 82.14.14.4

Traceroute results:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601] Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Bill>tracert 212.183.133.177

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

  1    15 ms    18 ms    21 ms  cpc1-hava2-2-0-gw.6-1.cable.virginm.net [82.14.1 4.1]   2    22 ms    19 ms    22 ms  cosh-core-1b-ae1-1684.network.virginmedia.net [8 0.3.161.185]   3    36 ms    23 ms    30 ms  glfd-bb-1b-ae4-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43 .163.213]   4    26 ms    20 ms    28 ms  glfd-bb-1a-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.10 5.172.5]   5    25 ms    33 ms    25 ms  nrth-bb-1b-ae4-0.network.virginmedia.net [212.43 .163.178]   6    47 ms    24 ms    38 ms  tele-ic-4-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253. 174.18]   7    30 ms    27 ms    50 ms  ldngw1.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.209]   8    41 ms    30 ms    43 ms  85.205.116.6   9     *        *        *     Request timed out.  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.

[Retired-Kay]

Hi bilgeon, 

Can you try this alternative reset for me found in this thread. It's worked for many users when the standard reset hasn't. 

If this doesn't help can you try it on a different Internet connection (friend or family members)? This will help us determine where the issue lies. 

Let us know how you get on, 

Kay

[bilgeon]

Hi Kay, we tried the alternative reset to no avail....  the four lights did not come on 'hard' even after holding the reset button down for 10 minutes....  I'm now looking for somewhere else to take the box to and test on another network.

Will update later in the week with results.

Regards,

Bill

[chewy]

Not to worry Sukhi I did the only sensible thing and took my business elsewhere. 

Now with Virgin Mobile (T Mobile) and get better indoor service.