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-Lee]

Hi Paffman,

The trouble with buying from auction sites is that there's no way to guarantee:

• It's not already registered. (If it was already registered, the original owner is the only person who can ask for it to be de-registered)
• Whether the status is 'suspended'. We're unable to change that status so they'll never work

It's no trouble registering a replacement; you can have more than one VSS registered on your account in any case.

It's highly unlikely the store would give you a VSS to try at your address. They'd be expecting you to buy it before you left the shop.

Cheers,

LeeH

[chris_enfield]

I have a ss v1 which shows lights 1,2 and 4 plus 3 when making/receiving calls.  I am a virgin broadband user with a super hub.  Audio quality deteriorated about 2 months ago with calls breaking up both ways.  My iphone 4s is  showing 5 full bars reception but call quality is so bad via the ss I cannot use my mobile at all in the house.  I have rebooted the ss a number of times and have moved it as far as possible from the super hub.  I have run the speedtest a number of times but cannot see a problem, see attached

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3077778648

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3067537155

None of the above actions have improved reception.

Please advise what other actions I can take.

thanks

[Retired-Kay]

Hi chris_enfield, 

Please supply the following information;

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.

Thanks

Kay

[chris_enfield]

Hi

Ping test here: [URL=http://www.pingtest.net][IMG]http://www.pingtest.net/result/88840426.png[/IMG][/URL]

ip: 92.232.254.157

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

  1     6 ms     8 ms     9 ms  cpc13-enfi17-2-0-gw.20-2.cable.virginm.net [92.2
32.252.1]
  2     9 ms     8 ms    10 ms  hari-core-2a-ae7-625.network.virginmedia.net [81
.96.18.57]
  3     9 ms    10 ms     6 ms  brnt-bb-1a-ae8-0.network.virginmedia.net [81.96.
16.201]
  4    12 ms    12 ms    17 ms  brhm-bb-1b-et-700-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.
253.175.38]
  5    12 ms    13 ms    12 ms  brhm-bb-1c-ae7-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253
.174.102]
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7    20 ms    16 ms    17 ms  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
  8    15 ms    17 ms    14 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.

Ser # 21230043859

[Ben_H]

Hi chris_enfield,

Thanks for posting your results. Everything checks out fine with the traceroute and your IP details.

I can see that your device hasn't synchronised for a few days though so I'm pushing a manual sync through for you now. Could you reset your unit to complete the action then post back to say it's working?

• Locate the button on the base of the box next to the Ethernet ports.
• Press and hold the button for approximately 30 seconds.
• Once the lights come back on, release the button.
• The Sure Signal will come online in around 1 hour.

Cheers, Ben

[chris_enfield]

Hi, ss now appears to be working fine.
Thanks

[Retired-Andy]

Hi chris_enfield,

Thanks for the update, that’s great news :smileyhappy:

Hi Bill,

Let me know how you go on.

Thanks,

Andrew

[bilgeon]

I have taken the SureSignal box to another location (local golf club about 1 mile away) but can't get it to work there. Bringing back home it just sits with power on light and no more. I assume we are now concluding the box is defective? If so where do we go from here?

Thanks

Bill

[Retired-James]

Hi oracle1,

To be honest you should see any difference between the units and I’m not aware of any general issues with TalkTalk.

However, we’ve seen issues in the past where the internet provider has throttled the usage when a call is in progress due to the increase in internet traffic.

This is something that you’d need to speak with your service provider about.

In regards to the version 3, I would expect you to see similar results on this unit and it does need a slightly higher bandwidth to work.

Can you let me know the two serial numbers so that I can look at the registrations?

I’m not too familiar with the other networks version but I’ve seen a number of reports where they have similar issues.

@ bilgeon – I can see that it’s not connecting to the server which could indicate a fault or it could be being blocked.

We’ve been made aware of a few changes that Virgin media have done recently which require a few more ports to be opened.

Can you make sure the following ports are opened and you have IPSec Passthrough enabled on the router?

Port 8 TCP UDP

Port 50 TCP UDP

Port 53 TCP UDP

Port 67 UDP

Port 68 UDP

Port 123 UDP

Port 500 UDP

Port 4500 UDP

Ports 33434 – 33445 UDP

James

[oracle1]

Hi James,

Thanks for the response. The serial numbers are 40112579244 and 40111601189.

I'm surprised that the SureSignal traffic might be specifically throttled by TalkTalk, as surely SureSignal data traffic for voice is not high volume. I will check with them though. I looked on the TalkTalk forums before but will check again.

I'm able to run regular hour long videoconf calls with Cisco Jabber without issue, iPlayer HD streaming (at Loc 1, sometimes Loc 2), and I use the TalkTalk ADSL extensively, most days, with no other problems apart from SureSignal operation.

BTW and FYI - I found out today that my colleague whose Suresignal voice broke up horribly last week on conference call has 30Mbps down 20 Mbps up, from EE. However, quizzing him further he has a Powerline adapter connection between his router and his VF SureSignal, and his laptop also uses this for connectivity, so when his PC checks email or downloads updates they are going over the PowerLine connection at the same time as his sureSignal voice traffic, so that may well explain the break-up in his case.

He does this because his router is at the other end of the house from his office. 

My SureSignals are both direct connected to the routers, which are direct connected to the BT master socket in both cases.

Cheers

Jonathan