Sure Signal V3 cutting off calls

[Joe33]

  I purchased a Vodafone Sure Signal v2 box from my local Vodafone store. I plugged it in and got it registered to my postcode and iPhone 4S

About 30 seconds into a call, inbound or outbound, the call fails to one way speech. Speech from the iPhone to the other party is silent. A few seconds after that, the call fails completely with “Call Failed” shown on the iPhone. The VSS v2 box reset but came back 10 or so minutes later but the next call would also fail. Vodafone re-synced the box but to no avail

I managed to swap the VSS v2 box for a VSS v3 plug. After registering this, I have exactly the same problem.  When the call fails, the power light flashes and the internet light goes orange. After a few minutes, the power light stays on and the internet light flashes white. After a few more minutes, the internet light stays on and the service light stays on white. I then get 3G signal back but the next call (in or out) will fail after 30 seconds or so. Data calls to the phone also fail. If I do a speed test over 3G, the test starts ok but normally fails with the VSS plug resetting again

My broadband is BT Infinity with an Asus RT-N56U router. I have the following ports forwarded to the VSS:

8 UDP/TCP

50 UDP/TCP

123 UDP/TCP

500 UDP

1723 UDP/TCP

4500 UDP

The symptoms are the same whether the ports are forwarded or not. I have left them open

Speedtest.net results: Ping=15ms Download=42.07Mbps Upload=13.46Mbps

Pingtest.net results: Packet loss 0%, Ping 19ms, Jitter 0ms

My IP address is dynamic from BT so is likely to change though I do have dydns running so you can find it at any time. It is currently 86.167.35.17

Traceroute Results:

C:\Windows\system32>tracert 212.183.133.177

Tracing route to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk [212.183.133.177]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     3 ms     2 ms     1 ms  my.router [192.168.1.1]

  2     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  217.32.144.164

  3     8 ms     7 ms     8 ms  217.32.144.190

  4    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  213.120.181.246

  5    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  217.41.169.147

  6     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  217.41.169.109

  7     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  109.159.251.207

  8    23 ms    23 ms    23 ms  core1-te-0-13-0-11.ilford.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.251.63]

  9    19 ms    19 ms    19 ms  peer1-xe11-0-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.254.124]

 10    23 ms    22 ms    23 ms  LNDGW2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]

 11    21 ms    21 ms    21 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.

My MTU size is set to 1492 by BT. This should be OK as Wireshark tests show that the “Do not fragment” flag is not set in either direction

I have put the VSS in my DMZ to no avail

I have moved the VSS to several different parts of the house away from any interference to no avail

I have reset the VSS using the specified factory reset method to no avail

The serial number of my VSS plug is 40124249026

I noticed a post from James of the TechTeam regarding PPPoE and PPPoA:

“Although the Sure Signal is designed for PPPoA and MTU size 1500 it can still be used with the BT infinity setup by making sure that the Sure Signal is connected to the infinity box rather than the modem directly as this will convert the protocol from PPPoE to PPPoA for the Sure Signal.

This has been tested by BT in their testing rooms and also a number of customers have confirmed that this works fine after all of the ports are forwarded (Ports 50, 4500, 500, 123, 8 and 1723) this is why it must be used with the equipment that has been supplied to you by BT.”

I connected directly to my Openreach modem (as BT call it) but the VSS plug could not pick up a connection – though it did pass it through to my Asus router OK. I cannot see in this case why you would need ports forwarded or where to forward them to. The VSS would be on a different subnet. However, if this method of connectivity has worked for other users, please can you explain more?

Please advise

[Retired-Dave]

Hi Joe33,

The details you've given there all appear fine - the connection is working off the bat so there's nothing blocking the IP address, whilst the traceroute and speeds are all top notch, so it would take a pretty violent deterioration in either to affect the signal, which would be unlikely to happen so predictably unless something else is triggering things.

I've done a resync to start with to just ensure that there are no minor glitches causing this. To ensure this picks up can you do another factory reset of the box for me?

If the issue persists, then the predictable recurrent nature of the issue sounds like it may be something causing a cumulative problem, building up until it blocks things up. One possibility is the fragmentation - you say that you have this set to allow fragmentation (double-negatives meant that took a few reads to get that the right way round...) so can you try disabling this? 1500 is advised to be certain that the settings are high enough, but 1492 will generally work without issue, and the fragmentation may be accumulating until the system cannot handle the call.

Can you also check the router to see if there is any firmware upgrade available? If there are any updates then this may be something which has been identified and addressed.

Let us know if any of this resolves things.

Dave

[Joe33]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your help with this. It’s the most useful information I have had so far.

I did a Wireshark trace of a call failing and though one packet was fragmented at the start of the call, there were no other fragmented packets but the call still cut off.

I didn’t want to change the firmware on my Asus RT-N56U router everything else is working fine.

So I re-installed my BT Home Hub 3 (HH3), hosted may Asus router off that and put it in the HH3’s DMZ. I then connected the Sure Signal directly to the HH3, left it a while with no ports forwarded and not in any DMZ and it kicked in. I have made 2 calls out for around 20 minutes each and nothing cut off!

So all I can conclude is that the Sure Signal is not compatible with the Asus RT-N56U on firmware version 3.0.3.1-027 custom firmware from http://code.google.com/p/rt-n56u/downloads/list .

Thanks again for your help,

Joe33