Sure Signal not transmitting a 3G signal

[Retired-George]

This issue presents the following symptoms:

For version 1 Sure Signal (the one with four lights on the front):

• Lights one and two are solid which indicates the Sure Signal is connected, but isn't giving a 3G signal.
• Light four doesn’t light up or lights occasionally and then goes out at certain times of day.

For version 2 Sure Signal (the one with 3 lights on the front): 

• The power and system lights are both solid, indicating that the Sure Signal is giving a 3G signal.
• Your registered phones don’t pick up a 3G signal.

For version 3 Sure Signal (the plug in version):

• Power, internet and service lights are solid and the ‘in use’ light is either solid or flashing
• Your registered phones don’t pick up a 3G signal

Troubleshooting steps:

Check that your broadband connection meets our 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 (ISP) and you’ll need to contact them to discuss this.

Your connection speed will vary throughout the day, so we recommend running it at various times to get an accurate reading.

To ensure the Sure Signal broadcasts at the correct frequency, it sends and receives small amounts of data to a Network Time Protocol Server hosted by ourselves. If these packets of data take longer than 240ms to make a round-trip, the accuracy can no longer be ensured and so the Sure Signal will automatically stop broadcasting and light four will go out.

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:

1. Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid
2. Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in
3. Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead
4. Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

The Sure Signal will be back online in around 1 hour.

Configure your Router Firewall.
The IP address and ports used for NTP (Network Time Protocol) synchronisation are listed below. You may need these to configure the correct firewall settings on your router.

This step isn’t usually necessary, but it may help if you’re using a complex network (such as a corporate or office LAN), or a complex router.

We recommend contacting your ISP or router manufacturer directly for detailed instructions on exactly how to change your router settings. Alternatively, select your router make and model over at http://portforward.com and follow the default guide there.

Destination IP addresses:

• 212.183.133.181
• 212.183.133.182
• 212.183.131.128/26

• Protocol = UDP
• Port = 123

Please note that in the list of IP addresses above, the notation "212.183.131.128/26"means the entire range of IP addresses between 212.183.131.128 and 212.183.131.191

Perform a PathPing to our server.

In order to check if the Sure Signal's able to communicate with our NTP server, a PathPing can be performed as a test. In order to do this, you'll need to open the command prompt in Windows as follows:

• For XP just click Start > Run and type cmd then hit enter
• For Vista/Windows 7, press Start and type 'cmd' into the search bar
• Right click the result and click ‘Run As Administrator’

Once you're in the command prompt, type in PathPing 212.183.133.181. This will perform a trace route to the NTP server and will show you the route it took to get there. One of the columns will display packet loss, if this occurs before hitting our server, you'll need to contact your ISP for further assistance.

If you've completed all the troubleshooting steps above and not identified the cause of the issue, your Sure Signal may be faulty. Please post in this thread and we can look into it further.

Thanks,

Jenny

[Retired-George]

Hi guys,

As this thread was originally intended to be a troubleshooting thread, I'm currently in the process of reviewing all of the content contained within the original thread in order to make it easier to read and manage.

As with the previous thread, please feel free to ask for help regarding these specific symptoms within this thread. If you're having issues with your Sure Signal but are experiencing other symptoms then please see our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread first. If none of these apply then please start a new thread.

George
eForum Team

[nickking]

Hi, Tried everything that the thread sugests to no avail.  Pingpath test came back trace complete, no errors, have tried reset again and nothing seems to work.

This unit is new, it was swapped out two days ago by my Vodafone supplier, it cant be a second faulty unit I dont think, it must be in the setup - any other suggestions please -all are welcome at this stage.

Nick

[Stapleton]

I took delivery of my Sure Signal one week ago today. I was registered and connected to my Thomson 780 router on the Saturday. I had exhausted the eforum advice for the symptoms I experienced (see below) so I called the helpline - this led to a factory reset.

It didn't help.

I tried the helpline again on Monday - this time I was told of an error at the Vodafone end that was causing the same symptoms for a large number of users. I was advised to leave everything connected and wait for it to be sorted.

It's now Thursday and the symptoms persist: The lights are cycling as follows:
(a) 1 solid
(b) 1 soild 2 blinking
(c) 1&2 solid 4 blinking
(d) 12&4 solid (for 90 seconds) with occassional 3 blinking regardless of whether the registered handset (blackberry Bold 9700) is on or not.
(e) 1&2 solid 4 off
and then the cycle starts again. I get a full 3g signal on my handset during the 90 seconds of (d) and I can make a call - but it is dropped when the 90 seconds is up.

I have removed the Sure Signal from the router's list, reconnected and completed the factory reset only to get the cycle back again. The router is listed in the forum as one that has worked on plug and play without manual configuration. For good measure I tried manually setting the ports but that makes no difference to the symptoms. It is currently connected on the manually set ports.

I am frustrated - can anyone tell me what the problem is please?

[spudly_10]

I have exactly the same problem with my sure signal box, power light is on continuously internet light is flashing all of the time apart from when it stays on with the bottom light for 90seconds then it stars over again, can anyone help  thanks

[martin3dale]

It does seem to me that a lot of us are suddenly having problems. Can Vodafone please tell us if this is something they are working on. It can't just be a coincidence. And Yes I have tried everything we are meant to do.

Martin

[redcalibra]

Me too Martin,

5 weeks of total frustration, please own up vodaphone! your customers are not that thick!

[Retired-Holly]

Hi Sisyphus,

Its a shame to see you having such a hard time getting the Sure Signal working, its awesome when its up and running.

Admittedly this is over my head so instead I have sent you an email and our Sure Signal experts will help you to resolve this, all you need to do is reply with the requested information and don't change the subject line.

Thanks

Holly
eForum Team

[shibainu]

I just tried to send an email via the contact page and received an "error contact the administrator"

So.....

Since the outage on 5th Oct my SureSignal has not worked.
I have phoned 2nd line support twice and they have helped but it still does not work.
I have rebooted the BT homehub router and disabled firewall and opened ports 8,50,500,4500,123.
I have rebooted the Suresignal multiple times and performed a factory reset.
Originally only the power light (1) was on constantly. Now the internet light ( 2) is also on continuously. Light 4 flashes occasionaly but I cannot locate the Suresignal in the Homehub.

A Ping shows:
38% loss to 109.159.249.70
26% loss to 194.72.20.146
All other ips show 0% loss.

Until 5th Oct the Suresignal was working fine (for over 6 months) without the need to alter any settings in the BT Homehub.
I've now wasted hours trying to resolve this and I simply don't have the time.
Can anybody help?

[Sukhi]

Hi shibainu

I've just taken a look at the IP addresses and they both belong to the core BT Network, the connection is failing before it hits our servers. Unfortunately there is really not a lot that we can do here, I would recommend speaking to your ISP.

Sukhi
eForum Team