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Solution

Sure Signal not transmitting a 3G signal

Retired-George
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

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

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Hello

 

serial number 21224717989 version 1

 

the sure signal stopped working a few days ago after a lont internet outage (2 hours), presented with only light 1 flashing.

 

I have done a little troubleshooting and have now manged to get to light 1 and 2 solid.

 

how is it looking from your end?

 

 

Internet speed >5 Mbps ping normally <55ms.

 

pathping 

C:\WINDOWS\system32>pathping 212.183.133.181

Tracing route to 212.183.133.181 over a maximum of 30 hops

0 XPS-M133064BIT.int.hillblock.com [192.168.1.104]
1 WRT54GL [192.168.1.251]
2 192.168.1.250
3 losubs.subs.dsl5.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.83.10]
4 no-dns-yet-62-3-86-29.zen.co.uk [62.3.86.29]
5 ge-2-0-0-0.cr1.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.49]
6 ge-3-0-0-0.cr2.th-lon.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.45]
7 ldngw1.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.209]
8 85.205.116.14
9 * * *
Computing statistics for 200 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 XPS-M133064BIT.int.hillblock.com [192.168.1.104]
0/ 100 = 0% |
1 1ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% WRT54GL [192.168.1.251]
0/ 100 = 0% |
2 1ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.1.250
1/ 100 = 1% |
3 44ms 2/ 100 = 2% 1/ 100 = 1% losubs.subs.dsl5.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.83.10]
0/ 100 = 0% |
4 45ms 1/ 100 = 1% 0/ 100 = 0% no-dns-yet-62-3-86-29.zen.co.uk [62.3.86.29]
0/ 100 = 0% |
5 46ms 1/ 100 = 1% 0/ 100 = 0% ge-2-0-0-0.cr1.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.49]
1/ 100 = 1% |
6 54ms 2/ 100 = 2% 0/ 100 = 0% ge-3-0-0-0.cr2.th-lon.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.45]
0/ 100 = 0% |
7 54ms 2/ 100 = 2% 0/ 100 = 0% ldngw1.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.209]
98/ 100 = 98% |
8 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% 85.205.116.14

Trace complete.

 

Can you see the sure signal from your end?

 

Thanks in advance

IAn

 

 

FIXED

 

Came back about an hour later and it is working OK

 

Don't you just hate it when that happens

 

Ian

View solution in original position

501 REPLIES 501

Hi
Can I get some help please. I get lots of power cuts which affect my suresignal one. It stops working with the top two lights solid and the fourth not on. It normally works again with a reset after calling Vodafone. My speed is 2mb down and .04 up. Ping is 49ms. I use Mac and don't know how to do tracer route. Sure signal number is: 21196949909. Please can you try a reset for me?
Thanks

mr fletcher
Not applicable
our ss has been out for 4 days or more now had some interesting calls to 191 to try and sort the issue, i think the only thing they didn't tell me to do was phone father christmas.very disappointed in the response to this ,been vf customer for many many years.

robinbrewerton
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hey Guys,

It looks like there may have been a temporary outage, please can you all let us know if you are still having issues so we can check each case for you all.

James
eForum Team


Still not working, worse still am still being told its downloading software........ by snail?????

nickbaxter
Not applicable
I have a similar problem. not sure where to get help, keeping being told I am posting to worong thread. Tried the trouble shooting guide. Tried disconnecting everything. Had lighte 2 and 4 flashing all weekend. I read somehwhere this light sequence means updating software, but it has been doing that all weekend now. Dont know what to do now, except move house. Is this likely to be a VF problem (that will fix itself one day), a downloading software issue (which will finish eventually) or is the SS on its last legs?

Hammarton
Not applicable
Got one of these on Thursday last week, it's never worked :

Get all lights up then they drop to light 1 with 2 slowly flashing until it comes back up then drops again. Just timed it and got :

Off : 2'06
On : 15.9
Off : 57.8
On : 44.8
Off : 1'59.8
On : 53.4

Tried the ping to 212.183.133.181 and got 100% packet loss

Nobody at the VF help desk appears to give a toss or know what they're talking about. The one I spoke to on Saturday finally agreed to go away and try to find out more information and call me back on Sunday, then never bothered.

Utterly useless on all fronts and frankly taking the ###### considering how much money I pay to vodafone a month anyway only to then be made to pay £50 to get a signal ( which incidentally VF claim is "good" in my area.. it's not, it's nonexistent ) and when no signal arrives just get shrugged off by Vodaone.

AndrewH123
Not applicable

Hey Guys,

It looks like there may have been a temporary outage, please can you all let us know if you are still having issues so we can check each case for you all.

James
eForum Team


Hi - I'm still having issues connecting - lights 1 & 2 are on, others refucse to come on. Several reboots.

The longest I have had my SureSignal up and running is 48 hours - is this normal - it normally requires a reboot. It is quite new at a couple of months, but the service isn't great - sometimes it only stays on for a few minutes or hours if I'm lucky.

18monthstogo
Not applicable
I have my pathping results and have no idea what it means. Would some explanation be an idea on the reading of them? NB I am not a geek.

Would it help to eject the box thru the window? I cannot face another call to Mumbai.

Retired-Lee
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

I have my pathping results and have no idea what it means. Would some explanation be an idea on the reading of them? NB I am not a geek.

Would it help to eject the box thru the window? I cannot face another call to Mumbai.


Hi 18monthstogo,

Thanks for letting us know that you're too having problems. If you'd like to upload a copy of your pathping results, I'll be delighted to have a look to see what's going on.

Cheers all,

LeeH
eForum Team

philip42h
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

... Hi there Hammarton,

I can totally understand your frustration here, but if you're getting 100% packet loss then this indicates a problem with your ISP and I'd be inclined to advise you to contact them...

LeeH
eForum Team

Hi Lee,
Your statement above isn't necessarily entirely true ... ;)
If when Hammarton says "Tried the ping to 212.183.133.181 and got 100% packet loss" he really means what he says and he tried ping rather than pathping, then the observed result is entirely predictable since your Vodafone servers don't respond to ICMP pings. 'Request timed out' / '100% loss' is the expected result and doesn't indicate any fault of the ISP or in the router settings.

Hammarton,
To get a useful result you would need to run the command pathping 212.183.133.181, in administrator mode on Vista or later, and then wait to allow it to return a full set of results. This will then show the round trip times and packet loss at each step through your ISP's network as far as the Vodafone gateway (VODAFONE-LTD.TenGigabitEthernet7-1.ar6.LON3.gblx.net ) - you still won't reach the SS server.
Philip

18monthstogo
Not applicable

Hey mr fletcher,

Can you confirm for me that you're having the issue exactly as described on the thread title? And if so, would it be possible for you to try a speedcheck for me using broadbandspeedchecker?

Could you also open a command prompt and type 'pathping 212.183.133.181' and let me know if there is ANY packet loss over any of the hops taken?



Hey the robster,

Thanks for your post. The light sequence on your unit should be 1 & 2 on and light 4 flashing if your unit is downloading an update or a profile. Can you confirm for me that this is what you see?

If it's something different, then would you also be able to confirm for me the symptoms you're seeing?



Hi npb,

I've never seen only light 2 and 4 flashing before and this sequence isn't covered anywhere in any documentation I've seen. Can you clarify for me that there are absolutely no other lights on the unit flashing/solid?



Hi there Hammarton,

I can totally understand your frustration here, but if you're getting 100% packet loss then this indicates a problem with your ISP and I'd be inclined to advise you to contact them.

You could also try the speedchecker!



Hi AndrewH123,

Sorry to hear that you're too having problems. The light sequence you are describing indicates an NTP issue and I'll need for you to open the command prompt and type 'pathping 212.183.133.181' If there is any packet loss on any of the hops that amount to 10% or more, then you'll also need to contact your ISP.



Hi 18monthstogo,

Thanks for letting us know that you're too having problems. If you'd like to upload a copy of your pathping results, I'll be delighted to have a look to see what's going on.

Cheers all,

LeeH
eForum Team





YEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Changed my original box at the store, plugged it in and it's 5 bar central over here. Let's hope it lasts as we are only 20 minutes in! Spent that time exchanging texts my wife sitting next to me - because we can!!!

Hahahahahha.

Moral is.....try a box change?

Touch wood.