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Sure Signal - so utterly useless

stevekale
4: Newbie

I am absolutely fed up with my Sure Signal.  It has a connection to the Vodafone server.  I have a 100mbps internet service via fibre optic cable (Virgin Media) which has been tested to show more than plenty of bandwidth for video telephony let alone a basic voice call. I get a full strangth connection to the Not So Sure Signal device yet the call quality is utterly useless. It is intermittent and one can't even have a basic conversation.  There's clearly a massive latency or similar issue.  I have tested the latency of my Internet service and the problem isn't there.  It must be Vodafone's servers.  Anyone know the server address to do a Traceroute test?  I'm about to switch to O2 - at least then I won't need the booster at all!!!!

16 REPLIES 16

stevekale
4: Newbie

Speedtest from my Mac:

 

Ping 27ms

Downstream: 70Mbps

Upstream: 4.45Mbps

 

The Sure Signal is connected to the same network in the same fashion as my Mac. So no excuses regarding lack of local network or Internet bandwidth. 

 

I did a Traceroute to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk.  See results below.  I have run this several times with similar results.  Hop 8 is always showing high latency.

 

Steves-Mac-Pro:~ steve$ traceroute cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk

traceroute: Warning: cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk has multiple addresses; using 212.183.133.178

traceroute to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk (212.183.133.178), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

 1  10.31.56.1 (10.31.56.1)  20.099 ms  20.194 ms  20.084 ms

 2  brnt-core-2b-xe-023-0.network.virginmedia.net (80.2.147.177)  20.482 ms  19.824 ms  21.938 ms

 3  * * *

 4  * * *

 5  nrth-bb-1b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.254.42.130)  11.551 ms  22.131 ms  10.619 ms

 6  tele-ic-4-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.174.18)  11.938 ms  16.069 ms  12.746 ms

 7  ldngw1.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.209)  14.809 ms  16.368 ms  17.698 ms

 8  85.205.0.86 (85.205.0.86)  15.104 ms  13.954 ms  208.149 ms

 9  * * *

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Steves-Mac-Pro:~ steve$

 

Facetime or Skype video calling works very well but a simple voice call over Vodafone sucks beyond belief. 

Amanda
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hello @stevekale

 

Thanks for that information. 

 

Please let me know your Sure Signal serial number, and we'll look into it further. 

 

Thanks, 

 

Amanda 

40133836599

 

It appeared to be fine yesterday.  Not sure about today.  It's a latency issue in your network.  Issues that keep on repeating.  Extraordinarily frustrating.

Hi @stevekale

 

Everything seems fine from what you've posted. I can see the high latency issue at hop 8, can you confirm if you're using multiple devices through the connection?

 

Try turning all other devices off to see if this helps the connection.  

 

Thanks,

 

Jamian

It's NOT fine - else I would not have gone to the trouble of complaining.  It IS repeatedly useless.  This morning all lights were orange indicating a failure to connect to your server end.  They are now white again. But white lights (3 when a mobile phone is connected to and using the Sure Signal) is no indication of satisfactory voice quality - voice quality, about as eay as it gets.

 

The high latency hop is in Arcor's aka Vodafone's network. 

 

You can see from the traceroute that the latency is not in my household network. (Which constitutes merely a direct ethernet connection to a powerline adaptor with my Virgin Media router connected via the same.  These indicate a local bandwidth of well in excess of 100Mbps with the adaptors spec'd to up to 500Mbps.) From time to time, various devices are attached to the domestic network and, obviously, share the main Virgin Media Internet connection: one computer, at various points in time several iPads/iPhones and one Apple TV.  Of course, Virgin Media also send their cable TV service over the same pipe but we have fibre to the curb here. Turning everything off makes no difference (as expected). 

 

The issue is dropped packets/latency - voice in either direction is intermittent with neither side being able to hear properly due to gaps in transmission. You should be able to identify my address. There is a massive hole in your 3G network in this area which forces us to endeavour to use a Sure Signal (you'd think we were in a rural area rather than the centre of London).  But it doesn't work with any semblance of reliability.  (And your 4G service is just as bad here and so not worth paying for.)  You can't conduct a voice call with that sort of latency in your fixed line network. 

Latency in hop 8 gone.  Call quality over Sure Signal fine.  Fix/maintain your network.

 

Steves-Mac-Pro:~ steve$ traceroute cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk

traceroute: Warning: cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk has multiple addresses; using 212.183.133.177

traceroute to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

 1  10.31.56.1 (10.31.56.1)  9.168 ms  9.982 ms  9.003 ms

 2  brnt-core-2a-xe-023-0.network.virginmedia.net (80.2.147.169)  10.505 ms  17.660 ms  10.127 ms

 3  * * *

 4  * * *

 5  brhm-bb-1c-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.254.42.210)  15.605 ms  14.704 ms  28.014 ms

 6  * * *

 7  ldngw1.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.209)  17.314 ms  29.773 ms  17.026 ms

 8  85.205.0.86 (85.205.0.86)  19.642 ms  21.708 ms  19.478 ms

 9  * * *

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1

Down completely this evening....

Ben_H
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

Hi @stevekale

 

We'll need access to your account to troubleshoot further.

 

Please come and speak to us on Live help.

 

Thanks,

Ben

Hop 8 latency bad again and can't have a voice call in which the patties can understand each other!

 

Last login: Sun May  3 16:45:41 on ttys000

Steves-Mac-Pro:~ steve$ traceroute cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk

traceroute: Warning: cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk has multiple addresses; using 212.183.133.179

traceroute to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk (212.183.133.179), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

 1  10.31.56.1 (10.31.56.1)  57.165 ms  26.909 ms  15.918 ms

 2  brnt-core-2b-xe-023-0.network.virginmedia.net (80.2.147.177)  27.034 ms  19.077 ms  17.187 ms

 3  * * *

 4  * * *

 5  nrth-bb-1b-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.254.42.130)  16.182 ms *  39.908 ms

 6  tele-ic-4-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.174.18)  18.568 ms  17.365 ms  16.783 ms

 7  ldngw1.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.209)  19.907 ms  17.169 ms  24.200 ms

 8  85.205.0.86 (85.205.0.86)  158.211 ms  19.956 ms  19.120 ms

 9  * * *

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