Sure Signal stopped working

[VickiN]

Hi, 

I have a Sure Signal Version 1 and it has decided to stop working.  It has been working fine since I first got it well over a year ago (can't remember exactly when I got it, but it has been a long time).  This is a real nuisance as I get no Vodafone coverage at home!!

It stopped working a couple of weeks ago and despite speaking to Vodafone and resetting it several times, as well as de-registering and re-registering also, still no joy. 

The lights on the back by the ethernet cable are steady yellow and steady or flashing orange.

Sometimes I have no lights, sometimes just the power light and sometimes lights 1 & 2 with 4 flashing.

I use a BT HomeHub 3.

My S/S is a Sagem and the Serial Number is 21230683613.

I hope you can help me.  I am having to use my landline all the time to call other mobiles and it is costing me a fortune!  As a household, we spend about £60 a month for calls we are unable to use!!!!  We nly chose Vodafone because of the Sure Signal, depsite having to pay for it!

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Many thanks. 

[Peter2D]

Hi yellow160 and James from Vodafone

Yellow 160 - Thanks very much for your really helpful post.

I have studied this forum in detail, including your earlier posts.  I had been very puzzled as to why my Sure Signal 1 had stopped working as it has been really quite robust for over three years.  I was an early adopter.  I have switched from a Virgin ADSL (via BT line) account with Netgear Router to a BT ADSL (via BT line) with Home Hub 3 and never had any trouble, and never had to configure settings beyond the default.

I ordered the BT Home Hub 3 Firmware update.  Needleess to say this has not been delivered at the time of writing, which is beyond the 48 hours stated.

I saw the comments about power supplies and was a bit suspicious, particularly as my Sure Signal 1 was settling in a state with all lights off, including LED 1 which is supposed to be the Power LED.

I couldn't find a suitable power supply to try as an alternate, so rushed out to my local Maplin store late on Friday and bought one, just in case.  I then confirmed my Home Hub 3 firmware had not changed so I was only dealing with one configuration change.  I plugged in the new Power Supply, left the box for a while, and within an hour all was working normally with strong 3G service in every room of the house again.  I didn't even do a reset on the SureSignal1 box.

You can buy cheaper power supplies online, but I wanted an immediate solution as I have no robust indoor cellular service without the Sure Signal 1.

So the solution to my problem turns out to be the original power supply which had partly failed and obviously couldn't deliver the current, particularly as the start up sequence progressed and I assume more processor activity was needed.  It is clearly intermittent as the night I took my box to a neighbour to test it must have been working better - true fate.

Further details.

In the Maplin shop I took the old power supply and tested the new power supply, its tip and that voltage and polarity were correct before I left the shop.  The guy in the shop smelt the original power supply and said he reckoned it was damaged.  You could smell a subtle burnt smell when you held the adaptor to your nose after it had been on for 10 minutes.  He said it was a very common failure mode and you could tell by smelling!

For those more interested I bought the following power supply, Maplin part number L47BL.  £19.95.

(link removed in accordance with terms and conditions)

It's a little larger and has a blue LED showing it's plugged in.  Take great care when you select the tip to put on the end of the cable.  You get a set of different tips and it is not obvious which way to plug the tip (which delivers the power to the Sure Signal 1 box) into the connector on the end of the output lead from the adaptor.  I strongly recommend you test the polarity is correct eithar against the original supplied power supply, or the label on the original supply which shows the polarity.  (The outer is negative; the inner is positive.)

For the Vodafone team.  I suggest you urge people to test the power supply, particularly if you end up with the box in a state with none of the four LEDs illuminated at all.

I can only assume the VPN bug (widely reported) is not the reason the Sure Signal 1 stopped working.

Thanks to the great supporters of this Forum for sorting me out.  I have to say I am a little disappointed in the Vodafone team comments, as it took another user to really sort me out.  I am one happy customer again though.

Peter2D

[PeterALander]

Hi Gemma, my upload sped has always been low, however I don't understand why that would stop the system from logging on? All that happens is that people don't hear me well when talking when it goes low.

[Gemma]

Hi PeterALander,

You need a minimum of 0.3Mbps to create the connection with the server, and use one call over that connection without any failures.

If it’s below this, you’ll experience poor audio or the Sure Signal can fail to connect.

Thanks,

Gemma

[PeterALander]

Hi Gemma,

I just checked it again, pic attached, and it is above the minimum level

[Retired-James]

Hi PeterALander,

This should now be able to establish a connection if you do a factory reset on the Sure Signal.

Reset your Sure Signal:

For versions 1 and 2:

-Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid

-Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in

-Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead

-Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

For version 3:

-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 be back online in around 1 hour.

James

[wayside59]

My Sure Signal stopped working yesterday after being fairly reliable for 5 years. Tried reset several times and for most of yesterday just continued to do a sequence of lights before eventually going back to just power light., then few mins later would start all over again.

Phoned customer services who said I needed to get my ISP to set up port forwarding, in the past when this has been suggested I have always done it on my router and it never used to make any difference.  When I had a new router 18 months ago it set up ok and I never needed to set any port forwarding.

I gave up last night and unpluged it. This morning when I pluged it in I get all 4 solid lights and it won't do a reset. I think the problem is with the Sure Signal box. Can anyone help? 

[wayside59]

I don't have any where else to test it.

[VickiN]

I'm just thoroughly peeved with Vodafone and BT!  Still cannot get my S/S to work and neither Vodafone or BT will accept responsibility of a problem or provide a simple solution to fix it without spending yet more money!!

BT say that they don't deal with Sure Signal problems or port forwarding etc., but I can subscribe to their Tech Expert service for £10 a month to see if they can sort it!

Vodafone just say it might need a repair!

As I am not the only one experiencing the problem, why has nobody worked anything out yet?

If you go with O2, they have a guaranteed signal for personal customers if you are connected to WiFi.  Is this something Vodafone are aiming for too?  Not yet available for business customers though.  

I have had several dealings with Vodafone recently, SIM Swaps, replacement SIM etc. and am still waiting three weeks later for something that was promised to be in the post to me within a few days!  I do not have the time to keep visiting their stores - the Reading store is next to useless anyway - and will most definitely be moving all contracts elesewhere when they are up for renewal. 

[Retired-Matt_B]

Hi,

@wayside69 - We can arrange a repair for you and test it on your behalf.

@VickiN -We can rule out the need for a repair once you've tested the Sure Signal in a different location.

If you could do this and get back to us that'd be great.

Thanks,

Matt B

[VickiN]

If I find somewhere to test it - because I always have several hours to sit around and wait for things! - does it matter if the location is in a good signal area?

Am I right to assume that it need to de-register it and then re-register it to the other location?