SureSignal not working - PPPoE, FTTC, Draytek

[rentaclown]

Good afternoon. 

Having switched ISP last week from Virgin (cable) to Zen (FTTC), my SureSignal 3 is no longer working (flashing power light, solid orange "in service" and "in use" lights).  I've spent quite a few hours over the previous days reading various conflicting posts on these and other forums, suggesting that SureSignal may or may not work with PPPoE due to MTU issues.  I'm hoping someone can help me understand what the facts of the situation are.  Here is the normally requested diagnostic information:

SS is plugged into a Draytek Vigor 2820n, which is in turn plugged into the openreach VDSL modem

I've tried various configurations of port forwarding as suggested in other threads, but at present the SS is configured with DHCP bound static address and is configured as a DMZ host (on 82.70.41.130), so there are no restrictions on incoming ports.  MTU is set to the maximum of 1492.  I've tried turning turning off the "do not fragment" check as found in another thread, but it made no difference.

SS serial no: 42141230674

Speedtest results: 55Mb down/18Mb up

Pingtest results: Packet loss - 0%, Ping - 34ms, Jitter - 2ms

External IP address(es): 82.70.41.128-135

Traceroute:

traceroute to 212.183.133.177 (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  10.0.3.1 (10.0.3.1)  1.671 ms  1.190 ms  1.174 ms
 2  losubs.subs.dsl8.th-lon.zen.net.uk (62.3.84.33)  8.647 ms  5.894 ms  8.662 ms
 3  no-dns-yet-62-3-86-165.zen.co.uk (62.3.86.165)  7.937 ms  6.628 ms  7.338 ms
 4  ldngw1.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.209)  8.699 ms  10.361 ms  10.045 ms
 5  85.205.0.86 (85.205.0.86)  9.076 ms  7.526 ms  8.026 ms
 6  * * *
 7  * * *
 8  * *

Thanks!

[Retired-Matt_B]

Hi rentaclown,

You'll need to change your PPPoE connection over to a PPPoA connection.

You can do this through the router settings. Speak to your ISP to get further instructions.

Our Sure Signal will not work over a PPPoE connection.

Thanks, 

Matt B

[WSsupport]

We had a Sure Signal working just fine using a Draytek and Openreach modem until we were given a fixed IP address and then ever since then the Sure Signal has failed to connect.

[Ben_H]

Hi @WSsupport ,

Chances are you'll need to reset your router and re-register the Sure Signal. This will re-provision it for you.

If it doesn't, have a run through our Sure Signal Troubleshooting thread. If this doesn’t resolve your query, please post your reply either below, or in the relevant thread, together with the details requested, including the following information.

Your speed test results from here.

Your ping test results from here.

Your external IP address from here.

The results of a traceroute.

Your Sure Signal serial number:

VSS Traceroute command

On a PC:

Click on Start and select Run

Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok

A black box will appear.

In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter

Paste the output of this command into your reply.

This will help us get the quickest possible resolution for you.

Thanks

Ben

[WSsupport]

Hi Ben,

We reset everything back to factory defaults on Friday and left the sure signal the weekend to try and sync and sort itself out with no luck still wouldn't connect.

One of the users to it home who has a Virgin connection and worked fine straight away.This was only done to make sure that it actually worked more than anything.

It is odd that everything was working perfectly until we were given a fixed IP address.

Regards

Mike

[rentaclown]

Just a quick follow up to my original post in this thread - it was definitely a compatibility problem with the Draytek router and SureSignal, NOT with PPPoE.

I placed a pfSense firewall in between the VDSL modem and the Draytek, and let that handle the PPPoE translation/authentication, and the SureSignal started working again immediately. I still use the Draytek as a wireless access point, and the SureSignal is connected via ethernet to the Draytek.

For those who are interested, here's my recollection of the details around why it works with some routers and not others (this may not be 100% accurate, it's gathered various sources with some inference to fill in the gaps). It seems that the issue is that the SureSignal tries to establish an IPSEC VPN with the Vodafone servers and expects an MTU of at least 1500. The Draytek has a maximum MTU for PPPoE of 1492, and therefore requests to fragment the packets, which the SureSignal denies (or ignores), so the Draytek won't allow the connection to continue. Apparently, some routers will ignore the SureSignal refusal to fragment, and fragment the packets anyway, which allows the connection to succeed. Apparently this issue may be resolved in newer Draytek routers (the 2820n is several years old now), but I wasn't about to shell out several hundred pounds on a new router on a "might work" promise, so repurposed an old desktop to build a pfSense gateway to prove my theory.

I was told by a member of the Vodafone Tech Team above to move my PPPoE connection to PPPoA, which is not something that my ISP support for FTTC (nor I imagine would many other ISPs), so that wasn't an option.

So, to the Vodafone moderators - can you please stop telling people that the SureSignal doesn't work with PPPoE (I'm proof that they do) and do what you can to get the message to those who design these things that there is something else wrong.

[Jenny]

Hi guys,

@WSsupport – If the Sure Signal works fine on another connection, then we know it’s not faulty.

Please get back to us with the following so we can look into this further:

• Your speed test results from here.
• Your ping test results from here.
• Your external IP address from here.
• The results of a traceroute.
• Your Sure Signal serial number:

VSS Traceroute command

1. On a PC:
2. Click on Start and select Run
3. Type CMD into the Run box and press enter/click ok
4. A black box will appear.
5. In this box type tracert 212.183.133.177 press Enter
6. Paste the output of this command into your reply. 

@rentaclown – Thanks for letting u know this is working again now.

Thanks,

Jenny

[WSsupport]

Hi, details as requested.

Serial No.
------------

40133638466

Speed Test
------------
Download: 5.90 mbps
Upload: 0.76 mbps

Ping Test
------------
Ping: 57 ms
Jitter: 36 ms

Tracert
------------
Tracing route to cluster4.vap.vodafone.co.uk [212.183.133.177]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     5 ms     2 ms     4 ms  my.router [192.168.1.254]
  2    13 ms    40 ms    37 ms  host81-130-224-1.in-addr.btopenworld.com [81.130
.224.1]
  3    15 ms    34 ms    14 ms  213.120.178.141
  4    18 ms    41 ms    20 ms  213.120.177.98
  5    24 ms    25 ms    16 ms  217.41.168.41
  6    15 ms    15 ms    25 ms  217.41.168.107
  7    19 ms    15 ms    14 ms  acc1-10GigE-0-2-0-4.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.1
59.249.97]
  8    15 ms    23 ms    15 ms  core4-te0-10-0-26.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159
.255.197]
  9    25 ms    15 ms    17 ms  peer1-xe8-1-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.191]
 10    18 ms    19 ms    19 ms  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
 11    17 ms    26 ms    17 ms  85.205.0.93
 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.

IP Address
------------
IP: 81.149.96.71

[Retired-Simon]

Hi @WSsupport

Your IP is whitelisted and all the other tests look fine.

What’s the actual light sequence you’re seeing on your Sure Signal?

Thanks,

Simon