Version 3 VSS Lights (Power - flashing, Internet - off, In Service - orange, In Use - orange)

[Retired-Lee]

This thread has been created to discuss and troubleshoot the version 3 Sure Signal when the light sequence is as follows:

• Power: Flashing
• Internet: Off
• In Service: Solid Orange
• In Use: Solid Orange

Cause

This light sequence indicates the Sure Signal's not active and it has been unable to authenticate on the Vodafone network

Troubleshooting

Please restart your Sure Signal. If the symptoms continue please add the following details to this thread:

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

Traceroute command:

On a PC:

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

On a Mac:

1. Open Terminal (Applications, Utilities)
2. Type 'traceroute 212.183.133.177'
3. Press Enter

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

Thanks

LeeH

[galway85]

Hi,

Just got VSS 3 and I have the above symptoms. I have conducted the tests as per your trouble shooting guide and the results are as follows:

Speed Test:

Download 53.76Mb/s

Upload 3.04Mb/s

Ping 34ms

Ping Test:

Ping 33ms

Jitter 2ms

External IP Address:

82.8.51.253

Sure Signal Ser No:

40132216124

Traceroute Results:

Matthew-Galways-MacBook:~ matthewgalway$ traceroute 212.183.133.177
traceroute to 212.183.133.177 (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 * * *
2 * * *
3 belf-core-1a-ae2-2471.network.virginmedia.net (213.105.207.89) 427.413 ms 1125.458 ms 1024.650 ms
4 leed-bb-1b-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net (212.43.163.201) 716.511 ms 16.921 ms 18.142 ms
5 nrth-bb-1b-et-410-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.175.50) 20.848 ms *
nrth-bb-1b-et-400-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.175.46) 23.249 ms
6 tele-ic-4-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net (62.253.174.18) 23.065 ms 22.515 ms 22.430 ms
7 ldngw1.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.209) 26.151 ms 31.581 ms 24.103 ms
8 85.205.116.14 (85.205.116.14) 25.049 ms 24.505 ms 23.292 ms
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * * *
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42 *
*

*
43 * * *
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63 * * *
64 * * *
Matthew-Galways-MacBook:~ matthewgalway$
Matthew-Galways-MacBook:~ matthewgalway$
Matthew-Galways-MacBook:~ matthewgalway$
Matthew-Galways-MacBook:~ matthewgalway$

Hope you can help me.

Many Thanks

Matt Galway

[johnedge]

Hi

Just a prenote to those on this forum. Ihave just spent 3/4 hour writing a whole tech request on this site on the Rich Test page. I then pressed 'Preview' to presumeably preview the message on the site, and the whole message just vanished. So I have got to write the whole thing all over again!! Strongly suggest that you highlight and 'copy' regularly so that at least you have a copy to repaste unlike myself!

So back to square 1. I have a standard ISP - Plusnet part of BT and a stable and reasonable speed for W Wales. My router is a TP-Link standard and very relaible. All wi-fi, ethernet, router ports etc work fine, and I have no problems - except with the VSS which has never worked. How can 21c consumer product be so impossible to set up when everything else is now plug and play!!

When I phoned VSS tech help I was told that certain router ports had to be open (whatever that means!), and they couldn't help at all, and my ISP had to! What my ISP has to do with my router I don't know - and while Plusnet knew of VSS problems they don't support this and recommeded PFConfig. I used this, and PFChecker confirmed that while it seemed to open all ports for TCP two, 500 and 4500, were blocked as being used by another application. Of course VSS tech help had no idea what to do about this, and suggested I call TP-Link. Several calls to China later  they are seeing if they can help!

Frankly I am sitting here wondering as a  consumer what I am doing getting into the bowels of computer comms which I don't understand at all, while VSS tech help has no idea at all what to do to get their product to work!!!! Anyone got any ideas?

Many Thanks

John 

Speed Test: Ping 41 ms; Upload 3.38 MB/s; Download 0.38 MBs

Ping Test: Ping 41 ms; Jitter 1 ms; B+

IP Address: 87.115.108.131

VSS Serial: 40132316312

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

  1     3 ms     4 ms     3 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    41 ms    46 ms    41 ms  lo0-central10.ptw-ag04.plus.net [195.166.128.194]
  3    51 ms    53 ms    62 ms  link-a-central10.ptw-gw01.plus.net [212.159.2.156]
  4    61 ms    75 ms    50 ms  252.core.access.plus.net [212.159.0.252]
  5    53 ms    54 ms    51 ms  ldngw1.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.209]
  6    53 ms    52 ms    51 ms  85.205.116.14
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out ... and so on to . 

 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

[surreyred]

Back online again.

[mozzatechmo]

Hi surreyred,

Yes, my VSS has sprung back to life again later this morning.  That's some coincidence and clearly says to me that all this guff about router settings and all the rest, whilst perhaps relevant for some ISPs, is more likely just a smokescreen for the incompatibility issues between the VSS and the VirginMedia network/routers.

This is only made more apparent by the fact that my device configured itself and worked perfectly well for about 7 days when i first got it and I hadn't been anywhere near any settings!

I've got a service ticket logged with the "engineers" at Vodafone, a very helpful 2nd line support chap sorted that out for me.  Hopefully they will come back with some sort of explanation for the intermittant service, one that Voda certainly owe to their many frustrated customers!

MozzaT

[steve0819]

Hi John,

I'm also in W Wales & have had no end of problems getting a VSS to work satisfactorily. The thrust of Vodafone's tech support seems to be to prove their box isn't the problem rather than help you to find a solution; very frustrating.

Assuming you've got your upload & download speeds reversed (Vodafone say a download speed of at least 1Mbps is needed), it's most likely that a setting in your router will prove to be the culprit. Are you familiar with the concept of a VPN (Virtual Private Network)? Vodafone use the technique to communicate securely between the VSS & their servers. There are several different potential protocols which can be used & there will be a setting in your router labelled something like VPN Passthrough. Enable everything & try that - it worked for us. I note you've got a TP-Link router; if what I say doesn't make sense, they've got excellent set-up emulators on their web site to help you fathom what to do.

Good luck. By the way, did you know that if your download speed is < 2Mbps you may be eligible for a grant to get your broadband signal by radio? That's what we did & it's given us a huge speed boost. Details are on the Assembly web site or look at www walesbroadband.com

Cheers,

Steve

[johnedge]

Hi Steve

Many thanks your kind help! I am no expert on VPN or anything much else in comms, but I am learning, and this is the first daylight I think! I will check TP-LInks website, and have seen several TP articles which have been helpful. I will email my good friend Emily at TP-Link in China again to  explore further! perhaps VSS should employ you as a consultant their standard reply seems to be 'It's nothing to do with us'!

Many thanks

John

[johnedge]

Hi Steve

Following your advice I went to the Tp-Link site and found the FAQ's for my model (TD-W8960N). This what I found.

How to Setup IPSec Tunnel (VPN) on TD-W8960N/TD-W8950ND

Suitable for: TD-W8950ND, TD-W8960N

This article illustrates a configuration instance for building an IPSec VPN tunnel between two units of TD-W8960N/TD-W8950ND.

If you have only one unit and you want to setup a client to site VPN connection. This FAQ is not available for you and the TD-W8950ND/TD-W8960N has no such function to meet your need. They can´t work as a VPN server.

It would seem that I can't simply 'enable VPN' on this router to connect to V? Does this mean anything to you?

Perhaps I should ask what modem you have that does seem to work with VSS - that may ultimately be the best way for me to go!

Incidentally when I asked VSS tech support, if they recommended or supported any routers to work with VSS I got the same answer 'No'!!!

Many thanks for your help!

John

[steve0819]

Hi John,

I've had a look at the TP-Link web site, which doesn't have an emulator for model TD-W8960, but there is one for the TD-W8968. That shows that if you log on to your router, click on Network then ALG settings, the page that opens contains the VPN settings. I think IPSec is the one you want, but enabling them all won't do any harm. Save the changes, reboot the router, reset the VSS & see if anything different happens.

You don't have the option of using the same router as us, because it is incompatible with your set up. Ours uses an ethernet connection, yours is ADSL. 

Cheers,

Steve

[grolschuk]

Hi John,

The answer you have there looks to be answering a different question, about how to make your router terminate the VPN so you could connect 2 routers in 2 offices together.

Does your router interface have a section Network -> ALG, with various Pass-Through options?

[johnedge]

Hi Again

I am such an expert that I got the upload and download wrong way round on my post, so appologies!

However the saga continues, and somehow on the internet I found some more info on the UDP ports 500 and 4500 which seemed to be blocked on my router. It says:-

In order for IPsec to work through a NAT, the following protocols need to be allowed through the NAT interface(s), e.g. the LAN router:

in case of NAT-T:

• IKE - UDP port 500
• IPsec NAT-T - UDP port 4500

Often this is accomplished on home routers by enabling "IPsec Passthrough".

Does this mean anything to anyone? Is this relevant to VSS working? I have in fact found a section on my router management system (we are old friends now!) to do with IPsec so I will email China again to see if I can enable passthrough!

And all I wanted was a mobile signal!

John