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

[arukDave]

Hi.

Dodgy:

Glad you got it working.   And yes the continual flood of fragmented packets is not ideal, but it's what these days could be regarded as "IBR" (internet background radiation*) which is why I recomend rules are setup based on Vodafone's servers public IP addresses, so only such packets from them get passed, others will (should) be blocked as usual.   (That does depend on the firewall's capabilities however.)

(* From Steve Gibson, of www.grc.com.  Recomended site of good reading.  No affiliation on my part.)

The VSS runs an embedded Linux as far as we know.  Most of them default to a MTU of 1500, it's a Windows thing, that has the lower value, that the rest of the sheep try to follow, thinking that's the norm.

~~~~

Island_Ian:

Aggreed, no user should in this day and age -Need- to do networking admin tasks such as all this, for what is after all an -appliance-.   Sadly, I suspect its design dates from some time ago (the software at least) plus the total lack of user interface (I can understand why) does not help.

Nor does the crippling of Vodafones own servers, that could if so enabled, auto negotiate an alternative MTU value and perhaps an alternative VPN technology, so things would work with a minimum of hassle, no reason these days why such things can't be truly Plug it in, and shortly after Play with it!  (Not even needing UPnP enabled on a customers router either, not that they make any attempt at using that in any case even if it is enabled.)

A simple status web page, or some other way to interrogate the thing to find out what it's p'd off about when it all fails would be good to have, no need to allow any "Adjustment" by the users, just be able to get at and see some status that has real meaning.   Such as "Failed authentication, because...." etc.

When you talk to your ISP, give them that list of server addresses, and known ports used, plus the need for a MTU of 1500, or the alowing of fragmented packets (from those addresses) and perhaps it can be made to work for you.

Regards All.

Dave B.   (Not a Vodafone employee)

(If anything helped, feel free to click a "thanks".)

[jhopkins]

I was also told on the  phone yesterday by a  technical support  guy that V3  is not  compatible  with BT broadband !! Perfectly  understandable of course....nobody in the UK would be using  BT Broadband  would they?....ha-bloody-ha!!

[arukDave]

Hi again jasryan.

Yes, there is a lot of global horse-trading of IPv4 address blocks between ISP's and other entities, so it's sadly not uncommon to find yourself suddenly associated with an address that might not be labled with the physical teretory you're in.

For example, PlusNet (and one or two others) in the UK late last year, were assigning addresses that appeard to locate users in the USA!

Vodafone's VSS types, should be able to verify the Ripe status of an IP, and remove any other block/ban on it so their servers are happy to serve, as it were.   At least thats what seems to happen here in the UK.

Hope it gets resolved for you soon.

Best Regards.

Dave B.  (Not part of Vodafone.)

[sja568]

SureSignal S/N: 42150206649

IP:  81.159.189.4

Down: 72 Mbps  Up: 15.65 Mbps

Pingtest: B*, 28ms ping, 1ms jitter, unable to test packet loss

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

1 4 ms 1 ms 1 ms BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * 28 ms 23 ms 31.55.185.133
4 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms 31.55.185.164
5 24 ms 25 ms 24 ms 195.99.127.140
6 25 ms 24 ms 46 ms core4-hu0-1-0-0.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [195.99.12
7.50]
7 24 ms 25 ms 25 ms peer1-xe8-3-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [213.121.1
93.109]
8 48 ms 37 ms 26 ms lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
9 25 ms 28 ms 26 ms 85.205.0.93
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
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.

[Island_Ian]

I hav exactky the lights sequence as above.  I have installed my VSS at a friend;s house and the VSS unit downloads and operates correctly.  When I try again on my network I get the same light sequence as above.

My results:-

Speed test Download 1.75mbps Upload 0.48mbps

Ping test 55

External IP address 192.168.2.65

VSS serial number 42150238956

Result of traceroute:-

Last login: Sat Feb 14 19:28:59 on console
Ians-Computer:~ iantainsh$ traceroute 212.183.133.177
traceroute to 212.183.133.177 (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 router.belkin (192.168.2.1) 1.455 ms 0.754 ms 0.609 ms
2 192.168.112.1 (192.168.112.1) 1.170 ms 1.211 ms 0.947 ms
3 172.16.5.1 (172.16.5.1) 10.260 ms 8.284 ms 9.532 ms
4 * * *
5 * * *

We live on the Isle of Tiree and without this booster our signal strength is very poor.

Regards

Island_Ian

[Ian_MFRL]

Hi,

I have the same symptoms, the restart didn't help, these are the diagnostics:

Ping 23ms

DL speed 2.13Mbps

UL speed 0.51Mbps

IP 109.156.48.245

SS # 42143939611

tracert 212.183.133.177

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

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.254
  2    19 ms    19 ms    20 ms  217.32.147.8
  3    20 ms    19 ms    19 ms  217.32.147.78
  4   236 ms   236 ms   236 ms  213.120.176.26
  5    21 ms    20 ms    21 ms  217.41.168.235
  6    21 ms    22 ms    21 ms  217.41.168.109
  7    21 ms    21 ms    21 ms  109.159.249.250
  8    21 ms    21 ms    21 ms  core4-te0-0-0-27.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.
249.185]
  9    20 ms    21 ms    21 ms  peer1-xe8-3-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [213.121.1
93.109]
 10    23 ms    26 ms    26 ms  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
 11    22 ms    22 ms    22 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.

What should I do next?

Many thanks

[Island_Ian]

Mark

I wish I knew the answer.  Hopefully someone from Vodafone will deal with our requests.  I have never come across such a disfunctional website and as for trying to contact Vodafone by phone....!  Ironical for a phone company having suchan aversion to actually allowing you to speak to someone.

Regards

Island_Ian

[Randystalker]

Hi,

We have have been trying to get our sure signal serial number 40132109113 working since the beginning of last year.  Our IT company have made changes to the router that should allow it to work but still no joy.  Please see test details below:

Speedtest

Ping 20ms

Down 2.77 Mbps

Up 0.64 Mbps

Pingtest

MOS 4.34

Ping 21ms

Jitter 1 ms

External IP

81.136.188.157

Serial Number

40132109113

Traceroute

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Andrew Walker>tracert 212.183.133.177

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

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  10.1.2.1
  2    14 ms    12 ms    12 ms  host81-148-128-1.in-addr.btopenworld.com [81.148
.128.1]
  3    13 ms    13 ms    13 ms  213.120.182.141
  4    14 ms    14 ms    13 ms  213.120.161.82
  5    14 ms    13 ms    13 ms  31.55.164.41
  6    14 ms    13 ms    13 ms  31.55.164.107
  7    59 ms    50 ms    13 ms  acc1-10GigE-0-3-0-5.bm.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.
248.116]
  8    22 ms    18 ms    19 ms  core2-te-0-2-5-0.ilford.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
48.2]
  9    20 ms    17 ms    18 ms  peer1-xe3-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.2
54.219]
 10    24 ms    22 ms    23 ms  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net [195.66.224.124]
 11    19 ms    19 ms    19 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.

C:\Users\Andrew Walker>

[Jenny]

Hi everyone,

@Randystalker – Your internet speeds aren’t very high. They should be enough for a home connection, however if you’re in an office environment with other devices using the connection, these won’t be sufficient for the Sure Signal to work as well.

You could take the Sure Signal home to test it on your own broadband. This would confirm whether there are any issues with the Sure Signal itself.

@Island_Ian – The Sure Signal won’t work with satellite broadband as stated on our Sure Signal support pages.

@platespin – Your Sure Signal's showing as last connecting with our servers yesterday morning.

Please try unplugging the Sure Signal, log into your router and turn off Smart Setup as this has resolved the issue for other BT Home Hub 5 users.

If you’re not sure how to do this, you can contact BT for further help.

Thanks,

Jenny

[platespin]

Hi Jenny,

Smart Setup was already turned off.

And you're quite right, my Sure Signal was connected to your server(s) yesterday then the Home Hub 5 was installed that afternoon and now I find myself here wishing I wasn't :smileyembarrassed: