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

[wkbees]

yaay its back online.

thanks fellow forum chums for support.

as for Vodafone support, thanks a bunch!.

[DarrenLegg]

BINGO!

Mine seems to be working now.

I hope yours does too!

[Iainsax]

Ok, I'm back here again.

My suresignal has been working fine for the last couple of months. Leave it plugged in all the time and whilst gets a little warm has been no problem.

Went away on holiday last week and and switched off router whilst away.

Now back, I'm getting same problems again. I've reset it a number of times, unregistered and re-registered, but sill getting either solid red light and flashing In use or the Power flahing, internet off, in service organg and in use orange.

I have changed nothing and my bt infinity hub has all the same settings I spent such as long time sorting before (static ip, port forwarding, port clamping on and whatever else there was).

So why is it now not working? Please tell me.

This is the most frustrating piece of kit I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. I've had a whole day trying to sort this.

Help....please!!!!!

Cheers

Iain Tibbitt

[ptaylor576]

Hi Iain,

If you get a resolve, please let me know as i have exactly the same broadband setup, we had a fixed IP and it stopped working, a family member got it working but didn't know exactly what he'd done but the router was powered down and it hasn't worked since.

Do you have any instructions on what you originally did to get it working?

Thanks Paul Taylor

[JamesinKent]

Mine is back on and working. At least they seem to have fixed it within 24 hours, but nul points for communications!

[tomalbanese]

Still waiting for a reply. I can't go searching through years of posts for some information that is a bit dated by now, plus the tracert test shows that the connection is getting through a few jumps, but my sure signal wont connect.

a little help please

[arukDave]

@tomalbanese   (And others..)

Sadly, though it might appear dated (though less than a year) old.  ALL the information regarding the SS server addresses it needs to connect with/be reachable from, and the protocols used, are still 100% valid.

As are the details of the needed tweaks to many routers to allow the above to happen.   Such as setting the MTU value to 1500 for example, and/or enabling "Fragmented Packets".

I too, work in a support position, and the worst thing are customers who won't help themselves, even just a little.   This stuff is complicated, it is not "Plug and Play" (though it could, and perhaps should be.)

There is a HUGE ammount of valid info on this list, that will enable anyone who wishes, to correctly configure the rest of their local IT infrastructure so a SS will work.

(There is also quite a lot of malformed info sadly posted, copy/pasted by some of the less informed Vodafone people who pass by.)

I do accept not everyone is (a) confident enough to do that, or (b) has the nesesary passcodes to get into the router to do so.    BUT, there is nothing stopping anyone contacting their ISP support, and getting them to look at this message list, that is free and public to do.

After all, they work for you!

For those who "want it now..."   Here are is the list of WAN side IP addresses, that need to be allowed to send data to, or recieve it from your Sure Signal device. 

Vodafone Sure Signal Servers:  Public IP addresses:
Three address "ranges":

First        212.183.133.177
Last        212.183.133.179 (Three Addresses.)   

First        212.183.133.181
Last        212.183.133.182 (Two Addresses.)

First        212.183.131.128
Last        212.183.131.191 (Sixty four Addresses!)

Let them, and ONLY them, have free and unrestricted access to the LAN side IP address that you (or your ISP) assigned to the Sure Signal, by editing your routers setup.   All protocols!

How, exactly you accomplish that, varies depending on your Router.   Sadly, some devices (the infamouse BT "Business" Hub) are so lame as to be virtualy imposible to do that from the usual setup pages.   Hence why many of us in "Offices" (read, in a business environment) have coughed up and installed a much more capable and better spec' router.

In our case, a Draytek Vigor 2860 series, with it's own VDSL modem, so bypassing the BT Outreach box as well.    They are not low cost however (£200 +-!)   But do work very well, and bring a host of other nice to have facilities.   (Guest WiFi on a seperate subnet etc.)

I also found, while trying to figure out what it was trying to do, that if you have a network "Hub" between the Sure Signal, and your router, it never gets an IP address given to it, so just sits there getting warm.   That is probably a simple anti hacking measure, thought easily circumventable if you know how.

Lastly, yes, it does take a very long time for a Sure Signal to re-initialise fully after a "Full Reset".   Many hours in fact..

If you don't "Reset" it, then when any network issues resolve themselves, and if the SS was working OK before the trouble, it will come back online after only a few minutes, once it can again communicate with Vodafone's servers.

That's the nature of the beast etc.

Regards to All.

Dave B.   Off to do some real paying work.

(Not part of Vodafone, BT or any other communications provider, just someone who eventually understood enough to get one of these things working, and so far, reliably...)

[jhopkins]

arukDave

I read  your latest, long post. You singled out customers  who won't  even help themselves a little. I think maybe you forget just how much more  knowledgeable you are than a lot of the 'customers'. I most definitely  do not feel  confident  enough to 'get into my router'.....I have  never  looked inside a TV, a radio or anything electrical...I would probably  electrocute myself.  My field was healthcare....I'm sure   that it wouldn't take me very long to lose  you completely  if I started  on some of even the simplest procedures. How would  you feel about removing  some  stitches  for someone....and it doesn't  get much simpler than that. You can now  come back and say that you work in healthcare too....but you get my point !!

[arukDave]

@jhopkins.

Hi.

I understand your frustration, and no I've never worked in the Healthcare "service", though a good friend is a GP manager, and he has many scary stories, just about the NHS's IT infrastructure...

I would certainly not perform open heart surgery on myself, or anyone else, as I would mor than likely kill them (or me.)    Removing stitches? well I have done that to a cat in the distant past (and survied!)   But that's all.

I am a qualified FAAW person however, and have been for some years now.  (But even the training for that is getting watered down these days.)

However, reconfiguring plastic routers won't harm anyone (unlike some of the stuff I work on, often involving 1000's of Volts, and/or kW's of RF) plus you can always save the present config' before you fiddle so you have a get out clause.  At least, back to square one.   You never know, you might even make it all work as needed...

What got me was the phrase about not having the time to scroll back and read/research the recent history about all this, as sadly we're largely on our own with these things, other than getting an account reset, IP address whitelisted or otherwise kicked, as youself (and others) would have realised earlier perhaps.

Unless, you happen to use Vodafone as your ISP perhaps, in which case get them to sort it.

Funny how the last appearance of a VF Tech, was back on June the 2nd, 7 days ago!

Anyway, enough.

Regards.

Dave B.

Affiliated only to myself.

[Jenny]

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

@ptaylor576 – So we can look into this further, please get back to us with your Sure Signal serial number.

Also, please can you let us know the answers to the post by @arukDave as that info will be really helpful.

@SRM – You’ll need to take this into the store and they can send it away for repair from there.

@BeckyJab and @AndyGE – I’m pleased yours are working now!

@Iainsax – Using the serial number you posted here, your Sure Signal connected with our servers this morning. Has this improved?

If you’re still having problems, please follow the steps at the bottom of this post for how to do a factory reset.

@tomalbanese – You said above that you’d not tried a factory reset yet, if that’s still the case please give this a go and let us know what happens.

@Peter54 – I can see Ben’s replied to your other post here.

@MWhitton – Your Sure Signal connected with our servers last night. How are you getting on now?

Everything you’ve posted looks fine, so please follow the steps below to reset this and let us know if you have any further problems.

@colin7 - Your Sure Signal last connected with our servers on 28th May. Please follow the steps below to reset it.

Factory reset:

1. Connect device to internet and power supply
2. Press and hold down reset button – located near the internet port 
3. Wait for 20 seconds 
4. Release the reset button
5. All the LEDs will temporarily switch off for about 10 seconds. The power LED will then light up and remain constant whilst white internet LED flashes continuously.

The Sure Signal will be back online in around 1 hour.