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

[tunnyx]

Hi Dave -thanks for the feedback

Draytek Vigor 2820n Router, Fibre with a separate DSL modem

I've bound the MAC address of the VSS3 to a static IP.

Fragmented large packets enabled.

The ISP is Entanet - a business class service provider, we use them as they allow us more control over our client's connectivity (which is why I also use them personally).  My connection is currently a NAT enabled connection, although surely NAT would not be causing specific problems as 99% of broadband connections are NAT anyway?  I can upgrade to a noNAT8 connection but I can't believe it'd make any difference to whether the VSS3 worked.

Thanks

Mark

[arukDave]

@tunnyx

Hi Mark.

Does your particular router have it's own ADSL port you can use (if just as a trial) in place of the external ADSL modem?   (It looks like it has.)   Or, can you get into the modem's setup and check it's MTU setting?

Of course, you'll need to configure the router's ADSL settings to connect to your ISP, I assume you have all that info.   I'd hope they don't pull tricks on you, like if their system detects modem hardware ID change at your end, it won't allow the connection.   (BT's system didn't seem to care at all.)

OK on Enternet, it was not an ISP I'd heard of before, but looking at their web pages, they've been arround for a while, so should be OK, plus as you say, everything is NAT'd to Hell and back these days anyway.

I fully appreciate the frustration with these things (the VSS's.)   I was tasked by my MD to deploy the thing (way back in the middle of last year!)  However, it took an awful long time and a lot of research time and effort to justifiy the change of router our end to allow the VSS to function.  More so, as when I took the VSS home to try it, "it just worked" straight out of the box on a consumer grade Netgear device, itself on a plain vanilla ADSL service.  (All the handset registration on the VSS website was pre-done.)

Best Regards.

Dave.

[simonblackaby]

Hi Laura,

I have done the reset, and the lights have gone back to the flashing red light and solid orange in service and use lights. Is this expected and should I wait for six hours to see whether this changes?

Simon

[psychlist]

I've essentially concluded that these devices are simply not fit for purpose. For me -- works for 24 hours (sometimes), then back to some kind of error state. I'm on my second unit. Connected to fast (150 Mbps), stable BB connection.

What does it cost to get a Vodafone engineer on site at my home to get this working properly?

[tunnyx]

OK, I've done the reset (press reset for 30 seconds, then release, cycle starts again, and still red/blank/orange/orange.

I've moved the device into the DMZ on my router, so definitely all ports open to the device.

Still red/blank/orange/orange

I agree with the above poster - these devices are simply not fit for purpose.

Mark

[simonblackaby]

Hi Laura,

I've restarted the Sure Signal several times to no avail. The same lights sequence shows.

Are you able to offer any other suggestions?

Thanks

[tunnyx]

Still completely useless: Flashing red, blank, orange, orange.  RIP DB is GB and everything else configured.

Mark

[arukDave]

Hi.

First.  Check your own external IP address on the RIPE database (google for it) to make sure it's an address that is recognised as being within the UK (or GB as they call it.)   If not, call your ISP and get it changed.   Plusnet were bad at this a short while ago.    (RIPE dont seem to keep up well, with all the IPV4 horse trading going on worldwide.)

https://apps.db.ripe.net/search/query.html    (scroll down)

(Vodafone use the RIPE database, to make sure the VSS is physically located within the UK.)

Make sure your ISP also does not have any restrictions on the use of VPN's, of any type.   Most don't, but....    (A VPN is a secure end to end link, there are many methods of doing that.)

In the settings for your router, look for something along the lines of:-  "Allow fragmented packets", and enable it.   That is the most important thing if you have BT's Infinity fibre service.

Also, push the MTU value as high as it will go.  (1500 if it will let you, else as close to that as you can get.)

We have a VSS3 here behind a Vigor 2860n+ on BT Infinity* on an office LAN, with many other needed services available from "outside", and it works well, very well, but those tweaks above were needed.

(* The router handles the VDSL modem's duty as well, so two boxes replaced by one.)

I'd quote the exact place to look in it's setup, but our anally retentive IT types have changed the password (again) for "Our" router.   I have also had the VSS "parked" at home for extended periods before we got the Vigor in the office, where the VSS also worked well behind a Netgear "consumer" router.   (Notes as to what I did for that, if you look back in this thread.)

The other thing of note.   Though with some routers you can sometimes "get away" without doing it, with most you do need to arrange for them (or other DHCP service if that is what's done) to give the VSS a stattic IP address on the internal LAN, then and only then, can you map Vodafone's outside resources (their server farm) to the VSS on it's internal IP address.

You do -not- want to blindly forward all traffic on those ports to the VSS, else other services can break.  Internet based timekeeping, and some other VPN endpoints you may have at your end.   (Outworker VPN tunnels back to the office etc.)    When you setup the forwarding, you realy do need to do it in such a way, that only traffic from Vodafones servers get to the VSS.

NOTE!  Recent posts by the Vodafone op's on this list, have shown mangled (invalid) IP addresses for their servers!   These are the correct address ranges :-

212.183.133.177  to  212.183.133.179

212.183.133.181  to  212.183.133.182

212.183.131.128  to  212.183.131.191

And the quoted ports and protocol's these things use are :-

8 – TCP/UDP                 (All routers)

50 – TCP/UDP               (All routers)

53 – TCP/UDP               (Virgin Super Hubs)

67 – UDP                      (Virgin Super Hubs)

68 – UDP                      (Virgin Super Hubs)

123 – UDP                    (All routers)

500 – UDP                    (All routers)

1723 – TCP/UDP           (BT Home Hubs)

4500 – UDP                  (All routers)

33434 – 33445 – UDP   (Virgin Super Hubs)

I found, that with the Netgear router at home, and the Vigor in the office, once a static LAN IP address was setup for the VSS, it worked without any other special setup.   However, I did setup specific port forwarding rules, based on it's internal IP address, and Vodafones servers public IP addresses for security reasons.   We still have our remote access VPN, a secure tunnel to the US office, internet time synchronisation, AND the VSS all working together with no clashes.   It can be done!

Just arranging for any traffic FROM the above public IP address's to be routed to your VSS's static LAN IP address, should allow it all to "just work".  (But could be a securuity risk.)   You should not need to do anything to allow outgoing traffic from the VSS to them, the router should allow that by default.

Note, that a BT ""Business Hub router, is so lame (worse than the Home Hub!) it can't do much of that at all (you can't set rules up based on external/public IP addresses for example, nor will it support more than one VPN endpoint on the LAN) hence we ditched it and put the Vigor in, that also gives us many other useful things, such as secure guest wifi etc.

Also, if all else fails, call your ISP, explain what you are trying to do (deploy a Vodafone Sure Signal for your own personal use) and ask them to remove any blocks, filters, restrictions etc, that could prevent it establishing it's secure tunnel to Vodafone's servers.   That to, was a failing of Plusnet a little while back.

Pound to a penny, your ISP's support people will know of the VSS's needs and can check their network.   But if you keep getting "boiler plate" replies (an operater with zero understanding of anything technical reading from a script) push your query up to their supervisors, and so on.  

99% of the time, with good kit and corect setup, they do work, and work very well.  (There is always the rogue 1% however...)

Hope something here helps.

Regards.

Dave B.

[avistapartners1]

speedtest, ping 25ms, download speed 58.81mbps, upload speed 16.82 mbps

pingtest, 0% packet loss, ping 29ms, jitter 1ms

Your IP Address is 213.123.207.97

Your IPV6 Address is ::ffff:d57b:cf61

Sure Signal serial number 42144723451

traceroute to 212.183.133.177 (212.183.133.177), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1  btbusinesshub (192.168.1.254)  2.667 ms  2.451 ms  2.633 ms

2  host81-139-192-1.in-addr.btopenworld.com (81.139.192.1)  21.101 ms  21.055 ms  20.992 ms

3  213.120.182.141 (213.120.182.141)  19.864 ms  20.795 ms  20.850 ms

4  213.120.161.82 (213.120.161.82)  22.572 ms  21.037 ms  21.009 ms

5  213.120.182.67 (213.120.182.67)  20.971 ms  23.403 ms  20.852 ms

6  31.55.164.107 (31.55.164.107)  21.020 ms  21.292 ms  22.248 ms

7  109.159.248.75 (109.159.248.75)  28.072 ms

    acc1-10gige-0-5-0-4.bm.21cn-ipp.bt.net (109.159.248.96)  27.646 ms

    109.159.248.75 (109.159.248.75)  27.515 ms

8  109.159.248.178 (109.159.248.178)  28.517 ms

    core2-te0-3-0-16.ilford.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.248.30)  28.562 ms

    core1-te0-3-0-15.ealing.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.248.28)  27.495 ms

9  peer1-xe3-2-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.254.209)  25.552 ms  26.427 ms  25.737 ms

10  lndgw2.arcor-ip.net (195.66.224.124)  26.285 ms  31.694 ms  31.723 ms

11  85.205.0.86 (85.205.0.86)  28.348 ms  29.057 ms  26.126 ms

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[Retired-Rodney]

Hi @avistapartners1 

You'll need open the following ports on your BT router;

• 8, 50, 53, 67, 68, 123, 500, 1723, 4500
• Ports ranging between 33434 and 33445

Once you've done this you'll need to reset your Vodafone Sure Signal.

To do this:

1. Hold in the reset button until all lights go solid
2. Pull the power lead out with the reset button still pushed in
3. Wait 24 hours 
4. Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead
5. Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

Thanks,

Rodney