Vodafone Sure Signal v2 with BT Home Hub 5

[adrianforrester]

Hi,

I have been using my Sure Signal for the last 18 months with very little issue and now I have managed to get a  Home Hub 5 to replace my BT Openreach Modem and Technicolor Router, which I thought would be a step up. It should have been a straight swap from what I have seen on some forums, however I have found that the Sure Signal wouldn't connect when I got the new router in place. I subsequently completed a hard reset of the Sure Signal with no improvement. Digging a little deeper I have found that there may have been ports that needed to be opened, so I opened the requesit ports, reset the Sure Signal and still no good. In both of these cases the Sure Signal lights flash, for a period of about 20 minutes, then only the Power light remains on. As I assume that there are many users with Home Hub 5's that also use Sure Signals I can only assume that they should function together, but I am having no luck. I swapped the Home Hub back for the Openreach Modem and Technicolor Router, hard reset the Sure Signal again and within an hour I had signal again.

I really want to be able to use the Home Hub, however I am not sure what else I can do as I need the Sure Signal to get ANY level of coverage in my house. It appears to be a multi-network black hole (when I moved in we had SIMs from all networks to try and find out what we could do and none seem to get indoor coverage unless I put a phone in the window, in which case Vodafone's was 'better') which is not great as it stands, hence the Sure Signal.

I would be very appreciative of any input regarding this matter.

Kind regards

[djmaitla]

If you go back through my posts you will find that I went through a frustrating time with SS3 and a BT Homehub3.  The bottom line is that is an incompatible combination of hardware.  After much research I discovered that a newly released BT Homehub5 was fully compatible with SS3.   Prior to this point I had been using a SS1 with Homehub3 without a problem.  Unfortunately my well used SS1 failed and thus the move to SS3. As soon as I switched from HomeHub3 to Homehub5 my SS3 device worked immediately.  Your way forward is to get your SS2 upgraded to a SS3 Unit if you wish to use the HomeHub5. I suggest you talk with a member of the Suresignal support team to see if they can assist you make the switch.

[DaveCD]

Hi adrianforrester

Was the traceroute you posted earlier using the new router or your previous model?

The traceroute shows the information reaching our servers, and as Matt advised previously we can see it has made contact.

DaveCD

[adrianforrester]

Hi DaveCD,

As clearly stated the tracert was achieved with the new Router and the Sure Signal was active only when connected with the old router.

Please read the information supplied as this makes resolving the issue more complicated and time consuming for all involved.

Kind regards

[Retired-Matt_B]

Hi adrianforrester,

The only way to resolve this issue moving forward would be to order a new Sure Signal 3 or use the current Sure Signal with your old router.

Do you have a spare phone socket at home? You could run the old router, purely to connect up with the Sure Signal, and then use the new Home Hub 5 as the main wireless network in it's current location?

As mentioned previously, we can't guarantee that the Sure Signal will work with every type of router, that's why we offer the 14 day return period.

Thanks,

Matt B

[adrianforrester]

Hi Matt_B

As I am on VDSL/FTTC there is no 'spare' socket. Additionally, you can't run two routers on one phoneline. It's just not possible. Additionally to this, running the HomeHub behind the old router isn't as simple as just plugging it in, you need to change gateway and dns configurations, disable DHCP, which then means all communication needs to hit the old router before it goes back to the new router. That itself is a bigger bottleneck than running the old router.

I spoke to the Technical Team and a team manager at the weekend, they have advised that they will be able to better help with this situation, but until they have actually done what they have said they will I am putting this on hold. Once this has been completed I will let you know what the state of play is.

Regards

[adrianforrester]

To all concerned

I am now extremely disappointed with the overall support from Vodafone I have received.

I had been promised a call today from a technical team manager after a two hour conversation last Sunday (the 10th). This was to confirm that it would be possible to supply or credit me the cost of a Sure Signal 3 as there were increasing concerns over the compatibility of the Sure Signal 2 with the Home Hub 5.

This call did not come. I have received no communication since my phone call on the 10th. I am no further forward in having the Sure Signal function as it should and as such still have no mobile service at my address. I do require that the promised action is undertaken as this is not really acceptable. I feel that I have been lied to just so I would get off the phone rather than a real promise made.

If this is of course an oversight I would like some notification as to what will happen and in what time frame.

Your prompt reply regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

[DaveCD]

Hi adrianforrester.

We'll need to take a look at the account to see what has been advised.

So that we can look into this further, see here for how to get in touch.

We aim to reply to emails within 48 hours. If you need a quicker response, please visit our Contact Us page.

DaveCD

[adrianforrester]

Thanks DaveCD

I have sent an 'email' as per the PM you sent me. I will obviously advise here in the meantime if there is a change otherwise.

Regards

[adrianforrester]

Ok, so hopefully this will be the last update. It appears Vodafone have made good on their promise which will allow for me to have a perminant working solution in place by early next week.

Thanks

[Sukhi]

Hi adrianforrester,

That's great, thanks for the update.

Sukhi