WARNING - If you need Sure Signal and are going to fibre, READ THIS!

[Landshark2007]

I will try not to get too techy over this, but shortly speaking, if you are about to upgrade your Internet connection from copper to fibre, and you use a Sure Signal, you are about to enter a world of pain.

Bottom line is that Vodafone Sure Signals need very specific settings in order to work. One of these settings is specific to how the Sure Signal expects to see the broadband service. ALL Sure Signals use PPPoA to set up their service between the box in your home and the server at Vodafone. When you are migrated from copper-based broadband to fibre-based broadband, the protocol changes from PPPoA to PPPoE and your Sure Signal will stop working. 

As it currently stands, there is no work-around from Vodafone although I am sure that in the fullness of time a product may come forth that can work, or Vodafone may make some internal changes. Either way, with the roll-out of fibre by BT to various parts of the UK, If you use any femtocell (the techncial name for Sure Signals and other such devcies) then you are likely to run into this head on. 

Right now, I am still working with others to try and get some kind of fix, but so far nothing has come forward. Please don't be lulled into a false sense of hope by following the technical support processes for resetting the boxes etc. If PPPoE is being used, nothing you do will make a blind bit of difference and you will save yourself hours of wasted time. 

Right now, PPPoE kills off Sure Signal use - end of story.

[Nabs]

Ah right you're on FTTP, that may be the problem!
The PPPoE protocol is used for FTTC connections as well so I'd be surprising if that is where the issue lies. 
I'm not familiar with the setup of FTTP as it's hardly available anywhere in the UK yet though I can't imagine the router configuration will be too different to the config required for FTTC, they are after all essentially the same thing  with a different location for the fibre termination.

I would double check the port forwards that have been set up on your router, there is info on the required ports here.
It's also worth checking the MTU size that has been setup and if possible change it to 1500 (some routers only go up as far as 1492 though, if that's the case it's ok to set it at this)
Once that's done have a check over the troubleshooting guide as it may help highlight how far the connection is actually getting.

Just a side note; the speeds you mention seem very low for FTTP, are they planning on increasing your speed?

[Landshark2007]

My gut says that this is a probem with either (a) the way that BT has set their WAN-based port filtering and/or (b) the Huawei EchoLife box doing something similar. 

[Nabs]

@Landshark2007

Have a check on this thread to see if it helps at all

[Landshark2007]

OK, thanks for all the links.

It seems as though there is a lot more to this than simple plug-n-play. BT has confirmed to me that there is a lot more back-office work to be done before my services will be fully resumed.

So the qualifier to my original posting is that once the Huawei box is installed and fibre is also installed, BT has to do some internal work on the back-office servers at their end. Only once this is completed can anything beyond simple Internet services can be resumed. You would have thought that the act of upgrading to fibre would be enough to trigger the events, but apparently this is not so. 

There are some extra moves needed to be performed on the Hub 5 as well. I just have to wait now - four days have gone so far, guess waiting another the way it goes.

[Nabs]

As I hinted earlier you're one of a luck few who are actually able to get FTTP.

From what you've said it sounds like BT are not quite sure how their new product works yet! I was doing a bit of digging and BT's FTTP should give you speeds of 330Mbps down and 30Mbps up, if you're not getting these it would suggest there is still work to be done by BT.

With an FTTC connection it really is just a case of plug and play, i'm not sure why FTTP would be any more complicated

Let us know how you get on once BT have finished setting up your connection.

[Landshark2007]

Certainly wil keep the updates coming. This seems to be a very 'hot' issue for some others as well and definitive answers are few and far between. 

Thanks for the continued support ...

[Landshark2007]

Well we are still waiting on BT to finish their back end work, until which time I have a Vodafone NoSignal v1. 

There me is much more to this than just plug-in and go if you are a "Fibre to the Premises" customer as opposed to FttC. One other little "gotcha" is that you do need to modify the port settings on the hub 5 if you are an FttP customer. 

Your IP address is also guaranteed to change if you have BT's static IP address and you go from copper to fibre. There is no way to port the existing static IP address to the fibre network, it simply won't happen. 

More as things unfurl. Watch this space ...

[duncanblowe]

Sorry but I'm going to disagree. PPPoE does not neccesarily kill your VF SS. I had it working on ADSL with a draytek router and modem. I've just changed to fibre broadband with a talktalk modem and the same draytek router and its working again now.

I have to agree that it can fail to work, and VF are not going to help you to fix it. They will spend some time telling you to do resets and so on, then start ignoring you. But PPPoE and /or Fibre connection via openreach do not mean its never going to work.

This isn't theory, my VFSS is working now.

[Nabs]

What an odd decision regarding static IP addresses, you'd have thought they could have napped your old one across.

In fact, why have BT not left your old DSL broadband connected u til they have finished screwing about with your new FTTP connection? Sounds like they've made a total mess off the upgrade tbh!

[Landshark2007]

Re static IP addresses, this is not quite as bizarre as it seems. The copper-based service comes from a totally different back office network to that running the fibre (obviously). The IP addresses are attached to user names and these change when you go from fibre to copper (at least as far as FttP and business is concerned). 

Why they could not leave the copper stuff running? A good question, but probably is based on the single router at my end of the network. 

As far as the FUBAR is concerned - understatement of the century! I have had every excuse for lack of service for a very, very long time from BT and we're still not done yet.