BT Infinity and Sure Signal.

[Jimfew]

I have just changed ISP to BT Infinity. As expected, my Sure Signal has failed. I have tried all sorts of resets and have asked Vodafone support to reset my device and do a network reset. I have also done a hard reset myself. It still does not work. I have opened all the necessary ports on my router (not the BT hub but a Draytek 2820).

I wonder if I also need to ask BT to open ports on their servers? Is this necessary? My old ISP, Be*, did not restrict any ports but BT may be different.

Can anyone advise me.

My VSS number is 21221070754

Can anyone list all the ports the VSS needs to be open (as up to date as possible).

Many thanks, Jim.

[sparkiemike]

To follow on from my previous post, I have managed to get it working.

I went back to the equipment that was supplied by BT.

There is the BT Openreach DSL modem (Echolife HG612 - FTTC VDSL NTE) connected to the phone line via the DSL port. The DSL modem is connected from the LAN1 port to the BT 2Wire Gateway (2701HGV-C) on the red fibre port with the UTP cable.

I have the rest of my LAN and the VSS plugged into the Ethernet LAN ports on the 2Wire gateway.

So it would appear that the issue is with the Vigor 2750 router?

[Jimfew]

Hi sparkiemike, I am not sure I understand. Can you explain the effective change you made from the non-working setup to your working arrangement. Sorry to be thick but you are the first person to offer hope!

Thanks, Jim.

[sparkiemike]

Jim, when I got BT infinity for my business I was supplied a DSL modem and router (two separate devices i.e. BT Openreach DSL modem (Echolife HG612 - FTTC VDSL NTE) and the BT 2Wire Gateway (2701HGV-C).

All I have done is removed the DrayTek Vigor2750 (disconnected and switched off) and plugged back the kit that was supplied. I had to forward the ports on the BT 2-Wire Gateway. The other network settings remained the same DHCP etc

The VSS connected very quickly after that.

It is not ideal because the features are very limited on the 2-wire, it does not support the n standard for wireless, has no vpn support and I can't block outgoing posts e.g port 25 to name but a few.

I have sent a email to Draytek to see what they think.

EDIT: to add the settings on the BT 2-wire are the same - it uses PPoE, the MTU is set to 1492

[Jimfew]

OK thanks sparkiemike. I think the problem lies with how the router handles large packets (with a 1500 MTU for example, like from the VSS). It seems the Drayteks (and I have also tried a Netgear router) just discard the packets (I forced my 2820 Draytek to a 1500 MTU via a telnet command and everything stopped on my network). The BT Home Hub, on the other hand seems to break up the packets to make them suitable for a 1492 MTU network like infinity. This is not ideal as extra packets have a habit of slowing down the transfer but in the case of the VSS this is not a problem as it only needs slow speeds. It also seems that the Vodafone servers can accept fragmented packets.

So, it seems that the Draytek is the problem using PPPoE without being able to accept large packets from the internal network and converting them to MTU 1492 but the BT hub can.

You say you have e-mailed Drayetk. I would like to do the same. Can you advise what e-mail address you used?

Many thanks,

Jim.

[sparkiemike]

I have just used the form on their website, I have used it once before and they were quick to respond, nothing yet though

http://www.draytek.co.uk/support/techquery.html

If I get anything useful then I will post here.

[Jimfew]

Excellent. I have done the same. If I get anything, I will also post here.

Perhaps between us we will get to the bottom. I must admit, I do like a tricky technical issue!

[Jimfew]

OK Draytek have replied but it is not very helpful. They want me to run a load of sniff tests which means physically moving loads of kit.Unfortunately I cannot do this so I guess Draytek are not able to help. It is curious that they claim not to have had this problem before but the forums do have issues with the Drayteks on BT Infinity and the VSS going back into early 2011. Perhaps there was never a solution found.

They did say that the 2750 had a jumbo packet instability which is corrected in the latest firmware upgrade (released recently). Did you do an upload on your 2750 before you found it did not work with the VSS?

Jim.

[sparkiemike]

The asked me to do the same, but the telnet commands are not the same on the 2750 as previous versions of the vigor range. So am waiting for Draytek to tell what commends to use. I can telnet in, but none of the old telnet commands work as before.

Whilst trying to find a fix I did update of the firmware, so it has the latest release version (not the beta), but made no difference to VSS

[Jimfew]

OK Draytek have closed my ticket and said that without the sniff traces there is nothing more they can do. They did say the Sure Signal is a particularly difficult device to get to work on PPPoE systems and customers should not move ISP without considering the termination of their VSS.

So, unless the problem is diagnosed and Draytek change their design (not even sure this is possible) or the VSS is redesigned to work with the more modern PPPoE in the UK, I will need to move mobile phones. I have bought some O2 phones and they work fine here. I now need to wait for the contracts to wind down on the Vodafone ones.

If I had known this at the beginning I would not have moved ISP. Beware!

Jim.

[sparkiemike]

I am providing them with traces at the moment. Will post when I know something.