Flashing/steady power light, no other lights lit

[Retired-George]

We’ve created this thread to help with an issue that some people find during setup.

This issue has the following symptoms:

• The power light either constantly flashes or remains steady
• No other lights flash or light up

Please note that whether the power light is flashing or remains steady, this still points to the same issue - the Sure Signal hasn't established a connection to the internet.

The only difference is that if the light’s steady, then the Sure Signal has previously downloaded a profile from the server, if it's flashing then it hasn't.

Troubleshooting steps:

Check the physical connection between your Sure Signal and the router/modem.

In order to work, the Sure Signal needs to be connected to a spare Ethernet port on your router or modem, or a Hub/Switch that is connected to an internet gateway.

In some cases, it’s possible for an Ethernet cable to be faulty, in which case it may not allow your router and Sure Signal to talk to each other.

To verify that the Ethernet cable works, check the lights at the back of your Sure Signal where the cable is plugged in.

There should be a link light on permanently which indicates that an electrical circuit has been established through the cable.

There should also be a light which flashes whenever data is being passed through the cable. If either the data light or the link light do not come on, this could indicate a problem with the cable itself. Please try a spare cable, or plug the cable into a different port on your router/modem.

Check that you’ve got an active internet connection.
Make sure you can connect to the internet on another device, such as your PC or phone. If you can’t connect, this indicates a problem with your router or your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

We recommend rebooting the router to see if this then allows you to connect to the internet.

Reboot your router/modem:

1. Turn off your router or modem at the wall for 10 seconds and then turn it back on
2. Wait for the lights on your modem/router to indicate that an internet connection has been established
3. Press the reset button on the Sure Signal

Check that your Sure Signal has been assigned an internal IP address by your router.

The Sure Signal must be assigned an internal IP address by your router. If your router supports DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), this must be enabled, as doing so will enable the router to assign an IP address to your Sure Signal automatically.

For more instructions on how to do this, please check your router manual, or contact your ISP or router manufacturer.

If your router or network configuration doesn’t allow DHCP, you’ll need to assign a static IP address to your Sure Signal's MAC Address by using your router's configuration panel. Please contact your ISP or router manufacturer for instructions on how to do this. The MAC address can be found on the sticker at the back of the Sure Signal.

BT Infinity customers.

If you’re a BT Infinity customer, you’ll need to log into your router admin page and select port clamping.

Once this has been selected please restart your router and Sure Signal.

Check your MTU settings.

Log into your router admin page and find the location of the MTU field. This varies depending on the make and model so you’ll need to look for it.

Change the value of the MTU size to 1500.

Log out of the router, this will usually result in a reboot.

Perform a reset of the Sure Signal:

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. Continue to hold down the reset button and reconnect the power lead
4. Wait for all lights to come on and then release the reset button

The Sure Signal will now try to contact the network and download its profile. This can take up to 6 hours.

Post your router/ISP details and Sure Signal serial number.

If you’ve done all of the above, or you’re struggling with configuring your router, please post your router's make and model number below. Please also include your Sure Signal serial number and the name of your ISP.

We find that other users of the same router will usually be able to share tips with you, to get things working.

We’ll also attempt to help with this, but due to the number of different manufacturers and models, it is not always possible. We don’t officially support any form of router configuration, so we’ll always recommend contacting your router manufacturer or ISP for assistance first.

Thanks,

Jenny

[matttaylor]

Hi Lee

I tried the SS unit at a neighbour's house on Saturday, and got lights 1 & 2 on, with 4 flashing, but not steady.

I came home and reconnected the unit, but still got just a steady power light.  However after about 20 minutes it went through the sequence of trying to connect, and about 1/2 an hour later eventually did, and has been working fine ever since!

I don't know whether you can deduce anything from this, but thanks for your help.

Matt

[hectors_house]

I have had this exact issue with my VSS since February and it has been unusable for about 8 weeks now after 11 months of virtually uninterrupted service. Nothing changed in my router set-up at the time that it developed this fault. Despite several phone calls and emails to Vodafone's support I have been unable to receive any useful information to help resolve the problem. Below is the history that I emailed to Vodafone mid-week and to which I have received the predictable lack of response. Can anyone on this forum please help me resolve the problem as it is becoming hugely frustrating and I simply cannot believe it is that difficult?

1.       Reset the box using the hard reset (hold reset button for 30sec, remove power for 30sec while holding reset, re-apply power while holding reset until the box cycles through all lights and back to the power light). We have tried this at least 20 times to no effect.

2.       Been told that they will reset from their end – no effect.

3.       Been told that the problem is most likely in our router despite the fact that nothing had changed in the router set-up. Even so, I have tried following their advice and spent hours setting up the router such that:

a.       The suresignal box has been given a fixed local IP address rather than random DHCP address.

b.      Set up port forwarding on ports 50 (TCP) 500 (UDP) 4500 (UDP) 123 (UDP) for the suresignal box.

c.       Declared these same ports as open for the suresignal box

d.      Put the suresignal box in a DMZ to ensure that all traffic is forwarded to it

e.      Disabled all internal VPN capabilities on the router

f.        Reset the router at least 20 times

g.       Tested access through these ports to alternative web sites – they are usable without issue.

h.      NONE OF THE ABOVE HAD ANY EFFECT – POWER LIGHT IS SOLID LIGHT 2 IS FLASHING. I AM VERY CONFIDENT THAT MY ROUTER IS NOT BLOCKING THE VPN ACCESS FROM THE SURESIGNAL BOX TO VODAFONE

4. Tried the tracert report as suggested on an early post to this thread - everything looked ok on that.

The router is a Draytek 2600G and I have read and followed the suggested set-up for this router from other users that are successfully using a VSS.

The serial number of the box is: 21222165074.

[Retired-BenJ]

Hi Hectors_house

Welcome to the eForum!

I can see your having a bit of a challenge with this and I apologise for the service you have had in trying to resolve this.

Can you confirm the current lighting sequence on the Sure Signal box?

I noticed your missing Port 8 (TCP/IP) in your listed ports,  I would suggest opening this also.

Could you repost and up to date tracert output and I will have a look for you and see what we can do to help.

Thanks
BenJ
eForum Team

[hectors_house]

Hi BenJ,

Thanks for the response. The light status is that the power light is solid and the second light is flashing slowly. I have added port 8 (TCP/IP) to the open port list and reset both the router and the VSS box. After an hour it is still the usual solid power light and flashing second light. Tracert log below:

Tracing route to host212-183-133-177.uk.access.vodafone.net [212.183.133.177] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     5 ms     2 ms     7 ms  my.router [192.168.1.1]

  2    25 ms    27 ms    23 ms  lo0-central2.pcl-ag08.plus.net [195.166.130.71]

  3    26 ms    23 ms    29 ms  gi7-11-882.pcl-gw02.plus.net [84.93.255.43]

  4    25 ms    32 ms    28 ms  195.50.122.129

  5    23 ms    23 ms    24 ms  ae-1-51.edge3.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.73]

  6    24 ms    25 ms    23 ms  4.68.62.246

  7    32 ms    32 ms    32 ms  VODAFONE-LTD.TenGigabitEthernet7-1.ar6.LON3.gblx.net [64.214.144.122]

  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.

  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.

10     *        *        *     Request timed out.

11     *        *        *     Request timed out.

12     *        *        *     Request timed out.

13     *        *        *     Request timed out.

14     *        *        *     Request timed out.

15     *        *        *     Request timed out.

16     *        *        *     Request timed out.

17     *        *        *     Request timed out.

18     *        *        *     Request timed out.

19     *        *        *     Request timed out.

20     *        *        *     Request timed out.

21     *        *        *     Request timed out.

22     *        *        *     Request timed out.

23     *        *        *     Request timed out.

24     *        *        *     Request timed out.

25     *        *        *     Request timed out.

26     *        *        *     Request timed out.

27     *        *        *     Request timed out.

28     *        *        *     Request timed out.

29     *        *        *     Request timed out.

30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

[Retired-George]

Hi hectors_house,

Looking at the traceroute results, it certainly seems that everything is in order for your Sure Signal to work correctly. The symptoms that you're seeing (light 1 on, light 2 flashing) show that your Sure Signal has established a connection via your ISP, it just can't connect to Vodafone. As was working fine until a few weeks ago, there's definitely a possibility that your Sure Signal could be faulty, or even that there's a problem with the registration in your My Account profile. I've sent you an email so that we can explore both possibilities.

trickster, the reason you're seeing the packet loss within our server, is because the firewall won't allow ping requests through, so the problem definitely doesn't lie there. The fact that you're seeing a 100% loss before this though, does indicate a problem. I'd strongly recommend pointing this out to your ISP for further investigation.

George

eForum Team

[trickster]

Hi George/eForum Team,

I can understand that VF's firewall would prevent the pathping command from reaching the destination address (212.183.133.178), but why would that prevent tracert from finding the same address?

As you can see from the tracert output (which ends similarly to hectors_house's post), it doesn't get any further than 

VODAFONE-LTD.TenGigabitEthernet7-1.ar6.LON3.gblx.net [64.214.144.122].

Can you explain why this is the case please?

I will try and explain the 100% packet loss to Orange for the two BT IP addresses, but as you can see from the output, the packets were eventually able to get through to the VF network at 64.214.144.122, therefore, although there could have been a potential problem with both of BT routers at that point, another router was tried and the original packet routed via this to try and reach its destination within VF's network. However, it was unable to do this because it couldn't get beyond 64.214.144.122.

It's for this reason that I still think there is a fundamental problem with the VF network.

Please advise.

[Retired-Lee]

Hi trickster,

Thanks for the information.

I'm afraid the servers don't allow any traceroutes, pathpings or pings through so the behavour you see is perfectly normal.

I've spoken with George about the issue here and we both feel the issue lies with the ISP.

Cheers,

Lee

eForum Team

[trickster]

OK thanks Lee/George/eFroum.

So other than pointing out that those two BT routers are experiencing 100% packet loss, and that this is somehow affecting my VSS from working at all, is there anything else that I can give ORANGE to get them to work on, because like I said before, when I've contacted them about this, their stock response has been "we don't block anthing, therefore it's not a problem with us".

[Retired-James]

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for your posts and updates here.

Unfortunately i don't have any Sure Signal support in at this time of night however; I will pass this thread onto our day team to investigate the issue further for you.

James

eForum Team

[trickster]

Benj/Lee/George/eForum team.

if VF servers "don't allow any traceroutes, pathpings or pings through", then why can I tracert 212.183.133.182?

Tracing route to host212-183-133-182.uk.access.vodafone.net [212.183.133.182]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    26 ms    25 ms    24 ms  213.1.113.132
  3    28 ms    27 ms    27 ms  213.1.120.14
  4    33 ms    32 ms    32 ms  213.1.78.42
  5    33 ms    32 ms    32 ms  213.1.79.2
  6    33 ms    32 ms    32 ms  87.237.20.244
  7    33 ms    38 ms    33 ms  bundle-ether1.lontr1.London.opentransit.net [193.251.255.101]
  8    45 ms    44 ms    44 ms  xe-4-0-1-0.ffttr2.Frankfurt.opentransit.net [193.251.131.133]
  9    56 ms    48 ms    47 ms  tengige0-1-5-0.ffttr1.FrankfurtAmMain.opentransit.net [193.251.129.34]
 10    45 ms    45 ms    45 ms  te4-4-10g.ar4.fra3.gblx.net [64.208.110.225]
 11    62 ms    62 ms    62 ms  VODAFONE-LTD.TenGigabitEthernet7-1.ar6.LON3.gblx.net [64.214.144.122]
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15    68 ms    66 ms    66 ms  host212-183-133-182.uk.access.vodafone.net [212.183.133.182]

All of the other servers the VSS needs to communicate with can't be tracert'd: 212.183.133.177 - 212.183.133.183.