Help with port forwarding on Billion 7800N

Hi
I'm having issues with the Vodafone Sure Signal which is connected to my Billion 7800N router. Around 1 in 3 outgoing calls fail; get 'call failed' error on my iphone 4 but when i redial the number immediately i get through. I'm trying to see if i can resolve this by using port forwarding/mapping as the router may be losing packets.

I've followed these instructions to set up my Billion to allow access to ports 50,123,500,4500 but i suspect i'm doing something wrong because

a) I still get failed calls (around 30% of the time)
b) When i do port tests such as these and these none of the above ports are open.

On the Billion router, under port settings i have to set an internal static ip address. I assume this has to be of one of my PCs as this is what the instructions mention? Under fixed DHCP server, i set an address of 192.168.1.251 of one of my pc's and used this in the port settings where it asks for "internal ip address". Or should i assign/set a static ip address for the Sure Signal device? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Edited by baby_frogmella (Sun 05-Jun-11 13:25:27)

Before you try port forwarding, does the router have an option for VPN passthru? IPsec if asked for a type. Ensure that is enabled.

Can't see any option for VPN passthru

Ok - I'm not familiar with that router.

The SureSignal needs to connect outbound to Vodafone in multiple ways, the first is the device requires accurate time, so it connects to various NTP servers at Vodafone. The second is it then creates an outbound VPN using IPsec technology from the device to the Vodafone network. The router needs to allow everything outbound from the device.

Since you can't set the IP on the SureSignal box, if you want to set up port forwarding you have to be able to configure your routers DHCP to provide a specific address to the MAC address of the SureSignal box. Then you can set up port forwarding or "open ports" from the router to the IP you've now allocated to the SureSignal.

Some of these pages might help:
http://www.notsosuresignal.com/sure-signal/diagnosti...

This list of tested devices doesn't include the Billion 7800
http://www.notsosuresignal.com/sure-signal/compatibi...

Thanks, managed to do it in the end. Instead of entering the Sure Signal's static ip address in the port forwarding parameters, I was entering my computer's IP address...duh! Guess i was relying too much on these stupid instructions
Anyway i'm still getting the 'failed calls' error so nothing wrong with the Billion router. I'll try my wife's phone (Nexus One) soon to see if that also has the same problem, that will tell me if the problem is at my end or at Vodafone's end.

I've got the same Billion 7800N router with a Suresignal box and I'm not seeing any of these problems, didn't even have to do any port forwarding, just connected everything and it just worked.
Have you updated the router to the latest 1.06d firmware?

In reply to a post by BB4Tickton:

I've got the same Billion 7800N router with a Suresignal box and I'm not seeing any of these problems, didn't even have to do any port forwarding, just connected everything and it just worked.
Have you updated the router to the latest 1.06d firmware?

Yes, i'm using the latest official 1.06d firmware on the router. Few questions:

1) How far is your suresignal unit from your router? I've placed my unit as far as the supplied ethernet cable will allow me to (a metre or so) but willing to move it even further using a longer cable.

2) Are you using the latest smaller Suresignal box v2 or the previous version?

3) Finally, which 3G phone(s) do you use with the SureSignal?

I haven't tested my wife's Nexus One phone yet (still away) but i have a strong feeling it could be my iphone 4 which is causing this problem.

1. Sure signal is right next to the router (not much desk space!).

2. Suresignal box is the original v1.

3. Both HTC HD2 (Windows Mobile 6.5) and HTC Desire (Android 2.3).

Have you tried resetting both router and suresignal?

Yes i've reset the SS box and my router numerous times, its not made any difference.

Looking at the Vodafone forum it appears that other iphone 4 users are also experiencing this problem which seems to have happened after the latest firmware update. Can't comment on the previous fimrware myself as i've only had the SS box for 10 days or so.

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/...

Vodafone are a pain when it comes to the suresignal box. 6 months or so ago they pushed out a firmware update where a lot of people including myself had it where the first call failed, then all subsequent calls were fine. It took them at least 4 weeks to fix it.

The problem I hate with the box is that you cannot tell what firmware you are currently on, you cannot update the firmware manually and you cannot prevent further updates from Vodafone especially when everything is working fine.