topic Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution" in Broadband

Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:02:54 GMT

Lots of us are having issues since Friday (10/10/25) where specific sites don't work, like dropbox.com.

Something has changed at Three's end.

I've lost access to my Harmony remote hub server, plus dropbox.com, plus product details on any Aliexpress site pages - images load but then the text time sout to a 404 error.

Lots of people are saying changing the APN to "three.co.uk" solves the problem. But it is not a solution for all. "three.co.uk" is not designed for mobile broadband, its for phones - it uses CGNAT - which means you use "shared" IP addresses - whic means incoming connections can't work. i.e.

VPNs to home
Gaming- some of
Remote access of IP Cams
Remote access to Home assistant using Dynamic DNS
It's also disabled my Logi Harmony remote Hub as the Logitech server can't be reached.

We need a real solution. I'm on attempt no. 4 to chat with support.....

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

MymsMan — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 22:10:59 GMT

Some of the other threads have also suggested disabling IPv6

Does disabling IPV6 without changing the APN provide a better workaround?

Does anything actually depend on IPv6?

I havent found any need for IPv6 in my environment

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

NeilHopkins — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 07:28:02 GMT

I tried the APN work around and it worked last night. Now it's stopped again this morning. This is beyond frustrating - I'm a contractor for a major utility company and without access to their network, I can't work and can't get paid.

Tech support told me to take my router into a store, which I will try today in the vain hope that someone can do something.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 07:49:38 GMT

Mine has been set to V4 only from the get go - and I'm still suffering.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 07:49:54 GMT

Good luck with that massive time waste - it's on the network end.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

LvdB — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:40:29 GMT

I have lost connection to the harmony hub too and, more importantly, my EV Charger app is broken so I cannot charge the car!!!!!!

Did a traceroute to the charger server, at the 12th hosts which is in Frankfurt, Germany the hop goes back to the Cogent host in London

#12: IP: 130.117.1.150
Host: 130.117.1.150
ISP: Cogent Communications PSINet, Inc.
ASN: AS174 Cogent Communications, LLC
Ping: min: 31.174 / max: 40.494 / avg: 34.998 / mdev: 3.984 ms
Germany (Hesse, Frankfurt am Main)
Latitude: 50.1169
Longitude: 8.6837

#13: IP: 154.54.74.165
Host: 154.54.74.165
ISP: Cogent Communications Cogent Communications
ASN: AS174 - Cogent Communications
Ping: min: 32.626 / max: 41.739 / avg: 38.334 / mdev: 4.064 ms
United Kingdom (GB, London)
Latitude: 51.5072
Longitude: -0.127586

#14: IP: 154.54.58.186
Host: 154.54.58.186
ISP: Cogent Communications Cogent Communications
ASN: AS174 - Cogent Communications
Ping: min: 33.635 / max: 128.782 / avg: 72.824 / mdev: 40.613 ms
United Kingdom (GB, London)
Latitude: 51.5072
Longitude: -0.127586

and stays there:

#32: IP: 154.54.58.186
Host: 154.54.58.186
ISP: Cogent Communications Cogent Communications
ASN: AS174 - Cogent Communications
Ping: min: 33.635 / max: 128.782 / avg: 72.824 / mdev: 40.613 ms
United Kingdom (GB, London)
Latitude: 51.5072
Longitude: -0.127586

Should I call support? They wouldnt have a clue as there screens say everything is hunky-dory.......

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 17:50:02 GMT

Is anyone from Tech support going to contribute to this, or the many , many other threads?.

Right now I've tested and found.

On "3internet" APN the following have issues:

Dropbox app, and total lack of access to dropbox.com

Logitech Harmony hub can't access the harmoney servers ( so my remote control doe snto work). The My Harmony PC app also fails to launch with a server webhost failure to contact issue

Star Citizen won't load with an Anticheat authentication error.

No product details pages on Aliexpress.com will load. The main page loads, but no details load, resulting in 404 errors.

ALL of the above work instantly if I connect to my neighbour's wifi on BT.

If I switch to "Three.co.uk" APN then they DO work, BUT, I get CGNAT, which is unnaceptable for my business connection - I have products and services that rely on incoming connections (resolved via dynamic DNS) - I have incoming VPN, plus remote access from Amazon web hosting. These don't work on CGNAT.

I have tried on 2 different routers, and I've reset them multiple times.

Mine are set to IPV4. If I switch to V4/V6 then I get no connection at all.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

Stadman — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:00:47 GMT

I have exactly same issue as yourself.

Dropbox.com dont work

Soundcloud.com playing up too

Ring devices and app at home

VPN issues too.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

MymsMan — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:11:07 GMT

> Is anyone from Tech support going to contribute to this, or the many , many other threads?.

Support staff have been active on other threads but not on those that have been so active since Friday! 😥

@PeteG , @JonathanB , @MichaelP et al when is Three going to explain what has happened and when it is going to be resolved without requiring unsatifactory workarounds?

There have have been well over a hundred posts in the last five days which is many times the usual forum traffic so it is a very widespread problem

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

markcymru — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:42:05 GMT

Even though the change in APN worked for me, I too find it odd that three have done literally nothing to address the issue.

There is, as you say, no solution, just a work around for certain users. Solving the problem is down to three, not a bunch of people scratching their heads to make it work.

We are customers, paying for a service that has obviously changed.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

LvdB — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:15:47 GMT

I also have problems with the Tado heating app. Hub and thermostat constantly off line.

I made a post earlier about doing a traceroute to a server supposedly in China. The route reaches Frankfurt the goes back to London and keeps circling there until the 32 hops are done

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

LvdB — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:01:43 GMT

So I tried the workaround three.co.uk. The IP4&IP6 option is still broken after probably at least a year of compaints, so had to set to IP4 Only again. Lasted for an hour then I had to reboot the NR5103EV2 once more because I lost the internet completely.

Back to square1👹

As said before the routing to for example Alibaba Cloud Services is broken at a Cogent server in Frankfurt which sends packets back to London instead of further to the East.

Why can't Technical Support fix that issue?

Come on Three moderators do somethging about it!

Lucas

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:40:51 GMT

Well it seems it got resolved this Friday afternoon - no router reset needed. Came home and everything works again.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

jamescl13 — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 09:21:38 GMT

I also experienced this issue and it affected various sites. I rebooted and got load balanced to a different back end node as the fix. Not interested in a broadband service that doesn't give a public IP, so not changing the APN and getting an RFC1918.

As far as I could tell, the root cause seemed to be SSL related, some deep inspection or node with the SSL config screwed up in the server part of the network. You could resolve DNS, connect to the site, but specific TLS/SSL debug commands highlighted issues.

I suspect Three have fixed it now and taken the faulty infrastructure nodes out of service as I've not had it for a while.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:53:31 GMT

Mine started working again but then I moved house (yes!) today, and they problem is back. So they have not applied the changes globally it seems 😞

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

RogerD — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:54:47 GMT

Mine resolved itself but I've now moved house and I'm back to square one 😞

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

Adam9897 — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:33:31 GMT

Mines been the same so it looks like its back. I just got home from work and my eero app isn't loading and Dropbox won't load either.

Re: Three network issues - certain sites don't work. three.co.uk APN is NOT a "solution"

23588 — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:15:20 GMT

Don't forget to leave this company reviews

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.three.co.uk

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.threebroadband.co.uk