topic !!!! No push notifications when connected to wifi PART TWO!! in Broadband

No push notifications when connected to wifi

GnortsMrAlien — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 18:22:35 GMT

Hi ,

I have a ZTE MC801A router which i recieved from three when i signed up to the 5g hub internet when i moved into my new house. Since then i have not recieved push notifications through to my phone, neither has my girlfriend. When we disconnect from the wifi and to 4G roaming we recieve all the notifications we should have at once. This also means our Google Hello doorbell does not work - it does not send notifications through on home when we are connected to wifi and also means we do not hear the doorbell as it wont send a chime through to the Google Mini speaker. Ive tried port fowarding Port 5228, reset to factory settings, enabled UPNP and reset the Google Home devices with no luck.... Any idea?

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

JonathanB — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 10:02:59 GMT

Hi @GnortsMrAlien,

We've not seen an issue like this before, but we'll do our best to help. 🙂

Here's a few ideas to narrow down and test the issue:

Are both phones also on Three?
What make and models are the phones?
Does this definitely only affect push notifications, have you tested texting and calling whilst connected to the router?
Does it make a difference whether WiFi calling is enabled or disabled on the phones?

Thanks,
JonathanB

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

crypt0ninja — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:35:23 GMT

Hey @GnortsMrAlien to add to the good points @JonathanB has mentioned above, can you also confirm which APN your MC801A is using?

Is it using the 'three.co.uk' APN or '3Internet' APN?

You want to be using the 3Internet APN for any Port Forwarding/uPnP etc. to work as the three.co.uk APN uses CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT, it puts many users behind 1 IPv4 WAN IP address rather than allocating each users their own IPv4 WAN IP and can cause such issues as you describe).

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

GnortsMrAlien — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:21:39 GMT

Hi, many thanks for the reponses @JonathanB

Are both phones also on Three? - no both phones are on 02, but i would presume that this shouldnt affect push notificaitons on wifi?
What make and models are the phones? ONEPLUS 8 and PIXEL 3a XL
Does this definitely only affect push notifications, have you tested texting and calling whilst connected to the router? Calling and texting are fine, its just push notifications
Does it make a difference whether WiFi calling is enabled or disabled on the phones? i have tried both wifi calling on and off, no effect still no push notifications.

@crypt0ninja thanks for your suggestion,i have logged into the router and can see the default APN is 3internet so i have left it set to that.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

JonathanB — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 17:16:43 GMT

Hi @GnortsMrAlien,

On the first point yeah 100%, we've got no reason to believe that being on Wi-Fi should prevent push notifications. This is really odd behaviour from your router/phones.

Whilst looking into this, I did find some info about iPhones historically having issues with receiving push notifications when on both WiFi and mobile data. This may not be relevant, but it is a strikingly similar issue. Out of curiosity, can you try connecting to Wi-Fi with mobile data turned off in the settings?

I've reached out to a tech specialist and they just wanted to clarify a couple of the points, sorry if this feels like repeating anything but we just want to make sure of the following:

All push notifications are stopped, so email and other apps etc, not just the doorbell/smart home devices?
Every other element of Internet connectivity is fine, you can browse, and apps that should send push notifications otherwise function normally?
Other than uPNP and opening port 5228, which were both done after the issue started, all router settings are default?
When you mentioned 4G roaming, you're referring to normal mobile/cellular data on o2 UK, you definitely didn't mean roaming on a foreign network?

Let me know on the above, and I'll also continue to look for leads in the meantime.

Thanks,
JonathanB

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

GnortsMrAlien — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 19:00:57 GMT

Hi Jonathan, unfortunatley no luck with the wifi and data setting.

All push notifications are stopped, so email and other apps etc, not just the doorbell/smart home devices? yes all notificaitons are stopped. It just seems so strange. Other wifi networks are fine when i have connected to wifi at work / my parents house, so the issue must be something to do with the router.
Every other element of Internet connectivity is fine, you can browse, and apps that should send push notifications otherwise function normally? Yeah other than the notification issue, the broad band works perfectly fine as intended.
Other than uPNP and opening port 5228, which were both done after the issue started, all router settings are default? Yes all settings are deafult, we have factory reset the router now so uPNP and port 5228 are at the default option now (off/closed)
When you mentioned 4G roaming, you're referring to normal mobile/cellular data on o2 UK, you definitely didn't mean roaming on a foreign network? yes apologies i mean cellular.

Its got to the point where we are considering leaving Three because of this, i appreciate not having push notifications is not the end of the world it is quite an inconvinience.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

maxf — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 20:57:29 GMT

Came here to say I have the exact same issue with the same router I got 3 days ago. So that's at least 2 of us with this problem. It's annoying to have to disconnect your phone from the wifi to get your notifications on time.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

Jr4014 — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 23:01:05 GMT

I am having the same problem. No push notifications when connected to the 3 5g Wi-Fi. My ring doorbell does not come through until you turn Wi-Fi off and then it comes through straight away. We have a ZTE 5g router too.

I have a Nothing phone, my partner has something else which is also on Virgin but the same issue!?

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

maxf — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 23:13:07 GMT

Definitely something with connections from Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging being blocked. Whatsapp notifications work, but only because it uses a fallback for when FCM is unavailable. Perhaps something to do with the Firewall and NAT/SPI timeout advice mentioned at https://firebase.google.com/docs/cloud-messaging/concept-options#messaging-ports-and-your-firewall ? Worth checking with your tech specialist @JonathanB

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

maxf — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 08:52:27 GMT

Some more investigation: I unplugged the router and put the SIM in a 5G phone with hotspotting on. (although the data indicator showed as 4G). Notifications were still not arriving to the tethered device until wifi turned off. So apparently the problem isn't with the router.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

macdog — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 09:42:51 GMT

Having the exact same issue here. Turning off my phone's wifi connection (to the three 5G hub) and i instantly get a flood of notifications that have been queuing up.

Also using the default 3internet APN.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

macdog — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 09:49:44 GMT

I should add, I have the newer Zyxel router.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

maxf — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 11:53:55 GMT

More investigation: I took my router to another part of London and it worked. So it's working in E1, but not in SE16.

So it appears to be something with the tower. @macdog , @GnortsMrAlien - Do you happen to be in the same area by any chance? Nearest cell to me seems to be: https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=234&MNC=20&type=LTE&latitude=51.49326520665156&longitude=-0.0441775122162319&zoom=16.984410107974945&showTowers=true&showIcons=true&showTowerLabels=true&clusterEnabled=true&tilesEnabled=true&showOrphans=false&showNoFrequencyOnly=false&showFrequencyOnly=false&showBandwidthOnly=false&DateFilterType=Last&showHex=false&showVerifiedOnly=false&showUnverifiedOnly=false&showLTECAOnly=false&showENDCOnly=false&showBand=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap&darkMode=false

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

macdog — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 12:06:38 GMT

I'm in North East London. Can't seem to find a nearby three 5g tower on cellmapper though.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

GnortsMrAlien — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 14:04:24 GMT

Hi mate - im in SE9 so not a million miles away from SE16... im honestly perplexed at htis hopefully @JonathanB might have a solution soon

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

GnortsMrAlien — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 10:00:09 GMT

Hello chaps @maxf @JonathanB @macdog hope you all had a good Christmas - any update on a fix for this? From what has been said previously it sounds like Google Firebase Cloud Messaging is being blocked at some level which stops push notifications coming through

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

maxf — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 19:57:43 GMT

Just back from a few days off. Nothing new except I noticed I do get notifications when my phone is on a VPN. I don't really know what that means but it might help network engineers diagnose further.

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

GnortsMrAlien — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 07:06:25 GMT

I managed to partially fix it. I forwarded ports 5228-5230 and 443 through to each phone and device assigning a static IP to each one. This has allowed notifications through. The only issue is there is a maximum of 10 rules on the router which makes a maximum of 5 devices (2 rules per device for both port ranges). This has allowed notifications through, however it does not sort the Google hello doorbell notifications and should not be the fix, Three should be better than this and have a permanent fix at Thier level but may give an indication as to the issue

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

maxf — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 10:30:31 GMT

Thanks. Very interesting. I think we should just create a new post with a summary of what we've found. It'll be simpler for Three to investigate. What do you think?

Re: No push notifications when connected to wifi

macdog — Thu, 29 Dec 2022 13:07:22 GMT

Hey, same to you!

I took the hub away with me and notifications seemed to work. I just got back yesterday and notifications seems to work at home now too! I will test properly later as I'm not using the hub.

Incidentally, when I was having the problem I did some connectivity tests to the published FCM addressed and all seemed fine, which is strange!