Cannot connect to Work VPN

[Graygeez]

I switched to Three 5G home Broadband a year ago (very fast), I still have another year on my 24-month contract. I have been unable to connect to work via the VPN. I contacted Three Tech Help who did several tests (last July), and they concluded that since my broadband was working the problem was with my work VPN. I can connect my laptop from PRET via VPN, but not home. I have tried all the (Ipv 4 vs 6) suggested remedies on the site. I hope the next year goes quicker. Luckily my employer has been patient with me and has set up a PC that I can remote into (much slower). Three - I will be leaving when my contract expires and announcing to World my reasons.

[DanH]

@PeteG  I have found a solution to all of my work VPN related issues. I joined Three broadband in Dec 2023 and I was very pleased until April 2024. My VPN was connecting but I could not use any service that my employer provides using a proxy. I have raised many incidents with Three and also a complaint. On Friday. I found that if I ejected the SIM from my MC888 router and put it into my phone, connected to my VPN via mobile hotspot everything was working. This points an issue with the Three router.

I spoke to Three and asked for a replacement router and they declined, saying a new router required a further 24 month contract. A colleague who works at the same employer found that when she changed to the NR5103E router the issue was resolved. I now have a NR5103E and I can work from home.

What I found very disappointing is the fact I was required to serve notice on my existing 30 day contract, then go a local store and take out a new agreement. Whatever the root cause this issue started on my MC888 router on 22nd April. I caused quite a fuss at work, raising these issues with my CTO. I got internal technical staff and our third parties investigating what seems to be a Three issue. 

Other customers who have always or recently had VPN issues might want to try a Zytel router if they are using a ZTE now. The catch might be Three want you to cover the router cost by way of a contract renewal.

Good luck all

-- Dan

[PeteG]

Since the router works normally in other scenarios, it's unlikely to be a fault on your router. It's more likely that there's a configuration issue of some kind. 

It's unclear if that's an issue in general for those devices, or if it's something that was reconfigure on your unit. It might be worth trying a complete factory reset of the hub to see if that makes a difference.

Pete. 

[DanH]

@PeteG  Hi, the MC888 router has been reboot and reset many times. I can now do side-by-side testing MC888 and NR5103E both on factory settings, with changes made limited to forcing IPv4. There is some intrinsic difference that means the NR5103E works with my employer's VPN and web proxies but the MC888 does not. When using the MC888 router on my employers VPN, the internal proxy server cannot be reached.

This conclusive evidence means my own personal investigation is closed and I have terminated the Three agreement associated with the MC888.

I hope sharing my past experience helps some other Three customers who have found they can work from home on a mobile phone personal hotspot using the Three broadband SIM (configured to use APN 3internet) but not on their Three supplied router. There might be some as yet unidentified limitation in the MC888 router for certain home working use-cases. Good luck everyone

[DanH]

Is there any reason why we are not getting replies to this thread? Others at my employer are finding they can use the VPN successfully if the are using 3internet on IPv4 and their public IP starts 188.  My public IP starts 94.  This might mean certain parts of the Three network have different underlying infrastructure or configuration.

Is there any way I could test a 188 address, does anyone know if Three 2nd or 3rd line could force a public IP change?

Thanks,

[PeteG]

Hello. 

There is no way for the team to force a specific IP address to you, however you can ensure you're on a public IP address by using the 3internet APN. That APN is for broadband, and is one of the two main configurations. 

In most case, a new IP address is assigned when you establish a  new connection. If you turn the connection off and back on, you should normally be given a new IP address.

If you'd like to try doing that to see if you get different connection results based on the different IP addresses that are assigned to you, it would be good to hear back from you about the results. It could help in identifying the cause of the problem.

Pete. 

[DanH]

Hi @JonathanB and @KateS  possible clue on why some users are facing issues with VPN.

I have been doing some testing with port forwarding and an FTP server on my home network. I am finding that insecure request on port 21 succeeds and my FTP client is able to target my Three public IP, login to the FTP server, view and retrieve files etc.

When I change the FTP server to listen on 443 and FTPS the client can see my Three public IP, establish a connection - logs show handshake successful, welcome message delivered, TLS1.2 key exchange etc but then the client time outs after 2,000ms unable to see any files. 

I am wondering if this time-out for the return leg of the encrypted traffic is a clue on what is going wrong with VPNs. For my employers work working solution, we all connect using Cisco VPN and our browser traffic is proxied and delivered over HTTPs on port 443.

What do you think?

[Vio]

@KateS  : Please can you include me as well with the potential solutions. I had to argue with service desk at the first place who was not open to hearing my problem and then I had to spent extra time with the senior of the person to believe me that I was genuinely facing an issue. Then a case was raised and no one bothered to get back to me. I called them again and none of the screenshots and attachments were checked where I elaborated the VPN issues. I was able to finally convince a Tech Support person to keep the case open and review. I have been switch to IPV4 and then IPV6 and then back to IPV4. There is a severe performance degradation on the browser over a CISCO VPN, which has prevented me from working remotely. Amongst 3K colleagues for whom everything is working fine, it is about 10 of us who is facing issue since between 19 April to 22nd April and I am personally aware of 6 colleagues who are affected are on Three and yesterday, 3 of them made the decision to switch to HyperOptic and 1 other is exploring to switch to a different ISP as the Three service desk refused to take accountability. I am still open to exploring some solutions. I suspect there is some issue going on between my router and my organisation's IP addresses and Three network. Please can you get someone to investigate that?

[KateS]

Hey @Graygeez,

I'm sorry to hear the suggested remedies on the forum haven't worked for you on this occasion.

I'll drop you a PM with instructions on how to reach out to my collegues, they'll be able to get this raised to our Support team for investigation.

To view your private messages on the community, click on your avatar image in the top right of any community page, then "Messages".

Thanks,
Kate

[DanH]

@Graygeez  and @KateS  also interested to hear about potential alternative solutions.