Intermittent connection issues loading/changing site- secure connection failed/site can't be reached

[EDIflyer]

Is anyone else occasionally getting a 'connection down' error from Chrome (or 'Secure Connection Failed' from Firefox) when changing page - if I hit refresh it works fine. At first I wondered if it was the site I was using but have noticed it on multiple different major websites over the past couple of months and not noticed it from other locations where I don't use Three Broadband so does seem to be related to the router/connection (this is via wired Ethernet too, so not a WiFi problem).  I've tried changing DNS server in case that helps but no difference.

It mainly seems to happen when trying to first load a site or (annoyingly) at checkout when a different site is being loaded as part of the checkout process.  It certainly doesn't happen everytime but does happen with reasonable frequency.  I've also noticed I often get it when trying to pull/push from/to Github too and have to do so a number of times for it to work (browsing the Github website works fine).

I'm using a NR5103E with Firmware Version V1.00(ACBJ.0)b14 - I tried rebooting it but to no effect.

[EDIflyer]

Definitely happens on Windows & Linux for me.

[hughesceri]

At this point I was going to suggest that our best course of action would be to start leaving public reviews on trustpilot with the aim of naming and shaming Three into action... When I checked, it turns out that Three Broadband only has a score of 1.5 and Three UK as a company has just 1.3.

Since it's not possible to rate a company / product 0 on trustpilot, the scores are more like 0.5 and 0.3 out of 4 respectively so I don't think we'll make much of a dent in the shame factor.

[hughesceri]

What did you learn from the service desk @JonathanB . It's been 2 weeks since you told us you'd give us an update. Since this appears to be our only route for support, I don't think that's an acceptable time to leave us waiting.

I also note that you've dodged all questions about whether we'll be able to get out of our contracts early. Please let us know our options.

[unhappy]

Also been suffering from this since becoming a 3 customer last month.

The fact that this isn't fixed and is seemingly being swept under the rug is disgraceful.

[applepieman]

I hope this isn't true, that domestic customers are treated as second class. Although the lack of response on this thread does seem to indicate just that approach.

[MP]

I do emphasise with the people still affected by this, I was affected by this for many many months and I now consider it to be fixed but I am a business customer.  They must have done something and I hope it can be applied to non-business customers too.

[yacoboy]

I'm a business customer too. I switched back to the NR503E to test again, but it was worse than ever. Now switched back to the MU5001 and it's working fine again. I guess I'll just have to consider the Zyxel useless for the time being and keep an eye on this thread in the hopes that it gets fixed one day. 

[EDIflyer]

@JonathanB more information courtesy of another poster on the ISPReview forums - 

Hi EDIflyer, I signed up just to reply to you. I was running the NR5103Ev2 on Three and ran into the same issues. I am running 100s of API calls a min for work and Three was causing SSL issues with 50% or more of them based on my monitoring logs (even after enabling adult content, limiting the APN to IPV4 and 4G). I was annoyed and bought the Scancom EE long term sim that was on sale at Amazon and popped it into the NR5103Ev2 and changed the APN settings to EEs settings and IPV4. Its been running for 4+ hours now without any issues where before I could see constant issues on Three. The SSL errors are the result of something Three is doing. I would expect whatever DPI they have in place is breaking SSL. I will be dropping Three and keeping EE (I mean I paid for the long term SIM so thats a no brainer at this point for me)

P.S. I tested with my Smarty SIM in my mobile as well and got the same errors which is no surprise since they are essentially Three but figured I would add that so others don't think testing Smarty proves anything.

Example log:

File "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXl/retry.py", line 592, in increment
raise MaxRetryError(_pool, url, error or ResponseError(cause))
urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(Caused by SSLError(SSLEOFError(8, 'EOF occurred in violation of protocol (_ssl.c:1106)')))

I note they tried many of the things that lots of us have tried too and the symptoms are also very similar.  Have the team properly examined the potential for deep packet inspection to be causing an issue? Activating a VPN seems to resolve the issue which would also seem to be a potential route.

It would be good to know where in the technical team this has reached - given the number of customers involved can you please confirmed this has been highlighted and escalated to the highest levels? I really hope it's not still stuck in a helpdesk somewhere!

[BrummyGit]

I am currently flying back to the UK on a Singapore Airlines A380 and their WiFi service just gave me the exact same issue when hitting GitHub 

what’s the betting that their in-flight service uses Zyxel kit, or it’s related to some form of content filter. 

BTW I see this problem with my second router, but that’s also a Zyxel FWA017 so probably has mostly the same firmware code

[yacoboy]

Hi, I've just created an account specifically so I can also add my comments on how this issue is ALSO affecting myself. 

I use a three mobile broadband SIM in a Three branded NR5103E. I've been experiencing the exact same issues as all the other users in this thread. Multiple websites connections failing, "ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED" github.com, diy.com, even topcashback.com is giving me grief. It's now got to the point where my connection is almost unusable, banking apps are failing requests and I have to click retry 3 or 4 times before it actually does anything. My octopus energy account isn't loading and keeps logging me out. It's absolutely ridiculous.

This all started around 2 months ago. I've been using this as my main internet connection for over 12 months and it was flawless up until that point. These issues were non-existent and nothing in my network setup has changed.

As it's now got so bad, I've had to take drastic action. I've added another router to my network and switched the SIM to it, for info it's the ZTE MU5001 mobile 5G router, and all my problems are now resolved! All websites are loading normally and functioning as expected.

Just to note, I haven't removed the NR5103E from my network, it's still being used to broadcast wifi, I've just disabled DHCP and I'm using the Ethernet WAN port. This proves that it's not an issue with the three 5G network, as I'm still using the same SIM and mobile network, the only thing that's changed is the gateway.

In my eyes it's clear as day that this is a botched firmware update for the NR5103E which has caused these issues. This is not an isolated incident, it's affecting a huge number of customers and is simply unacceptable! Either roll out another firmware update to fix the issue, or roll the firmware back to the last known good version.

I'll be keeping my network setup as it is right now, as it's actually usable for a change. But, I will monitor this thread in the hopes that Three eventually decide to take some responsibility for the issue and address it. My current setup is not ideal, it leads to slower speeds and higher ping as it's a mobile broadband router not designed for long term home broadband use.

Honestly, Three should be ashamed of themselves. Especially @JonathanB, who seems to be brushing the issue under the carpet, dismissing the issue and blaming the "Service Desks", whoever they are! This needs escalating to Zyxel technical support immediately and resolving as a priority.