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.

[MP]

Just wasted about an hour filling an online form just to encounter:  ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED
Obviously not ideal that the form didn't auto-save but even worse for it to fault out because of an unreliable network service.  This is now having a negative financial impact so I will have to consider moving away if this is not fixed.

[EDIflyer]

Further issue I'm encountering more over the last few weeks - reception here isn't great on my mobile so I tend to use WiFi calling. It worked really well but now I'm often needing to activate the VPN on my phone to deal with these secure connection issues (which often block banking apps in particular from working if using Three BB direct). However the VPN seems to muck-up WiFi calling so then I need to turn it off again - really frustrating to not be able to just rely on the main broadband connection without needing to do the VPN.  @JonathanB appreciate it's a Bank Holiday today in England but when you return can you please let us know where things have reached?

[JonathanB]

Hi @EDIflyer,

The main challenge seems to be that the issue isn't reproducing for the teams we've engaged about the issue. There doesn't seem to be new threads cropping up about this, and to date we've had around 25 unique accounts posting on this thread. 

I'm sure the issue will be more widespread than this, but it doesn't seem to be a universal one, or perhaps as it's a quite random and intermittent issue the frequency of the errors occurring is in a very wide range, so it may well be flying under the radar for a lot of customers, whereas it's obviously causing a lot of disruption for the members posting here.

I've discussed internally how we get this escalated further, and it looks like the best next steps is to gather some fresh data about the frequency of the errors from you all directly. 

I'd suggest that if as many of you as possible can share either by PM to me or in reply to the thread. Gather a list over the next day or two which websites or services are triggering these end of file errors, and date/timestamps of when these are encountered. (Don't share any personal/private info on public responses, I'll get in touch if we need help correlating any info with the actual Three accounts).

This will give fresh and current data to share to the support teams, whilst also helping to explain the severity of the impact this is having on you all. Even better, if anyone is already keeping logs of the errors let me know and I can get this info shared to the teams sooner. If anyone prefers to PM info, you can reach me here: @JonathanB 

Thanks,
Jonathan

[EDIflyer]

Thanks for the post, @JonathanB .  I find it disappointing that the technical team haven't been able to make headway on this when it is so prevalent and also, for those affected, so reproducible.  My recollection was that a number of us previously supplied lots of data on this so I'm a little unsure why yet more data is needed?  As to why more members of the public haven't raised it - I suspect it's because most are less aware of the underlying technical aspects and thus just blame the website they're using rather than the connection.  The way that Github is particularly affected and VPNs resolve the issue will also lead to a more technical group of users being over-represented here. 

Data-wise do you just need date/time and server? If so then perhaps we could just have an agreed bash script to run that would generate the data the technical team are wanting?

[JonathanB]

I'm sure you're right, in that this will be affecting a greater number of users to a lesser extent. And I appreciate asking for more info again is frustrating, but the best way to get more urgency on this issue is for us to display that this is a frequent disruption.

Dates, times and the websites or services which seem to be returning the errors ought to help do this. 

As you've mentioned there's clearly a more technical ability and interest amongst customers on this thread, so if anyone is able to explain scripting which is consistently triggering the errors I can also share this feedback.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[tucu]

> to date we've had around 25 unique accounts posting on this thread

Simply because most of the people that are facing this issue are either
1. not technical enough to notice the issue (they simply refresh the page)
2. don't use the internet for technical stuff like most of the posters in this thread or
3. they don't even know how to report the issue.

The evidence is there @JonathanB - it's incredibly easy to reproduce. There was even a script that tech people can run. Is there evidence of any work / testing done at all on this issue? It's very easy to close an issue with a "can't reproduce" status

[r1lew999]

Just to add my name to the list of people encountering this exact issue. Been happening since I started contract with three in February with a Zyxel NR5103Ev2 router but lately its got worse.

Didnt know how best to put the issue to Three so thank you all for your work on this issue.

I will be watching this thread eagerly for a solution but frustration is building and I may be cancelling me contract and changing provider if I want to keep my job and be able to work remotely.

[Midnight54]

Disgusted that this has been left to go on all these months.  For me its only begun in the last several days and I've been pulling my hair out with it thinking was it my pc at fault and so on, and spent many hours and money wiping my pc to resolve etc, including being unable to work.

Obviously with receiving frequent page cannot be displayed type messages having to refresh plus downloads failing. Xbox services pretty much do not work at all.

This has caused me allsorts of problems trying to purchase goods too where pages fail during making payments and then duplicate transactions!

For me, the downloads issue can be easily replicated by using a premium debrid service, however this would be harder for Three to test without signing up to that service.  If I download a file in Firefox, the file begins to download no problem.  Once the file hits 99% and finishes it pretty much always says download failed. If I then press retry 1-5 times it eventually says complete. In Chrome and Edge however, when try to download the files, it gets to the end of the download then restarts from the beginning.....over and over and over again.  On a mobile phone the files say successfully downloaded but are fully corrupted.  The PC is not at fault, in the end I took it to nextdoor and no issues at all to rule out something on my PC

After reading "some" of the latter pages of this thread I see that VPN being engaged seems to not cause the problem, which reflects what I've tried.  I also noticed that the logging of downloads on the Debrid service from a few days ago started reporting ipv6 addresses being used. Maybe coincidence but I doubt it.  I then manually changed APNs to some of the different ones and specifying IPv4 only, but same problem occurs (the debrid service does report ipv4 address).  ZTE MC801A router on fw B15, line of sight to house with good speeds between 500-900mbps typically, and worked fine for about 18months (with exception of early constant rebooting firmware) however badly gimped from this 

[MP]

A ridiculous workaround I found is to refresh a problematic website in another tab on a regular basis (so if I was going to submit a form for a website) I would setup a 10 second refresh of the website in question beforehand. And there are no issues. This cannot continue and will need a proper solution of course.

[bytespider]

🤣 that's so stupid, seriously Three?! though given sometimes it takes many attempts to get Xbox to log in, I imagine even this work around has it's millage.