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.

[munk]

From what I've read in the thread above the issue seems to be to do with the way that they're filtering traffic as it passes through their infrastructure - packet inspection which is being acted upon to control what sites are visited and those actions end up interrupting IP communication and stalling some packets from working as they should.  Hence why using a VPN of whatever colour is the one thing that seems to 'fix' the problem since the content of the packets can't be interrogated and traffic can't be interrupted or 'mangled' in a way that stops the communication.

Although 'fix' isn't really the right word because of course VPN usage often leads to other problems with sites that use security measures to detect suspicious activity (like the use of different IP addresses as a VPN would imply) and can lead to bans or blocks on services.  I wouldn't even want to think what would happen if I tried using my banking apps via VPN, seems a sure fire way to give yourself a headache!

I bet there's some rule(s) somewhere in the big mess of content filtering system that they have that's screwing things up but working out where it is or why it's happening is too much.  Think hundreds of lines of firewall code that someone wrote with great inspiration 'back in the day' but that someone has now moved on and the new guys won't go near it...  One day the erroneous line(s) will accidentally get removed and things will be fine again.  One day. 😛

EDIT: reading that back - though why it seems to happen so haphazardly I don't know... maybe there's one node in a cluster of filtering nodes that is configured badly and only throws up the problems when it gets used in a round robin kind of way?  Who knows.  Not Three apparently. 😄

PS

I don't know if anyone is still keeping track of pages that have issues but the reason I came back to this thread just now was when checking on premium bonds at National Savings and Investments I got the usual PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR:

https://secure.nsandi.com/thc/policyenforcer/pages/loginB2C.jsf

[Nameless]

Although I can not login to that page (No account), it, and every other website mentioned in this very long thread, does load without error for myself when using WARP

Clearly Three is inspecting and interfering with packets regardless of our non-VPN/WARP settings

I wonder what will happen first? A fix to these issues or this thread hitting the maximum amount of posts?

[munk]

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@Nameless wrote:

Although I can not login to that page (No account), it, and every other website mentioned in this very long thread, does load without error for myself when using WARPse issues or this thread hitting the maximum amount of posts?

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Yeah it's just loading the login page itself where the SSL error showed up. 😞

I found that whole NS&I experience today very unsettling - it's never been that bad until today/this month (I go there once a month to update financial stuff offline etc), I had to refresh a few times to get the login page to load, then thankfully got in OK but then looking at various account related pages, parts of the content (transaction lists) weren't loading and needed refreshing.  This is the first month I've noticed this on NS&I, touch wood it hasn't been happening on other banking related sites (you watch it will happen now grr).

Is a bit scary though when it's financial stuff. 😕

I wonder what will happen first? A fix to these issues or this thread hitting the maximum amount of posts?

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Haha yes probably the 1k posts.  Or like I say someone will delete a line by accident in some firewall script and fix things. 😄

[bytespider]

I'm wondering if content filtering is the issue here.

Ever since turning it on and waiting a few days, then disabling it, I have experienced an increased number of issues.

These issues Re, I think, the filter trying to block or redirect the navigation to the filter notice page.

Rebooting the router gets me a new IP which may or may not be up to date with what the filtering setting is configured to. For example yesterday I was able to access archive.org and a random adult site, the same test today without rebooting the router but I do have a new IP, I am unable to access those same sites.

I double checked the settings and they are still disabled on my account.

This doesn't explain why banking and shopping sites display the same issue, so perhaps I'm wrong.

[Nameless]

There is definitely filtering going on but it is deeper than what we can access as customers which is why VPNs and WARP are working

From re-reading the posts in this thread, it seems that the adult content filter makes an already existing problem worse

[munk]

Router: NR5103E V1.00(ACBJ.0)b15

I've been having the same issue with random web page dropouts or slowdowns to do with SSL (primarily "PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR" when loading up sites that rely heavily on SSL like Morrisons) since I started the service back last year.  Definitely the Three mobile service / router being the issue - I had a fixed line running at the same time as I started with Three and if I used that connection there were no issues at all.

I think I changed to IPv4 only some time back and that seemed to resolve the issues to some extent, but recently they seem to have changed things on the backend which meant I had to re-enable IPv6 to be able to use the internet at all, and ever since then the page stalls and SSL errors have been coming thick and fast in every single web browsing session (this is on Firefox where I think the issue is exacerbated because of the way it doesn't time out as quickly as on other browsers when this glitch is encountered, where other browsers just continue to load the page without issuing an error).

One site that consistently causes issues is Channel 5 / My5 - trying to view the live channel I always have to hit refresh up to a dozen times before the page loads properly.

I've not complained about it because frankly the level of interest in fixing anything seems quite shocking here and I've resolved myself to the fact that 'you get what you pay for'.  It's not been bad enough to be a major issue that would cause me to really want to complain with a view to leaving - still it seems remarkable that a fundamental issue like this experienced by a large number of people isn't fixed after so long.

[Midnight54]

Hoped this thread going quieter might have given support the opportunity to address it but nope absolute zilch.....pathetic.  They just hoping the problem going to go away on its own? 

This is now the most commented thread in this broadband section yet its tumbleweed from them in trying to resolve it

[Nameless]

Unfortunately I also have nothing new to add - I have given my quick fix solution which is probably the single greatest thing that I could do for anyone that reads this long thread and tries it (Assuming that it works for them)

For now, I am watching the thread hoping that a proper fix comes from Three or an alternative that is better than using WARP

[bytespider]

For me, I've got nothing new to add, but it's still the same. I'm checking out the aforementioned IDnet, but the 12 month contract is putting me off. I might try Honest mobile. Unfortunately other carriers signal is terrible for me as I'm on the outskirts of the city.

[l0hn]

FWIW I switched to IDNet's 5g service, which also runs ontop of Three's infrastructure so I can point my antenna at the exact same mast. I no longer have any of these issues with dropped packets.

It's a bit more expensive and I've noticed around an extra 10-15ms latencey on average, but most importantly it actually works.