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.

[Midnight54]

Curious do you guys get this when trying to launch the xbox app?  At first I thought it was my gaming pc, being first time tried to use it in eons.  It was broke a while ago but couldnt be bothered to look at it.  This loops in circles over and over when try again.  At first I thought it was my PC, but realised my kids pcs are doing exactly the same too - and not a single game on gamepass has worked for them etc in some time.....so I'm wondering if its similar to file downloads in chrome where it just wants to restart over and over (nb:  tried all the usual registry and powershell fixes and MS store fixes.  Not too bothered as dont fancy playing any MS gamepass games for the past few months and dont fancy the mammoth task of wiping my games PC - but if its linked I can see that being a huge problem for some

followed by

I may later try and tether my pc to my work phone which is vodafone to see, out of curiosity - however its trickle speed signal in this house

[bytespider]

are you trying to log in? unfortunately I can't see the screenshots. if so then yes I've experienced the same and have to retry and retry before I can sign in to Xbox. as such we moved to steam for a lot of games

[Midnight54]

Not sure why can't see the screenshots - Ive had this sometimes on this website too and later they work.  But yes, I just click to load Xbox from the Start menu, usually immediately get the Something Went Wrong message, if hit try again, it usually says "Updating" hits 100%, then "Something Went Wrong" again on loop for ever, however I've tried it dozens and dozens of times, including reboots, store resets,powershell removing packages etc, never once let me in

I have however had a nightmare trying to uninstall gamepass/msstore games because of this, it just flat out won't let me and leaving all data in tact (ok part of this is down to MS Store being flat out c**p) - so had to do a lot of workarounds accessing the hidden folders to be able to delete the likes of MS Flight Sim....obviously no point having them eating a few hundred gb of NVME space when cant even use them

Granted this could be down to OS issue for this case - but does have me wondering if linked 

[bytespider]

Pretty sure it is linked. Like you said, trying a hotspot with a different network should give you answers.

[Midnight54]

After a few days of almost zero ssl errors, have had a couple of days where the local 5g mast has been offline, so getting 4g on a single bar from the next nearests one (which basically only loads anything at all when it wants to as beyond slower than dialup speeds)

Now that service has restored and have 5g back, the problem has returned again in full force ffs!

I noticed @JonathanB is still active on the forums, so must be ignoring this thread with the radio silence....what gives(!)  @JonathanB either please take some ownership with updates or pass the baton to one of the other support guys to help if you've given up. 

[Nameless]

By any chance, did you check your average broadband speeds when you were not experiencing errors and before your local mast went offline? I am led to believe that 4G (LTE) has a maximum download speed of 150Mbps but I have not tested Three's standalone 4G network

It may be possible that your lack of errors might have been a silent fallback use of the 4G network on your local mast until it went offline

How many Three staff are supposed to be watching these forums? Hopefully it is more than the company's namesake

[Midnight54]

yeah, speeds were fine, in the usual expected highly variable 400-800mbps range - so not that.

The other 4g tower must be far as basically doesnt work in house(as does my work vodaphone signal) - shows single bar sometimes, most things drop connections, speed test if attempted more dialup levels etc - but thats a distance and router wrong side of house issue, but yeah def above 4g speeds while things were working (but still had the realdebrid file download corruption issue)

[Nameless]

Thank you for confirming the speeds and further confirming that the temporary fix was not a silent fallback to 4G - I was able to do a brief test whilst being close to a tower and confirmed that 4G would not go anywhere near 400Mbps yet alone reach 200Mbps with 150Mbps being the effective ceiling

By any chance, would a download manager be able to help mitigate your current downloading issues? It would be an extra step but if the download client has no issues under Three's 5G network then having that as an intermediate step could help especially if it comes as a browser extension. I should have thought about this earlier but I have not used one in a while since internet speeds increased...

The mystery and issues continue into yet another day...

[Midnight54]

Actually yes, Jdownloader downloads fine, whether it auto retries the very end a bit like having to manually hit retry several times on firefox I'm not sure.  I did out of curiousity now just test with a zipped file to make sure zips weren't being corrupted at the end of the file (they weren't), as video streams would be less noticable likely only at the end frames.  Luckily I can still stream video fine using RD, as you dont need a complete file for that, but bizarre that Chrome downloads from it just look from restarting the whole download over and over again vs Firefox giving error at the end but allowing to retry the end bit til complete.  A bit rubbish that it corrupts the downloads on a phone though to be unusable as they didnt retry.  To be honest i've not tried regular file downloads to my phone, so may give that a shot

I'm still getting mostly the same culprit websites such as banking, reddit, RD, HUKD referral links etc giving me SSL errors probably matching with the worst they've been since they restored the local service, so its a shame they've undone whatever it was over the weekend that seemed to have been working for me albeit a minor inconvenience with certain downloads

I think browser used too may make some people not notice and report these issues, eg testing with Opera, if SSL errors, the page auto loads itself a second or 2 later, seemingly retrying, and as mentioned a lot of non nerds would just think its the visiting website being flakey or their phone etc

[Nameless]

A download manager is more likely to retry on your behalf otherwise it should throw up an error of sorts admitting that something it did went wrong - If it does not do that, rename it ThreeDownloader...

For Chrome against Firefox in terms of continuing from the point of failure:

• Chrome is probably trying to download the file in one attempt to minimise potential malicious injections during the download in the name of security during the era of faster internet speeds - Great for safety but bad for time and data limits but it's unlikely that anyone would need to redownload a file Three times, right?
  
  
• Firefox is assuming that there have been no malicious injections during the download and is trying to save data and time by continuing from the last part it has - Great for time and data limits but arguably not as safe but it's unlikely that anyone would need to maliciously inject part of a file being downloaded Three times, right?
  
  (Personally I would still take the Firefox approach and compare checksums instead but that is one observation on two web browsers under Three's network)

There is the chance that Three sent two workers or one contractor to return your local mast to state Three of the power switch binary ("Working") but surely they are not reading any of these posts to determine where they need to go to "fix" things? Just one idea that came to mind

Disclaimer: Yes there are number jokes but there are not Three of them - I do not work for Three after all