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.

[Nameless]

Cloudflare's WARP may potentially be faster than a traditional VPN (I posted some links in my message above) and has not given the usual error in my fairly long usage however it may not be suitable for geolocation purposes...

[BrAinZ]

I use a VPN when I hit a problem and it does fix most things (but then again, using the VPN means that some new issues are introduced).

I haven’t tried the WARP option, but I really don’t want to have to loads different software on each device just to get it working, I either want the system to just work, or have something on the router that then fixes the connection for any device connected to it.

Come on Three, we really need a workable solution.

[andrew_w]

I use Debian GNU/Linux, I won't be putting Cloudflare's secret, non-free (free as in free speech) software onto my computer.

I'm happy with AirVPN, but Three ought to sort this problem out.

[Nameless]

Just another check-in with nothing special to report...

I had a WARP-less moment lasting for a few hours and the usual errors would happen at random however, at some point the usual error occurred on almost every second page I visited for a few minutes about one and a half hours ago. Needless to say, I reactivated WARP soon afterwards...

How are things for you all? More stable? Less stable? The same?

[bytespider]

Honestly my connection has been pretty poor the last few weeks, I assume due to the school holidays and what-not, so its been hard to tell what's an issue and what's congestion. I can say when I do a speed test I either get crazy ping times but decent speed or terrible signal which is usually fixed by rebooting or moving the router left or right by about a meter or so.

In all nothing to report because I have so many other issues right now

[EDIflyer]

Sadly just the same here, fine on VPN and very unreliable if not. Makes it quite a pain for smart TV usage! 

[munk]

Still same here, I use warp now after you're talk about it and it works great to stop the interruptions but I soon know about the Three issues if I'm not using it.

On a side note - is there any way to exclude apps from warp in the windows client, I can't see any which is annoying (there only seems to be an option to exclude certain networks which is not helpful)?  For example, just now I had to stop warp in order to allow MS Phone Link to work properly (it won't connect to my Android mobile if warp is enabled - disable it and it instantly works correctly).  The Android app allows you to exclude apps from warp but not the Windows client as far as I can see, which is kind of odd when other VPN apps on Windows have it and you'd think it'd be straightforward to program on a desktop client. 😞

Occasionally I have to stop warp as well to do certain things like financial transactions but on the whole it's OK.

Sometimes warp will die on my phone without me noticing and then I'll be alerted to the fact because the Three SSL errors start happening again.

[Nameless]

It's good to hear that WARP is working to bypass the issues for you as well

I do not have WARP for Windows however if you set the WARP client to proxy mode then, by default, only the applications that you set to use the proxy will be subjected to WARP but everything else will not

There is more information here: https://developers.cloudflare.com/warp-client/warp-modes/

Some extra WARP features may require a Cloudflare account although I don't use an account

If Windows uses the same command line prompt as Linux and MacOS then entering...

warp-cli mode proxy

...in the command prompt will turn this mode on and should work even if you are not using an admin account

With that being said, I did some brief testing under this mode and the only significant difference is that WARP speeds in proxy mode may potentially be significantly lower than the normal WARP mode - I saw download speeds ranging from <100Mbps to ~200Mbps and upload speeds around ~100Mbps - However this was by no means as extensive as my original tests

In regards to WARP failing on your phone, I have an iPhone and it has not cut out for myself although it does make connecting to Wi-Fi at "extreme" ranges harder and that can cause the iPhone to act as if there is no Wi-Fi network although it is rare and can be fixed by disconnecting and reconnecting to the Wi-Fi network when it is within range

I will test the proxy mode some more - I have not really used it often

[munk]

Hey thanks for that, much appreciated 🙂

Will look into proxy mode, was hoping there'd be a split tunnel option to allow you to exclude certain apps from using warp, bit of a pain having to do it the other way around as it were settling warp up as proxy but still will look at it.

Re failing on phone - I meant warp itself occasionally dies, the process is for whatever reason killed off and has to be restarted.  It shouldn't be the OS battery saver doing it because I set permissions to avoid that so maybe it's just the warp client crashing for whatever reason.  But really it's very rare and to be honest I only tend to think about it when I browse to some URL and the SSL error pops up... At which point if I see the warp icon isn't in the status bar then I'll start it up.

Thanks again 😄

[Nameless]

Upon closer reading, there is actually a split tunnel mode however it would require making a Cloudflare account - Something that you may or may not want to do

In regards to WARP failing on your phone, it does indeed sound like an app problem which has been mentioned on the Google Play store. Apart from updating the app (If it has an update), reinstalling it and, if you wish to do so, updating everything on your device, I suspect that only Cloudflare would be able to fix that. Additionally the iOS version has not been updated since 1 September 2023 but it seems that the Android version was last updated on 9 August 2024

I hope that this helps and also hope that Three finally fixes the real issue sooner rather than never later