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.

[andym00]

Yeah, I'm beginning to think they really don't care.. I've started today to look at getting a 5G SIMs from other providers, not sure exactly which yet, but it's gone on too long now.. It's available from a few others on the local masts, particularly on the closest mast, so hopefully one of them might have the speed of the Three 5G connection.. Not too hopeful though 😞

[torz77]

Amazingly it is coming up to almost a year since the original post, and still nothing has changed.

Just to provide my data, amongst others (although it is the same as most others, so is unlikely to add anything new).

Unlike most others, I am on the Huawei H122-373 (as an aside, Three tried to push me onto the Zyxel router, I declined as I don't particularly appreciated being pushed a downgrade), so this is not router specific.

These issues have plagued me for probably a year now. They did not occur when I first signed up with Three. I finally had enough and did a search, only to find this mammoth thread. I waded through about 13 of the 42 pages before realising that there was unlikely to be a solution here. Ironically, I cannot load this thread without activating my VPN (just times out otherwise)

I often get issues connecting to sites with Firefox with PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR. There seems to be no consistency as to which sites this will happen to and when, and I often have to refresh several times to get the page to load.

Github is pretty much unusable (I am a software developer so that is... fun). The most common error is:

error: RPC failed; curl 18 transfer closed with outstanding read data remaining
error: 62601 bytes of body are still expected
fetch-pack: unexpected disconnect while reading sideband packet
fatal: early EOF
fatal: fetch-pack: invalid index-pack output

Downloads will often fail (be it through firefox, or using curl/wget). They need to be 'retried' to complete.

The short snippet posted earlier in this thread outputs exactly as the original user posted:

for i in {1..100}; do curl -I --no-progress-meter -o /dev/null https://github.com || true; done;
curl: (35) OpenSSL SSL_connect: SSL_ERROR_SYSCALL in connection to github.com:443

Using a VPN solves this issue. That is neither a practical, nor long-term solution.

This is clearly a major issue within Three's infrastructure affecting a lot of users. I find it staggering that a year on, we are no closer to a solution.

I am happy to provide more information directly if it will help expedite a fix. I am not optimistic.

[Midnight54]

Its also not like it affected everyone 12 months ago.  It started for me only several months back, and seems to be becoming wider and wider an issue, so surely they should have been able to use that sort of information to narrow down the issue of what has changed in areas and rollback or isolate the issue if possible

[torz77]

I'm not sure it is becoming a wider issue.... just most people don't know where/how to complain.

Three's "customer support" is as good as useless on anything which doesn't involve resetting your router.

I've lived with it for long enough as I just assumed it was a "me" issue, and it would have been futile trying to deal with customer service for the aforementioned reason.

Fortunately I have a VPN and found that solved the issue quick sharp. If I hadn't got one, I would be royally screwed and it brings it's own drawbacks.... and why the hell should I have to use a VPN just to use my ISP reliably??

Ultimately, I didn't even know this "support" channel was here (loose term... I'm not sure failing to address an issue for the best part of a year can be described as support). I only found it because I finally lost patience and googled "Three PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR", and here I am.

FWIW, I can tell you pretty much exactly when I first hit this issue. It was on or about 31/08/2023. I know this, because I initially took the issue up with the owner of the website that first displayed this behaviour... so, yeah. That's over a year now. Nice.

Ultimately, I would have ditched Three by now if I had any other choice. Sadly my high speed internet options are non-existant, so I have no choice but to support an abysmal company. The best I can do (and do do) is tell anyone and everyone that is even vaguely considering this service to look elsewhere. I take no pleasure from that. I take pleasure from getting the service I pay for.

If it helps any (ha ha,  good one!), this is what I get when I try to connect to this very page without my VPN active. I know this doesn't appear to be an issue that impacts anyone else, and may even not be related.... but not being able to connect to my own ISPs site without a VPN is pretty much the definition of tinpot

[Midnight54]

Maybe not on scale, as you say, lot of people will be simply unaware and put it down to various errors on their phone, or when using the likes of Chrome its less obvious.  However it must have spread, I had 18months+ of zero issues, then its been a PITA ever since without fail, on sites and such used daily.  How far spread though is the question, and if by certain masts, or regions

What would be interesting, we know its not the devices themselves as people have had replacements/diff models(possible fw changes excluded), would be eg driving to someones local town that allegedly have zero issues with my router, and see if the issue is magically gone from my router when connected to their mast.  However, those that dont have the issue are unlikely to be reading on here either

[bytespider]

Like you GitHub is my main nemesis, especially ghcr.io. Most other sites I have visited have been fine in Chrome but I know Chrome automatically retries when it encounters the error, so perhaps I've just come to expect it and not noticed the retries

[MP]

Still seeing the issue, just wanted to include regular websites where the issue is repeatable for me.

Secure Connection Failed
PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR

• duckduckgo.com
• en.wikipedia.org
• mynoise.net
• pavlovia.org

[Nameless]

Just checking in once again to see if there have been any changes for any of yourselves

I have been away so I have not been able to do my usual checks

[EDIflyer]

Same issue here - in fact have found a the work remote access site seem to be having issues even when I'm on my VPN which is frustrating!  I see there's been some media coverage on this issue too that may be of interest to folks - https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/09/three-uks-home-broadband-users-suffer-intermittent-con....

Really need to have this situation resolved, would be great to get a progress report on likely timescales @JonathanB ?

[Midnight54]

For the forum page thats had significantly more posts than any others in its section you'd think there'd be at least some sort of regular updates on what they are doing or at least trying.  Instead it feels like there is maybe a token suggestion at best every couple of months and then silence, making people wonder if they are actively even attempting anything at all or just like "meh....not my job...pass it to the other team"