IP address changing constantly disconnects me from FTP and my web hosting panel

[paulop]

I'm using my mobile phone with a hotspot to connect my computer to the internet. When I try to use FTP client to upload or download files to my web hosting server I get disconnected every few seconds to a few minutes. The same happens when I try to log in to my cPanel on this server. I got a warning that my IP has changed when I get disconnected. FTP client shows me that: GnuTLS error -15 in gnutls_record_recv: An unexpected TLS packet was received. Error: Could not read from socket: ECONNABORTED - Connection aborted 

My hosing server support told me that it's also because IP is changing and when I check what is my public IP address it's changing every few seconds to a minute maybe. (i.e. https://whatismyipaddress.com/ ) How I can have a fixed IP address for at least a session? or even half an hour would help?

[Stuart1]

Thank you Andyvee.  My daughter is working from home this week, using her work secure VPN.  She was being logged out every few minutes.  We checked the IP address using the whatsmyipaddress website.  It was changing every few minutes.  We tried your suggestion and in the APN setting we selected IPV4 instead of IPV4 and IPV6.  The ip address of my daughter's computer has now been stable for several hours and she is not being continually logged out.   We are using a ZTE MC888 router.  3internet APN.  We have it set to 4G only (connects as 4G+).  I'm not sure if this works with it set to 5G (at this point I do not want to disturb my daughter's work in order to experiment).  I hope this helps someone.

[andyvee]

I'm seeing the same on 3internet APN on a NR5103E router.

Changing the APN to IPv4 only stops it. It only does this random changing of the IPv4 address if IPv6 is enabled as well on the APN

[Brotherkennyh]

I would like to add to this. I have had similar issues of being logged out of anything that needs a secure connection. I have these problems on my phone and on my home broadband connection, which is also with Three.

My web host initially suspected the IP address was changing. It does, but certainly no where near as much as I was having problems. I was getting logged out of Plesk control panel for example every few seconds. Completely unable to get anything done.

I can't say for sure what the issue is, however I do have some concerns over my publicly reported IP address.

I tried several websites that report my public IP address. Over the 7 sites I tried, I got 3 different IP addresses. Those IP addresses did not change very frequently.

I suspect as the path between my device and the Plesk control panel changes for whatever reason, it is seeing the connection coming from a different IP address.

I am open to suggestions on how to improve the situation?

If you don't offer static IP addresses at least your infrastructure could provide more consistent dynamic IP addresses?

[paulop]

Hi Jonathan,

It did not help. I have another phone with a forign card which works in roming in UK. It connects to the O2 network and all is good when I'm doing a hotspot on this phone. The IP number is stable and does not change every few seconeds. FTP connection is stable. Connecting to my domain host account is stable. So why THREE is constaly changing my IP?  Maybe using a VPN could help? (But most of free VPNs have limits and I'm not happy to pay just becuase Three can't provide a reliable network connection)

[JonathanB]

Hi @paulop,

We don't offer static IPs but that does sound like it's updating awfully frequently. It may be worth trying our APN for Broadband instead of the default one for phones, in case that works better.

Change your APN to 3internet instead of three.co.uk you may get better results. You don't need to set username, password, proxy IP etc. Just create a new Access Point Name profile and pop 3internet in the name and APN fields.

For Android the layout can vary a bit depending on manufacturer and software version but it's generally:

• Settings, Network and Internet, SIMs, 3, then Access Point Names at the bottom of that screen.
  Tap the + in top right fill in the name and APN as 3internet, everything else can be default/blank.
  Then finally select the 3 dots in top right and Save.
  You should be able to switch between the default profile and the new one you've created on the Access Point Names menu now to test if it helps.

For iOS it's more consistent you may just see the word mobile or cellular depending on if you chose UK/US English when you originally set your phone up.

• Settings, Mobile/Cellular Network, Mobile/Cellular Data options.
  Then change APN field to 3internet
  You can't save multiple profiles, but there is a handy reset network settings here if you start having any issues connecting with these settings.

Let me know if this helps.

Jonathan