Is Three�s network struggling at the moment or is it just me

I switched from FTTC to using Three for my home broadband about a year ago, using a Mikrotik SXT LTE.

It is worked really well for much for the last year and I�ve never had to fallback to the Plusnet FTTC line I�ve still got as a backup.

However, the last couple of weeks has been pretty awful. I don�t believe that my connection to the Three mast has got any worse, signal strength has been incredibly consistent over the year:

https://toop.microsign.co.uk/fud/lte/localdomain/loc...

And over the year speed has been reasonably reliable (with the odd bad day when it dipped a bit):

https://toop.microsign.co.uk/fud/lte/localdomain/loc...

But the last couple of weeks have not been good, this is typically what I�ve been seeing from speedtest.net:

https://toop.microsign.co.uk/fud/lte/localdomain/loc...

To me it seems to be parts of Three�s network not coping, as when it is bad the speed from different places can be totally inconsistent. I�ll do a TBB or speedof.me speed test and get a solid 80/30 then immediately after do a speedtest.net on that gets sub 30/10 (and the repeat both to see the speedtest.net is still very slow).

Or news.bbc.co.uk will be loading fine and facebook isn�t, or YouTube will load without buffering, report 45MB+ bandwidth in the nerd tools, and yet at the same time Prime Video will buffer.

Oddly though it isn�t connected to peak times, it is bad this morning at 10:30 for example, well out of any peak times.

But I've not seen lots of other people complaining about recent deterioration of performance, which makes me wonder if it is a problem specific to me on the mast I'm using.

It could of course be my Mikrotik, I broke my ankle a couple of months ago, so haven�t been able to swap out my spare one to test that. I've tried to check against Three on my phone when there have been issues, but that has been inconsistent (sometimes the phone is also slow, sometimes is isn't).

Anyone else having problems with Three like this ?

It has never got quite bad enough to drive me back to the 25/4 MB Plusnet FTTC line, but I'm definitely going to be investigating EE when I get a bit more mobile again.

It seems to happen to all of us for a few weeks, then clear up. Believed to be to do with major upgrades to their network.

Mine did exactly what you describe for 3-4 weeks in the second half of last year, on both my phone when at home and the HomeFi, and I got quite worried. Often only getting H+ on the phone. The HomeFi stayed on LTE but lousy and very variable throughout.

Then one day it cleared up on both and has been rock solid ever since.

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

, , , but I'm definitely going to be investigating EE when I get a bit more mobile again.

Nice pun!

Mine's been poop for last couple of weeks too. Most of the time the speeds have been reduced to 10mb or so, however I've also seen times when speed test is fine yet Youtube and websites fail to load or load partially or glitches for now apparent reason

Network upgrades have been completed on my local mast 2 weeks ago but the service is clearly oversubscribed again in my area. Must be all these cheap deals finally coming home to roost as 2 masts cover a large population area.

When working from home the other day I noticed around 3pm - 4pm that the speed was not even 1mb, so tried testing speed at similar time and seems to be a common issue so must be the school children

Mine does definitely not correlate with load on the mast.

Some nights it has been rock solid during peak streaming times. Some nights it has been awful even in the early hours of the morning. Overall the slowness has been incredibly inconsistent both in the times it occurs and the actual parts of the Internet that it impacts.

It has been particularly bad this afternoon. I'm switching to "three.co.uk" from "3internet" to see if that has any affect (it being pretty much the only network level thing I can tweak).

Yes, its been absolutely shocking all last week for me, from last Thursday to today its been really unreliable too. The issue appears to be a lack of bandwidth at their end causing them to be traffic shaping, but at times it gets so bad available bandwidth is down to 56k modem speeds. I've seen times when I can't even get up google or thinkbroadband because the routers connected yet there's nothing there! It appears three is definitely throttling you-tube.

Rebooting the router can help, as your are assigned a new IP address on the network each time, but unfortunately it don't last long before it returns to "Pants" levels of bandwidth again.

Strangely when I turn on a free VPN trial it returns to full speed however on all those websites, so they're obviously having problems if they're limiting bandwidth to such an extent.

Another weird thing I've noticed is my mobile on 4g (on three, on the same mast) seems to work fast than my three router. So they're selectively throttling routers on their network, not mobiles.

Three do not seem keen to report network issues publicly when they have them, so they are not helping themselves much.

Edited by deleted (Tue 11-Feb-20 19:40:43)

I agree with what everyone has said, it has been dire especially at peak times and it does appear to be traffic shaping as far as I can tell, as at times my 4Mb adsl line was better in the evenings.
I have already put in a cancel notice for mine and Ill be left with my 100Gb mobile broadband one until FTTP/Gigafast comes along which is likely under two months away.

I will say though it has for 95% of the time saved me from being in internet hell for the past 14 months for which im grateful, but roll on 900Mb+500Mb Fibre services, cant wait.

Yep, same here too,. we have some rather heavy downloaders in this area and then performance has varied from just about acceptable, to, well, shyte.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15804211481...

That's on 4G+ (supposedly).

Also has anyone noticed how 3 block ICMP on the new 'cloud' network?

Edited by bsod (Tue 11-Feb-20 21:58:46)

Things haven't been to bad since I switched to three mobile broadband last November until this last week.

Latency is apppalling:

Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=2131ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=870ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=3059ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=1842ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=2922ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=883ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=355ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=536ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=1863ms TTL=52
Reply from 151.101.0.81: bytes=32 time=1647ms TTL=52

my 'normal' ping has been 30-40ms.

I think its high time Three just told their customers exactly what they are doing. I just hope its a nationwide upgrade roll out and not over subscription of the service.

My mast is shared with EE, it was down for 4 days last week for both networks but once back up there are no issues.

Things have improved since I switched to "three.co.uk", not that it proves anything, it could easily just be a coincidence.

Nope, back to awful again.

Same here. It's been bad since the bad weather with gales and floods at the weekend. Originally I put it down to the storms, but it isn't getting better.

Ditto here as well, i had 35-45M download earlier, which has come down to 15-20M. Plus frequent disconnections and it takes forever to load any page.3 has recently refarmed the Band 1 to 4G in my area, so my SXT goes to that band and the speed reduces further. When I fix it to Band 3, the speed increases to 15-20M.
I believe there is a setting in SXT to rewrite the TTL for all packets that can be a way round to traffic shaping - where speed on mobile is good but on tethered devices its low.

In summary I would say, no, it isn't you.

Timeouts and wildly fluctuating performance is very much going on at the moment and has for 2-3 weeks, but it has become a lot worse in the last week or so.

Seeing this fairly consistently in multiple areas where I've got 3 SIMs in use.

I thought low speeds were just normal with 4G on Three.

4G: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15815562526...

3G: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15815561602...

That�s 4G still slower than 3G at 1am, as is for most of the day. No band 1 refarm or band 32 here, but they�re both desperately needed. Just the basic setup of band 3 & band 20 without carrier aggregation. I normally leave my Three sim set to 3G only for the most reliable throughout.

There is a lot of load in your area. The effects of Unlimited !

Yes a lot of load, so only financial reasons have stopped Three from upgrading the site already. No doubt compounded by selling unlimited everything for peanuts.

Although this afternoon with all networks under heavier load than at 1am, even EE can�t quite reach 10Mbps from the same mast and they are using 2x band 3 + 2x band 7 with carrier aggregation across all 4 carriers, 65MHz in total. At least that goes well above 100Mbps in the small hours. Three�s 15MHz of band 3 appears to be congested pretty much 24/7 now.

Unsurprising if 15MHz is overloaded if 65MHz is also suffering.

The only solution will be more masts, and move load away, but that takes years, especially with the planning permission headaches.

Are you in a big city? I'm guessing you must be to have 65MHz deployed from EE.

Colchester. Not exactly a big city.

The large amount of spectrum in use by EE is probably compensating for not having a dense enough network, which doesn�t bode well for future 5G performance. But at least they have done something to keep their network usable at peak times, for now. Often Three and Vodafone can�t even stream HD music let alone video.

I would suggest searching council planning sites to see if applications have been denied.

It cannot possibly be a sudden increase in load EVERYWHERE. I am seeing exactly the same problems, starting a week ago, and I am pretty sure there is no sudden increase in load here.
Three has suddenly gone from being "good enough with a margin" to "not good enough by a significant margin". EE is now only £12 per month more expensive. I think it might be time to move.

No, and there are people (on other forums) reporting no issue.
Three are guilty of their marketing, saying they are the "network for unlimited" and "we have the best 5G" and probably have increased sales.

If you have 1000 people per mast, and now have 3000 people per mast, for the same deployed capacity, then things will slow down.

They didn't suddenly get hundreds of thousands more people all over the country in the last week or 2.

Agreed. It could be the network rebuild project, or failures, perhaps caused by the storm(s).

Yeah I'm guessing something related to the upgrade. I am still toying with what network to go with myself (for both home and phone), I was just going to go with three for the big chunk of 5g spectrum but the issues with 4g speeds make me think they are nowhere near a position to offer the best 5g speeds regardless of spectrum and the network upgrade (and that's if there is a 5g signal when they get around to releasing it end of the month). Pretty much gonna rule out three and its between EE and Voda for me. I can get 130mb on my S8+ on EE and a ping of 14-16ms which seems really good, not sure about voda and I doubt it would be better, I am not sure voda even have enough 4g spectrum to beat that speed? And damn sure they can't beat that ping.

Massive Netflix traffic management today, can hardly pull 300KBps, kick off a download at same time at that hitting 70Mbps no problem.
Time to give my 30 days notice on this I think.

Try a free VPN, it should solve your issues in the short term.

Funny you say that, was just in the middle of giving that a go.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

If you have 1000 people per mast, and now have 3000 people per mast, for the same deployed capacity, then things will slow down.

How would that have happened over a period of two days last weekend? Has Three started sending out sim cards in the weekly junkmail?
The dramatic slowdown coincided with the disappearance of the note about dealing with "a complex network issue" in the area on the status page. Yes, it was also a weekend of very wild, wet and windy weather, but I think they have screwed up with the network redesign.
At first, some tracert tests showed multi-second delays a few hops into their network. Now they're only terrible.
I was foolish enough to contact Three support with help. All they managed to do was tell me to reset my router to factory defaults. as if that will affect their network capacity!

Here's a typical example: hops 4, 5 and 7 used to be visible until yesterday

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.200
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 116 ms 110 ms 96 ms 172.20.197.65
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 82 ms 98 ms 158 ms 172.21.25.85
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 57 ms 48 ms 55 ms 172.20.231.154
9 56 ms 48 ms 47 ms ip4.gtt.net [213.254.199.214]
10 48 ms 46 ms 48 ms et-0-0-41.cr11-lon2.ip4.gtt.net [213.254.199.213]
11 63 ms 56 ms 46 ms ip4.gtt.net [77.67.98.54]
12 49 ms 45 ms 48 ms ae-0.r24.londen12.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.140]
13 49 ms 47 ms 46 ms ae-8.r02.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.22]
14 55 ms 47 ms 42 ms 62.73.169.10
15 52 ms 49 ms 44 ms po4-31.core-rs4.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
16 57 ms 56 ms 46 ms ip106-141.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.106.141]

[Later]
Tried it through ProtonVPN:

1 55 ms 49 ms 62 ms 10.8.0.1
2 48 ms 59 ms 48 ms v112.ce01.lon-12.uk.leaseweb.net [95.168.185.252]
3 72 ms 64 ms 58 ms ae-4.br01.lon-11.uk.leaseweb.net [81.17.63.194]
4 64 ms 57 ms 65 ms et-12.bb01.lon-10.leaseweb.net [31.31.39.54]
5 83 ms 68 ms 59 ms linx-gw1.thn.ncuk.net [195.66.224.240]
6 62 ms 48 ms 59 ms te2-3-14.bdr-rt3.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.112]
7 87 ms 65 ms 60 ms po4-31.core-rs4.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
8 51 ms 41 ms 61 ms ip106-141.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.106.141]

Edited by hoopla (Sat 15-Feb-20 21:54:24)

My 4g has gone from bad to worse since this morning. Frequent disconnections, very less download speed, unable to connect to office vpn. I changed the apn to three.co.uk then got a usable link. Does it seems to common to any of you.

In my experience you can often get a temporary improvement just by resetting the 4G connection. Which happens when you change the APN.

So in my experience changing the APN to three.co.uk doesn't actually help, when I did it I thought it had helped, but after a couple of hours it was back to being intermittently poorly performing again. So I've gone back to 3internet again now, as having a real IP address and no NAT is useful some of the time.

I'm also investigating switching to EE though (where NAT will be the only option).

Won't EE cost rather a lot more for data?

My speeds are completely fine. Still getting around 60 down, 30 up on average. However, i have been noticing a lot more packet loss making online gaming and internet calls drop or become unplayable. Running a ping program clearly shows packet loss every 30 seconds or so with massive jumps exceeding 2k ms. Been happening for a couple of weeks now throughout day and night.

Same here for the past 2 weeks, god awful connection with inability to download/stream at the same time, Also times when it was so slow my router was connected but got zero bandwidth.

This morning first thing appeared much improved (download speed wise at least), I was back up to 50-60, and even saw it hitting an occasional 70mb/s, still the latency needs work, but it appears whatever they're working on they are heading in the right direction.

edit:
Just done a speed test now and we're down to 27mb/s though........

Still work in progress for Three then.....

It will, though I'm not on one of the mega cheap Three deals anyway, think I'm paying £27/month. So EE's unlimited option is only £7 more than I'm paying now.

And either of them are dramatically cheaper than the two bonded A&A ISP FTTC lines I had before...

But it doesn't matter how cheap Three is, if it doesn't work effectively. At the moment my connection is right on the borderline of being workable (I had it impacting a work conference call for the first time the other day).

For me things seem much improved and today latency has dropped to around 20ms:

Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=55
Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=55
Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=55
Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=55
Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=55
Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=55
Reply from 151.101.192.81: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=55

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

I'm also investigating switching to EE though (where NAT will be the only option).

I with EE and get both an ipv4 and ipv6 address (starting 2a01) when I check whatsmyip.com on my phone. checking the ip shown on my phone under device settings it shows the ipv6 ip (and a different ipv4 one of 192.0.0.4 which is not the ipv4 shown on whatsmyip). So I am guessing they are using both CGnat to give me an ipv4 address, and are also giving me a non-nat ipv6 address as well?

I am not sure if this is common for all on EE now or whether it is just because I have a business contract, the APN is "everywhere" which I do not think is business specific.

Edited by Ewok (Tue 18-Feb-20 21:20:02)

Try pinging that/those IPv6 address(es) using an external tool like the BQM here .

Also, is that with your phone connecting to the internet through an EE mobile router, or direct using mobile data with the phone SIM?

I get different, and surprising, results from all the above on Three. I have a Three u/l "everything" SIM in the phone and the Three HomeFi u/l data SIM in their router.

Also is the IPv6 an fe80, or something else?

27Mbps would be great. Still only 3Mbps here on 4G 1800.
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15821108438...

But network status now says "We're really sorry. There's an issue with the network in your area at the moment."

I've just noticed that the Three page called Check coverage & network status does NOT give network status, only coverage information. The page called Network & coverage support does show the status (although that checker is currently down). So they may have been reporting network issues for several days without me noticing, I can't remember which checker I've used previously.

The network status remains same irrespective of which postcode you use, that to me looks like the problem is throughout the network. Or the network status tool is [censored] up.
I happened to speak to Three Network team yesterday and they say all the issues have started when they have introduced Carrier Aggregation 6 months back, since then the speed has been fluctuating. Right now they are testing for the 5G launch. They have asked me the standard 7 days for an update. I am not after 4G, as my area wont get it in first phase, i am happy with 45M 4G, lets hope the network stabilises soon, else i will have to move to different service provider in short term.

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Try a free VPN, it should solve your issues in the short term.

Yep works fine, they are basically traffic managing these 3 mobile phone unlimited sims on Netflix as far as I can tell, it works fine through a VPN, and it is also fine on my 100Gb 3 Mobile broadband sim. I can remember talk ages ago that they where doing this restriction but for me up until about two weeks ago they had not.

Earlier today, before the checker went offline, it was giving different results for different postcodes. For my postcode and others nearby it said there are network issues. For postcodes covered by the adjacent sector from the same mast it said essential maintenance had recently been completed.

My slow speeds are not due to carrier aggregation at the local mast because it doesn't have it yet. Not that it would help without additional 4G frequencies because 800 is even more congested than 1800.

I still believe my slow speeds are mainly due to congested radio spectrum at a busy site which desperately needs upgrading (and ultimately they need to add more sites to the network). O2 on the same mast are using 800+1800+2100 with carrier aggregation, which is more than Three, and their network status for months has been "Our network�s very busy in this area. So at certain times of day you might experience slower data. Sorry about that. But we�re working to make it better for you." Even EE with their 65MHz of aggregated capacity gets congested at peak times, yet can go >100Mbps late at night when half of it has been turned off to save energy.

Looks like you are in bigger city like London/B'gham/manchester the network there is definitely congested. If you have EE with 65Mhz congested there, then no chance 3 would cope up!
Despite 3 having good 5G spectrum, it will be interesting to see how they can make the high frequency waves reach to majority with so much fewer masts.

I'm in Colchester which is not a big city (or even a city at all) but there's no Gfast and most of the area covered by my local mast has no Virgin Media either. Just FTTC from mainly ECI cabinets. 4G mobile used to be much faster than my FTTC, which has slowed considerably over the years due to crosstalk, but with all networks now offering unlimited data it's probably inevitable they will get congested until they become slower than what people can get from fixed line broadband.

I am not optimistic that 5G will solve that issue until the networks splash out on more cell sites and FTTP becomes more widely available to reduce demand on mobile for home broadband.

At least there's VXFIBER to look forward to locally, if it ever gets built. The council has an LFFN grant which must be spent by March 2021, but I expect openreach will soon announce a Fibre First rollout to scupper VXFIBER's plan to extend that into an FTTP network, then do nothing for ages.

I decided to give up on Three for now I move to EE, if I could get the performance I wanted.

Got a PAYG SIM and did some testing. Luckily EE is on the same mast as Three and in my testing I can get 80/30 on my B525 with a couple of external yagi antennas (as compared to 30/30 on a pair of small external ones). So if I drop the EE SIM into my Mikrotik SXT I should be good to go.

The only problem is, I can't buy a SIM only plan. I've been trying on and off for over a week now. Your online store never seems to be working. Either never gets to the shopping basket or says 'Sorry our online shop is not available right now". Tried clearing cookies and different browsers.

So I'll be ditching Three, just as soon as EE let me buy their product !

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

So I'll be ditching Three, just as soon as EE let me buy their product !

That's odd, have you disabled any adblock or privacy block or security software?

Try calling them, or if you have an EE store locally, you can buy in-store.

Give EE a call. I did and they offered me a business 4G unlimited broadband SIM only deal for less than the headline personal unlimited phone SIM price - I wanted a SIM to use as a business broadband replacement, but their phone SIMs are intended for one person and the broadband SIMs are expensive and capped, but they offered me what I wanted for less than I was willing to pay. It may depend on just who answers the phone, but you might be lucky.

The "business" price could well be ex-vat.

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

� I wanted a SIM to use as a business broadband replacement, but their phone SIMs are intended for one person and the broadband SIMs are expensive and capped ....

Ofcom view on tethering:-

5.2
In addition to Article 3(3) regarding traffic management, Ofcom was concerned about restrictions on �tethering�, which allows an end-user to share the internet connection of a phone or tablet with other devices such as laptops. Article 3(1) ensures end-users have the right to �use terminal equipment of their choice�. The BEREC Guidelines make specific reference to �tethering�, stating that the practice of restricting tethering is likely to constitute a restriction on choice of terminal equipment, because ISPs �should not impose restrictions on the use of terminal equipment connecting to the network in addition to those imposed by manufacturers or distributors of terminal equipment in accordance with Union law�.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 22-Feb-20 19:29:14)

Just to add to previous comment.

Tried netflix again after a couple of months break from it and i'm getting low quality resolution from it. Thought it was a device issue so tried others and same deal. Ran a few speed tests ranging from 40-80mbps. However, when doing a speed test on fast.com the speeds struggle to pass 3mbps. I shall try a vpn to see if that sorts the issue as i think its some sort of traffic shaping.

Yep. A vpn did fix the issue. Hmm

Edited by deleted (Sun 23-Feb-20 00:28:46)

I think three have finally twigged, certainly for me the three netflix holiday is over, cant get above low quality without using a vpn.
I do have a 100GB mobile broadband sim that doesnt suffer the same fate, but that isnt in my Mikrotik which is outside getting the best signal and tbh with the imminent arrival of FTTP & Cityfibre I just cant be bothered to swap it.

Netflix bad for me, struggles to get over 1mbps ,they are throttling it

I'm unsure to be honest. Still getting low speeds when doing a speed test on fast.com. Low speeds when doing in app too. I figure the speed would at least fluctuate at different times if it was traffic shaping. That isn't happening with me. Don't particularly want to pay for a VPN if i don't need to either. I'll keep an eye on it over the next week and see if it improves. May be these network upgrades they are going on about. Luckily, i don't watch netflix often, otherwise, i think i'd have more of an issue with it.

No problems with Amazon Prime 4K for me on Three. The is a dedicated Netflix speed tester and I get 73Mb with a Three/Voda dual wan router, Router tells me the 73Mb is 51Mb Three and 22Mb Voda. Three is band 3 only, turned off the CA with band 20 as its makes no real difference.

https://fast.com/en/gb/

Very interesting....

I just setup a B535 yesterday and today we were having intermittent browsing issues across multiple devices -- long pauses before loading youtube etc. Speeds around the 30 Mbps mark so not in itself an issue, but pages just hanging on loading for a minute or more.

Switching APN appeared to fix - but wasn't aware of the reset factor. I just switched it back and still loading ok.

So I may well have the exact same issue you described....

Think I'll leave it on three.co.uk APN as not seen slowdown on there via phones at all. So maybe the throttling is more specific to 3internet

I have a ping monitor on both WANs to 1.1.1.1 both show 40m/s, with a bad period of an hour on both yesterday during the gale when it was peaking at 490m/s.

Using 3internet APN.

Edited by kommando (Sun 23-Feb-20 16:19:28)

In reply to a post by kommando:

No problems with Amazon Prime 4K for me on Three. The is a dedicated Netflix speed tester and I get 73Mb with a Three/Voda dual wan router, Router tells me the 73Mb is 51Mb Three and 22Mb Voda. Three is band 3 only, turned off the CA with band 20 as its makes no real difference.

Surprised a single router can aggregate two different ISPs without a bonding option, or a bonding VPN over the top. Which one is it?

In reply to a post by planetf1:

I just setup a B535 yesterday and today we were having intermittent browsing issues across multiple devices -- long pauses before loading youtube etc. Speeds around the 30 Mbps mark so not in itself an issue, but pages just hanging on loading for a minute or more.

You could try using a different DNS, or not using the router as a DNS proxy, either of those might help rule out what is going on.

Draytek 2925, set to share the Wans using load balance, works well with the only issue being some banking sites throw a hissy fit when they see 2 IP addresses accessing one account.

In reply to a post by kommando:

Draytek 2925, set to share the Wans using load balance, works well with the only issue being some banking sites throw a hissy fit when they see 2 IP addresses accessing one account.

That's a good bit of kit, but it can't add the two connections together. You can have two downloads running, one at 50 Mbps, and one at 22 Mbps, but you can't have a single download at 70 Mbps.

If fast.com and/or speedtest.net and/or this site's speed test is showing higher than the max of one of your lines, then it is something else going on. Fast.com can often be affected by internet security software, and browser caching.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 23-Feb-20 16:56:58)

To get what you say then I set it to sessions not load balancing, it then will only allow one of the Wan's to feed one internal IP address if it only has one session going, but most have multiple sessions, this laptop has 30 sessions currently. Load balancing allows both wan's to feed one internal IP as long as it multi threaded which is that Fast website is. The only time I am forced to only use one wan on load balanced is a single file only in one section but that is very rare as download managers break it down to multiple sections and peer to peer is always multiple.

So it does add both 99.9% of the time.

I see what you mean, but it isn't really aggregating in the way we used to use Multi-Link PPP (ML-PPP) connections.

So what, it works.

Ive had loads of different routers and many different Drayteks and without fail a Session based load balanced Draytek is by far the best thing at combining two connections that you will get, yes its not bonding but ANY multi session activity, which is most things on the net these days and it will work, some of them like the 3220 I use will 'learn' periodically how the connections are doing and adjust the load automatically.

So I've just tried some speed tests straight after each other to see the difference between 3internet and three.co.uk APN's.

3internet - 24.9 Mbps latency- 75ms http://tbb.st/1582484867877064355
three.co.uk - 42.2 Mbps latency- 63ms http://tbb.st/1582485133899748955

Latency isn't too great on either mind.

Think I'll leave it set to three.co.uk and monitor the situation.

I couldn't see any significant difference in latency or throughput with 3internet vs three.co.uk.

For now the router is back on 3internet (as default) to see how stability goes there.

Yes, business prices are ex-VAT, and the price I was quoted was cheaper even after allowing for that (I'm not VAT registered, so I always look at the VAT inclusive prices).

Their terms allow tethering and don't restrict the terminal equipment used, but do state that the unlimited SIMs are intended for use by a single person only. The broadband plans that are intended to be shared are more expensive - however, it seems that their call centre staff have the ability to be flexible.
I have no idea whether they would ever actually enforce the single user limit (I think it would be unlikely), but I'd prefer not to risk it, and it seems I don't have to.

Through a VPN connected to FAST.COM , France i get 20-30mb , No VPN 3.9mb

Been fine on Netflix last few weeks

Mines back to its usual poor bandwidth availability today, regardless of APN used. In all the time I've ever had broadband I have never had a router which I've had to reboot the number of times I have in the past month.

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Mines back to its usual poor bandwidth availability today, regardless of APN used. In all the time I've ever had broadband I have never had a router which I've had to reboot the number of times I have in the past month.

Yep - its gone down hill again after a brief improvement. Keep having to reset B535 router.

I�ve also had really poor speeds now for the whole of this month. Oddly upload which used to be poor is now double to triple what it was previously. I�d rather swap it back the other way

I also notice that at peak times my B525 is moving from band 3 with a stronger signal to band 1 with a weaker signal. I presume this must be the cell site deciding to do this as it doesn�t make sense for the router to swap from a stronger signal to weaker but this then causes even lower speeds than that of band 3.

Edited by gary333 (Tue 25-Feb-20 22:37:23)

Mine has improved a little for the moment, has been more stable for the last week. I'm holding off on my £34/pm EE purchase at the moment.

Did a speedtest this morning and got a record download speed on three, the speed issues must be mast based with too many connections for the backhaul. Mine is a rural mast and sparsely populated but the local exchange is Fibre with only 500 properties connected to exchange of which 300+ must be close to the exchange to get FTTC, there are also 2 wifi operators with 15mb and 25mb offerings so the mast cannot have many connecting to it for internet. The mast is also shared with EE and runs close to a major fibre trunk, so maybe has a good backhaul link.

Ping

Pinging through WAN2.
Pinging 1.1.1.1 with 64 bytes of Data through WAN2:
Receive reply from 1.1.1.1, time=60ms
Receive reply from 1.1.1.1, time=50ms
Receive reply from 1.1.1.1, time=60ms
Receive reply from 1.1.1.1, time=50ms
Receive reply from 1.1.1.1, time=50ms
Packets: Sent = 5, Received = 5, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

Voda ping is 40m/s

Edited by kommando (Wed 26-Feb-20 12:33:23)

In reply to a post by kommando:

Did a speedtest this morning and got a record download speed on three, the speed issues must be mast based with too many connections for the backhaul.

I doubt there is one single issue impacting the whole Three network.

The problems I've been seeing are definitely not simple local capacity issues. If they were they'd match typical high load periods, but they don't.

The periods of poor service have been at random times during the day/night and often they don't impact all traffic.

Although thinking about it, maybe the randomness does point to a very local cause.

Maybe there are one or two heavy users on the same antenna segment as me now. There are times when I'm using a fair percentage of the theoretically max LTE bandwidth for short periods, so maybe the change over the last couple of months is that there are other heavy users I'm now competing for airtime with.

My speed varies but I never go below 40mb even if I speed test at 6pm to 9pm which I am guessing is peak volume. Normally I get 50mb, this morning is was 70mb.

My ping to 1.1.1.1 is taken every 10 secs and graphed by my router, in the last 24 hrs its been 40 to 60m/s. The voda mast ping is more erratic 30 to 60 m/s with a 210m/s spike for a couple of minutes this morning which could have been when I moved the antenna.

Just ordered one of these Poynting XPOL-2-5G V3 Directional Cross Polarised LTE MIMO Antenna.

Says its better than the version 2, didnt even know the v3 was out.

If it doesn't make much difference , its going back.

Key Highlights
2-3dB higher over all the bands compared to XPOL-2
New 3400MHz-3800MHz, 5G band with 11dBi gain
Broadband, including the latest 3.5GHz bands
X-Polarised 2x2 MIMO Antenna
Wall or pole mountable
Lightweight & Rugged
Weatherproof & waterproof (IP65)
High pattern consistency across bands for 4G/5G carrier aggregation

Edited by bobbyboyuk (Wed 26-Feb-20 15:50:37)

In reply to a post by kommando:

Mine is a rural mast and sparsely populated but the local exchange is Fibre with only 500 properties connected to exchange of which 300+ must be close to the exchange to get FTTC, �.

Distance from the exchange is completely irrelevant to the availability of FTTC. In fact from what you have said about your area, with a 500ish number of subscribers it is 99.999% certain the fibre feed comes from a much larger exchange quite a way away.

For FTTC it is distance from the phone cabinet (PCP), plus the underground cooper distance between the PCP and its associated fibre cabinet. The two are normally within 50 metres of each other with the copper link less than 80 metres.

I'm beginning to think that Three hasn't got the infrastructure in place to even offer a solid viable 4g broadband platform to the masses, let alone the 5g that they seem so keen to roll out.

Whilst they may be able to provide a solid mobile phone connection people tend to use it in short bursts which isn't anywhere near as bandwidth heavy as home broadband users, I think this is the issue Three is having with its broadband service right now.

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Feb-20 07:56:23)

There is a fibre cabinet in the village next to the exchange, BT installed but paid for by local authority. FTTP is also available but at price !!!

Edited by kommando (Thu 27-Feb-20 09:24:18)

Presumably the exchange was mainly exchange-only lines, which is the exception to the rule with FTTC where distance to the exchange is key (as there is no cabinet that the customers connect to and the BT solution is to install a cabinet next to the exchange and then tie the lines into that).

BT Wholesale output, formatting has been lost.


on Exchange XXXXXXXX is served by Cabinet 1
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

WBC FTTP Availability Date


FTTP on Demand 330 30 -- Available --
ADSL Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date


WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 5 -- 3 to 7.5 Available --
WBC ADSL 2+ Annex M Up to 5 Up to 0.5 3 to 7.5 Available --
ADSL Max Up to 3 -- 2.5 to 6.5 Available

No FTTC as too far from cabinet at 4km line length, closer to the exchange postcodes get FTTC offered.

Ive found something funny about Netflix, when im signed into my account i get speed tests of 2-3mbps . I thought 3 were throttling me.

I logged out, and did Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Up, Up, Up, Up. Select Sign out, Start Over, Deactivate, or Reset. , and you can do a speed test from that , i get 30+mbps

Data usage is set to high in my account as well.

So not sure whats going off!

Edited by bobbyboyuk (Thu 27-Feb-20 15:34:36)

Service has been diabolical yesterday and today for me. Oddly the signal is even stronger than normal, the throughput however is disgusting: 0.1mb. Some cells are giving no throughput at all, others are giving fractions a meg.

Three CS says issue effecting lots of people all over the country.

My aerial came today, getting about 20mbps extra now and better ping, im keeping it.

Get 40-60 during the day, will give it a go in the early hours.


https://i.postimg.cc/PrH4nnrx/IMG-20200227-120446-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/yN39SLYt/IMG-20200227-120458-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/QtrBKszK/IMG-20200227-144724-1-...

I wanted to add my problems here as I switched to Three mobile broadband in December and all was fine, now (over the last week or two) I am having serious issues with the 4G broadband.

NowTV and Amazon are slow and sometimes won't even connect, Amazon music doesn't work fully on my Sonos system now either.

I tried everything to try and fix it and the only thing that does is a force to 3G (I have the B535 router).

When on 3G I have no problems whatsoever, everything connects fine first time the only issue is it's half the speed of the 4G.

After noting the issues above I have just tried the fast.com speed test (Netflix powered) and speedtest.net - fast.com 2.5mbps, speedtest.net 20mbps

I can't work out how they can stop the 4G working properly but 3G works. I have complained and they are 'investigating' the problems so I'll await any answer from Three.

This looked to be a perfect solution to my slow broadband (we can't get FTTC here) and now I'm regretting it, thankfully I opted for the 30 day contract.

In reply to a post by terry_h:

This looked to be a perfect solution to my slow broadband (we can't get FTTC here) and now I'm regretting it, thankfully I opted for the 30 day contract.

^^ Same here... so I have a decision next week on whether to do a return/refund. OR (and more likely tbh) I may push on a little further and consider using Vodafone (Voxi) unlimited instead - at least until 3 gets their act together

This weekend I'm going to test in a different location & try a few other things if the problem surfaces.

In reply to a post by terry_h:

I wanted to add my problems here as I switched to Three mobile broadband in December and all was fine, now (over the last week or two) I am having serious issues with the 4G broadband.

NowTV and Amazon are slow and sometimes won't even connect, Amazon music doesn't work fully on my Sonos system now either.

I tried everything to try and fix it and the only thing that does is a force to 3G (I have the B535 router).

When on 3G I have no problems whatsoever, everything connects fine first time the only issue is it's half the speed of the 4G.

After noting the issues above I have just tried the fast.com speed test (Netflix powered) and speedtest.net - fast.com 2.5mbps, speedtest.net 20mbps

I can't work out how they can stop the 4G working properly but 3G works. I have complained and they are 'investigating' the problems so I'll await any answer from Three.

This looked to be a perfect solution to my slow broadband (we can't get FTTC here) and now I'm regretting it, thankfully I opted for the 30 day contract.

Pretty much what im experiencing . 3G fine.

It could be the 4G mast equipment is being updated in readiness for their 5G network. A few months ago mine went really lousy for weeks, and I was seriously weighing up EE process and how much allowance I would need, then one day it simply cleared up.

On some speed tests last night I was clocking up 58-60Mbps downstream and over 30 upstream. Better than in my 12-month old sig!

I have recently signed up to the service with 3 and B555 router. I plugged it in and boom lighting fast speed netflix streaming in 4K no problem. Worked great for 3 weeks until all of a sudden netflix would not buffer past 0.5mbps 480p!! I got a text telling me work was being done in my area (The local Mast) they informed me it would be completed by the 24th. To date, there has not been any improvement. I have an open complaint and 3 are trying to tell me my rights to cancel are in the first 14 days.... funny how it was perfect during this time. Anywho I ran some further tests using speed.net 58mbps download 26 upload.... perfect . I try netflix and still it won't go past 0.5mbps. I run the speedtest from fast.com and it reflects the slow netflix speed at 1mbps download.... Now this is where it gets interesting... I turn on my vpn and all of a sudden boooom full speed again netflix in glorious 4k.. switch it off and back to 0.5mps 480p... It would apear that they are throttling the nextflix service... Not sure what to do now do i let it run irs course or do i take my complaint further with 3 and ofcom. After reading the coments here it would seem I am not the only one.

In reply to a post by planetf1:

^^ Same here... so I have a decision next week on whether to do a return/refund. OR (and more likely tbh) I may push on a little further and consider using Vodafone (Voxi) unlimited instead - at least until 3 gets their act together

Vodafone themselves have just launched their own unlimited data plans, £37 a month for 30 day contract. I'm with Vodafone for mobile so they'll give me 15% discount on that they say.

I have a complaint in with Three but they say no work is being done in the area.

Looking at options now. EE is a no go as the upload speed is poor waiting on a Vodafone data sim to check their speed with the router.

In reply to a post by danny182:

I try netflix and still it won't go past 0.5mbps. I run the speedtest from fast.com and it reflects the slow netflix speed at 1mbps download.... Now this is where it gets interesting... I turn on my vpn and all of a sudden boooom full speed again netflix in glorious 4k.. switch it off and back to 0.5mps 480p... It would apear that they are throttling the nextflix service...

My internet connection with Three is mostly fine and fast but NowTV, Amazon Video and some music streaming plays up so it appears they are throttling all streaming.

Their terms say they only do that when there are equipment issues in a certain area but they tell me there is nothing wrong in my area.

In reply to a post by terry_h:

I can't work out how they can stop the 4G working properly but 3G works. I have complained and they are 'investigating' the problems so I'll await any answer from Three.

Most people using phones won't realise that 4G is congested, and 3G is faster.

Here is a 2016 picture of how much radio spectrum - for 4G - the 4 operators CAN allocate to a mast site. To do that costs an absolute fortune in hardware, so they usually only deploy an affordable amount to the area.
http://i.imgur.com/wMggQna.png

For 5G the game changes completely, Three has vastly more (100mhz) than the other operators (50Mhz, 40Mhz). However Three's real 5G (ignoring the other network in London, branded Three Broadband) only switched on yesterday is VERY thin, and so more months building work is required.

Post deleted by planetf1

I'm now trying the B535 on three (3Internet APN) in a different location (1Gbps connection turned off!!!!) as I wanted to 'stress' the B535 a little more with many devices inc. wired.

A few problems still noticed
- Whilst we watched netflix (1080p) mostly fine last night, the video did pause about 3 times, and then revert to 'low'quality for 20s or so. On one occasion it wouldn't unpause (appleTV)
- a fast.com speedtest isn't great - 1-2 Mbps
- a regular speedtest is 20 Mbps+ (it's a less good 3 area sadly)
- No browsing stalls noted last night, but noticing a few this morning on random sites - not quite 100% sure
- using VPN (windflix) results in fast.com speedtest being closer to line speed - 15 Mbps+

Just a thought - GoBinge is 'optional' and one can opt out .... I wonder if that is a factor
http://www.three.co.uk/go-binge

Tempted to call three and cancel that 'enhancement' ? Since I'm on unlimited data anyway

In reply to a post by planetf1:

Tempted to call three and cancel that 'enhancement' ? Since I'm on unlimited data anyway

Sounds similar to the legacy traffic management those on the now discontinued "One plan" used to suffer from. The original "unlimited" plan.

Unless 5G rollout is fast, and people move to it, I can see the "unlimited" 4G plans becoming a problem again.

Tried ringing to complain, got nowhere, she said the name was wrong i was giving! checked the bill, they have my surname down twice and as my middle name! doh.

So fired off an email to the exec office instead

Yesterday lunchtime I had a webchat with three.

They were insistent there was a known problem, but couldn't elaborate on what was effected, or had any ETA. True? Possibly - but I doubt they have the details. They also said they'd add me to notifications by text, but I'm sceptical - no confirmation on the BB sim nor main contact.

Anyway I pushed to get 'GoBinge' disabled which they seemed to think wouldn't help, but at the same time were ok to comply.

I think GoBinge may have had restrictions - whether still valid I can't be sure: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/07/three-...

I then restarted the router (just in case)

Many have seen a connection reset clear the issue for a few hours. in my case though previously it came back in hours , but so far
no stalls (I'd still like to see for longer, but looking more hopeful)
'fast.com' speedtests have gone from around 2 Mbps up to near line speed. (see https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/07/three-... for caveats at the time, but no idea if these have changed)
- no pauses etc for netflix, youtube etc

It's perhaps the latter that's most interesting from a netflix perspective.

The router's heading back to it's home in a few hours, but if anything changes will update here

NOTE: My contract is unlimited, so GoBinge offers no financial benefit. If not unlimited it can be a significant cost saving, and I don't know if they'll put it back on again after, so tread carefully.

I can also add briefly I tried vodafone in the router -- speeds about double in this location, but worked well. It's my plan B if I can't get 3 working.

Edited by planetf1 (Sun 01-Mar-20 10:47:53)

These issues are present on Smarty, so doubt gobinge has anything to do with it. Go binge is likely just a flag on the intermediary system between billing and network to prompt billing system to zero rate.

Turning router off has helped in my case on Smarty for very short periods of time then is back just as bad as ever. Been flicking between 4G and 3G when peak time as 3G is much quicker than the poor 4G speed.

You shattered my optimism !

Seriously that's a good datapoint ... I may go to smarty anyway... and as you say no GoBinge there


That being said I did hit 2 issues - initially the pauses. Subseuently a few netflix glitches. the latter may be explained.

Out of interest how quickly after a restart do you tend to see issues?

In reply to a post by planetf1:

You shattered my optimism !

Seriously that's a good datapoint ... I may go to smarty anyway... and as you say no GoBinge there


That being said I did hit 2 issues - initially the pauses. Subseuently a few netflix glitches. the latter may be explained.

Out of interest how quickly after a restart do you tend to see issues?

Anything from 10 mins to an hour or so. I find the router is connecting to my preferred cell (band 3) and then has been flipped to another band when I check out of frustration that everything on Youtube is 240p / blocky. I'm finding all 3 of my in range cell sites totally lacking performance. The very regular stalling and not doing anything until videos are paused or websites refreshed is really starting to annoy me. Speeds are slow on 3G but this stalling issue isn't visible.

Best case I've seen for the last 2 weeks is 20-30Mb/s and average 15-20Mb/s with 70ms latency at all times of the day/night. I've noticed web streaming to be most impacted with choppy and stalling playback. It appears Three are limiting bandwidth or throttling it in some way, especially Netflix and you-tube.

I can't have the Xbox one downloading an update and watch you-tube at the same time, if a phone in the house is watching you-tube and I try on the PC it just buffers constantly. Same goes for anything downloading on the PC and I try and watch you-tube on the Xbox One at the same time. Utterly pointless.

I'm also seeing times where webpages take ages to load or just don't come up at all, even thinkbroadband.com won't load up at all during these times. manually changing DNS servers don't make any difference as the latency is so poor. I have forgotten what a brisk browsing experience is these days.

Lastly for some reason I can't fathom, my desktop PC is wired to the B535 and every single time I turn on the PC, the router refuses to issue it an IP Address (even though DHCP is on). I have to pull the power plug on the router or "Troubleshoot" windows 10 network settings to reset the Ethernet connection. Sometimes I need to do it twice to get the router to connect. I've raised this one with three and they say I just need to reboot the router, like its nothing out the ordinary. But I'm resetting the router up to 20 times a day just to get a half-decent service. (I've even factory reset the B535 but that made no difference either.)

The first few months of Three broadband I experienced was brilliant 50-60Mb/s 24 hours a day and I had no complaints at all with the service, since January the quality of service has plummeted IMHO. Whilst I believe it's to do with the Three 5g roll-out being implemented really badly, the lack of "keeping customers informed" has just made the situation worse.

Its obviously a lack of backbone bandwidth to Three's broadband service since the 5g rollout. I get that they're traffic shaping the service whilst they load balance 5g, but the way they've gone about it has impacted existing 4g customers massively at the expense of a fast service for their new 5g customers.

I'm seriously considering ditching Three at this point.

Edited by deleted (Sun 01-Mar-20 14:23:58)

Juts an update -- no further issues noted.
The router is now in another location so will only have second-hand reports until the end of the week.

I am now seeing a much more stable connection than a couple of weeks ago. The trouble is that it is really slow.
Uploads are half the speed they used to be, downloads about a third the speed. Latency is just as awful as before.
It seems that my contract with Three runs until early May. Well, it looks like they have about one month to sort themselves out (I doubt they will) and then I'll be getting myself a nice shiny new EE sim.

Hmm. Frying Pan, meet fire!

I was using EE a year or so ago, and it was excellent. But Three was far cheaper, and good enough. So I switched to Three. All good until the middle of February, when overnight it became slow and unreliable. A few weeks later, it is still slow, but no longer unreliable.

Three Support don't seem to have any idea, so I ordered an EE sim. It arrived today. It's about 40% more expensive than Three, but that's OK.

What isn't OK is that it is slower than Three. Yes, the latency is markedly better, but the speeds are worse. And there is some issue with IPv4.

My VOIP connections are hopeless with EE, fine with Three.

So after a few hours, I've cancelled the EE sim. What a pity. I had high hopes.

Have you seen the stuff earlier in the thread about getting the Go Binge turned off?

I turned gobinge off, but it wasn't relevant because I don't really use the services that gobinge affects.

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

The first few months of Three broadband I experienced was brilliant 50-60Mb/s 24 hours a day and I had no complaints at all with the service, since January the quality of service has plummeted IMHO. Whilst I believe it's to do with the Three 5g roll-out being implemented really badly, the lack of "keeping customers informed" has just made the situation worse.

Its obviously a lack of backbone bandwidth to Three's broadband service since the 5g rollout. I get that they're traffic shaping the service whilst they load balance 5g, but the way they've gone about it has impacted existing 4g customers massively at the expense of a fast service for their new 5g customers.

That matches my experience, but I'm not impressed by the argument that it's to do with the 5G rollout: we don't have any 5G coverage on Three round here.

Ok an update.

Back in Brighton (where I was having issues before) and the problems with stalling of connections most definately continue. All kinds of pages/sites (github, microsoft, bbc, youtube, google, local council .. all kinds) just fail to complete loading - or at least take 1-2 minutes to do so (if they don't timeout). Alexa struggles with some content - especially playing from tunein - nothing/silence & delays in amazon music. This was across 5 devices - iPhone8, iPhoneXSMax, Macbook Pro 15 2016, MS surface, LG smart TV (and and various devices like watches)

The removal of gibinge last week does mean the netflix etc specific issue of throttling has gone, so speeds are back at the 25-35 Mbps down (20-25 up) range, including on fast.com. Ping around 50ms. But it also confirms that for me at least gobinge was an issue with video throttling, but not the cause of the more general problem. (As usual dissecting apart multiple issues can be tricky)

Wanting to check the B535 itself I tried a Vodafone Sim. Oh WOW. What a difference. Ran it for over 24 hours (got through about 17GB) - web browsing, VoIP calls, facetime, netflix, downloads - all kinds. Absolutely impeccable. Subjectively things felt snappier. Ping time was down to 30ms, and speeds up to 100-148 Mbps (avg about 120 Mbp) down, and over 40 Mbps up. Zero delays. Of course mostly that just means vodafone is faster here. My primary concern is stability.

Vodafone is also at least 35 (Voxi) maybe 38 for unlimited/no speedcap on 1 month rolling - though if three isn't resolved I see little option. I'm planning to call to cancel, and then if things change in the notice period I can abort the cancelation.

Back to the 3 sim today and so far (30 mins in) no delays. Back to the slower speeds of course. Oh well. I suspect that reliability assessment will prove true. And it does seem to be somewhat related to local network - since in Hampshire whilst I think I noticed one or two stalls, in a day, of far more devices and activity & data useage it basically held up very well.

Can confirm also Go binge taken off my account, did it online as was close to billing date and thought of talking to them on phone or chat was more than I could deal with.

Netflix is now back to normal.

I think we have multiple issues at work - affecting different people.

* GoBinge - this seems to work as we expect to some expect, only affecting streaming, and easily removed. Good news
* XBox - some reports of xbox downloads have issues. Three called me yesterday and say this is fixed (as of sat)
* Ad-hoc stalls - this may be just a local issue for me in Brighton, but it is definate ongoing despite the above two fixes.

Well today Three broadband is seriously on the fritz again for me! Never seen it this slow.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15838618614...

An amazing 4.58Mbps down and 1.4Mbps up.

Tried xbox, best it can manage is 1mb! Averages 500kb!

Went onto Three's web chat, first thing they did was copy and paste a message saying they are not detecting any problems with the service and to ring technical support! Because they're likely to admit there's a issue too eh?

How can a service that was so good last year become so bad so quickly?

Unlimited mobile broadband wasn't really a thing last year. Sure, you could throw an unlimited sim into a 4g router but i don't think many were willing to fork out a lump sum for a 4g router. Now Three are offering a router with an unlimited sim at a very cheap price. The probable reason for decline in speed and reliability.

I think you are spot on. Short of a mountain being built between me and the mast my router connects too, I "should" be getting the same consistent high speeds I got when I joined three last November. My connections RSRP, RSRQ and SNIR have remained the same as in November but the speed and reliability of the service has drastically fell.

During "today's" slow phase on Three broadband (when I gave up with the xbox), I rebooted the B535-232 it took it 5-10 minutes to even connect to the mast and when it did it dropped out twice with the connected light turning red before staying light blue.

Possible cause? Oversubscribed services on the mast?

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Possible cause? Oversubscribed services on the mast?

More likely weather and atmospheric changes mean you're not picking up as strong a signal, assuming you've been getting 4G (LTE) all this time. If you were getting 3G (UMTS) then this can reduce its power output (ie, coverage) when under heavy load. 2G, 4G and 5G do not do this.

Tonight has been my worst night with three. I have a connection but there are timeouts all over the place. Can't watch VOD content without there being a problem. Downloads fail shortly after starting them. Online gaming is a no go with the time outs and lost packets. I hope its them trying to fix the issue and not another issue stacked on top of the countless other ones. I don't want to go back to 4mbps ADSL but at least it was somewhat reliable.

In reply to a post by woodmass14:

Tonight has been my worst night with three. I have a connection but there are timeouts all over the place. Can't watch VOD content without there being a problem. Downloads fail shortly after starting them. Online gaming is a no go with the time outs and lost packets. I hope its them trying to fix the issue and not another issue stacked on top of the countless other ones. I don't want to go back to 4mbps ADSL but at least it was somewhat reliable.

Totally agree. I've complained via webchat and even the operators say they have internet issues!!!

I quote....
"I'd be happy to help you with your query, however our systems are having a temporary issue with the Internet at the moment.
There is no estimated time hence you can try later in the next couple of hours."

I�ve lost both mine tonight, given up I�ll see what it�s like in morning

edit, not much better this morning, the mobile broadband (mifi) sim is currently working on 3G albeit slower than usual, havent got the nerve to see if it will work on 4G, the unlimited phone sim (in mikrotik) is connecting but not passing any data 3G or 4G.

Edited by Rolandrat (Wed 11-Mar-20 07:55:28)

Did you miss the bit where buggerlugs said:

"RSRP, RSRQ and SNIR have remained the same as in November'

Think he did. I'd already strategically placed my router in the best position in the house. The fact those numbers haven't changed but the reliability and speed has is almost certainly down to Three, and probably its 5g rollout impacting 4g customers.

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

Did you miss the bit where buggerlugs said:
"RSRP, RSRQ and SNIR have remained the same as in November'

Ahh, ok, missed that. Then given masts are being rebuilt from old technology to the new "cloud core" that Three talk about, this one probably hasn't been rebuilt yet.

Perhaps this had something to do with yesterdays hiccup

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/03/call-o...

Really laggy on 4G the last hour or so, 3G fine.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51926565

Yes, very odd

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8120...

I cancelled my Three contract yesterday - it has gradually become less usable, and remote working has become almost impossible. I signed up with Three because of the unlimited data allowance at a time when EE had low limits and were significantly more expensive. EE use the same mast which is a mile away in clear line-of-sight, and I've tested out a PAYG sim last week - it seems much better than Three, and I just clocked my fastest ever TBB speed test - 96.5Mbps! That's about 5 times the speed of Three on a good day, and now the unlimited data is only 50% more than with Three. Time will tell whether it holds up...

I hope Three are keeping tabs of this thread and taking note.

In reply to a post by sheephouse:

I cancelled my Three contract yesterday - it has gradually become less usable, and remote working has become almost impossible. I signed up with Three because of the unlimited data allowance at a time when EE had low limits and were significantly more expensive. EE use the same mast which is a mile away in clear line-of-sight, and I've tested out a PAYG sim last week - it seems much better than Three, and I just clocked my fastest ever TBB speed test - 96.5Mbps! That's about 5 times the speed of Three on a good day, and now the unlimited data is only 50% more than with Three. Time will tell whether it holds up...

Were you past the minimum term of the contract, or were you able to cancel without penalty due to the ongoing issues?

You can almost definitely cancel after minimum term. Head to their live chat and ask to talk to their complaints team. Tell them your issues. They will either try to keep you by refunding your days of lost service or reducing your monthly bill. But if you're adamant you want to cancel. They will let you. You will have to send equipment back in a red bag they send out. Though, i suggest having a back up sim ready as they cancelled my sim 30 mins after going through with the cancellation and left me with no connection at all Which is expected, obviously, but didn't expect to be disconnected instantly.

Trying to phone an EE number today from the landline and several times I got message "there is an error, please hang up".

They might as well turn the 4G network off here, for what use it�s been this evening. Currently 0.4 down and 0.7 up.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/15845727228...

The phone is clinging solidly to band 3, so I can�t even blame it on band 20.

I was past the end of the minimum contract period, and I went with a 30 day notice - I'll be paying for two connections for a month, but that gives me a backup for any teething problems. Since I work from home cost isn't as important to me as connectivity.
I may get a free Three SIM as a backup that I can top up if I ever need it. I don't currently have coverage from any other networks.

I am sick & tired of my connection dropping after 5-6pm.
Whenever you phone them they always want you to log in follow these steps they ask you to do.
It is a total waste of my time going through this all the time.
But where to go for a reasonable price just to get home wifi.

In reply to a post by elvisarron:

But where to go for a reasonable price just to get home wifi.

You mean cheap?

Landline would probably be cheaper for any modern volume of data if Three doesn't cope where you are. I have no problem with it.

Thanks for your reply but landline is not an option,as where we are in the countryside we can only manage under 1mbps,that,s why we got rid of it.

Ah. Point taken .

It does however also explain why your connection is so poor on Three, which is likely to have the least capacity on 4G. And probably where you are also on 3G. Many others in your area will be hitting it hard too. Particularly during what I read is now the peak time, 6-8 pm. I thought it would be longer than that and for you it almost certainly is.

EE is generally the best, with Vodafone also getting some good reports here in contrast to their fixed line service. O2 seems to me to be highly variable for available speeds depending on location.

You could do similar to what I did before ditching my perfectly satisfactory FTTC on cost grounds and went for the 2018 Three Black Friday Unlimited everything deal. I was on a 4G EE low allowance deal for it previously as I didn't really need mobile broadband in those days and had ditched O2 because of its uselessness even for voice and texts in various places I visited. Particularly but not just wide areas of Cornwall.

I bought a £1 Three PAYG SIM from the papershop and stuck a fiver on it for a few days, then took the plunge for my mobile and dropped my FTTC. At the beginning of Jan 2019, having survived the Christmas heavy period, I gave notice on the landline itself. Total saving compared to landline + FTTC + EE contract £49pm.

Since then I bought internet connected security cams so bought the Three HomeFi, as tethering those obviously wouldn't work when I was out of the house! I'm still quids in .

Can you get Three on both 3G and 4G, or do they only have a 4G signal where you live?

If you can get a 3G signal from Three, there's a good chance EE will be available from the same mast as Three with a stronger 4G signal and more bandwidth. In the meantime it may be worth setting your network connection to 3G only mode, because Three's 3G signal is often a lot less congested than 4G.

If you can only get Three on 4G you're in their 'supervoice' coverage area which is just marketing speak for 'rubbish data speeds'. If you're in the West, try a pay as you go sim on Vodafone and EE to see if they work any better. If you're in the East, try O2 and EE.

I am about a 1 hour drive south of Glasgow(East Ayrshire),we can only get 3G & it is setup for that mode.
So it is a bit of a nightmare for us here & talking to three is a waste of time & stressful.

Edited by deleted (Sat 21-Mar-20 16:07:32)

Has the network stabilised or I am talking too early?
My 4G has not dropped or traffic blackholed since 2 days now. Just checking with rest of you.
Earlier used to get speed in the range of 40-45 down, now its 20-25M though, which might be increase in users or people home working? Also I have not removed GoBinge the speed is still good on fast.com
Will be good to check others thoughts?

Maxing out at 14mb here.

Well last night it dropped about 5.45pm to 1.77mbps,shocking.

Tonight dropped to 1.63MBPS,consistantly s.h.i.t.hope three looks at these forums.

Edited by deleted (Wed 25-Mar-20 21:38:26)

Mine used to be 100+ but has dropped to 80+ still good though.

Speedtest

So after 10 years with three I’ve completely had my fill. Other than my terrible experience with their joke of a CS department, the service is beyond bad now.

I’m fairly rural but it used to be pretty good. I can only pick up 2 bands (forget the which ones now) but one is a strong signal but slow, the other is not so sting but was always pretty fast (I have an 525 and have to use LTE inspecteur to force it to the fastest band). Last few weeks it’s been shocking, unusable a lot of the time. Looking to switch to Vodafone, but anything is can try before I do?

In reply to a post by autopilot:

So after 10 years with three I’ve completely had my fill. Other than my terrible experience with their joke of a CS department, the service is beyond bad now.

Be aware that Three's CS is in India, and that country is on severe lockdown.

Many areas of the UK are under extreme load for mobile data services, my normal EE 100 Mbps at home is currently running at about 9 Mbps.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by autopilot:

So after 10 years with three I’ve completely had my fill. Other than my terrible experience with their joke of a CS department, the service is beyond bad now.

Be aware that Three's CS is in India, and that country is on severe lockdown.

Many areas of the UK are under extreme load for mobile data services, my normal EE 100 Mbps at home is currently running at about 9 Mbps.

They are not just in India, they also have people in Skypark, Glasgow. Although I think Skypark has been furloughed since last Thursday.

Good going 3 with the new network:

Tracing route to bbc.com [151.101.64.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 31 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.42.129
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 39 ms 79 ms 1338 ms 172.27.19.5
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.

vs. old network?

Tracing route to bbc.com [151.101.128.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 1 ms 3 ms 192.168.42.129
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 50 ms 29 ms 47 ms 172.23.128.217
4 49 ms 53 ms 43 ms 172.23.162.4
5 49 ms 46 ms 41 ms 172.23.175.1
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 60 ms 41 ms * 188.31.255.138.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.138]
8 45 ms 51 ms 55 ms 188.31.255.122.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.122]
9 57 ms * 55 ms 188.31.255.181.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.181]
10 99 ms 56 ms 57 ms be4250.agr21.lhr01.atlas.cogentco.com [149.6.9.2
5]
11 57 ms 47 ms * be3672.ccr52.lhr01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.4
8.145]
12 47 ms * 63 ms fastly.demarc.cogentco.com [149.6.8.6]
13 52 ms 50 ms 49 ms 151.101.128.81

Any reason why they have completely barred traceroutes? Are they wanting to hide the w*nk performance of their network?

In reply to a post by bsod:

Good going 3 with the new network:

Tracing route to bbc.com [151.101.64.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 31 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.42.129
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 39 ms 79 ms 1338 ms 172.27.19.5
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.

vs. old network?

Tracing route to bbc.com [151.101.128.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 1 ms 3 ms 192.168.42.129
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 50 ms 29 ms 47 ms 172.23.128.217
4 49 ms 53 ms 43 ms 172.23.162.4
5 49 ms 46 ms 41 ms 172.23.175.1
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 60 ms 41 ms * 188.31.255.138.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.138]
8 45 ms 51 ms 55 ms 188.31.255.122.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.122]
9 57 ms * 55 ms 188.31.255.181.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.181]
10 99 ms 56 ms 57 ms be4250.agr21.lhr01.atlas.cogentco.com [149.6.9.2
5]
11 57 ms 47 ms * be3672.ccr52.lhr01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.4
8.145]
12 47 ms * 63 ms fastly.demarc.cogentco.com [149.6.8.6]
13 52 ms 50 ms 49 ms 151.101.128.81

Any reason why they have completely barred traceroutes? Are they wanting to hide the w*nk performance of their network?

To your failing one:-

C:\Users\Bob>tracert 151.101.64.81

Tracing route to 151.101.64.81 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms 2 ms 1 ms homerouter.cpe [192.168.8.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 51 ms 47 ms 47 ms 172.23.192.145
4 44 ms 44 ms 47 ms 172.23.212.209
5 53 ms 46 ms 47 ms 188.31.255.89.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.89]
6 46 ms 32 ms 49 ms 188.31.255.154.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.154]
7 44 ms 38 ms 50 ms 188.31.255.158.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.158]
8 48 ms 37 ms 48 ms 188.31.255.174.threembb.co.uk [188.31.255.174]
9 45 ms 45 ms 54 ms be4497.ccr21.lon01.atlas.cogentco.com [149.6.3.129]
10 43 ms 48 ms 47 ms 149.6.2.38
11 48 ms 37 ms 43 ms 151.101.64.81

Trace complete.

In reply to a post by bsod:

Any reason why they have completely barred traceroutes? Are they wanting to hide the w*nk performance of their network?

Unlikely there is any intent in stopping traceroute working. More likely the routers your traffic is passing through are configured to route real traffic and not respond to traffic directed at the router. Traceroutes are not really a diagnostic for performance, and in heavy load situations the routers will ignore responding to you, and will get on with their real job first.

Can,t wait for my contract to run out.

My 3 signal has gone rubbish, the mast i usually connect to has vanished, well not connecting!

Not staying with 3 if this is permanent , getting about 2mbs now, 3G and 4G.

Yep all gone down the pan again.

I was actually praising Three to a work colleague, in that it had been quite usable during the lock-down, but then it started to go downhill again badly this afternoon.

What are they doing with the network! We know it can be good, why can't they maintain that level?

Pinging 1.1.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=289ms TTL=53
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=243ms TTL=53
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=251ms TTL=53
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=263ms TTL=53
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=273ms TTL=53
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=314ms TTL=53

Edited by deleted (Tue 07-Apr-20 18:18:39)

C:\Users\Bob>ping 1.1.1.1

Pinging 1.1.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=57
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=57
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=57
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 1.1.1.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 44ms, Average = 41ms

C:\Users\Bob>

In reply to a post by Timh30:

What are they doing with the network! We know it can be good, why can't they maintain that level?

three are often the cheapest. With people now stuck at home, the number of people using all the networks has been hit hard. My EE connection here at home is normally around 100 Mbps, dropping to 60 or if busy. All weekend it was 5 Mbps.

These are not normal times

Have to agree, Im getting 3 or 4 Mbps on an external Mikrotik that was getting 60+ in the old days, ive just chucked a EE sim in there and that is pulling 35Mbps and thats in the evening now.
Ive been trying to cancel 2 x 3sims all day, phone is no use, 333 just cuts me off when I choose the correct option and chat is always busy. Email addresses Ive found just bounce back.
Ive actually just written a letter and posted it as I cant get any other result.

My mast back up now, b3-1800mhz 15mhz was getting about 110 this morning 6am, 60 now

https://i.postimg.cc/Hkq2g4vR/2222222222222222222.jpg

it also connected to a different one which was fast, and my directional outside antenna wasn't even pointing at it!

b1-2100mhz 10mhs

Edited by bobbyboyuk (Wed 08-Apr-20 15:12:47)

In reply to a post by bobbyboyuk:

it also connected to a different one which was fast, and my directional outside antenna wasn't even pointing at it!

The warm weather drying out leaves will be changing the propogation of signals through trees. That is a good speed for 10mhz of bandwidth.

Ive got an EE unlimitied 4G data,calls,texts sim coming for £28 a month, will see how that is, can always cancel within 14 days.

My 3 speed this morning was silly good

https://i.postimg.cc/Rhyg9KwS/llllllllllllllllllllll...

Edited by bobbyboyuk (Thu 09-Apr-20 13:16:23)

Just as a matter of interest Bobby, does it come from the same mast you use with three?

Will tell you when i get it no idea if EE is limited as well to 60mb/s, soon find out.

I remember when i was on Virgin Mobile, i got a great signal indoors on 4G on my phone, yet with 3 4G is iffy inside.

Also what i did with EE was leave the £34 sim deal in my basket and leave half way through the checkout, day later they called me.

All legit!

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Just as a matter of interest Bobby, does it come from the same mast you use with three?

In many cases EE and Three share physical masts, but that doesn't mean they share spectrum (frequencies) or backhaul connectivity to the core.

Whilst I get that, it'd be interesting to see which carrier puts more investment into their mast infrastructure.

It would make sense for it to be related to the spectrum holdings they own.

EE in most places, and depending on your plan (or it used to) provide the full spec 4G whereas Three and many others only LTE which they call 4G.

In just a few places I occasionally see 4G+ on my phone, but AIUI even that isn't what EE provides.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 09-Apr-20 18:43:57)

Spectrum holdings don't explain why Three still hasn't re-farmed any 3G spectrum to 4G at my local mast. I assume it would require new equipment and they don't want to spend any money until the 5G upgrade.

This mast recently started doing 2CA but in an odd way. If the phone is on 1800, which it normally is for 4G, it won't add 800. But on the odd occasion the phone is connected to 800 it will add 1800 as the second carrier before switching back to 1800 only after a few minutes.

Why would the equipment do B20+B3 but not B3+B20? Unless it's clever enough to know that B20 is so congested it's not worth adding. Another local Three mast will aggregate the same two bands in either order, so it's not a network-wide setup.

In reply to a post by CJ8:

Spectrum holdings don't explain why Three still hasn't re-farmed any 3G spectrum to 4G at my local mast. I assume it would require new equipment and they don't want to spend any money until the 5G upgrade.

They also will know how many phones are unable to do VoLTE and hence need 3G capacity for voice calls. Right now, during this pandemic, this is a real concern. You may be right that the existing vendor kit is not up to the job and is being replaced, as well as the 5G roll out.

This mast recently started doing 2CA but in an odd way. If the phone is on 1800, which it normally is for 4G, it won't add 800. But on the odd occasion the phone is connected to 800 it will add 1800 as the second carrier before switching back to 1800 only after a few minutes.

Why would the equipment do B20+B3 but not B3+B20? Unless it's clever enough to know that B20 is so congested it's not worth adding. Another local Three mast will aggregate the same two bands in either order, so it's not a network-wide setup.

The mast will always push people to B3 because there is 15mhz of spectrum here. B20 is only 5mhz, so if you can get both, then I'm not surprised you are pushed off B20, to allow those further away to get some coverage.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

They also will know how many phones are unable to do VoLTE and hence need 3G capacity for voice calls.

In that case I'll put my Three sim back into an iphone to encourage them along! As usual 3G H+ is running over 10Mbps tonight, while 4G 1800 is less than 1Mbps.

In reply to a post by bobbyboyuk:

My 3 signal has gone rubbish, the mast i usually connect to has vanished, well not connecting!

Not staying with 3 if this is permanent , getting about 2mbs now, 3G and 4G.

It's the same for me.

I think the problem is that they are reconfiguring for the rollout of 5G.

Some of that has taken some 3G and 4G cells offline, some of it is that they are trying to clear the 3G frequencies for 5G, so moving more traffic to 4G (if you have the misfortune to be in a "Supervoice" area, your 4G will be slower).

In addition, if they are removing good Huawei kit and putting in inferior Nokia and Ericsson kit, that won't help.

I've had to give up on Band 3 and stick to Band 20, which has limited bandwidth on my local Three cells, but seems less overloaded.

Band 3 has hopeless download speeds, but excellent upload.

Band 20 is just about good enough both ways, with much better latency. Of course, that's just on the cell I use!

In February, when the troubles started, the network routing was all over the place. Lots of failed connections. They seemed to fix that in a few weeks (not sure when, because I was away when they sorted it).

The lockdown has probably put paid to expectations of an early resolution of all the issues.

I'm hoping that when they have finally finished the changes, things will get significantly better. Of course, I don't have a 5G router, so that'll be another expense.

I've tried EE because they used to be far better (if more expensive). They were even worse than Three (EE used to use the same tower that vanished form Three - it's also vanished from EE)..

I've tried Vodafone. They are a bit better than Three, but at almost twice the price, and no publicly-accessible IP address. An A&A VPN failed to get round that - I'm not sure why.

I read they’re removing inferior Samsung and installing Huwaei kit connected to the new core.

Got a letter this morning stating that they are increasing prices,they have got a cheek for the rubbish connection i get.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Apr-20 08:36:08)

If they've got the nerve to send me one I'll literally set up a website cataloguing their every issue from disgruntled customers.

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

If they've got the nerve to send me one I'll literally set up a website cataloguing their every issue from disgruntled customers.

That could be unwise.

Well, maybe they should actually come on here and defend their total inaction then? But in doing so Three would have to admit they have issues so I'm not holding my breath.

I don't take the credit for starting this thread, but at 12,000 views I don't think its asking too much for Three to be taking notice of what their customers are saying and responding to the criticism.

If they need a push in that direction, I'll be happy to oblige.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Apr-20 09:47:46)

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Well, maybe they should actually come on here and defend their total inaction then? But in doing so Three would have to admit they have issues so I'm not holding my breath.

I don't take the credit for starting this thread, but at 12,000 views I don't think its asking too much for Three to be taking notice of what their customers are saying and responding to the criticism.

If they need a push in that direction, I'll be happy to oblige.

I could not agree more.

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Well, maybe they should actually come on here and defend their total inaction then?

I doubt if they even know these forums exist.

I swear i get a new issue on the monthly

My speed has been fairly consistent, but as of late I've constantly had to refresh links to get the websites to show up. This happens on every device in the house, including consoles, sky box etc.. Constantly resubmitting requests is a pain. It's as if my request gets lost in the network and forgets to return it back to the device leading to me constantly refreshing until it does make it back to me. Doesn't bother video though once the site has loaded either. Changing DNS hasn't worked.

Can't do much though, no one else offers me a 50+mbps

If you Refresh the page because it isn't loading, I nowadays always check if the little arrowed circle of whatever on the device is rotating.

If you refresh again while it is doing that, and worse still refresh a few times, the browser gets very upset .

I've noticed The browser does show that its loading the site but nothing happens till i refresh 1-5 times. And when the browser starts acting up closing the tab typically sorts that issue. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply with console/games. I usually have to close the application/game and reopen to get it to connect. Have to do that several times to get it to connect sometimes. An issue i've faced before but not non stop like this.

In reply to a post by woodmass14:

I've noticed The browser does show that its loading the site but nothing happens till i refresh 1-5 times. And when the browser starts acting up closing the tab typically sorts that issue. Unfortunately, that doesn't apply with console/games. I usually have to close the application/game and reopen to get it to connect. Have to do that several times to get it to connect sometimes. An issue i've faced before but not non stop like this.

Get the exact same thing!

Yes, I get the same with you tube on PC and Xbox, seems to take forever to load up.

Hi all. I’ve been monitoring a few threads like this for a few weeks now. I’ve got a Huawei B535 on Three and I keep getting the same issue others have reported with webpages intermittently not loading, and having to reload, or restart the browser to get it to load.

I was just wondering - is there anyone having this issue who isn’t using the Huawei B535? As things stand, I’d be quite happy to buy a different router if I thought it would improve matters. If however, people are having the same issue with other modems/routers, then it points more towards a network problem.

It'll make no difference. I also had a Huawei B535 and thought it may be that.
I also found I'd had to reboot it frequently since getting it.

I purchased a tp-link mr6000 router. It's nicely fixed needing a reboot every few days, but the page refreshing to get it to work is exactly the same.

We use 3 broadband and 3 mobile contracts and get the same on all devices recently.

Came here after being pointed here from the plex forums where some features just won't work at all on three at the moment 😔

It also happens on my phone that is also with the three network. I think it's a three issue and not a hardware issue on our end.

100% nothing to do with the equipment.
It was doing my head in at the end, I can only suggest people to vote with their feet, I myself was going to keep one of the three sims I had as a mobile backup to my fttp service, but instead im using a EE sim, which is not only 10x the speed of an evening it also works fine when browsing etc, yes its more expensive, but you know what they say!!

I would love to but my speed is doubled, sometimes tripled with Three. As much of an inconvenience this is, i'd rather have the speed over reliability at the moment. Especially with all the family home during these times. It would get slow real quick with EE.

Still waiting for my EE sim!!

Interesting that I came here with issues with the app plex.
I've got the url from them which won't work with three and the error I'm getting is 429 (too many requests) so I'm guessing they are sharing the ip addresses in some way so maybe other services hit this issue in a similar way.

This is the request that always fails on 4g for me
https://epg.provider.plex.tv/

That URL doesn't work on my phone on EE or wireless and gets the same error as you from my laptop - so it looks like it is something at the sites end rather than three.

Just wondered if I may have solved a part of this website stumbling issue.

I turned off "SIP ALG status" under "Security" SIP ALG settings in the router. (By default its switched to the ON position)

Apparently its a NAT tool that inspects SIP Messages and transforms the Private IP addresses and Ports to Public IP Addresses and Ports. So its certainly possible that SIP messages could be slowing down the request/response process.

May be a complete coincidence but since turning it off the problem has vanished for me.

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-Apr-20 10:34:58)

I am getting a response now as well so think it is coincidence as I haven't changed anything. I think the server is throttling connections and stops them if too many people are hitting it.

I just get:-

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<MediaProvider title="Cloud EPG" sourceTitle="On Plex" version="1.3.0" protocols="stream" identifier="tv.plex.provider.epg">
<Feature key="/library/metadata" type="metadata"/>
<Feature key="/grid" type="grid"/>
<Feature key="/lineups" type="lineups"/>
<Feature key="https://transcoder.plex.tv/photo" type="imagetranscoder" public="1"/>
<Feature key="/location" type="location"/>
<Feature key="/settings" type="settings"/>
<Feature key="/library/sections" type="content">
<Directory title="Live TV" id="home" type="episode" hubKey="/hubs/sections/home" context="content.home">
<Pivot title="Recommended" id="epg.recommended" key="/hubs/sections/home" type="hub" context="content.home" symbol="star"/>
<Pivot title="Guide" id="epg.guide" key="view://dvr/guide" type="view" context="content.dvr.guide" symbol="guide"/>
</Directory>
</Feature>
<Feature key="/library/metadata/matches" type="match"/>
</MediaProvider>

From that link.

This is using Edge on a Windows 10 laptop connected to a B311 with that ALG setting ON.

The same happened yesterday the same, and also yesterday on an iPad + Safari on the same router.

I assumed that was what you were expecting. It all seems issues at their end rather than yours so it is their site that needs fixing if that isn't what you expected to receive.

The rest of you are saying you get nothing, or an error number.

I wasn't expecting anything specifically, but no-one has said they get what I do .

Sorry Bob, I didn't look who posted previously when I responded - was doing other things as well. I get the same as you now, earlier in the day on laptop I was getting the same message as the poster who posted the link (an error) and on my phone I wasn't getting anything - just a blank page.

I have no idea what the page should be returning if it is working correctly - what you are seeing may well be what it is supposed to return.