topic Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband in Everything else

Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:06:12 GMT

For the past couple of days we, (my son and I), have been unable to connect to Wikipedia reliably. I can occasionally to get to the English homepage, but no further.We both run Firefox v121.0 on Linux Mint. Disabling the Malwarebytes add-on had no effect.

Chromium browser gives the same results.

My Android phone on Firefox and DuckDuckGo browsers was the same - until I disabled WiFi and tried via the 4G connection.

Wikipedia seems to be fine via 4G - so is there an issue between Plusnet and Wikipedia?

The Firefox error is: "The connection has timed out".

Is anyone else experiencing this problem, or can offer any advice to resolve please?

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Champnet — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:08:15 GMT

No problem, Edge running on Win 10.

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:10:12 GMT

@Champnet

Thanks for the quick reply.

To confirm. did you try a few "sub pages" as well as the Wikipedia homepage?

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Champnet — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:15:49 GMT

No problems, just had a quick trip around the World..............

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

bartstope — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:16:34 GMT

Yes, I’m seeing it as well. The browser can just sit there spinning trying to load the page for anywhere up to a couple of minutes, and then it will eventually it either work or time out.

If I tether to my O2 phone I don’t see the problem.

Sometimes it works fine for a while, and got a bit better last night but today it’s slow again.

Any ideas PlusNet crew?

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:25:04 GMT

@bartstope

Thanks for the reply.

Which browser(s) and OS please?

My 4G mobile is via EE.

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

bartstope — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:30:54 GMT

Safari, on MacOS, iPhone and iPad - all latest version. Haven’t tried Edge on Windows. Will try it later, interesting thought. I do have the iCloud tracking prevention turned off.

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Champnet — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:32:05 GMT

Seems to be a few reported errors today :

https://downdetector.co.uk/status/wikipedia/

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:36:30 GMT

@Champnet

Thanks for that. Noting that one report mentioned Plusnet's DNS servers, so tried to change on our PN Hub2 - alas unable to. I'm sure that I've changed DNS settings before - possibly on our ols BT Smarthub2?

Has it ever been possible to change DNS servers on the PN Hub2, or has that useful feature been removed?

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

SteveA — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:37:27 GMT

Same here - multiple browsers, multiple operating systems.

Sometimes it's there. sometimes it's not

But it seems to be worse from within the PN network on my phone compared to using O2

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

bartstope — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:43:48 GMT

I don’t think it’s dns related, I do my own recursive dns resolution using Unbound and I still see the problem - it feels like a weird routing issue with the timeouts as all the host names are resolved - inspect element development tools seems to show the delay is the response getting back from Wikipedia

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Champnet — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 11:00:36 GMT

Traceroute shows a 20-30% packet loss at 185.15.59.159, et-0-0-50.asw1-bw27-esams.wikimedia.org

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

SteveA — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 11:01:16 GMT

I run dnsmasq which is picking up from non PN DNS servers and it's problematical so I don't think it's a PN DNS issue.

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 11:23:04 GMT

I've just clicked through around 50 Wikipedia pages, and don't see any delays, timeouts, etc

If anything Wikipedia is faster than I've ever seen it, despite being plastered with "fundraising" pop-ups.

Running IPv6, Firefox 113, Ubuntu 18.04, Desktop, 80/20 SoGEA on non-Plusnet ISP, multiple non-Plusnet DNS

$ mtr -r -w -c 100 wikipedia.org Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- My_Home_Network 0.0% 100 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.0 2.|-- My_ISPs_Gateway 0.0% 100 6.7 6.9 6.5 7.2 0.2 3.|-- 2001:7f8:4::50e8:1 0.0% 100 6.9 6.9 6.6 7.5 0.2 4.|-- linx-1.init7.net 0.0% 100 8.1 10.8 7.5 28.9 6.1 5.|-- 2a00:5641:145::2 0.0% 100 12.8 14.4 12.3 33.0 4.5 6.|-- 2a00:5641:144::2 0.0% 100 12.9 14.8 12.1 39.5 5.3 7.|-- gw-wikimedia.init7.net 0.0% 100 12.0 12.6 11.6 34.4 3.1 8.|-- et-0-0-50.asw1-bw27-esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 100 13.3 13.7 13.0 49.6 3.6 9.|-- text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 100 12.7 12.9 12.7 13.5 0.2

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 11:39:15 GMT

Not sure why my previous reply disappeared ! 😠

From non-Plusnet SoGEA connection, having no problems browsing Wikipedia

IPv6 traceroute -

$ mtr -r -w -c 100 wikipedia.org Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- My_Home_Network 0.0% 100 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.0 2.|-- * 0.0% 100 6.7 6.9 6.5 7.2 0.2 3.|-- 2001:7f8:4::50e8:1 0.0% 100 6.9 6.9 6.6 7.5 0.2 4.|-- linx-1.init7.net 0.0% 100 8.1 10.8 7.5 28.9 6.1 5.|-- 2a00:5641:145::2 0.0% 100 12.8 14.4 12.3 33.0 4.5 6.|-- 2a00:5641:144::2 0.0% 100 12.9 14.8 12.1 39.5 5.3 7.|-- gw-wikimedia.init7.net 0.0% 100 12.0 12.6 11.6 34.4 3.1 8.|-- et-0-0-50.asw1-bw27-esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 100 13.3 13.7 13.0 49.6 3.6 9.|-- text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 100 12.7 12.9 12.7 13.5 0.2

IPv4 traceroute -

$ mtr -r -w -4 -c 100 wikipedia.org Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- My_Home_Network 0.0% 100 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.0 2.|-- * 0.0% 100 7.1 6.9 6.4 7.4 0.2 3.|-- * 0.0% 100 7.1 6.9 6.6 7.5 0.2 4.|-- linx-1.init7.net 0.0% 100 7.7 9.6 7.4 36.7 5.3 5.|-- r2ams2.core.init7.net 0.0% 100 12.3 13.9 12.1 32.5 4.3 6.|-- r1ams2.core.init7.net 0.0% 100 12.6 14.3 12.3 85.7 8.2 7.|-- gw-wikimedia.init7.net 0.0% 100 11.9 13.1 11.6 32.2 3.9 8.|-- et-0-0-50.asw1-bw27-esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 100 19.8 18.2 12.0 56.6 7.7 9.|-- text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 100 11.8 11.9 11.6 12.5 0.2

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Champnet — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 11:45:19 GMT

@Anonymous Are you on a fixed IP address ?

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 11:46:40 GMT

Yes fixed IP address on non-Plusnet ISP connection

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Champnet — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:12:43 GMT

@Anonymous That explains why I’m taking a different route.

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Dan_the_Van — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:17:51 GMT

@Champnet

From my plusnet static IP 80.229.nnn.nnn

HOST: wireguard Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev 1.|-- 192.168.10.1 0.0% 50 1.0 1.0 0.9 1.5 0.1 2.|-- 254.core.plus.net 0.0% 50 11.9 10.7 9.5 24.7 2.4 3.|-- 84.93.253.115 0.0% 50 10.9 10.7 10.4 11.4 0.2 4.|-- 195.99.125.134 0.0% 50 10.9 10.6 10.1 11.3 0.3 5.|-- peer2-et-0-0-5.slough.ukcore.bt.net 0.0% 50 11.3 12.5 10.6 28.2 4.0 6.|-- 100.0 50 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 7.|-- r2ams2.core.init7.net 0.0% 50 34.2 19.3 17.1 38.2 4.6 8.|-- r1ams2.core.init7.net 0.0% 50 18.0 18.4 17.2 35.0 3.0 9.|-- gw-wikimedia.init7.net 0.0% 50 18.4 17.9 17.2 29.0 1.6 10.|-- et-0-0-50.asw1-bw27-esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 50 21.9 20.8 17.1 26.2 2.5 11.|-- text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org 0.0% 50 17.5 17.3 16.8 17.9 0.2

I have noticed on occasions wiki is a bit slow to respond

Dan

Re: Unable to Connect to Wikipedia via Plusnet Broadband

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:49:16 GMT

Thanks to everyone who has jumped on this thread with their findings. I won't pretend to understand what a lot of you have said, but it shows that I'm not the only one experiencing it on a Plusnet connection.

Does anyone have any idea on how to get the problem fixed? My experiences of reporting obscure problems such as this to Plusnet telephone support aren't great: they are fine if your connection has failed completely due to broken wires etc, but something like this is a waste of time calling them, (in my experience).