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Odd problem, not getting much help

spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Odd problem, not getting much help

I have had a partial outage for the last week of a rather odd kind, and I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue and how long it took for it to be resolved, as I'm not having much luck getting a resolution.
I have an unlimited FTTC service.
Since Monday 31st March I've had an issue where I've not been able to get any HTTP traffic. All other protocols are fine, HTTPS, SSH, DNS, ICMP all work, but HTTPS simply goes nowhere. Using a SOCKS proxy on my main laptop has meant I am able to browse normally on my main laptop, but this is not an option on other devices in my home, including as Freesat FreeTime box, so I class this as a service outage.
I collected all the relevant data on Tuesday before opening a ticket, but have not had any luck getting a resolution to date, although I feel I have been fobbed off a few times.
I disconnected my router and established a PPPoE connection from my laptop directly through the BT Openreach modem.
I ran the usual ping, traceroute, nslookup tests and documented them, as well as showing SSH and email protocols were working.
I even took a network trace showing the TCP handshake was fine for a normal HTTP browsing transaction, but that the subsequent GETs went unanswered, and the connection timed out.
The data I provided was not properly analysed and the Wireshark capture was not even downloaded until Friday evening around 2100BST, however an update was put into the ticket suggesting my router was at fault, even though I had made it clear the router had been bypassed at this stage.
Today there was a further update asking me to be patient, but at this stage I have not had normal Internet service for a week and I am wondering when it's going to be restored, if ever.
Has anyone else had similar problems? How long have they taken to be resolved? Does a week long outage with little done to investigate constitute a breach of contract by Plusnet?
The ticket number is 83568966 if anyone from Plusnet is interested in taking a look.
Stefan
11 REPLIES 11
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi Stefan,
From looking at your RADIUS Logs on our side, you appear to be connected onto an affected batch of IP addresses which we've been having a few problems with (Internal Problems: 80323, 80276, 80295 and 80309).
Can you please restart your router and see if this does the trick as it should assign you an IP address which isn't affected by the issue?
spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the response, I'll try that when I get home from work.
Can you please share the affected subnets/ranges?
This also begs the question why nobody else has been able to share this information with me in the last week? If I'd been told this early last week, I'd not feel like I was being palmed off with an answer that was irrelevant.
Stefan
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi Stefan,
I'll chase why you weren't given any helpful information on that.
With regards to the IP Ranges, we're still looking at which IP Ranges this affects in total, however, I'd try and steer clear of IP's such as: 146.200.XXX.XXX
spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Ok, I'm still having the issue on an IP in the 91.125.x.x subnet and originally had the problem on an IP with a first octet of eighty something.
I suspect there is a much wider range of IPs affected......
Has some new DPI/traffic shaping equipment been introduced in the last week?
Stefan
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi Stefan,
not as far as I'm aware but I can double check tomorrow. Can I just check, you can't access any HTTP traffic at all? But you can use HTTPS for example, as normal?
spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi Chris,
Yep, definitely only HTTP affected, all other protocols are ok. It's not the port either as the TCP 3-way handshake completes correctly on port 80, it is just the actual HTTP traffic which does not get through.
If you look at the ticket, you'll see a Citrix Sharefile link in my update from Friday evening from which you can download 2 network captures (Wireshark .pcap files) which illustrate the behaviour exactly, one for theregister.co.uk and one for bbc.co.uk  I'm also hoping to be able to do some testing on non port 80 HTTP traffic to see if it is also affected.
I did notice after my reboot of the BT Openreach modem that traffic worked normally for literally 2 minutes before it reverted to the same behaviour.
Stefan
spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

One further detail: I've taken a network capture on a content server, and it looks like my outbound HTTP requests are being intercepted, the GET requests never make it out to the content server.
spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Last piece of detail for tonight: All HTTP traffic appears to be affected, regardless of port. This would strengthen the suggestion that it is possibly a misconfiguration (possibly RADIUS based?) or fault with a DPI or traffic shaping element in the network.
Stefan
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Thanks for the information, Stefan.
I'll get the Gurus to take a look tomorrow morning for you.
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi,
I've updated Ticket 83568966 for you, I hope this has resolved the problem for you.
spynappels
Newbie
Posts: 9
Registered: ‎07-04-2014

Re: Odd problem, not getting much help

Hi Chris,
Thank you for your update, the issue has indeed been resolved.
Thank you for looking at the issue promptly and actually taking note of the information I provided.
Stefan