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(Interesting) Website timeout problem

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JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

(Interesting) Website timeout problem

Over the past few days I have been experiencing almost 100% website timeouts, making browsing impossible.

Interestingly, I have tried connecting to various major sites, such as Google News, Ebay and Amazon, all of which timeout. I then immeditately afterwards do a Ockla speedtest, which results in a ping of 10ms and 70/20M download and upload speeds (usual for my connection). When I then try the major sites again, they timeout as before!!!

I thought it might be a DNS problem, so I changed the settings from Plusnet default to Google, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4... but it made no difference.

I have substituted a Plusnet router for my own TP-Link router, but both display similar fault characteristics.

I am currently awaiting a response from Plusnet on this - Question #194161078 - but was wondering if anyone else has experienced similar timeouts recently, or have any ideas as to the cause?

32 REPLIES 32
JohnofYork
Grafter
Posts: 73
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Registered: ‎03-06-2016

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Does it behave the same with a different browser?

If you delete the contents of C:\Windows\temp , does it still misbehave?

download a free copy of MalWareBytes and see if that picks up anything ...

John

SammyM
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 1,901
Thanks: 411
Fixes: 93
Registered: ‎22-01-2018

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hello @JimF,

 

Sorry to hear you are experiencing an issue with your connection and for any inconvenience this is causing. I have checked the connection from our side and our tests are not locating anything thing that could be causing this.

 

We would need to investigate this further but would require you to ping pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com and update the ticket here with your results.  Once you have done this, please can you update this thread and we will get this picked up for you. 

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Sammy M - Sheffield Team
 Plusnet Help Team
JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hi John,

Many thanks for the helpful suggestions.

My main browser is Chrome.  I have just downloaded and tried Firefox, but it acts the same way.

Deleted C:\Windows\temp and ran Disk Clean-up, but again no change.

I have the problem with a desktop PC (Win10 and Win8.1, using Ethernet) and two laptops (Win10, using WiFi), all act the same way, so I think malware is unlikely. That said, I ran MalWareBytes but it didn't find anything of significance.

Jim

 

 

 

JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hi Samantha,

Many thanks for getting in touch.

I tried pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com, but no joy:

"This site can’t be reached

pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com refused to connect.

Try:

ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED"
 

I shall update the Question accordingly.

Jim 

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hi Jim, thanks for getting back to us.

I'm sorry to see you're having trouble browsing the web.

I've been looking into this and could you possibly reboot your router again letting us know how it goes?

If you're still unable to connect, we'll need to carry out what's known as a dial test which means we'll be connecting to the internet via a test computer/router in the office using your account details. This should narrow down where the issue lies and determine if the issue is related to your account on our side.

To go ahead with that we'll just need you to confirm you're happy with us changing your account password (Which you'll need to change back afterwards from Here) and you'll need to switch your router off overnight as it's our 24/7 business team who carry out dial tests during the night.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Many thanks Gandalf, that sounds like a great idea because I keep changing my mind as to whether the problem originates at your end or at mine - but I now don't think it is a line problem!

I  first experienced the problem whilst using my TP-Link router, then substituted a brand new Plusnet router, but the problem remained exactly the same. I am back using TP-Link, so I don't think there is much to be gained from a restart.

But I need to add a tad of caution, my setup has been running trouble free for years.  Until very recently my router had run without a single drop-out for some 220 days!! Troubles started about a month or so ago, either drop-outs or various similar attributes to the current timeouts.  It comes and goes, so it has an intermittent characteristic to it.  I have just retried pingbox1 and it still fails, so I suggest that might be a good baseline test for this evening's Team.

I shall close down my router at 10pm this evening, then over to you - have fun!

Kind regards, Jim

 

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Fix

Thanks for getting back to us Jim,

From what I can see I think that rebooting your router one final time will fix the issue, could you try that first? My thoughts on this are that prior to today there was another user's line erroneously connecting through your account and as you've got a static IP the system wouldn't have liked this at all as it'd have been trying to assign the same IP for two people.

That's since been resolved, so I suspect after another reboot your browsing with return to normal. 

The above can happen if you've ever given away or sold one of the routers we've sent you as that router is linked to your account through the serial number so it'd always try to connect to your account unless we remove it.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

...interesting!!!  as far as I can remember, I haven't given away or resold a Plusnet router - EVER, but I did return a non-Plusnet router to Curry's about 1.5 years ago when I purchased my current TP-Link one.  The returned one was faulty, but obviously I had entered my credentials to test it - however I'm pretty such that I did a manufacturers reset on it!

...a static IP address, Plusnet user name and specific landline should be uniquely uniqiue, so to speak. It is scary that someone else has been connected to my account in the way that you say... but respect to you for being so honest about it.

Now for the mostly bad news, I have rebooted the router, some sites now seem to be more responsive, but I haven't had enough time to really get a feel for it, unfortunately pingbox1 still fails!!!

I shall close my router down now but stay online for a little while using my mobile as a 'hotspot'.

Kind regards, Jim

 

 

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hi Jim, thanks for getting back to me

Ah fair I'd personally put things down to a mystery in that case, this wouldn't have been related to your actual phone line or username in any way though. 

I'm glad to see that webpages are a lot more responsive now. Thumbs_Up It's normal for "pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com" to not connect because it's not an actual website. I think there's a bit of confusion when my colleague asked you to ping it.

To ping a webpage you'd open the Command Prompt (Usually by typing CMD in the search bar at the bottom of your screen) then type ping pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com

I'd recommend switching your router back on and keep an eye on things, letting us know if you're unable to browse to any websites that you'd normally go to.

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,

Anoush

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Many thanks Anoush

I am pleased to say that it has returned to normal thus far this morning, but I need to give it a little longer, given the intermittent nature of the problem

It would be very helpful to know just when this other User first started erroneously connecting through my account,  These problems began about 5 weeks ago, did the 'share' start about trhen?

Kind regards, Jim

 

 

 

LordFoul
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 779
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Registered: ‎06-08-2018

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hi @JimF,

 

Thanks for getting back to us.

 

It's great to hear everything's working as it should. In answer to your question, this appears to be around the end of August.

 

Thanks - LF

JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Just so I am sure, are you saying that the other User started to 'share' my account towards the end of August?

 

Jim

Gandalf
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Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Hi Jim, thanks for getting back to us.

I wouldn't say share your account, from what we can see our hardware management platform had inadvertently connected another user's connection through our broadband servers relating to your account.

As you have a static IP this meant that the system was unable to assign a different IP to the other user and was trying to assign the same static IP to their connection causing the performance problems you've seen.

This wouldn't have changed or affected your static IP in any way as that's built into a separate component on your account.

I hope this helps.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
JimF
Grafter
Posts: 72
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎17-09-2007

Re: (Interesting) Website timeout problem

Yes Anoush, I understand all that, but I am simply asking when exactly did the hardware management platform inadvertently connect another user's connection...?  Was it in August and so coinciding with the start of my problems?