Web Pages often load slowly or time out

Associate
Joined
1 Nov 2003
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1,230
Location
Maidstone, Kent
Hi,

Any ideas to help solve this would be great...thanks in advance.

I get my internet from Smarty (Three network) - via a 4G router connected to Google Wi-fi pucks.

I live in a 3 bedroom semi and have 5 wi-fi pucks around the house.

This set up worked well. According to Speedtest I was getting an average of 30Mbs DL and upload of 6-10Mbs. Plenty for what I require.

Shortly after the start of lockdown I began to notice a significant drop in the speed webpages would load. Initially I assumed that this was due to higher demand as more people were now working from home.

However, as time has gone on I am now finidng some webpages fail to load at all and time out. These are sites like bbc.co.uk so I am assuming it is an issue my end and not theirs.

If I hit refresh sometimes the page loads (slowly) other times it still times out.

I reset my google wif-fi but this has made no difference. I have reset the router. Again no difference.

The odd thing is this is not consistent. I can try to load a page and wait ages. I can return to that page the following day (yes - I've cleared the cache of data) and it loads quickly.

Now, at this point I was assuming the culprit was the 4G signal. Too many smarty/three users in the area contention issues etc. But here's the odd bit...

I was talking to my neighbour about it and he kindly gave me the password to his Sky wi-fi. When I connected to that I was expecting to find things sped up and that would clearly indicate the issues was with the 4G signal. But that wasn't the case.

Even when connected to next door's wifi (Sky standard broadband) I am having the same issue with slow webpages etc.

I then thought it could be a DNS issue. I've checked and double checked and all the DNS settings I can find are pointing to Google DNS (8.8.8.4 and 8.8.8.8).

I'd rather not revert to a landline-based service as I had no end of trouble with dropped lines etc and BT were not able to find the fault despite 3 visits.

I am now out of ideas. If it makes a difference, I am using mainly Apple hardware (iMac, iPhone and Macbook).

Over to the forum experts...help me Obi Wan Kenobi...you're my only hope.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Sep 2015
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3,657
To check if DNS is working OK, when you have a site that fails to load open a command prompt and try to ping it. So if www.bbc.co.uk doesn't load do 'ping www.bbc.co.uk' in the command prompt. Post the output and assuming you get replies, note roughly how long it takes from when you enter the command to when the ping starts.

When you're using the wifi from next door, are you connecting your device directly to that wifi network or connecting the Google wifi to it and then your device connects to the Google wifi?

I'm assuming you're connecting directly to the wifi next door and not using the Google wifi so knowing that you're still having problems, assuming the wifi signal you're getting is strong enough it sounds like your device is the problem.

This doesn't sound like a DNS issue to me.
 
Associate
OP
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Location
Maidstone, Kent
Hi,

"To check if DNS is working OK, when you have a site that fails to load open a command prompt and try to ping it. So if www.bbc.co.uk doesn't load do 'ping www.bbc.co.uk' in the command prompt. Post the output and assuming you get replies, note roughly how long it takes from when you enter the command to when the ping starts."

Will do...

"When you're using the wifi from next door, are you connecting your device directly to that wifi network or connecting the Google wifi to it and then your device connects to the Google wifi?"

I'm connecting directly to the wi-fi, not via google wi-fi.

"I'm assuming you're connecting directly to the wifi next door and not using the Google wifi so knowing that you're still having problems, assuming the wifi signal you're getting is strong enough it sounds like your device is the problem."

The issue being it is the same on my iphone, my iMac and my ipad. Wherther I connect to my own wi-fi or next doors. Confiused.com

I'll try the suggestions currently given over the weekend and report back.

Thanks

Hussman
 
Soldato
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Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
I flagged this on another forum about a week ago. The masts are being worked on as they implement 5g. Dont get me started on the annoyance...

However the past two days have got better and almost normal today. It started for me nearly a month back.

I was on Smarty for about three months. I am now on 3 direct but smarty uses them so made no difference after I switched.
 
Soldato
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Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
This set up worked well. According to Speedtest I was getting an average of 30Mbs DL and upload of 6-10Mbs. Plenty for what I require.

Shortly after the start of lockdown I began to notice a significant drop in the speed webpages would load. Initially I assumed that this was due to higher demand as more people were now working from home.

However, as time has gone on I am now finidng some webpages fail to load at all and time out. These are sites like bbc.co.uk so I am assuming it is an issue my end and not theirs.

If I hit refresh sometimes the page loads (slowly) other times it still times out.

Oh and I am on your wavelength as I also have landline with EE (twisted copper pair) and it has been a ball sac too being useless so I think the infrastructure is having a tough time. On a good test I get just over 30 down and 15 up. During this period we are speaking of it has got as bad as this:


But generally over the past three weeks the web browsing was atrocious, and on a couple of days bulletin boards and forums like this wouldn't even load properly.
 
Associate
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Maidstone, Kent
Hi Fellas,

Ok, more confused than ever now.

I changed the DNS to 1.1.1.1

Initially web sites like bbc.co.uk loaded as expected. I thought the issue had been resolved. However, I then tried to visit www.johnlewis.com. The same issue occured. Nothing happens then (after about 20-30 seconds) the website loads.

I opened up teminal and pinged johnlewis.com. The request timed out.

I then tried panasonic.com.

Again, no website. When I pinged the request times out. However, when the website eventually loaded I was still getting time outs on the ping???? See below

PING panasonic.com (210.226.40.63): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6


So it looks like 1.1.1.1 made no difference and ping requests are timing out but the webpage still loads eventually.

Speedtest is coming bsack with 32 DL and 15 UL

I'm not on any VPN and I'm using the latest version of Firefox (although the same issues occur when uing Safari or Chrome Too). My iMac is running High Sierra and is the 2017 27 inch model with 8gb RAM.

Getting frustrating now.
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Feb 2011
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3,619
Reason I was asking is because last year I set my parents up with a Huawei 4G router with a Three SIM card. It worked flawlessly for several months until about February this year when their whole internet access seemed to disconnect seemingly at random. No web pages, no FaceTime, etc, etc. Cutting a long story short, the problem went away a month ago but has come back again just three days ago.

I don’t have a solution frustratingly enough but after reading your issues, I wonder if it’s a router problem. I know it wasn’t the Three network as when I visited my parents, I was able to use my own phone which is also on Three.

EDIT: for info, my parents router is a B310
 
Associate
OP
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Maidstone, Kent
Interesting, thanks for the update.

I agree. If I access webpages via wifi on my phone. I get the issue. If I access them via 4G, no problem. So I don't think it's a THREE/ Smarty issue.

Really odd.
 
Associate
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Its their network, they cant cope so the proxy backs up. Streaming and such isnt really affected. You can try many methods but your not really bypassing the issue as its their infrastructure being messed with incorporating 5G and getting back to the regular work that piled up over covid lockdown.

So if I went back to a landline based broadband it would stop the issue, right?
 
Soldato
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3,619
Its their network, they cant cope so the proxy backs up. Streaming and such isnt really affected. You can try many methods but your not really bypassing the issue as its their infrastructure being messed with incorporating 5G and getting back to the regular work that piled up over covid lockdown.

If it’s the network then why are mobile phones on the same network not affected?
 
Soldato
Joined
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Posts
19,981
Location
Officially least sunny location -Ronskistats
So if I went back to a landline based broadband it would stop the issue, right?

Well yes, but you may have no 4g issues if you test another network provider. For example if I use my cellphone with my EE sim and drop off my WiFi I have no web traffic issues. On devices on my LAN that use the 3 network for web traffic I have sporadic behaviour. This for me only happened about this time a month back (June). Before then it was ok. I will provide an image of what the postcode checker does on the 3 service:



When I was using Smarty before this it was the same (I switched to 3 to see if it was their network - which it still is)

If it’s the network then why are mobile phones on the same network not affected?

Clarify the context here just in case I am missing your point. See my answer to Hussman. Web traffic on 3 has timeouts and horrendous delay on some pages loading. If this happens I try it on my Samsung which is on the EE network and the pages load straight away. Same location, same timeframe.

Not sure if I can link other forums so unless a mod says otherwise - check out the info here as I found this during my rage after testing it wasnt my domestic equipment:

https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/mobilebroadband.html

Check the Smarty slow loading post and a few others.
 
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