Recurring "Server Not found" problem on "3"

Brian h

Hi all,

I haven't posted anything here for a while but I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with a frustrating problem and save me from having to call India and go through the hell of 3's "Customer Service".

I'm using "3" midband on an XP SP3 machine and have always had a very strong signal in my area and it has been a reasonably reliable service for most of the last year. However, in the last two weeks I've had a problem with "Server not found messages" after about three hours on line. The only way I can get back up and running on "3" is to shut down the PC for about two hours. Obviously, that's not very efficient !

It's always fine for the first few hours of the day but after about three or sometimes four hours it hits a problem.

My signal strength never drops but I usually know when it's about to give me a "Server not found" message as the status bar usually shows "looking up" followed by "Server not found". I suspected a DNS problem and tried OpenDNS and Google's DNS but that did not solve the problem.

Changing browser had no effect either and I've used Chrome, Firefox, Explorer and Safari but no joy there either. I've also reinstalled my Huawei E169 modem twice and updated the connection software. I even tried my old Huawei E220 which I know to be working but the problem occured with that too.

I don't think my PC is at fault because I can use a borrowed Vodafone SIM in my unlocked modem and it works perfectly without a problem.

Is there anything else I could try or is there some kind of DNS problem on 3's side?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Brian

akamossie

it looks you need to ring three and check for the internet signal

Brian h

Cheers akamossie,

I was hoping not to hear that

As I mentioned in my question, my signal is always good, measuring about -65dBm to -75dBm most of the time. I'm in a fairly rural area so I'm not sure if contention is an issue either as that seems to just slow people's service down to a crawl but at least pages will load, albeit very slowly. Also, it's just as likely to happen at 2am as 2pm.

I've been online using 3 for about two hours today and all seems well. I've just done a test with Speedtest.net on the Galway server and this is what I'm getting at the moment.

akamossie

connection speed seem reasonable, but for some reason sometimes your connection just dropped, it must be something with their mass

Brian h

Possibly akamossie. But even when I get the error message, my signal is still showing as strong.

watty

Signal level means nothing if the cell is maxed out.

akamossie

agreed with watty, even if its showing full signal, more important is connectivity to the server itself, where that seems to be the issue

Brian h

Thanks Watty and Akamossie for your contributions.

It's getting on for four hours without any issues today but I'm not sure how long it will last !

downwithpeace

I never figured out why but around two years ago i had the same issue with having to turn off my pc in order to get the modem to reconnect. Went away after a while but i don't think it was down to my complaints.

The server not been found is down to load/contention in your cell, you could track down your nearest mast ID and make another call to Three.

Brian h

Thanks for that downwithpeace.

Not sure if I understand this correctly but my signal seems to be coming from two different cells depending on wheather it's 3G or HSDPA.

deckstunt

I had the same problem for over a year. Its extremely annoying. Thankfully it went some time over the summer.

One odd thing I noticed, when it would stall, if I opened up a music/web radio streaming link in VLC or Quicktime player it would stream fine. So it wasn't a signal strength issue nor a connection issue. SOmeone had recommended leaving a music stream on in the background to keep the connection 'live'. It didn't work, but it did highlight that anomaly.

I was able to open multiple streams of music which added up to considerable bandwidth, yet I couldn't access a web page! Very strange.

To restart a connection I didn't restart my entire computer . I restarted the modem which establish a new connection. Although the new connection could drop quickly.

Three support was useless. They ran me through all the hoops. They tried to tell me it was a reception issue which it wasn't. I told them about the streaming working fine, but they had no explanation. Then they tried to say it was the modems fault, it wasn't.

I can understand that they would use a check list to run through all the common problems, but clearly my issue was different. They weren't able to do anything that wasn't on their check list. Bloody useless.

I saw a post on the megagthread that talked about "CDMA cell brething". That was the nearest I came to finding a logical explanation for the issue. Although it doesn't explain why I could still receive streamed music.

Another thing I used to do was check my ip at http://whatismyipaddress.com/ Every time you start a new connection (usually) you get one of maybe five IP address. After a while I found that one particular IP address was better than the rest so I would disconnect until i got that IP address.

Brian h

Thanks for the great post deckstunt. I'll certainly be trying those suggestions when it goes down again as it probably will.

Knasher

Could I get you to run two simple tests the next time this happens. Firstly I would be interested to see what cell site your are connected to when the link goes down, if it is always the same cell then buying a directional 3G antenna would fix that. Admittedly annoying but probably easier than trying to get 3 to fix it.

Secondly could you try changing your APN to '3internet' and see if that works. Word of warning though, that will put you outside 3s NAT and onto the internet proper. Its dangerous to go alone, so if it works you will need a proper firewall to protect yourself. Don't use it to access the web at large until you do.

Brian h

Hi Knasher,

I am in fact already using 3internet as my APN and switching the other way and using 3ireland made no difference. I'll definitely keep an eye on the site ID to see if there is anything in that.

Ironically, since I started this thread this morning, the problem hasn't appeared once. Can't see it lasting!

downwithpeace

That cell ID might be right but what i did was use this map and tracked my nearest mast and gave Three that information and let them sort the rest of the detals.

http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/site_viewer.asp

I had the same thing happen to me last time i had a major issue, went away when i started asking question, makes it rather tricky to explain then

Brian h

downwithpeace wrote: »

That cell ID might be right but what i did was use this map and tracked my nearest mast and gave Three that information and let them sort the rest of the detals.

http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/site_viewer.asp

I had the same thing happen to me last time i had a major issue, went away when i started asking question, makes it rather tricky to explain then

Hi downwithpeace,

I had a look at that site and there are five mast sites in my area with just one belonging to "3". I assume thats the one I'm on although the MDMA program from the screenshot earlier alternates between two cell IDs.

downwithpeace

Yes the Three one would be yours, if there are more masts in your area with another Three one then take note of its ID as well just incase.

Brian h

downwithpeace wrote: »

Yes the Three one would be yours, if there are more masts in your area with another Three one then take note of its ID as well just incase.

Thanks for that.

Brian

Brian h

Hi all,

Just a quick update to my original post. I presume it's just a coincidence, but since I brought the problem to the attention of this forum, I had my first day of 100% trouble-free internet in almost two weeks yesterday!

Today has been almost as good with just one very brief appearance of "server not found" which I recovered from immediately. Don't know what to make of it all but I'm not trusting it completely yet. Hopefully things will return to normal and I won't have so much time wasted by it.

Thanks to everyone who gave their help and suggestions. Hope I haven't spoke too soon!

Brian

Brian h

Brian h wrote: »

Hi all,

Just a quick update to my original post. I presume it's just a coincidence, but since I brought the problem to the attention of this forum, I had my first day of 100% trouble-free internet in almost two weeks yesterday!

Today has been almost as good with just one very brief appearance of "server not found" which I recovered from immediately. Don't know what to make of it all but I'm not trusting it completely yet. Hopefully things will return to normal and I won't have so much time wasted by it.

Thanks to everyone who gave their help and suggestions. Hope I haven't spoke too soon!

Brian

Further to my own post above, I did speak too soon . A pattern seems to be forming now where it's almost guaranteed that I'll not have any internet for a couple of hours every day with this "server not found" problem. It is obvious that they simply cannot provide the service for which they are charging a fee.

I've only been on contract with them for about three months having used their pre-pay option before that. Is there any way I can get away from this so-called "service" without them trying to hit me with some sort of cancellation penalty?

watty

Probably not since it's mobile. They can tell you to try it someplace else.

Brian h

watty wrote: »

Probably not since it's mobile. They can tell you to try it someplace else.

That would likely be their answer Watty, but I'm going to look into the alternatives anyway. There has not been many options open to me but I've just checked out Digiweb's website for the the first time in a long while and they've now got 7mb DSL available in my area. I can only imagine that it would be a major improvement on 3 "broadband" which is just far too unreliable now.

watty

1Mbps DSL is better than "up to" 21Mbps Mobile for Fixed Broadband.

Mobile is great for "Mobility".

yuloni

This post has been deleted.

Brian h

Condi wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Hi Condi,

I've been through the various DNS alternatives but it seems to be a "time of day" issue. A pattern is emerging where almost all instances of the problem occur on week nights - and to a lesser extent at weekends - between 19:00 and 23:00. Outside those times the service is actually quite good.

Also, I don't get a gradual slowing down of speed: it's a case of all or nothing. I suddenly get the dreaded "server not found" message that can last for hours. If I clear temp internet files/cache/DNS cache etc., then it sometimes lets be back on for a couple of minutes then it's goes down again.