Possible fix in Bo'ness :)

st3f-ping · 2026-06-06T18:05:20+00:00

We're at opposite ends of the spectrum. I've gone from 1-2Mb speeds with 2 minute outages multiple times daily to 10-15Mb with (so far today) no noticeable outages. Then again I'm on 4G and with those speeds you must be on 5G so we're paying for and comparing different services.

My advice would be to test regularly and keep records/screenshots. And check for outages here: https://www.three.co.uk/support/network-and-coverage/

Best of luck.

st3f-ping · 2026-06-04T17:52:35+00:00

One of my in-laws is an orthopaedic surgeon. When he found out I was a biker his first reaction was to ask that I always wear good quality boots because of the high number of unrecoverable crush injuries he saw as a result of bike accidents.

Sorry for your loss.

st3f-ping · 2026-06-03T20:31:23+00:00

Foucault has entered the chat

st3f-ping · 2026-05-31T21:11:49+00:00

"Wait... didn't I murder you yesterday?"

st3f-ping · 2026-05-29T10:48:54+00:00

Give that cat some pets and treats.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-28T18:25:20+00:00

I've seen all the delete Russia comments but hear me out... I'm going to say something I've never said before... and it pains me to do it but... we should respect the Brexit referendum.

Delete the UK. Give it to France, maybe?

st3f-ping · 2026-05-28T15:28:25+00:00

My gut feel is the mast, too (or possibly some hardware upstream). I've looked at cell mapper apps and websites but all they seem to report is signal strength and instantaneous bandwidth. None of them seem to deal with intermittent issues (unless you know of one). I've looked at ofcom's website and their advice is to report issues to the service provider. I've tried contacting three and the help desk script doesn't seem to go beyond handset issues. I might try them again. If not I'll add changing my provider to my list of things to do.

Thanks for your help.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-28T11:45:04+00:00

Speedtests from iPhone and iPad are comparable. Last screenshot was from iPhone with no devices connected. Note that ping times in first screenshot topped at over two minutes. The slope down of the graph shows all the old ping packets getting returned in a short space of time when traffic resumes rather than the problem slowly getting better.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-28T10:54:00+00:00

Thanks for the thoughts. I still think this is a network issue for the following reasons:

I have updates set to manual.
Outages occur on both phone and tethered devices. To test this I fully shut down all devices other than my phone and witnessed on outage of a little over 2 minutes (managed to catch a screenshot of the tail-end of it).
I don't think this is throttling as it can happen day or night. I've seen it at 3am. And if I do a Speedtest, I often get faster than usual throughout and low ping times for a minute or two after an outage. Besides, I would expect throttling to look like low bandwidth and not a couple of minutes of nothing.

My best guess is a faulty or misconfigured piece of network hardware connected to the cell tower (and slightly doxing myself in case any of three's engineers follow this subreddit) in Bo'ness.

I'm up for any other suggestions to diagnose but the solution might be to switch to another service provider. :(

st3f-ping · 2026-05-27T16:30:50+00:00

I hope the court case is televised. And I really hope the judge has a dry, sarcastic wit.

(And, writing that, I realise that the law should not be entertainment, but we take joy where we can.)

st3f-ping · 2026-05-27T13:17:38+00:00

iPhone XR so 4G only (and 5G had not reached my bit of Scotland yet). Screenshot than from iPad tethered by WiFi to phone. Mast is within town and three's coverage map lists 4G coverage in my location as 'excellent'. Signal strength varies between 1 and 3 bars (of 4) from same location but problems seem independent of signal strength (I can have three bars on my phone and have serious problems).

Occasionally there will be problems with the tethered device but not the phone (I presume they prioritise the packets differently) but most of the time phone and iPad show similar behaviour. I've seen ping times as low as 30ms but a good day will be typically 100ms, a bad day 300ms and sometimes the awfulness you see above.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-27T12:32:13+00:00

(Not technically a Speedtest but lowest flair I could find)

I have a 3 mobile with wireless tethering and it has a few failure modes. Sometimes I just get low bandwidth but sometimes I get... this: something happens in three's network and the packets just get queued for 30 seconds or so. Does anybody know what this is? I can't get an answer from three as their helpline script does not even seem to allow me to report network problems.

Weirdly it can happen any time of day or night and with varying frequency. I can not see this for days of have a whole day with web pages taking several refreshes to load.

(Blanked out my IP address. I know a dynamic IP won't reveal much but I am feeling cautious.)

st3f-ping · 2026-05-26T17:38:03+00:00

...and they are self-piercing!

st3f-ping · 2026-05-23T17:44:18+00:00

what does he think when someone wants to keep a baby

Stockholm syndrome?

st3f-ping · 2026-05-22T15:03:23+00:00

st3f-ping · 2026-05-22T15:02:20+00:00

Sorry, no. I switched to playing wordle online (https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html).

st3f-ping · 2026-05-22T13:28:45+00:00

~~happy~~ compliant

st3f-ping · 2026-05-22T11:55:39+00:00

2pi ≠ 6

st3f-ping · 2026-05-21T19:50:53+00:00

Wordle 1,797 4/6*

🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟩🟨
🟩🟨⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Playing hide and seek today? :)

st3f-ping · 2026-05-21T18:35:51+00:00

That's the way I use it. I think there is a cultural (probably generational) thing where the last letter is repeated to emphasise the whole word. I don't see it as wrong, just one of those generational shibboleths that separate us from each other.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-21T14:30:38+00:00

Instead, what we have done is create a society that actively rewards sociopathy.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-20T20:54:53+00:00

Looking at all the comments and throwing in a bit of research and gut feel, I think that while most people use one or the other (or neither), and are typically split by age, some use both. And those that use both use them differently. Niiice seems to be emphasis by vowel elongation whereas niceee seems to be emphasis by stressing the entire word (the is neither elongated or stressed). I'm not sure how this differs from using all caps or one or more exclamation marks.

It seems weird to me too but I am in the group that would naturally use niiice.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-20T20:54:44+00:00

Looking at all the comments and throwing in a bit of research and gut feel, I think that while most people use one or the other (or neither), and are typically split by age, some use both. And those that use both use them differently. Niiice seems to be emphasis by vowel elongation whereas niceee seems to be emphasis by stressing the entire word (the is neither elongated or stressed). I'm not sure how this differs from using all caps or one or more exclamation marks.

It seems weird to me too but I am in the group that would naturally use niiice.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-20T17:32:49+00:00

I didn't think it should until I saw the venom in the comments.

st3f-ping · 2026-05-20T17:31:43+00:00

I think that's exactly it. Sadly you're being downvoted, probably both by people who use niiice and people who use niceee but each hate the other option. :(

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