giffgaff Mobile data issues

i_am_sy

sloz Some observations,
All these three coincided from around the same time (around 2 months or so ago)

When I place a giffgaff sim in my samsung s6 after having a different network sim in….
I don’t now get a pop up list of networks on the phone screen

That could be caused by the changes with balance notifications as it will probably be a USSD function that triggers that, maybe it was removed or broken when the balance notifications where switched to texts.

Problems with sending mms on androids

This one is interesting, there was at least one member I’ve helped on the last few days that wasn’t able to send MMS when they had a goodybag, but could without, it didn’t make much sense at the time but could possibly be a ports issue too.

If so then I imagine that’s a bigger can of worms than one we are going to be able to unpick and make sense of without some way of testing each possible theory.

Problems with connecting to certain apps on androids.

Do you think these issues my just be limited to android? I hadn’t considered that it may not be the case on iPhones too.

mrjeeves

sloz When I place a giffgaff sim in my samsung s6 after having a different network sim in….
I don’t now get a pop up list of networks on the phone screen

I’ve never had that since I joined in 2015. Are you sure that’s not something that only happens on some phones? Most just autoconnect to the first network they’re allowed to.

sloz Problems with sending mms on androids

I remember that service issue being attributed to an incorrect mmsc address.

i_am_sy there was at least one member I’ve helped on the last few days that wasn’t able to send MMS when they had a goodybag, but could without, it didn’t make much sense at the time but could possibly be a ports issue too

Unless giffgaff were doing something very strange I don’t see how ports would be allowed/blocked when on PAYG vs goodybag. I’ve been able to send MMS when on goodybag with some credit left over.

sloz Problems with connecting to certain apps on androids

As i_am_sy mentioned, it’s very interesting if this only affects Android. If may be a coincidence (most Hearthstone players prefer Android/Windows combo for example).

That should be looked into…

sloz

i_am_sy
I wouldnt have though that the removal of balance notifications resulted in the pop up list of networks appearing after the phone is switched on,
(the problems I believe started before the balance notifications were removed)

The problem with connecting to certain apps appears to be only with androids,
And will always be resolved by running a vpn (I always suggest turbo vpn)
At the same time as the app

sloz

mrjeeves
Wrote....
I’ve never had that since I joined in 2015. Are you sure that’s not something that only happens on some phones? Most just autoconnect to the first network they’re allowed to.
.
.
mrjeeves
Remind which you have?
And that's if you place another network sim in your phone and then a giffgaff sim?

mrjeeves

sloz

I've got a realme X2 Pro rooted and modified to run stock Android 10.

Just tried with my dad's second SIM (Virgin) and it just connected me straight away.

sloz

mrjeeves
And no pop up list?
I've just tried again and when I place my tombile /EE sim in my phone a pop up list appeared, but not when I replaced my giffgaff sim,

As far as I can recall this has never been the case

_kara_

Thank you so much for raising this with us. I have flagged this up to the relevant folks and they are currently looking into this. We will get back to you with more information on this as soon as we have an update from them.

mrjeeves

_kara_

@i_am_sy and I did a bit more experimenting.

The issue is definitely within giffgaff specifically.

We know this because, while testing other O2 APNs (Tesco and O2 themselves) the issue still exists.

This might make it seem like the issue is O2-wide, but this problem still happens because the MVNO value in the APN is still set to giffgaff, meaning that the servers process it as giffgaff traffic.

All the O2 APNs redirect to the same internal servers, as far as I can tell. This is probably for backwards compatibility and because it’s just plain easier. It’s only the MVNO value that determines how the data is routed/processed. If this value was changed, you couldn’t connect without changing it back.

We can also confirm it’s not O2-wide as someone I know on Tesco, and @i_am_sy on O2 can’t reproduce these issues, but I can on giffgaff.

i_am_sy

This issue is still ongoing, the agents have not managed to get to the bottom of it, they had reported back that the engineers had found an issue which they had fixed however it did not rectify the issue. So the issue is still currently affecting giffgaff members when using mobile data.

The tracker has been updated with another thread for a game.

i_am_sy

This issue is now being raised internally by the community team as per this post on the unreported service issues thread.

Hopefully this.should mean further investigation will take place over the coming days.

guy_ow

Evening @i_am_sy and @mrjeeves

Not a massive update at the moment, one of the team did discover that the issue with Hearthstone is not specific to giffgaff, there is a post on this thread here https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/main-thread-t-mobile-sprint-cannot-connect-to-hearthstone-on-mobile-data/33040 where at post from their community support gives a bit more detail into the issue being experienced by Hearthstone users (roughly post 191, in blue text).

The other things haven't been forgotten about either, just wanted to update you on something one of the folks found that at least gives some explanation to one of the issues raised.

mrjeeves

guy_ow

The engineers are wrong about thinking that thread is related to this issue.

The CM said that it’s due to how Hearthstone handles IPv6 connections, but giffgaff doesn’t actually support IPv6 yet, hence why there are posts in Contribute asking for it and hence why the APN settings say IPv4.

guy_ow

mrjeeves I did ask the same question, main thought I had back was that it’s more on how they handle the IP network framework themselves as IPv6 is not as widely used as IPv4 yet. In regards to saying ‘specific’ was more to show there are other users experiencing issues using Hearthstone over a mobile data connection.

Either way it wasn’t a solution to the issue as such just more an update on what was found in relation to that one so far, the folks are still looking into things (I’m asking for updates as and when I can). So far we know that it doesn’t appear to be affecting all users of the giffgaff network, so this is requiring further looking into.

mrjeeves

guy_ow

Ah okay, I misunderstood what you meant.

Thanks for the update! I hope they can find the issue. 🙂

guy_ow

mrjeeves Same here, I've just spotted the OP has been updated with a few other games as well, so have highlighted this to the team as well.

Currently downloading Hearthstone again myself too to try a few things 👍️

guy_ow

In fact I might hopefully have an update soon, so as soon as I know I'll let you know.

i_am_sy

guy_ow

Any news in the last week at all?

I’m seeing more and more people with these issues cropping up as the weeks tick by.

lukas72128

I have the same problem with app called delm8, it’s freezing on loading screen, I’ve contacted their technical team and the first thing they asked me was do I have giffgaff, they said that only delm8 users that got this problem are also giffgaff users

guy_ow

i_am_sy Not had the update through yet, will be chasing it up soon though.

benjamin567

This might be related: https://community.giffgaff.com/d/33144277-i-can-t-log-in-game

i_am_sy

guy_ow

Can you beat them up now please?