4 ms·

Vodafone admits 'major outage' as more than 130,000 report problems

66 points by rstreefland 1y ago

cph123 1y ago
It looks like the number of IPv4 /24s their ASN was announcing has dropped significantly: https://radar.cloudflare.com/routing/as5378#announced-ip-address-space https://radar.cloudflare.com/routing/as5378#announced-ip-add...
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- gorgoiler 1y ago
  My first thought was that they’d accidentally broken their BGP announcements, cutting themselves off. I don’t know enough about this topic though: are you saying there’s evidence they just stopped announcing their networks for no real reason, or is this graph a symptom of someone being something else being wrong, as opposed to being the root fault?
Latitude7973 1y ago
This completely stymied me - joining a meeting while WFH: broadband goes down, can't use the SIM in my computer, can't tether to my phone as they are all using Vodafone.
- messe 1y ago
  That's one of the reasons I kept my Irish SIM even after I got my Danish one. I've found it useful on plenty of occasions to switch to the other, especially when traveling.
- rawling 1y ago
  I could tether to my (non Vodafone) phone, but my work laptop refused to connect to the WiFi hotspot until I physically unplugged the ethernet cable from the dock. "You can't connect to another network while you're on your employer's network." I'm not!
- rozenmd 1y ago
  I had a similar event a few months back, I now have separate providers for my SIM and home internet. You pay more, but the redundancy is worth it imo
nasretdinov 1y ago
I feel validated for having 4 (four) different provider options (personal + work phones, my cable, and neighbour's Wi-Fi :))
stillworks 1y ago
Seems to have recovered now
gbuk2013 1y ago
Everything was down: broadband, their website and even their support phone numbers. Talk about putting all the eggs in one basket! :)
rjh29 1y ago
With 5GB sims costing £2-5/month it is well worth buying a backup sim if this matters to you. I pay for two sims in two countries and was able to use the other's roaming data when Vodafone went down.
- alastairr 1y ago
  I'm not sure that would necessarily have helped. My regular sim was on another network (giff gaff), that was down. Went out and bought a pay-and-go sim on yet another network (EE) - no dice there either. Not sure what the issue was, but it seemed to have knock-on impacts in areas like mine that were affected.
  - rjh29 1y ago
    giff gaff is O2 and O2 shares a parent company with Vodafone (Virgin Media O2) and also shares masts. EE and Three probably share infrastructure too, particularly in rural areas. At least for me, Three was definitely working (South West)
    - ChocolateGod 1y ago
      Vodafone is not owned by Virgin Media O2.
    - alastairr 1y ago
      Vodafone & O2 / VM are separate entities I think. In fact, 3 is being merged into Vodafone. Regardless, hard to know how to have a good backup, maybe starlink ;)
quenix 1y ago
This was quite catastrophic - everything was down, even nationwide mobile data for Vodafone users (and piggybacking MVNOs). I hope we get more info or a postmortem. It also had spillover effects on other providers — O2 service was degraded
- traceroute66 1y ago
  > I hope we get more info or a postmortem. You're a funny one. Have you experienced how impossible it is to get decent tech support out of Vodafone these days ? So chances of a postmortem ?
octo888 1y ago
Wonder if it's anything to do with the in-progress merging with Three? I've noticed my MVNO Vodafone service, which was faultless, suddenly declining. Random dropouts are fairly common, no connection inside some big buildings (whereas Vodafone's infrastructure is known for being better inside and Three's much worse. Makes me think I'm being shunted onto Three's infrastructure)
- EmptyCoffeeCup 1y ago
  I also use an MVNO service. I have a horrible feeling that 3 traffic is being prioritised over Vodafone MVNO traffic, leading to service deg. End of the day, I was on Vodafone's network for a reason - it was the least congested in my area. 3 was crap. If I’m suddenly fighting for bandwidth with 3 customers because of this merger I will have to try EE (o2 is known garbage around here; 2 mbps at most thanks to traffic management). Ofcom should never have allowed it - the UK does not need reduced competition in this space.
gavin_gee 1y ago
anything to do with the massive DDOS attacks that Krebs has been reporting against US carriers?
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

66 points by rstreefland 1y ago

It looks like the number of IPv4 /24s their ASN was announcing has dropped significantly: https://radar.cloudflare.com/routing/as5378#announced-ip-address-space https://radar.cloudflare.com/routing/as5378#announced-ip-add...

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
gorgoiler 1y ago
My first thought was that they’d accidentally broken their BGP announcements, cutting themselves off. I don’t know enough about this topic though: are you saying there’s evidence they just stopped announcing their networks for no real reason, or is this graph a symptom of someone being something else being wrong, as opposed to being the root fault?

Latitude7973 1y ago

This completely stymied me - joining a meeting while WFH: broadband goes down, can't use the SIM in my computer, can't tether to my phone as they are all using Vodafone.

messe 1y ago
That's one of the reasons I kept my Irish SIM even after I got my Danish one. I've found it useful on plenty of occasions to switch to the other, especially when traveling.
rawling 1y ago
I could tether to my (non Vodafone) phone, but my work laptop refused to connect to the WiFi hotspot until I physically unplugged the ethernet cable from the dock. "You can't connect to another network while you're on your employer's network." I'm not!
rozenmd 1y ago
I had a similar event a few months back, I now have separate providers for my SIM and home internet. You pay more, but the redundancy is worth it imo

nasretdinov 1y ago

I feel validated for having 4 (four) different provider options (personal + work phones, my cable, and neighbour's Wi-Fi :))

stillworks 1y ago

Seems to have recovered now

gbuk2013 1y ago

Everything was down: broadband, their website and even their support phone numbers. Talk about putting all the eggs in one basket! :)

rjh29 1y ago

With 5GB sims costing £2-5/month it is well worth buying a backup sim if this matters to you. I pay for two sims in two countries and was able to use the other's roaming data when Vodafone went down.

alastairr 1y ago
I'm not sure that would necessarily have helped. My regular sim was on another network (giff gaff), that was down. Went out and bought a pay-and-go sim on yet another network (EE) - no dice there either. Not sure what the issue was, but it seemed to have knock-on impacts in areas like mine that were affected.
- rjh29 1y ago
  giff gaff is O2 and O2 shares a parent company with Vodafone (Virgin Media O2) and also shares masts. EE and Three probably share infrastructure too, particularly in rural areas. At least for me, Three was definitely working (South West)
  - ChocolateGod 1y ago
    Vodafone is not owned by Virgin Media O2.
  - alastairr 1y ago
    Vodafone & O2 / VM are separate entities I think. In fact, 3 is being merged into Vodafone. Regardless, hard to know how to have a good backup, maybe starlink ;)

quenix 1y ago

This was quite catastrophic - everything was down, even nationwide mobile data for Vodafone users (and piggybacking MVNOs). I hope we get more info or a postmortem. It also had spillover effects on other providers — O2 service was degraded

traceroute66 1y ago
> I hope we get more info or a postmortem. You're a funny one. Have you experienced how impossible it is to get decent tech support out of Vodafone these days ? So chances of a postmortem ?

octo888 1y ago

Wonder if it's anything to do with the in-progress merging with Three? I've noticed my MVNO Vodafone service, which was faultless, suddenly declining. Random dropouts are fairly common, no connection inside some big buildings (whereas Vodafone's infrastructure is known for being better inside and Three's much worse. Makes me think I'm being shunted onto Three's infrastructure)

EmptyCoffeeCup 1y ago
I also use an MVNO service. I have a horrible feeling that 3 traffic is being prioritised over Vodafone MVNO traffic, leading to service deg. End of the day, I was on Vodafone's network for a reason - it was the least congested in my area. 3 was crap. If I’m suddenly fighting for bandwidth with 3 customers because of this merger I will have to try EE (o2 is known garbage around here; 2 mbps at most thanks to traffic management). Ofcom should never have allowed it - the UK does not need reduced competition in this space.

gavin_gee 1y ago

anything to do with the massive DDOS attacks that Krebs has been reporting against US carriers?

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]