Problem accessing WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook on all our mobile phones
 

A strange problem! My family has Sky broadband. Excellent service until a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, over the past couple of days in our house, my family of four have experienced severe problems in accessing WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook on all our mobile phones.

Whilst we have nominally a very good wifi connection throughout the house (it presently reads 60mb/s), it takes forever, if at all, to open (each time) WhatsApp- the app reads "connecting", sometimes connecting on after a couple of minutes. Same procedure again when I switch out of the app, and then go to switch it on again- it eventually comes on after a minute or two.

Unfortunately, as well, Instagram and Facebook won't open at all on the house internal wifi. This happens on all of the phones in our house. We get a reading on Instagram- "Couldn't refresh feed" Also, a message on Facebook "Safari couldn't open the page because the server stopped working."

When I switch off wifi on the phone, all starts working again on 4G! As well, logging in to a neighbour's (different providor) Wifi, the apps work perfectly as well.

My nephew, who runs a computer business in another town, suggests that it may be a problem with DNS on a Sky server??

Whatever the cause, I regret to say that the Sky people to whom I've spoken on the phone were so far unknowledgeable regarding this issue. (Quote unquote "Your broadband's working- can't do anything!)

Can anyone out there give me suggestions as to what may be wrong? Thanks for any pointers!

My Apple Pay - which goes via my Wi-Fi when I am at home - stopped working recently; it would try to process a payment but then repeatedly said the process had failed, but did not tell me why.

I suspected a problem with my card or the bank, but eventually I discovered that there were outstanding Apple security updates on my phone and my computer. They are set to automatic update, but I switch both completely off every night, so they probably never get the chance.

I updated both devices and Apple Pay then worked perfectly again. Nice to know that with out of date security, Apple Pay will not work - makes it a little safer.

Might be a similar issue with you, although all the phones in the house simultaneously ? Has one of your offspring been fiddling with the Wi-Fi hub settings perhaps ?

If not, have you updated your Wi-Fi hub ? - there might be a security update outstanding. Must check mine.

Hi Uplinker. Many thanks for the prompt response!
The (grown up) offspring don't come near my computer and associated gubbins! I will try to carry out an update on my router!
It's really strange that the majority of our internet wifi is giving prompt results- just these pesky programmes are slow or stopped!! I'll let you know how I get on.

Hello again Uplinker,

Just checked the Sky website- they do automatic upgrades! However, I'm going to check with them to see when the last upgrade was performed?

Thanks again.

I have WhatsApp on my android and Windows laptop. Late last year I was getting update errors on my old laptop and eventually it stopped working. Deleted and attempted to reinstall, got an error. Loads of fixes on Internet, changes to DNS was mentioned I think, none seemed to work. Solved with purchase of new laptop (already planned!) will shortly be sorting old machine out and passing on to a friend - be interested to see if more or less factory resetting it will allow reinstallation of WhatsApp for Windows.

(For a period last year was also unable to access the American Warbird Information Exchange website in common with other UK users - this eventually resolved itself but Americans had no such problems...)

Hi all,

Many thanks for your input. I finally got to the bottom of the problem. On speaking with a (very patient) Sky technician last night (a prompt response to my written query to Sky), we went through, firstly all the options for the fault, (which I had already ticked off, one by one).

He then suggested turning off Sky Broadband Shield. I replied that I had already done that. The technician told me that he could it was still working?? So we switched it off, and the Apps started working again!

I then looked more closely at the Sky Broadband Shield web page, which gives options for age viewing. I realised that the reason that I thought it was switched off is that the switched off option is shown as a circle with a cross in the middle, which I mistook as that being my option- which it wasn't , if I'd taken more time, and looked more closely!

Everything working fine- but still leaves the question -why did the Apps stop running in the first place. The technician suggested it's because they are all run and owned by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta organisation- they must have altered their safety settings?

Thanks for the suggestions!

The big question is what that 'broadband shield' is doing. Is it a firewall? Does it selectively disable ports? I was thinking that a set of ports may have been blocked somewhere, which could disable a service.

When I used it about 10 years ago the BT router's 'Parental Controls' would block all requests to external DNS servers, while its own DNS server would block inquiries for URL's on the blacklist.