topic Re: WebSocket disconnection in Broadband & Landline

WebSocket disconnection

denishowe — Tue, 06 May 2025 16:00:34 GMT

The site online-go.com uses WebSockets to connect the browser to its servers. Since a week or so ago, these connections stop responding 20s after they are created and disconnect after another 20s. This happens every time.

It always happens when connecting to an IP6 address, never for IP4 (the site has three of each).

It happens for both the normal online-go.com web client and when mimicking it on a WebSocket test site like websocketking.com. I don't know of it happening when connecting to other WebSocket servers.

Most relevant to this forum, it only happens when connecting from BT's network (which I get from EE). It doesn't happen if I go via a VPN to any other network, nor does it happen for users in other countries.

The servers are fronted by Cloudflare so it looks like WebSocket over IP6 connections from BT to Cloudflare fail as described above.

For more discussion, see: https://forums.online-go.com/t/ogs-connection-issues-for-bt-users-was-is-ogs-running-slow-no-it-isnt/56360/71.

Obviously, I would expect BT to blame Cloudflare and vice versa so I'm not going to even try to get support but I thought it might help others with the same issue.

Re: WebSocket disconnection

Ali_A — Mon, 12 May 2025 15:25:29 GMT

Hi @denishowe

Thanks for the information.
Looking at the forum you've added it appears they may have found a resolution to the issue you've been facing.

This is good news.

Ali

Re: WebSocket disconnection

denishowe — Mon, 12 May 2025 17:33:27 GMT

Thanks for the response.

The original problem still exists: WebSocket connections from EE to an IP6 address fronted by Cloudflare drop soon after creation.

The site I mentioned solved the problem by not routing via Cloudflare but, given the popularity of Cloudflare, EE (BT) users of other sites are probably still suffering.

Re: WebSocket disconnection

Ali_A — Tue, 13 May 2025 14:40:25 GMT

@denishowe

Thank you for taking time to help the EE Community.

I passed this to the team to look into, but we haven't any reported issues with WebSockets through Cloudflare for any other sites.

If anything changes please keep us updated.

Ali

Re: WebSocket disconnection

dctanner — Thu, 15 May 2025 13:51:18 GMT

Hi,

We can also confirm this is a major issue for our websites that are hosted on Cloudflare and use websockets. We are experiencing the exact same behavior as the OP.

Re: WebSocket disconnection

DaveHoganiw — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 22:18:21 GMT

I can also confirm I'm seeing this on a website I'm working on that is proxied via Cloudflare. Only when users are accessing it via BT/EE. My socket gets nuked after 50s rather than 20s as per OP.

Re: WebSocket disconnection

Peter_W — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 08:37:06 GMT

Good morning @DaveHoganiw.

Thanks for taking the time to highlight this.

Do you know if the users that have reported this issue are connecting over BT & EE broadband, EE mobile, or both?

Peter