There is currently a disruption in the Orange network. Customers across Flanders are experiencing problems with various services. It is noteworthy that surfing via the browser usually still works.

The Orange network has been having problems for several hours. Customers across the country are reporting problems, including with digital TV and internet services. The outage appears to be related to a configuration problem with the provider. For example, Orange’s website is not accessible to customers via mobile or landline internet. Customers of other providers can visit the site without any problems. The first reports of problems came in at 4 p.m. this afternoon.

The problems seem to be most noticeable among those who want to relax after the work day. Orange’s digital television wouldn’t work like that. Several customers report that disconnecting the decoder from the internet helps.

A survey we conducted points to various problems. For example, voice assistants no longer work and the functionality of smart TVs disappears. Our testing suggests that internet traffic to non-Orange services through the laptop continues to function largely normally. In any case, critical solutions like Outlook are still accessible.

Speculation about the cause

For example, we can ping Orange.be over the Orange network, but we get an HTTP2 protocol error when we want to visit the website. Other connections time out, indicating that the infrastructure is healthy, but connections are denied. The error indicates a variety of possible problems, such as misconfigured TLS certificates. Since the problems are experienced by many users, it appears that the Orange network’s response is sending irregular packets. Further snooping showed us that our devices are having difficulty getting the current time from the network. Problems with the timecode can also lead to such errors.

Whatever the cause, the outage appears to be continuing for now. Are you suffering from strange internet-related problems where you can read this article but other things don’t work? Then you’re not alone.