Issue with Intermittent internet connectivity

I am guessing this is the latest AC version TC?? If not please tell me the exact model, A1xxx from the base.. eg A1409 is Gen4.

There is a problem with some cable modems.. and the latest firmware in Gen1-4, and any firmware in Gen5.

Modems that seem to be the worst are the Motorola SB6121 or 6141.. (top of my head numbers).

The latest utility has removed control over the WAN port.. but that did seem to help.

I can suggest only what has worked for some others.. use a small 10/100 switch or a cross-over cable.

Or get the modem replaced or the TC replaced.

Downgrade to 7.6.1 firmware.

Load 5.6 version airport utility onto a computer.. even a windows one.. this is easy on Lion or Mountain Lion as there are clear methods .. the install of early utility on mavericks has been made tricky but is still possible.. just google for the method.

Using 5.6 utility you can control the WAN port speed. All such controls were removed in v6 utility.

Try those things.

I also recommend a full factory reset after the firmware downgrade.

Use all SMB type names.. that means short, 2-20 characters but less than 10 is great.. eg TCgen4

Same for wireless, TC24ghz and separate name for 5ghz ie. TC5ghz.

Use only WPA2 Personal security and use fixed wireless channels.. the more you control it and the less automatic the more chance it has to be stable.

I am having this exact problem. My time capsule is runing Version 7.6.4. We were having issues with the Aris TM502G for about 3 weeks with it getting slowly worse. Finally called comcast thinking it was their issue, and they upgraded us to a Technicolor TC8305C. Now the intermintant conectivity is every 1-2 minutes. There is no issue with connectivity when I bypassed the time capsule with a direct connection to the Technicolor. I'm using the 5.6 Airport utility and still having issues. When the outage occurs, the utility reports the Time Capsule is connected with no issues. I'm wondering if it has to do with outbound traffic? Could this be an IPv4/IPv6 issue?

Right now, I'm using Internet Sharing to from my iMac and all wireless connections are working fine which makes me think it evenmore that its a configuration issue with the Time Capsule. Any thoughts?

Same as I posted above.. there is real issues in the 7.6.4 firmware.

At the very least try the downgrade to 7.6.1 as it does seem to fix it for many people.

Factory reset after the downgrade.. and redo the setup.

IPv6 should be set to link local in both the computer and the TC.

And as stated you might also need to control the speed of the WAN port. Although that is less of an issue on that earlier firmware. Make sure the ethernet cable is good.

I had exactly this problem and it has turned out to be an IPv6 compatibility problem with 7.7.3.

Open AirPort Utility and click on the Time Capsule icon and then on the displayed page click on Edit. On that page choose 'Internet' and on the bottom of that page click on 'Internet Options...' Where it says Configure IPv6 click on the up/down arrows and choose 'Link-local only'; save that and back out to where you can update and do that. That disables all the IPv6 stuff (you will see that the options have changed if you go back in and most references to IPv6 are gone). I am on Cox cable and since I did this, it has been solid as a rock for several days now. Good Luck.

Jim Parker

Changing to Link Local Only might possibly help the connection issue, but there is a downside........specifically, it disables the IPv6 service from the Internet Service Provider, so the user would be paying for new service that he is not receiving.

As far as I can tell, there is no compatibility problem with 7.7.3 firmware if the correct IPv6 settings are applied.....and....the ISP has fully implemented IPv6 service. But, I'm not on Cox. A good friend of mine....who knows what he is doing.....is on Cox and he is not having any IPv6 issues....things are working fine....and he can see that his network devices are receiving IPv6 addresses.

Along those lines, we've seen some reports from Cox users who say that using the same IPv6 setup with the AirPort Extreme that Comcast (and Time Warner) use.....see link below....and then also using the Google DNS servers.......has worked very well. It might be worth a try if you have some time, and you want to receive all of the service that you are paying for.

http://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/download.php?file_id=35

Google DNS Servers are 8.8.8.4 and 8.8.4.4

Let us know how things are working if you decide to give this is a try.

Bob,

Thanks for the information. I didn’t realize that anyone was actually using IPv6 addressing and I also thought you couldn’t mix it with IPv4.

I understand that I am not getting what I am paying for but unfortunately, seems like a lot of us are getting used to that; settling, as the commercial says I guess.

The little deal I mentioned solved my problem as I need the v4 addresses working for my business. It has been 100% on for several weeks with no dropping every since I changed that setting.

In all fairness, I had the IPv6 settings that were the default on the AirPort Extreme in the Time Capsule set that way for many months with no trouble, but doing nothing that I can see also. Those defaults are exactly the same as the ones you have listed except for the DNS servers, which of course use the Cox ones by default, and the Block incoming IPv6 connections wasn’t checked; but I had checked it just because I hate to leave something open, even if I don’t know what it is. Then the dropping started and the only thing that would clear it was reapplying the AirPort settings or simply rebooting the Time Capsule so I assumed it was the TC and bought another one from Apple, plus a new modem. They did exactly the same thing so I now know that it has to be cox, at least in this area.

I have to assume that Cox is experimenting with something to do with this, and I understand that but they haven’t mentioned it or a work around, such as I am using, that will let us operate until they are up to speed. I have always been real pleased with Cox but this has been very frustrating.

Anyway, I will turn the IPv6 back on, with the default DNS servers and if that doesn’t work, with the Google servers soon and see if they have solved the problem since it is so easy to work around.

Thanks for the good information and your help.

Jim *******

Topeka, KS

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