Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

dhlewis21 wrote:

During this conversation he told me that a major IPv6 upgrade was performed on Tuesday night (4/26) in most Cox major markets (I remember, LA, Phoenix, VA, Cleveland, but there were more he rattled off).

When I got home I decided to try one more thing before installing the new router. I RESET THE MODEM TO FACTORY SPECIFICATIONS.

Thank you for this, dhlewis21.

I'm in the Phoenix,AZ market and for the past 24 hours I have not had any disconnect issues going back to Configure IPv6: Automatically from Link-local only. Granted, it's only been 24 hours. We'll see how things go over the next few days.

I believe you meant to say you reset your AEBS to factory settings. I did the same resetting my AEBS to factory settings then manually configuring it for WiFi and other configurations. I also went one step further and Reset All Defaults on my cable modem (Arris SB6141) to which really didn't seem to do anything but clear out the Log.

This has been going on for months. I was originally told in early March that Cox loaded new firmware into the modem which turned out to be incompatible with the Airport Extreme. I turned off IPv6 and things worked, but slower. They told me Cox and Apple were working on the problem. They may be, but it appears to be at the bottom of their priorities. Don't know what to do about it. As far as Apple cares, out of 10 million Airports, 1 percent have the problem. As far as Cox cares, probably the same level of concern. Numbers are my estimates. Good luck to us all.

Granted, it's only been 24 hours. We'll see how things go over the next few days.

Well, this didn't last long. For 48 hours it was fine. Then I had to restart the AEBS after 8 more hours and again first thing this morning. So, I went back to Link-local only.

"I did the same resetting my AEBS to factory settings then manually configuring it for WiFi and other configurations. I also went one step further and Reset All Defaults on my cable modem"

I did the same, and just as I read where you were having success, I went to reply that it was working for me also, in the middle of my reply I lost internet connection, like you mine worked for approx. 48 hours, after resetting the TC twice, which only lasted a few hours between resets I have reverted back to link-local

I changed to the Google DNS settings four days ago and the operation has been flawless.

Did you also set the Google iPv6 DNS settings also or just iPv4, I went the Google route including iPv6 settings and it also worked flawlessly for a few weeks, but it keep failing the iPv6 test, reset the base station and it worked for a while then failed again, never lost internet connection just the test failed, so went back and tried the Cox DNS settings configuring iPv6 automatically and as I posted above worked approx. 48 hours the crapped out.

I am tired of experimenting with various DNS's just want something to just work

Thanks for the suggestion. My wireless internet was going down several times a day (wired was fine). To restore wireless service I had to unplug the router each time it went down. Your solution of using Google servers has worked for five straight days!

This has got to be an issue with COX. we have comcast at our families home out of state, same set-up same similar internet speeds and modem.

COX is the only one seemingly not being able to handle IPv6 properly. anytime they see the word Apple they go nuts. when they saw we had MacBooks they said they may not work with Cox...WHAT!?!?

I did the link-local update and my speeds went from 175Mbps to 40Mbps down.

It seems like the settings may be affected by the changes...idk but this is 4 months straight for our network

I have actually had quite a few customers of mine calling me to say their internet has been in and out over the last month. Some have COX as their ISP while others have TWC as well as AT&T. All of them have one thing in commom, an AirPort Extreme setup as their router (and some also have Airport Express units setup in conjunction with the Extreme for a roaming network). Anyway I have walked each of these customers through reconfiguring their AirPort Extreme (and Express units if they have them) for the Link-Local Only IPV6 configuration and it has fixed their intermittent internet connectivity issues. So it would seem that the AirPort Extreme is having issues with signals from COX, TWC, and ATT?

I've had the same issue with Cox ... I'm paying for 150 down which I regularly get .... but even before I turned on the link-local, after 2 or 3 days would drop to 60 to 75 megs.

I started another thread on this ... see the one concerning Cox speed issue.

i brought a brand new APTC, restored the modem to factory defaults. hard line into the modem my estimated speeds. through the airport with IPv6 automatically in its default state out of the box from Apple...same estimated speeds for my plan the premier service.

I do the Link-local and bam 20Mbps wired or wireless into the APTC. turn IPv6 back on or turn back on all APTC defaults, i get around 90Mbps. something is goofy with cox, it just doesn't make sense that the AP is solely to blame.

I have a feeling the ISP is limiting how the IPv6 addresses are handled and thats whats causing this

Same problem here Cox and Airport Extreme. Set DNS servers to Google ones vs. Cox and problem has gone away so far 10 days without having to reset Airport extreme. Very frustrating last month until I searched and found this forum thread. Crickets on Cox sites for anything from them about problems transitioning to ipv6 and Airport Extreme.

At this point if this DNS switch does not provide for a long term solution I'll just buy something other than an Airport Extreme and keep the Airport as a backup or bridge.

Thank you for sharing your experience and suggested fix. I too have Cox cable service and an Apple Extreme wireless router. At least six times a day I lose Internet connection. I unplug and then replug the modem which allows me to re-connect to the Internet. Very annoying and frustrating to say the least. I very much appreciate the suggested fix. However I am not that technically savvy so please excuse this question. How do I get to the point to actually start entering the fix as suggested? A step-by-step walk-through would be helpful. Thank you!

HI, Joe. I've posted these instructions here on the Apple forums as well as Cox's. I've been using Google's DNS servers for months with zero negative side Affects. There's a few steps to be sure, but nothing really too daunting. Just remember that anything you do can be undone with a hard reset of the AirPort Extreme.

Here is how to switch from Cox's DNS servers to Google's. This was done using Airport Utility for iOS. Should be similar on Mac.

1. Open Airport Utility app.

2. Tap on your Airport basestation's icon.

3. Tap "Edit" in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

4. Tap "Internet Connection". DHCP should be highlighted in blue at the top of the screen. Under "DNS Server" you will see a primary and secondary set of numbers. These are the Cox DNS server numbers. Write these down. You'll need them should you ever decide to revert back. If you made the previous change to IPv6-link only local, you will not see any characters under "IPv6 DNS Server". If you did not make this change, Cox's DNS server numbers should be displayed here. Again, Write these down, so you may revert later. I haven't tested this, but, in theory, if you don't write these numbers down, you should be able to get them back by resetting the Airport to factory defaults with the hard reset button on the back of the unit. Okay. Now the changes.

5. If you are using Google's DNS servers, you'll enter the following. There are other public DNS servers you can use like Level 3 and others. Do an internet search for it. For Google: tap in the field next to "Primary" under "DNS Server". Type in "8.8.8.8" (without the quotation marks). In the "Secondary" field, type "8.8.4.4" (again, without quotation marks).

6. Scroll down to "IPv6 DNS Server" and type in the "Primary" field "2001:4860:4860::8888" (no quotation marks and notice the double colon between 4860 and 8888). Now go to the "Secondary" field and type "2001:4860:4860::8844" (no quotations and again notice the double colon). This switches you to Google servers (after the unit reboots).

7. Tap "Done" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. If you had previously turned IPv6 off via "link only local"' we will need to fix that to restore IPv6 functionality via Google servers. If you did not make this change, tap "Done" at every screen you see and the unit will reboot and your changes will take effect.

8. If you did make the link only local change, tap "Advanced", "IPv6", "Configure IPv6" and change this from "link-only local" to "Automatically". "IPv6 mode" should be "Native". "Share IPv6 Connection" should be on. "Block incoming IPv6" should be on. Keep tapping "Done" at every screen to save your changes and reboot.

9. Once rebooted, you should be able to go back to the screen where the DNS settings are and see that they are now pointing to Googles servers.

10. At this point, power off both the cable modem and AirPort for about two minutes. Power the modem back on first and let it boot. This could take a minute or two. Then power up the AirPort.

11. Once everything is back up and running, go back into AirPort Utility. We are going to check that you have a functioning IPv6 connection. Tap on your AirPorts icon. Tap "Edit" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Tap "Advanced" then "IPv6". You should see an IPv6 WAN address and an IPv6 Delegated Prefix assigned.

12. Now open up Safari and go to www.test-IPv6.com. This site will test the state of your connections' IPv6 readiness. You should now have a working IPv6 connection.

13. For some, these changes may seem a bit intimidating. But, there's nothing here that can't be undone with a hard reset of the AirPort (the tiny button on the back that you have to press in with a paper clip for 10 seconds). This would completely reset the AirPort to factory defaults like it was when you first unboxed it when it was new. Best of luck everyone. Hope this helps.

Much agreed!! Link-local only basically disables IPv6 in the Time Capsule. The result is no dropped connection but it does kill the DL speed significantly. Ugh!! Come on Apple/Cox! Figure out a solution for this please.