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Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

This is a notification to others as well as a question:


I have Cox Cable High Speed Internet at several locations using an Airport Extreme 3GB connected as a router to the Cox cable modem.


For more than a week we would regularly find in the morning that the outside connection to the internet DNS servers were lost. We called Cox several times, and they performed the usual reset of router and modem and things seem to work for a while. But the next day gone again.


They came out and replaced the hookups, I I had to buy a new cable modem and replaced a digital switch. Each time things seemed to work for a while.


I thought about replacing the Airport Extreme (as I read others had done in a similar situation to no avail).


After much frustration, I started to search for Airport Extreme and DNS and found similar tales.


After several unproductive calls with Cox Internet first tier support, I finally reached a tier who acknowledged that Cox was rolling out IPv6 and was having a problem with Airport Extreme Routers. They said Apple was working on it and gave me a number to call at apple router support. Unfortunalely the number they gave was no longer valid.

I persisted and eventually got to Apple support and indeed they knew of the problem and said Cox was working on it.. But there was a temporary fix - and that was to turn off iPv6 on the airport extreme (more precisely (internet > Internet Options > Configure Ipv6 : Link-Local Only).


For now this seemed to stop the overnight drop that seems to happen between 12:00 AM and 2:00 AM. From experience I dont think its really an IPV6 compaibility issue, but how the router responds to some sort of reset signal/test signal that the service does in the early morning.


So the question is - does anybody know for sure whats going on or who is really working on this. From my perspective both camps think its the other's problem. BTW - Ive read about others with Non Apple routers chasing something similar.

Posted on Mar 2, 2016 9:03 PM

Reply
483 replies

May 28, 2016 1:01 PM in response to Applexometa

Well who knows if it is going to last, but anyway this is the way I have it set right now, for a latest model Time Capsule updated to the new firmware 7.7.7


User uploaded fileUser uploaded fileUser uploaded file


I input no DNS in fact deleted them and let Cox insert the numbers by itself. No numbers appear at all for IPv6 DNS servers.


Anyway, when I test here:

http://www.test-ipv6.com/

I get 10/10

User uploaded file


But when I test here:

http://ipv6-test.com/

I get no fallback and only 16/20.

User uploaded file

May 28, 2016 1:34 PM in response to Gino_Cerullo

This is on an iMac ethernet connected to the TC:


It may have something to do with browser, but I can't quite figure out what it might be.


Restarted Chrome, same 16/20 no fallback. Deleted all cookies etc., restarted Chrome, same. Same result on Safari. On Opera got 14/20 even worse.


But on Firefox, 19 /20. Fallback to IPv4 in <1 second.


---


I just tried it on iPhone 6 plus, wifi, a safari browser, got 19/20 same result as the Firefox on the iMac.

May 28, 2016 2:55 PM in response to Gino_Cerullo

This No Fallback issue seems to be machine specific. Walking all over the property with the iPhone 6 plus, including to the farthest reaches of the Airport Extremes, the iPhone maintains 19/20 with Safari on http://ipv6-test.com/ as do both of my iPads with Safari.


The older iMac gets 19/20 via WiFi from one of the far ends of the house upstairs.


However, both this newest iMac via ethernet and another newest iMac via Wifi at another end of the property fail the Fallback test and get 16/20 on all browsers, including Firefox now, even after restart of browsers and computers. Oddly, these two iMacs are the newest ones, late 2015 models, highest speed configurations, and the one upstairs that is doing 19/20 via WiFi is an older iMac.


Ethernet speedtest.com on this iMac is same as with local link, about 169 / 12 (advertised 150 / 10), however WiFi speeds throughout are much slower today - including on the iPhone 6Plus sitting right next to this iMac getting only about a 1/4 of the download speed of the hard wired iMac. Don't know if this has to do with the change away from local link or if this is just the way WiFi is operating today.


Okay hold on, I just retested and the iPhone 6plus just got 107 download / 14 upload, so maybe the slow WiFi was a temporary thing.


I will leave it alone for now and see if connectivity holds for a few days. If it does hold then I may invest some more time into figuring out this No Fallback thing. No sense in working too hard on that if connectivity will be an issue.

May 29, 2016 6:15 PM in response to CromeYellow

Mid-Friday PM I decided to cut my loses ("hope is not a strategy") and spend $130 for a Netgear R6400 on Amazon Prime. Took delivery Saturday morning, and had it set up by noon, with IPv6 enabled and using Cox's DNS servers. Today, after letting everything stabilize and all wired/wireless devices having gone thru a reboot or re-up of DHCP lease, I still noticed slowness in DNS lookups, so I changed the router to use Google for IPv4 and IPv6 lookups. Speed difference is very noticeable - Google is much faster. Old Apple TimeCapsule is still in use, with wireless turned off and router set to bridge only. All hard-wired Ethernet connections were moved to the Netgear router. Time Machine backups for the three macs here are still occurring normally. A USB3 capable SSD backup drive was moved from the USB2 port on the TimeCapsule to the USB3 port on the Netgear router, so that is performing much better too. No disconnections experienced, as would be expected. Wireless signal (per Wi-Fi Explorer) is much stronger, and getting 802.11ac network capability as well. All good now, so an approach to consider for at least customers with older Airport Extremes (mine was mid-2011 model).

May 30, 2016 1:01 PM in response to CromeYellow

Not even sure how to diagnose this one.


About 36 Hours after the above (updating Time Capsule + three Airport Extremes, all latest models, to 7.7.7, and reverting to Cox standard ipv6 settings), all of my iMacs experienced inability to connect to internet, whether via hard wire ethernet or via WiFi. Airport Utility showed all green lights on all four devices. Network / Assist Me / Diagnostics, on the iMacs showed all green lights and "Your Internet connection appears to be working correctly." Review of the Network / Advanced / TCP/IP didn't show anything remarkable to me.

Error I was getting on the iMacs was when trying to use a browser - no connectivity no sites loading.

AT THE SAME TIME, an iPad and 6 plus iPhone connected via WiFi were working fine! with speedtest app coming in at decent speeds.

I do not have Firewall engaged on the iMacs. I do have Enable iPv6 Connection sharing checked on the Time Capsule only (along with Block incoming ipv6 and Allow Incoming ipSEC - both checked). On the three Airport Extremes I have them all three set the same to "Extend a Wireless network" and Enable iPv6 Connecting sharing is UNchecked on all three Airports):

User uploaded file


Restart of modem and Time Capsule only brought the iMacs back to working normally. I'll leave it alone for another day see what happens.


P.S. By the way, is this the best way to set up the three extra A/P Extremes? (With all three set the same way?) The bottom is the farthest one away so I have it relaying off one that is set closer to the Time Capsule. I have only one ethernet source for the internet hence only the Time Capsule is hardwired to the modem.

May 31, 2016 9:22 AM in response to konamonk

I reverted to local link. Experienced the same issue as described above ( Network / Assist Me / Diagnostics, on the iMacs showed all green lights and "Your Internet connection appears to be working correctly." Review of the Network / Advanced / TCP/IP didn't show anything remarkable to me.) but still not internet on the iMacs, including the ethernet hardwired iMac connected directly to the Time Capsule.


I actually did try to change the settings of two of the Airport Extremes that are set to "extend a wireless network" to "Enable iPv6 Connection sharing checked on the Time Capsule only (along with Block incoming ipv6 and Allow Incoming ipSEC - both checked)" but this had no effect, and besides, even the hardwired iMac was having the same problem and the Time Capsule was set with both of these ipv6 settings enabled all along.


Local link it is for now. I don't experience any speed issues so I'll leave it at local link for now.

Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

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