Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

Since the firmware update I am using the automatic iPv6 config and have not had any issues, I am in New orleans and we seem to be last on anything Cox does, so not sure where we stand on the rollout. Yesterday i was at an establishment where cox was doing an install, tv, internet and phone system, I asked the installer what he knew about the iPV6 rollout, and he didn't know what I was talking about. I realize he is an installer but would think he would have some knowledge of the systems he is installing

Yatbot, as far as I know Cox has just recently completed the roll-out of IPv6 nation wide. If you want to check if your configuration is working visit the following IPv6 test web site. You want to receive a test score of 19/20 (failing the Hostname test is normal.)

IPv6 test - IPv6/4 connectivity and speed test

The strange thing for me is that when I changed my settings to automatic and ran the test I passed with a 19/20, checked it again later in the day and it failed, restarted my AE and passed the test, only to have it fail later, for some reason for me there is that something igoing on with the AE or my settings to cause this, haven't reset the AE in a couple of days and I consistently fail the test,

YatBob, that is interesting. I wonder how many other people who have set their AirPort router back to the "Automatic/Native" setting for IPv6 will still fail the IPv6 test like yours does even though their Internet connect has now stabilized with the firmware update.

A question to the people still following this thread. Those of you who have re-configured your AirPort router to re-enable IPv6 (set it back to Automatic/Native) and are using Cox DNS (have not manually entered any custom DNS settings), how many of you pass the IPv6 test at the following test site consistently hours or days later.

IPv6 test - IPv6/4 connectivity and speed test

from Cox's website, a few minutes ago:

When will the Cox network be upgraded to IPv6?

All residential Cox customers in all markets now have access to IPv6, with the exception of the following.

• Only Cable Modems and Voice modems are currently enabled to pass IPv6 traffic.
• WiFi Modems will be enabled for IPv6 during second quarter of 2016.
• G1GABLAST and Cox Business customers will have IPv6 enabled at a later date with a target of 2016.

I had the same issues when using the Google DNS, would pass test on initial setup and fail on subsequent testing

So it seems, at least from your experience, that although the connection has stabilized, IPv6 is still not working properly and consistently.

Correct, just don't understand why resetting the AE provides working iPv6 and without doing anything including not turning off my iMac I loose iPv6 connectivity

Yatbot, if you are comfortable with using the Terminal app issue the following command, (this will send 10 pings to Google's IPv6 address)

ping6 -c 10 ipv6.google.com

A good result will end with something like this.

--- ipv6.l.google.com ping6 statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/std-dev = 30.124/36.498/39.023/3.227 ms

Just wondering if any function of IPv6 is still working even though you fail the other IPv6 test.

In trying to troubleshoot I just reset my AE and have ipv6, ran the test in terminal and got the 10/10 etc, will run it again when I fail the ipv6 test

Hello All, Cox IPv6 engineer here. Since this seems to a popular thread I hope to find some help here as well as clear up several inaccuracies. I'll start with those, and get to the help in a moment.

The IPv6 deployment at Cox begin in July of 2015 in Santa Barbara, CA and completed nationwide in February 2016. Orange County, CA was the last to launch. I saw a few comments related to timelines so I thought I'd clear that up first.

Second - it is true that we have been receiving a high volume of calls from customers using Apple Airports since we enabled IPv6 on our network. We engaged Apple directly and worked with them over a period of months to identify and resolve some DHCPv6 and DNS bugs in the Airport code. These fixes were included in the just-released Airport code 7.6.7 or 7.7.7 (depends on your model). Both of those releases, for the older Airports and the newer ones, contain the same fixes according to Apple.

Prior to this new release, we were advising the customers who called in to disable IPv6 by choosing "Link-Local" as discussed at length in this thread.

The caveat is this: it's not yet clear that the bugs we found, and which are now resolved, are the only trigger for the issues being seen and reported here. In fact in my testing I could not get my Airport to fail just by using it; I had to try and break it, and that uncovered the bugs. But it is possible there are other issues that neither we nor Apple have found yet.

As some of you have pointed out, there does not seem to be evidence of this issue on other ISP networks, at least not to my knowledge. Does this mean that Cox must be incompatible with Airports, or that our network is broken? I don't believe so, and the reason is that we are not seeing this instability with other router vendors.

So why does this seem to happen on the Cox network but not on other networks? This is where I could use some help from the more tech-savvy among you.

If you have had consistent problems with your Airport which were only resolved by disabling IPv6, I would like to ask that you:

1. Upgrade to the latest code

2. Re-enable IPv6

3. Report back on whether the Airport stability improves or whether the problems come back. If the problems do return, as much technical detail as possible will help me identify and reproduce the issue. "The internet is down" doesn't help. Is the problem only on WiFi or also via wired? What is your http://test-ipv6.com score when the problem happens? Which client devices work and which don't? That type of info is what I'm looking for.

A few other random notes:

The IPv6 test web site that I recommend is http://test-ipv6.com. You should get a 10/10 when running from a MAC, PC, iOS, or Android. YMMV if you try from a gaming console, WinXP, or anything older.

When re-enabling IPv6 on your Airport, you need to change "Link-Local" back to "Automatic" as well as re-check the "Enable Ipv6 connection sharing" button. This will enable IPv6 Prefix Delegation (PD) on your home LAN.

Hello askin6305B

I have the latest Time Capsule hard wired ethernet to a Netgear CM400 cable modem. The TC is then ethernet hard wired to a latest model iMac. I also have three latest model Airport Extremes set around the property, set to "Extend a Wireless Network." Over all setup is like this:

Where the bottom AP Extr is the farthest one away, and appears to bridge / extend off the one above it.

I updated all four devices to 7.7.7 several days ago.

Then I changed from local link to ipv6 "automatically" on the TC, and checked the box to "Enable iPv6 Connection Sharing" and also checked the box under Network options to "Block Incoming ipv6 connections" and "allow incoming IPsec authentication." I allowed the system to fill in automatically the Cox DNS servers for ipv4 and ipv6.

On the three Airport Extremes, they were set under Wireless to "Extend a wireless network" and under Internet / Internet Options for all three Airports, "Enable IPv6 Connection Sharing was" UNchecked (not checked).

Initially under this setting I was getting the 10/10 http://www.test-ipv6.com/ here on all devices, iMac hard wired, iPhone 6 plus via WiFi, other iMacs via WiFi, Ipads, everything:

but during this same period, on the iMacs, both hard wired and via WiFi, I would get these results on the other test http://ipv6-test.com/:

However with WiFi iOS devices (iPhone / iPads), I was getting 19/20 on the above test. I never could figure out why the iMacs were getting only 16/20.

Speedtest.net showed good speed (above the advertised 150/10 I am supposed to get on my premier plan) on the ethernet wired iMac. Speeds varied via WiFi, but everything worked.

HOWEVER, about 24-26 hours later, internet stopped working on the iMacs - the ethernet hard wired one, and the two iMacs connected 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.

A restart of the modem and Time Capsule, resolved all errors, but ONLY for another 24-36 hours when I experienced the exact same issue - inability to load any websites on the iMacs (both ethernet and WiFi iMacs unable to load any websites on browsers), but the iOS devices (iPhone and iPads, via WiFi) were working fine.

Since I was unable to load any websites on the iMacs (both ethernet and WiFi iMacs), I could not do any tests other than the Network / Assist Me / Diagnostics, which, again, showed all green lights and "Your Internet connection appears to be working correctly." Review again of the Network / Advanced / TCP/IP didn't show anything remarkable to me.

Because of trying twice to keep things going with ipv6 enabled, I gave up and reverted to "link-local only" setting again on the Time Capsule, with no changes on the Airport Extremes. This link local status keeps me going indefinitely with no reduction in speed, and no connectivity issues on any devices.

askin6305B wrote:

Hello All, Cox IPv6 engineer here. Since this seems to a popular thread I hope to find some help here as well as clear up several inaccuracies. I'll start with those, and get to the help in a moment.

The IPv6 deployment at Cox begin in July of 2015 in Santa Barbara, CA and completed nationwide in February 2016. Orange County, CA was the last to launch. I saw a few comments related to timelines so I thought I'd clear that up first. . .

. . . The caveat is this: it's not yet clear that the bugs we found, and which are now resolved, are the only trigger for the issues being seen and reported here. In fact in my testing I could not get my Airport to fail just by using it; I had to try and break it, and that uncovered the bugs. But it is possible there are other issues that neither we nor Apple have found yet. . .

Thanks for your thorough comments above.

Some of us have been on this thread ever since the 1pv6 connection problems first showed up here at around March 1. I am in Williamsburg, VA, which fits your timeline. Fortunately for me, within a few days my system began working reliably again in early March, after absolutely no changes on my part. Before and after I have been using my six-month-old Time Capsule, my own Arris WBM 760 modem, and settings on 1pv6 Auto. The system worked before and still after firmware update 7.7.7. For literally three months I have had no problems since the initial ones in early March. This can only be accounted for by bug fixes Cox must have made in our area.

Since my experience indicates the problem was fixed by Cox, what caused this problem? Some have indicated Apple isn't always forthcoming about software or firmware changes they make. Perhaps. But in this case it seems that Cox may not be telling the whole story either. A lot of people have put a lot of effort into trying to get their systems to work. To continue the great help you are providing, I believe it would also be helpful to let people know what Cox did about this, besides just blame Apple. Clearly they must have done something. It's the only way to account for the way my system failed three months ago and after a few days "got well" and has worked perfectly ever since with no changes at all on my part.

We are all interested in achieving a permanent fix to this problem, in case it recurs. Knowing what Cox did to resolve it on their own, without pointing to Apple's 7.7.7, would be very satisfying to all of us who have been on this thread for the last three months. And would be helpful if problems recur. Cox is the company everyone "loves to hate" in our area. More info about what really happened would be a good step toward correcting that.

I appreciate your help.

askin,

We've been rock solid since we applied AE 7.7.7 on May 30. Until then, we were unstable for several months. On advice of a Cox tech, we originally applied Link-local fix, and reverted to Automatic IPv6 today. 10/10 on the IPv6 test you recommend. All downstream systems are Go, including Cat 6 linked Apple TV and wireless Macs. Speeds are above spec, and as good as they have ever been.

your techs have been very helpful.

thanks for jumping in.

one other thing -- Cox tech also noticed our 5 yr old cisco DPC3010 cable modem showed "frequent power adjustments" which may have been a factor in some of our stability problems. I replaced the cable modem shortly after I applied 7.7.7 update. Very stable, fast, and IPv6 ready now.