Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

Thank you very much for the info. I went back to Cox Support armed with your information... but after I explained my situation of having Ultimate internet subscription and only getting 175Mbps even though I have a modem fully capable of getting 300Mbps... and before I even had a chance to explain the details you told me about, he told me he knew how to fix it and that I should just restart my modem and test in about 15minutes. I did so and sure enough I just clocked 333Mbps! This was the 3rd support person I dealt with in 3 days. First 2 were clueless and said I needed to make an appointment with a technician to come to my home. I kept insisting they should be able to fix on their side but they couldn't do it. Today's person got it right away. It just goes to show that support desks are so often hit or miss. It just really depends on the luck of the draw whether you get someone competent or not. Fortunately I did today and now I can cancel my technician appointment. Thanks again for your help though!

Glad it worked out. I figured someone else would want to get there's going also.

Thanks to all on this post. Have done the link-local option and hope the drop-outs and re-starts every few hours will stop.

I called Cox here in SoCal for a tech appointment and within an hour received a call back from Tech Support who knew I had an Apple TC from prior visits and that there was likely no issue with my service or modem but an IPV6 compatibility issue with the Time Capsule. He did not know how to fix it but said to search for instructions on how to disable it and re-book the Tech if it didn't work.

That search led to this forum and the clear instructions.

Hopefully Apple monitor these posts and will work on a solution soon.

I have the same issue with the signal constantly going down from the Airport Extreme units in my client's home, so I changed the setting inside the router's Ipv6 section to Link-Local only. My question is, if they have three Airport Extreme routers (two 802.11ac and one 802.11n) which are all extending the signal wirelessly, do I need to change the Ipv6 setting on each one? Since I did that already, my client now states that the speed is much slower than before. They are paying for 300mbps from the ISP Cox Cable in Orange County, CA. Is it an issue with the code Cox has set inside the modem? The modem being used is a Motorola SB-6183.

Any help to clarify this issue would be greatly appreciated.

I Would bet all need to be changed

I Would think that those settings would not even be available in the AirPort Utility for anything but the primary AirPort device (that which is plugged directly into the modem). Think about it. Those are router settings. The only thing acting as a router here is the primary (again, the one plugged directly into the modem). The others are acting as AP's (access points). With regard to the speed decrease, I did not have that issue with mine. Perhaps the customer was not really checking speeds prior to this? Where is the decrease? From the primary or from the AP's? If the AP's are connected wirelessly, you're speeds will be cut in half due to the overhead necessary to run them wirelessly. Only way to get 100% throughput is for them to be wired. Hope this helps.

I Would think that those settings would not even be available in the AirPort Utility for anything but the primary AirPort device (that which is plugged directly into the modem). Think about it. Those are router settings. The only thing acting as a router here is the primary (again, the one plugged directly into the modem). The others are acting as AP's (access points)

Then, you will likely be quite surprised if you check AirPort Utility to look at the IPv6 settings that appear for an access point....as they are the same settings that are available for the main router. The screenshot just below is from an Apple router that is configured as an access point in Bridge Mode. Another Apple router is set up as the main router for the network.

There are options for Configure IPv6 Automatically, Link-Local Only and Manually.

Options for IPv6 Mode include Native and Tunnel.

I don't pretend to be able to understand this......just reporting what is present in AirPort Utility. Hopefully, one of the IPv6 gurus will post with their thoughts.

The following from Cox. Airport Extreme is not compatible with IPv6.

Are there any known incompatibilities with IPv6?

The majority of retail home routers, especially those produced within the last few years, are fully IPv6-compatible. Cox has determined that Apple AirPort Extreme routers, including Time Capsule models, can experience Internet connectivity problems when running IPv6 on firmware versions 7.7.3 and earlier. Customers can resolve the issue by disabling IPv6 from the AirPort Utility on the iOS or OS X device. For more information and steps to resolve, contact Apple Support.

http://www.cox.com/residential/support/internet/article.cox?articleId=0bced860-9 666-11df-6baf-000000000000

Another update on the Cox IPv6 with Apple Airport Basestation (Extreme or Express) issue.

Someone else on the Apple Support forum commented on contacting Apple regarding this issue. The support tech recommended changing the Airports DNS settings to go to Google Public DNS as opposed to Cox. This made sense to me. If the problem is with Cox's implementation of IPv6, switching servers could solve the issue. The DNS settings in your router basically tell the router which servers to connect you to. I have made these changes and have been using them for the last 36 hours without issue. As opposed to the previous temporary fix (switching IPv6 on the Airport to link only local), I view this as a more permanent fix. The previous temporary fix would leave you without any IPv6 support at all. Some also reported internet speed issues after this fix. I found my speeds okay during the day, but questionable during peek hours at night. So, the new fix will restore IPv6 functionality, reroute your internet connection through Googles servers and should restore or improve speed over the previous fix (I tested speeds a lot over the last 24 hours-some speed drop at night during peek hours-but that's really to be expected and it's not as bad as it was before-on a 100 Mbps connection, I was still getting 85). On to the fix, then.

This was done using Airport Utility for iOS. Should be similar on Mac. Open Airport Utility app. Tap on your Airport basestation's icon. Tap "Edit" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. 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. If you are using Google, 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). Go 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. I would ask that some of you try this out and report back to the group as to whether it is working for you. 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.

Thanks for bringing this up. I just posted a similar question. I too have cox internet and have been dealing with terrible connections. It seems for me to be mainly a problem with handling media (youtube, Pandora etc), and more of a problem with my android device for whatever reason. I am going to change my settings when I get home and see if this resolves my issues. Should I reset modem or the airport extreme after doing so? I was ready to take the thing back and swap It out for the netgear 1750 I had originally purchased.

Thank you for this post and information. I had the exact problem in Omaha, Nebraska with Cox. Two technical support people I spoke with were unaware of this issue, but changing the extreme to Local-Link only did the trick.

@iJedie24 I tried changing DNS - still had recurring issue. I changed settings to "local link only" on Airport Extreme as recommended by Apple and home network has been stable ever since (over a month now)...thinking Apple will have to release software update soon 🙂...

Thanks for this advice. I am going to try it tonight. Thanks for being thorough.

The instructions above that you reference appear to be the same as those provided by Comcast for the AirPort router IPv6 setup......except that the Google servers are being used, instead of the ISP DNS servers.

Comcast provided setup instructions using AirPort Utility on a Mac, so things will not track exactly with the instructions above. The Google DNS servers are not needed.....but could be used if desired.

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

The same instructions work perfectly for Time Warner as well. The Google DNS servers are not needed.....but work fine when I've tested using them.

This is exactly what I have been experiencing the past two and after three phone conversations and one service call I learned about the IPv6 problems. Of course, the Cox rep blamed Apple but was stone silent about recent changes to their service, such as the rollout. I even installed a new Base Station to replace an older Time Capsule - same problem. Today I changed the setting to link-local only, so we'll see if we can get through one night without getting disconnected. I have another service call scheduled tomorrow morning and I'll find out if the technician has more info on the rollout in my area.