Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

YatBob wrote:

I did have stability for a couple of days, when I ran the ping test in terminal it somehow reestablished my ipv6 and I passed all the test with 10/10 and 19/20 respectively, 12 hours after the implementation of ipv6 which I believe was mentioned as a lease renewal time frame, I lost all internet and had to reboot my modem, 12 hours after that I had to reboot again, right now I have reconfigured to automatically and ipv6 mode as native, going t see what happens in 12 hours, but with these settings I fail all the tests

What's your CM MAC address?

Is this a mac address ?

602AD01EE10D

Just wanted to bump the thread, haven't seen a posting in 24 hours, wonder if everyones issues have been resolved or have we all given up

We've been very stable since applying firmware v 7.7.7 to AE router, and restoring Automatic/ Native IPv6. Only one brief loss of internet connection that we've noticed, and the connection was restored in less than a minute without our intervention. I've checked the IPv6 monitors a couple of times a day, and we have consistently been 10/10 on the one test, and usually 19/20 on the other. A couple of times we had 18/20 with Safari, with the comment that out browser preferred IPv4 (no setting in Safari that I've noticed), and that has only happened a couple of times, and never with Chrome. Our speeds have consistently been better than spec for our service level. 7.7.7 seems to have done the job for us. We also replaced our older cable modem at the same time, as a Cox tech had noticed what appeared to be a failing power amplifier in our old one, so we eliminated one other weak spot.

Here's the comment the 20 point testing site gives with the 18/20 score (with Safari browser, never yet with Chrome):

"2. Use IPv6 as your default

When a website exposes both protocols, your browser selects IPv4 over IPv6 although both are supported by your network connection. You may be able to change this in your web browser settings."

Askin6305B--

Sorry if I was a bit short yesterday in responding, but I responded from my phone working, as I was an election official (and sleep-deprived). 😕

I will be happy to start retesting the Cox OC ipv6 system when you give us an indication you need to monitor our failures (through our MAC addresses?), that something has changed, or there are new diagnostics you want us to try. Until then, I'd prefer to remain in ipv4 mode if there is nothing to be gained by using ipv6. I suspect others feel similarly.

My internet connection has been stable since upgrading the Airport Extreme firmware to 7.7.7. IPv6 is configured in automatic/native mode and maintains the connection. If IPv6 connection is lost, the modem defaults to IPv4 automatically, and,when IPv6 is re-established, the connection returns to IPv6 with no action on the user's part. The internet connection is maintained with no modem or router re-set required. My issue appears to have been resolved.

How do you determine ipv6 has been reestablished, is it by running one of the test site are is there another way, I am asking is there is way to determine reestablishment with out running test

I periodically used one of the test sites to check the status of the IPv6 connection. After the Airport firmware update I did this periodically to monitor the IPv6 status and if my connection defaulted to IPv4 automatically, which it did. Cox appears to have had some unrelated service issues in my area, so initially I lost IPv6 connectivity occasionally, but did not lose my internet connection. According to Cox, they have fixed there service issues and, since then, I've maintained IPv6 connection consistently.

Hope this helps to clarify my experience.

Thanks for the reply, thought perhaps there was some other indicator, sure wish Cox would get their act together and fix the issues in New Orleans, we always seem to be on the tail end of anything Cox implements

YatBob - no, not giving up, still working on some things in the background. Hope to be able to share more soon. We still have some levers we can pull, but it takes time to do the due diligence first.

Thanks good news, when this thread went dormant for 24 hours thought I missed something and everyones issues had been resolved 😁

I am still out here 🙂 - have 4 latest model Airport Extremes (AE) running 7.7.7 - one AE as main router and the other 3 AE's and configured to "create new wireless network" and in "Bridge Mode" (all AE's are all hardwired to ethernet) for coverage.....been configured to local link only for several months no issue...have not tested IPv6 since having issues in December.....will reconfigure and try in next few weeks and report back....

Tom380 wrote:

My internet connection has been stable since upgrading the Airport Extreme firmware to 7.7.7. IPv6 is configured in automatic/native mode and maintains the connection. If IPv6 connection is lost, the modem defaults to IPv4 automatically, and,when IPv6 is re-established, the connection returns to IPv6 with no action on the user's part. The internet connection is maintained with no modem or router re-set required. My issue appears to have been resolved.

Same here in Arizona.

I do the same "retest" when my IPv6 connection fails the IPv6 test sites. But, my overall internet connection is maintained since the AEBS apparently knows to switch over to IPv4.

keg55 wrote:

Tom380 wrote:

My internet connection has been stable since upgrading the Airport Extreme firmware to 7.7.7. IPv6 is configured in automatic/native mode and maintains the connection. If IPv6 connection is lost, the modem defaults to IPv4 automatically, and,when IPv6 is re-established, the connection returns to IPv6 with no action on the user's part. The internet connection is maintained with no modem or router re-set required. My issue appears to have been resolved.

Same here in Arizona.

I do the same "retest" when my IPv6 connection fails the IPv6 test sites. But, my overall internet connection is maintained since the AEBS apparently knows to switch over to IPv4.

Just an FYI, it's the applications (like your browser) running on dual-stack (IPv6/IPv4) operating systems (Mac OS X, iOS, etc.) that fall back to IPv4 not the router or modem. The router only provides the network, and the modem provides the bridge between the Cable company's network and your LAN.

If you are interested in further reading on the subject of "Happy Eyeballs" go here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Eyeballs

For those of you who failed the "Fallback" test on the http://ipv6-test.com/ test site, that is "Happy Eyeballs" at work.

Gino - nice to see another Happy Eyeballs advocate on here! It is indeed a cool feature and if every browser, OS, and app implemented it we'd all be a lot better off. Last time I checked, Microsoft IE still did not and the iOS/Android apps are hit or miss.

There's a subtlety though - the Airport does play a role in fallback and this is one of the improvements that Apple made. I know because their developer was at my desk for two days working with me on it 🙂

When your CPE sends a DNS query, regardless of whether it's over IPv4 or IPv6, it typically sends that query to the Airport which is serving in the role of DNS-proxy. The Airport then relays the query to the ISP DNS server on your behalf. The catch is, the Airport uses IPv6 for its transport to the ISP network if IPv6 is available. Prior to 7.7.7, the Airport did not fall back gracefully to IPv4 if v6 didn't work. That is fixed now. So prior to 7.7.7, your CPE client could be as smart as it wanted, and implement Happy Eyeballs, but if the DNS Proxy is insisting on using a broken v6 connection, you're dead in the water.