Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

CromeYellow wrote:

After restart all three of my AP Extremes have the word "local" in the bottom box at Internet.

What do you mean by that, can you post a screen capture?

Like this on the three Airports:

that box "Domain Name" is blank in the Time Capsule.

I see. It looks like you can select the text and delete it, it's black rather than grey like it would normally be if it was filled in automatically.

That setting doesn't have a bering on anything we've been discussing here, it is a completely optional informational field. The "Domain Name" setting only comes into play if you have a local DNS server configured on your local network. With a properly configured DNS server it allows you to connect to a computer on a LAN by only querying it by it's host name part rather than having to type in the entire host and domain name.

At your suggestion, I reconfigured with the default ipv6 parameters. AEBS has run perfectly all day. But now, 12 hours and 10 minutes later, ipv6-test reports that the fallback is no longer working and I have a score of 16/20 instead of the 19/20 I had all day. I've confirmed this several times in the last few minutes. test-ipv6 still gives 10/10. The good news is that the browser and mail seem to work properly, which they did not in previous days.

HI all.

I replaced my cable modem to the Cox recommended 16x4 Arris model (6183?) and have non-interrupted internet connection since. While it may be that the power supply on the modem could have gone bad, it cold also have been not suitable/capable for the type of service plan we have with Cox. Since Backblaze is still uploading the TB's of files, it always seems like when things are being uploaded en masse (Backblaze and our Next camera specifically) things went down and required a reset of the AEB and sometimes the router as well.

I still only get a 4/20 on the IPv6 test. AEB is set to "link local only" and the DNS entries are Google's.

So, I guess, the point here is that if you haven;t checked yet, maybe your modem may be part of the blame. I do wish I had a better IPv6 score, too.

RJ

RJ, Remember, to get IPv6 back, try re-setting your Airport Internet Options -- configure IPv6 Automatically / native / share IPv6 connection. Link-local bypassed IPv6 as a workaround (IPv4 only). I agree on the cable modem. A new one helped us too.

Ah, yes, I forgot to include that in my update....I rest the modem to default settings and my connection was still intermittent. To this point, only "link local only" has given me a stable connection for the past 2 weeks. However, since I'm in a tinkering mood, I'll try the default IPv6 Automatic setting again and report.

RJ

30 minute update: "Automatic" caused a failed connection and a restart of both the AEB and modem fixed it. Set back to "link local". Stable again.

4 hours later, this (Fallback to ip4 failure) seems to have corrected itself. Perhaps it is a function of how busy the local Cox network or servers are?

19 / 20

Browser

Default IPv6

Fallback to IPv4 in < 1 second

jimpal wrote:

Why did my system work flawlessly for two months after initial Cox problems in February, before 7.7.7 came out. I installed 7.7.7, no change, all still works flawlessly. That certainly confirms 7.7.7 had nothing to do with it.

I find your 7.7.7 comments hard to believe. Why would Apple not have listed 1pv6 issues when they put out 7.7.7? They listed three other problems it fixed, as they always do. Why would they have left the Cox 1pv6 issue out? Comcast has a much larger slice of the cable internet market, yet where is the thread reporting problems with Apple and Comcast? Seems to me Apple didn't fix it, because there was nothing to fix. Once again, this proves to me that the real issues are with Cox, and apparently still are, in some cases. Cox will help many avoid "wild goose chases" if they simply own up to it.

jimpal - if you'll post your cable modem mac addr I can see which of our markets you are in, and tell you when IPv6 was enabled there. It's entirely possible that the hub or node you are on had intermittent IPv6 issues after the initial launch, which were subsequently fixed and stabilized your connection. I'm in corporate engineering and don't have any way to track all the mtc activity in all 20 markets. I can tell you that nothing has fundamentally changed since we launched, though. Whatever got you working was most likely localized. The IPv6 launch wasn't flawless from Day 1 unfortunately; few nationwide launches of this magnitude are. We're working on improving our monitoring and auditing though so that we can root out whatever issues are still out there (like this one).

As for the Apple release notes, I asked my contact there about that and haven't heard back yet. I don't know why they didn't mention the IPv6 changes so I won't speculate. But I can tell you that when I found some Airport bugs in my own lab testing, they acknowledged them and after weeks of remote testing with us they eventually flew a developer from CA to ATL to reproduce and fix the issues. He sat at my desk for two days and we eventually found fixes for each of the issues I raised. When 7.7.7 came out, I re-tested and found the fixes to be present.

I will not claim that we've found every possible trigger for Apple/Cox IPv6 interoperability issues but I know their new code is improved and I know we're still working to optimize our network as well. I know because I'm the one doing it. Hope that helps clarify.

Thanks for your help askin. Please ask Apple to join their own support forum. There are settings on the AE routers and complexities in multi-device airport networks that are not well documented by Apple (that I can find). It would be nice for their customers to hear from them.

thanks,

js

sunjon, all the documentation for your AirPort router is on your Mac. Launch the AirPort Utility and then select "AirPort Utility Help" from the Help menu.

jimpal - if you'll post your cable modem mac addr I can see which of our markets you are in, and tell you when IPv6 was enabled there. It's entirely possible that the hub or node you are on had intermittent IPv6 issues after the initial launch, which were subsequently fixed and stabilized your connection. I'm in corporate engineering and don't have any way to track all the mtc activity in all 20 markets. I can tell you that nothing has fundamentally changed since we launched, though. Whatever got you working was most likely localized. The IPv6 launch wasn't flawless from Day 1 unfortunately; few nationwide launches of this magnitude are. We're working on improving our monitoring and auditing though so that we can root out whatever issues are still out there (like this one).

As for the Apple release notes, I asked my contact there about that and haven't heard back yet. I don't know why they didn't mention the IPv6 changes so I won't speculate. But I can tell you that when I found some Airport bugs in my own lab testing, they acknowledged them and after weeks of remote testing with us they eventually flew a developer from CA to ATL to reproduce and fix the issues. He sat at my desk for two days and we eventually found fixes for each of the issues I raised. When 7.7.7 came out, I re-tested and found the fixes to be present.

I will not claim that we've found every possible trigger for Apple/Cox IPv6 interoperability issues but I know their new code is improved and I know we're still working to optimize our network as well. I know because I'm the one doing it. Hope that helps clarify.

Askin6305B - Thanks for your continuing helpful comments. I'm pleased to see your posting more and more recognition of Cox's role in this problem. Your candor about this will help all not waste their time chasing tweaks which really won't help anything while you are "still working to optimize your network."

You asked for my cable modem mac address so you can see which of your markets I am in. I am reluctant to post that private info, but I am in Williamsburg, Virginia, which should be enough info, I think.

I certainly accept your comment about 7.7.7. Why do you suppose my system worked without fail for the two months after initial connection problems here, untilt the 7.7.7 update came out? And, of course, after?

I've been on this thread since early March. This isn't about Cox vs Apple, but finding the answer to the problem so I, for one, will know what to do if the problem recurs. I've seen weeks wasted on similar threads in the past while people have chased the wrong ghost.

My system setup has worked beautifully since the February problems. If I can help by providing any more info about my completely reliable system I will be pleased do so. Thanks again for your attention.

Thanks Gino. Yes, there is a lot of detailed documentation in product help, and I appreciate the reminder. I need to remember to look there first when I have a question about settings. Current documentation for some setting options is difficult to find, however. Current detailed documentation for adding AE base stations to extend a wifi network, for example, can be difficult to find. It is on the website, and offers good options (roaming network vs. extended network vs WDS, etc,) but doesn't appear to be current with the current version of airport utility or current routers. I think it would be very helpful for an Apple engineer to join this forum to help their customers with some of these issues.

Yes, it would be helpful....but....this is a user to user forum, so an Apple engineer will never post here.