Airport Extreme and Cox Internet IPv6 Problem

I've given up. Apple has no business selling this kind of equipment if they cannot support it. I've been in touch with Apple Exec. Relations - nothing has come from that and in fact they've showed their true colors without having the decency to return calls or make commitments they set out for themselves. I guess this is the "new" Apple.

I have a lot of money tied up in the Airport Extreme, Airport Express and Time Capsule. All of it junk now as far as I'm concerned. I simply cannot have unreliable internet infrastructure period.

Time to find some thing to replace this crap. Any ideas?

dwmreg64 wrote:

I've given up. Apple has no business selling this kind of equipment if they cannot support it. I've been in touch with Apple Exec. Relations - nothing has come from that and in fact they've showed their true colors without having the decency to return calls or make commitments they set out for themselves. I guess this is the "new" Apple.

I have a lot of money tied up in the Airport Extreme, Airport Express and Time Capsule. All of it junk now as far as I'm concerned. I simply cannot have unreliable internet infrastructure period.

Time to find some thing to replace this crap. Any ideas?

Several folks on this thread have reported much improved stability since upgrading to 7.6.7 or 7.7.7 depending on platform. Before you give up, have you tried upgrading? You didn't mention in your post but in case you haven't, try that first.

I Am one of those people who was going to quit too and go with a Netgear router. but after doing that, things still didn't get better. So I upgraded my cable modem to the Cox recommended model, and that fixed it. although using the AEB still doesn't give me a score above 5/20 on an IPv6 test, I still get uninterrupted internet connection and all of the other goodies having Apple wireless products give me.

In the end, it's simply a function of where you are geographically and what Cox is doing in your area relative to the IPv6 rollout. It is frustrating and easy to call the Apple stuff garbage. But it seems that it's only garbage if you're that specific Cox user who lives somewhere where the two things don't play nice for now. Unsure it till change because there are other Cox users here getting 19/20 on the tests.

So till then, go onto Wirecutter. Grab the router they say is the best and use that as the main router and the other apple products as extenders. You won't get Aurplay, but you will soon hopefully.

arje - what modem did you have before, and what did you switch to?

Also FYI most Netgear routers don't have IPv6 enabled by default - I think you have to go into settings/advanced/IPv6 and turn it to "Auto" or "DHCP" if that doesn't work.

FFormerly an Arris SB6121 and replaced with an Arris SB6183

I'm in CT, and I've had a very stable internet connection and internal wireless network since applying the 7.7.7 / 7.6.6 firmware upgrade to our AE routers and replacing an older Cisco DPC 3010 modem with an Arris SB 6190. The 6190 is pretty much state of the market in terms of bandwidth capability. The Cisco modem was also a very good modem, but was older and had some power supply issues Cox techs detected in trouble-shooting. In addition, Cox recently pulled some new cable in our neighborhood, so that could be a contributing factor, though we still had daily problems until 7.7.7.

We now usually have above spec speed and 10/10 and 19/20 on the IPv6 tests with both Safari and Chrome. One day in the past 2 weeks things were a bit less consistent, but fallback to IPv4 seemed to work very well, and the only loss of internet connection we had was restored very quickly without our need to restart anything. If you apply the 7.7.7 upgrade and want to return settings to Automatic IPv6, be sure you get the settings all right. Some of them are not very well documented. Alternatively, if you just restore each modem to original factory settings, the AE routers seem to do a pretty good job of auto-config to suit the network.

The only significant issues I've encountered since applying the firmware updates have been related to my experiments with internal network configuration settings and firewall settings. We now use a "roaming" network for our 2 AE routers, connected via ethernet cable, with many connected devices. Extending a network with additional routers is fairly well documented on Apple's website (not on router help), though documentation is a few years old and AE router models and Airport Utility UI have changed since the documentation has been updated. Setting a firewall on a Mac to Stealth mode does interfere with one of the messages in the IPv6 stack, and is not recommended if you have the AE configured correctly (see thread above for details: IPv6 auto, native, block incoming IPv6 connections).

On other threads (not Apple-sponsored forums) some users have gone to Asus or Netgear routers, some of which have more advanced configuration options for the technically inclined. Apple routers are usually easier to auto-config and forget about. Hence the uproar over the issues of the past few months. IMHO 7.7.7 has resolved most of the issues.

Cox's website also has some info about the status of IPv6 rollout, and if I remember right, "Gigablast" users won't get IPv6 till later this year. Askin - is that right? That may affect some.

sunjon wrote:

<snip>

Cox's website also has some info about the status of IPv6 rollout, and if I remember right, "Gigablast" users won't get IPv6 till later this year. Askin - is that right? That may affect some.

Yep - working on it.

dwm, I've also noticed that unless you are on Apple Care, it is hard to get much of a response. With Apple Care, or at a Genius bar, I get very thorough and attentive support. Without it, not so much. If you have Apple Care on any product you use on your network, they will probably be very helpful. Tell askin (Cox corp engineer on this thread) where you are located. He has been very helpful. Some contributors on this thread have provided very helpful screenshot detail with recommended airport settings too. If you haven't studied those, take a look. Getting those settings right makes all the difference.

Rey G, the_arje, MacProblemsInSoCal - I'm still working on this issue and am planning to test an IPv6 fix soon. I would like to selectively target the fix in areas where I'll get good feedback on IPv6 performance. I already have several people's MAC addresses on this thread and will target their areas. If you three will post your Cable Modem MAC addresses, I'll include you.

Note that your CM MAC address being posted to a forum does not expose you to anything malicious. It's a Layer-2 address that is reachable only by you and the Cox equipment your modem talks to, unlike an IP address which is globally reachable. If you'd still rather not post it, just ignore.

Thanks

YatBob - An IPv6 enhancement went into your area early this morning (6/16). You should see an improvement in the stability of your IPv6 connection, and reliably receive a 10/10 on http://test-ipv6.com each time you try it. Please post again in a few days if you don't mind and thanks for you patience.

Thanks for the heads up, not sure what was done this morning but I have been stable with IPv6 for over a week now and have consistently passed the test with a 10/10

askin6305B, here is my MAC: 306023CE50BD

Can you bump my speed? I won't tell anyone 😉

Thank for the update. I am in San Diego.....been running "local link only" configuration with no issues since January (speed or otherwise)...have Cox Premier Internet, Arris SB 6190 Router, latest version Airport Extreme Router (hardware and software)....to extend coverage I have 3 additional Airport Extreme's that are hard wired, configured to "Create New Network" in Bridge Mode. Also, have same configuration in different city with Comcast (did not have to modify to local link - no issues with Comcast.

So, just took the plunge, re-configured for IPv6 per your instructions 🙂 - will keep the board updated if I have any issues......cautiously optimistic!! Thank for the update and post - very helpful.