Re: ipV6 disconnecting on Orbi RBR850

RedBatman89 · ‎2022-05-27

So then how many Orbi devices you think this affects?

cdysthe · ‎2022-05-28

The weekly IPv6 drop just happened. It's mostly happening on Saturday or Sunday. Must be when Comcast renews IP or something like that. Anyhow, I have shortened the procedure to get back up:

1. Disable IPv6

2. Auto Detect IPv6

3. Wait at least 5 minutes.

4. Set IPv6 back to DHCP and I get a new IP lasting another 5 - 7 days.

When will we have an update? This is not hard to reproduce and happens like clockwork!

donawalt · ‎2022-05-28

I still have this problem too, and I also think it has something to do with renewing IP address - as the tests will say no valid IP address or something similar. Orbi reports having a LAN and WAN IP address, so the only answer seems to be the IP addresses are no longer valid at Comcast.

I too wonder why this is taking so long to fix.

cdysthe · ‎2022-05-28

@donawalt wrote:
I still have this problem too, and I also think it has something to do with renewing IP address - as the tests will say no valid IP address or something similar. Orbi reports having a LAN and WAN IP address, so the only answer seems to be the IP addresses are no longer valid at Comcast.

I too wonder why this is taking so long to fix.

I think it's a DHCPv6 on WAN issue. Comcast/Xfinity changed something in February of this year which broke DHCPv6 in certain Netgear devices. That is exactly when this started to happen on my Orbi system. This thread makes me almost sure that that's the issue:

https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/your-home-network/xfinity-network-upgrade-dhcpv6-change/621...

In that thread it says:

"Yes, the Xfinity DHCPv6 PD servers appear to have shifted behavior, they now communicate via global IPv6 addresses exclusively...."

Would really like a comment on this from Netgear even if it is that I am completely off my rocker! 🙂 We are closing in on half a year with broken IPv6 on my system. That is not good.

donawalt · ‎2022-05-28

@FURRYe38 is there any way you can get Netgear staff to look at this and reply? They are the only ones who can address this on our behalf, they are the only ones who know how their code interacts with comcast. We need a solution to this, or st least an expectation that it is seriously being investigated. IPv6 is unusable as it stands for those affected.

RedBatman89 · ‎2022-05-28

I have been dealing with it since 2021.

FURRYe38 · ‎2022-05-29

I've already passed this on to NG for review back in Jan and March. It's in there hands.

@donawalt wrote:

@FURRYe38 is there any way you can get Netgear staff to look at this and reply? They are the only ones who can address this on our behalf, they are the only ones who know how their code interacts with comcast. We need a solution to this, or st least an expectation that it is seriously being investigated. IPv6 is unusable as it stands for those affected.

donawalt · ‎2022-05-29

Thanks @FURRYe38 , any chance they might give you an update since it’s been awhile?

CrimpOn · ‎2022-05-29

I have a suspicion that the problem relates to how DHCPv6 is handled by your specific ISP, perhaps even the specific DHCP server for your local area. If this is the case, Netgear will have a devil of a time reproducing the problem. I can just imagine an engineer remarking, "some bozo thinks that our router does not work with Xfinity DHCPv6. I have an Xfinity connection in the lab here in San Jose and it works great! Stop wasting my time!"

(Because I have no other hobbies...) I have been able to document that in the case of my Spectrum connection, DHCP works exactly as it is supposed to.

Spectrum gives me a 24 hour (86,400 seconds) DHCPv4 lease and
a one week (604,800 seconds) DHCPv6 lease.
At exactly 12 hours, the Orbi does a DHCPv4 renew and within 0.12 seconds, Spectrum extends the lease another 24 hours.
At almost exactly 3.5 days, Orbi does a DHCPv6 renew and Spectrum responds, although not as quickly.
There is also "more going on" with DHCPv6 in terms of information requests from the router and responses from Spectrum.

This required an investment in a gigabit switch (Netgear GS108Ev3) that I placed between the modem and router.

(I wanted a 5 port, but on the day I purchased the switch, the Amazon price was lower for 8 ports than for 5 ports. Today, a 5 port switch costs less.)

Then connected one of the other gigabit ports to my PC.

Told the switch to mirror the router port to the PC.

Set up Wireshark with a Capture filter for (port 67 or port 68 or port 546 or port 547).

Wait... and wait.... and wait. (I ran one capture for eight days in order to verify that DHCPv6 renewed every 3.5 days.)

The point is that capturing the actual data exchange between router and (Comcast/Xinity, correct?) provides evidence.

The actual data packets exchanged between router and ISP.

donawalt · ‎2022-05-29

Wow interesting, thanks. The reality is though, as a customer if it doesn’t work, customers will move to another router when they need IPv6. And it’s not an isolated problem, based on netgear-reddit-comcast forums.

cdysthe · ‎2022-05-29

@CrimpOn wrote:
I have a suspicion that the problem relates to how DHCPv6 is handled by your specific ISP, perhaps even the specific DHCP server for your local area. If this is the case, Netgear will have a devil of a time reproducing the problem. I can just imagine an engineer remarking, "some bozo thinks that our router does not work with Xfinity DHCPv6. I have an Xfinity connection in the lab here in San Jose and it
...
The point is that capturing the actual data exchange between router and (Comcast/Xinity, correct?) provides evidence.
The actual data packets exchanged between router and ISP.

So now we know what's wrong. Thank you so much for a really thorough investigation! We have developers of browser software on this Orbi network who has to have IPv6 work and I do not want to have to manually update the IP every week like I am doing now so we are close to giving up and get something else here for now.

So what's next steps? The easiest would be for Netgear to talk to Comcast to find out what changed at the beginning of the year I do not know how this works between ISP's and providers of networking hardware. I know that if I talked to Comcast/Xfinity they would just tell me to use their stuff and everything would work.

I really hope it can be sorted out since the Orbi system works great except for this issue.

cdysthe · ‎2022-05-30

@donawalt wrote:
Wow interesting, thanks. The reality is though, as a customer if it doesn’t work, customers will move to another router when they need IPv6. And it’s not an isolated problem, based on netgear-reddit-comcast forums.

Yes, I have seen this issue on Reddit, in another thread here and on both DSLReport and Xfinity forums. So this is not isolated to us here in this thread..

donawalt · ‎2022-05-30

I wish there was some workaround, even on the Comcast side.

cdysthe · ‎2022-05-30

@donawalt wrote:
I wish there was some workaround, even on the Comcast side.

The only "workaround" is to manually disable IPv6 > Enable IPv6 with Autodetect > Wait 5 minutes > Set IPv6 to DHCP. Kinda ridiculous having to do this once a week when IPv6 drops. It mostly happens on weekends though which is good I guess?

I'm sure Xfinity/Comcast could work this out with Netgear quite easily. The question is will they, and if yes to that, when? I mean, I use a Netgear CM2000 modem approved for use on my XFinity gigabit connection so there must be some line of communication between the two.

donawalt · ‎2022-05-30

For me last week, it happened in 3 hours. Sometimes I got 3 days, sometimes less than a day.

donawalt · ‎2022-06-01

I just tried another test - activated IPv6 on Monday 5:30 PM EDT. I last checked it today, Wednesday 7:30 AM EDT, and it was fine. Now at 12 PM EDT, it fails all tests from test-ipv6.com and others - so it fails 38-42 hours or so later. Here is the test-ipv6.com detailed test results, in the images below. Yet the last image shows everything looking as it always does on the IPv6 advanced config page for the router. This is shameful we have gotten non reply from Netgear.

cdysthe · ‎2022-06-01

Yes, this is not good. I have never managed a network where a protocol/service just stops working and I have manually bring it back up once a week or more. I have been a Netgear nut for many years. I even bought a CM2000 modem instead of whatever Xfinity tries to push so I am heavily invested (literally) in Netgear. It's wearing a bit thin now.

donawalt · ‎2022-06-01

I am happy to test something if Netgear wants to, if it's local to some areas and not others based on some rollout of Comcast servers, for example. This has to get fixed, this is a show-stopper if it won't ever get resolved.

@FURRYe38 any chance of getting some sort of update or communication since you referred this to them months ago? I thin we deserve that, don't you?

FURRYe38 · ‎2022-06-01

It's in NG ball park. 😉

FURRYe38 · ‎2022-06-22

@donawalt I see v.5 appeared today. Hoping that this may see some better results on this.

Let us know if you can load it up and what you experience. I would give it a few days to settle in on IPv6 and check the results.

@FarmerBob1 Can chime in on this as well.

donawalt · ‎2022-06-22

Hi @FURRYe38 I have 4.6.8.5 installed on my 2 RBS850s and RBR850. Interestingly, I turned on IPv6, tested, it worked fine. I ran a speediest, refreshed a few web pages that were up on my browser, all was fine. I rebooted, waited for things to settle, and happened to check IPv6 again, and it failed! Maybe this was some sort of startup/update anomaly. I now have it back on as of 1:15 PM EDT, so I'll watch it and report back. Thanks for staying up on top of this!

FarmerBob1 · ‎2022-06-22

How did you Install the new FW?

donawalt · ‎2022-06-22

@FarmerBob1 I installed it manually per the instructions down the page where the firmware update was announced. In short, I manually uploaded the FW on each satellite's web page first, then did the router through the router/main web page.

FURRYe38 · ‎2022-06-23

Seems like newer FW may still be having problems?

donawalt · ‎2022-06-23

@FURRYe38 and @FarmerBob1 yes, the IPv6 stopped working for me on the .5 release.

This morning it was a little over 17 hours from when I turned on IPv6 (Comcast - I set Auto Detect, and it went to DHCP as it always does, to set up. All last night it was fine. This morning I woke up, and it fails. Here are screen shots of 2 different test sites. It's odd how the tests say there is no IPv6 address, yet there is one. I also included a screen shot of my IPv6 config page below. Pls advise if there are any next steps I can do.