Verizon FiOS → Rev I router with 36 firmware and AirPort Extreme 5gen

My configuration is very basic: FiOS router set as primary and airport set in bridge mode for use as the access point. Disabled wireless on the actiontec.

Ok here is what is happening - last night, everything was working fine but i noticed that i was having issue streaming with Netflix so I decided to reboot the routers etc and after doing so notice that the wireless access was not working so then I did a reset on the airport - still not getting online. I then took it a step further and decided to reset all of the devices and reconfigure - now I've noticed that I am no longer able to configure the airport it hangs after pushing changes and they never apply. Ok so I exchange the airport and get a new one - same condition. I go out and buy an Asus router and its connecting fine and right away.

Any tips or ideas? Something that needs to be set with the actiontec? It was all working fine prior to yesterday so it has to be something with the actiontec. Very frustrating especially since i had To go out and get another router to do the job that the airport was very capably doing 2 days ago.

Chris

There was definately and undocumented change somewhere because this also occurred when I put a linksys router in bridge mode as well - I get an ip but do not get to the web - the only remedy was to set it up in a double natted configuration - then I was able to access the web with no issues - maybe they made undocumented changes to the way actiontec handles DNS or DHCP. Verizon techs had no idea and they are sending me a new actiontec - maybe that will fix the issue but I still think that the issue is the new firmware.

For the heck of it, try logging into the Actiontec and then go to »192.168.1.1/index.cgi?ac ··· age=6059 and try disabling the IGMP proxy to see if that helps. It shouldn't have any affect on web access, but you never know.

Yeah, I tried that.. no go.. I think that the 36 firmware is hosed... It's funny - bridge mode works fine with an Asus RT-N66U in bridge mode - no issue but with the Linksys and the apple router its a no go.. and of course apple blames Verizon - Verizon blames apple and I get stuck in the middle with no resolution.

Lovely.

I hope my Rev E lasts for a long time as I have the same setup as you. Pretty much have all Apple devices in the house so don't want to switch away from my Extremes.

The guys at Verizon seemed keen on configuring it as a double nat setup / causing nothing but hell for my Xbox and apple Tvs. The "actiontec" support specialist had no more suggestions then the tier-1 guy.

Just curious, did you try hardwiring a device into the Airport? Just wondering if it was only wireless connections not working or if wired connections hung off the Airport were having the same issue.

the funny thing is that hard wiring did work on the airport and the linksys but the wireless was completely dead.

The linksys was older but still pretty new WRT310n and the airport was a brand new in box replacement from apple..

Strange..

Ok so playing a bit more - I notice this behavior.. I can connect a MacBook Pro to the airport wireless and it will function seemingly normal in bridge mode as intended however after joining an additional iOS device I get laptop gets dropped from the wifi and the iOS device does not connect. From a continuous ping test to the airport packets flow fine when the mbp is connected but as soon as I join the second device - the airport stops responding to pings and as soon as I disconnect the iOS device the airport starts to respond again.

Maybe it has something to do with the way that the actiontec assigns ips with the new firmware - maybe one per MAC address and that is what is borking things, That would also explain why it works ok in a double natted configuration because the airport gets the ip based on MAC address and then handles the rest via its on dhcp on a different subnet. I dunno but it's extremely strange.

I have the actiontec rev f router and a 2nd gen AirPort Extreme also hooked up as a gigabit switch / 802.11n WAP and have been having issues with netflix streaming as well. I switched from Comcast recently and never had any issues before with netflix streaming when I was using the airport as a router / WAP. I've also tries bypassing the airport and hooking my blu ray player right to the actiontec with no success it's very frustrating, as my speed tests and traceroutes are normal.

What firmware is installed on your actiontec - do you see ipv6 settings in your advanced settings page?

What would happen if you assigned the iOS device (or the MacBook) a static ip?

no joy with that :-(

I find this really troubling if the firmware pushed out to the Actiontec is the cause of your problems. I am slightly worried they push out a similar firmware to the older revisions. I would hate to have to double nat, not sure what that would do to my Nest and it would make it a pain to setup VNC rules.

Have you looked in the Actiontec logs to see if there are any error messages?

It is set to logging but I am not sure where to locate them, do you know where to find them?

On my Rev E it is -> System Monitoring -> Advanced Status -> System Logging and then you should be displayed with the log.

Here is a copy of the log that I see when connecting the airport extreme and connecting a device.. the glaring thing that I see is that there is a MAC entry of 00:00:00:00:00:00 when I connect the Wi-Fi device.. Seems that there is something wrong with the pass through or that all devices are not broadcasting a mac right away - causing an IP conflict and dropping wi-fi connectivity.

Jan 5 19:23:20 2013 System Log Message Broadcast Capture NS DAD msg ,ret is 0
[repeated 4 times, last time on Jan 5 19:25:31 2013]
Jan 5 19:23:17 2013 System Log Message Unable to change DSCP of icmp socket to value 0 for ping Socket operation on non-socket
Jan 5 19:23:15 2013 System Log Message Broadcast Capture NS DAD msg ,ret is 0
[repeated 2 times, last time on Jan 5 19:23:16 2013]
Jan 5 19:22:26 2013 System Log Message Unable to change DSCP of icmp socket to value 0 for ping Socket operation on non-socket
[repeated 7 times, last time on Jan 5 19:23:09 2013]
Jan 5 19:22:26 2013 System Log Message Cannot find cache entry for mac 00:00:00:00:00:00 ret=-1
Jan 5 19:22:14 2013 System Log Message Broadcast Capture NS DAD msg ,ret is 0
[repeated 3 times, last time on Jan 5 19:22:20 2013]
Jan 5 19:19:08 2013 System Log Message Unable to change DSCP of icmp socket to value 0 for ping Socket operation on non-socket
[repeated 2 times, last time on Jan 5 19:22:07 2013]
Jan 5 19:05:43 2013 System Log Message Unknown PTR name format
[repeated 25 times, last time on Jan 5 19:12:06 2013]
Jan 5 19:00:29 2013 System Log Message Unable to change DSCP of icmp socket to value 0 for ping Socket operation on non-socket
[repeated 5 times, last time on Jan 5 19:03:34 2013]

Replacing the actiontec - same condition - it happens when more than one wireless device connects to the airport as an AP - the only way that multiple devices will work is if it is configured as a double nat..

ok so after literally unplugging everything with a network interface in my house for like 15 minutes and plugging them back it, bridge mode seems to be working again.. I have no idea.. maybe something on my network was spoiling the ARP cache or something.. I have no idea..