Comcast XFINITY → [IPv6] Lost my IPv6 IP again....

Not sure what is going on, or why I have "lost" it, but I appear to have "lost" connection when I try to do anything with IPv6.

The following two test IPv6 sites now return a result of 0/10. Only my IPv4 IP is displayed on both. No mention of my IPv6 IP.

»www.test-ipv6.comcast.net/
»www.test-ipv6.com/

If I try to go to the Comcast Speed Test site for IPv6, it does not load.

»ipv6.speedtest.comcast.net/

The first thing I did was to run an ipconfig/all from my desktop and see what that comes back with. Below is that, and as far as I could tell, looks normal

 
ipconfig /all
 
Windows IP Configuration
 
   Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : BRIAN-DESKTOP
   Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
   Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
   IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
   DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : localdomain
 
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
 
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : localdomain
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : F4-6D-04-F0-32-43
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2601:d:4c00:17:e07e:f82e:a840:d9b2(Preferred)
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2601:d:4c00:17:5059:e899:20c7:ba93(Preferred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::e07e:f82e:a840:d9b2%11(Preferred)
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.103(Preferred)
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 31, 2013 1:54:35 PM
   Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, February 01, 2013 12:54:35 PM
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::250:4ff:fe21:713d%11
                                       192.168.1.1
   DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
   DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 250899716
   DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-18-87-C0-C2-F4-6D-04-F0-32-43
   DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 2601:d:4c00:17::1
                                       192.168.1.1
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
 
Tunnel adapter isatap.localdomain:
 
   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : localdomain
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
 
Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
 
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
   Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
   DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
   Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:4137:9e76:30c1:2dc:3f57:fe98(Preferred)
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::30c1:2dc:3f57:fe98%13(Preferred)
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
   NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
 

So, my next stop on my troubleshooting process was to go look at my modem's status pages.

Picture #1 shows the main screen showing my status (signal levels and uptime). I know my downstream power levels appear to be a bit higher then they have been in the past. I don't think that would cause this, but I did want to point it out. Also note that the uptime on my modem is just over 25 days.

Picture #2 is the last few items from my modem's logs. I see some T3 and T4 timeouts listed. I don't know if any of that has to do with this, but maybe having that information will help figure this out.

So, I then went looking into my router, which is a self-built dell tower running PFSense. My main status dashboard screen is shown in picture #3.

I'm running Version 2.1-BETA1 (i386), which was built on Sun Jan 6 05:42:27 EST 2013. Uptime of my router is just over 13 days, with the last config change taking place on Sun Jan 6 17:32:22 CST 2013.

Two things jump out at me that I feel need to be investigated. The first is the note at the top in the red box that says pfSense has detected a crash report or programming bug. Click here for more information.

I also notice that the status of my WAN_DHCP6 gateway is offline. My WAN_DHCP6 gateway that is listed is fe80::201:5cff:fe3d:4e41.

In regards to the crash report, I click the link for more information, and what I see is shown in Picture #4. No idea what any of that means. I've never seen one of these before. There are two buttons on the bottom of the page. One says "Yes", with the text "Submit this to the developers for inspection", and the other says "No", with the text "Just delete the crash report and take me back to the Dashboard". I'm thinking it is probably best to click the "Yes" button to send that info onto the PFSense team.

In regards to my WAN_DHCP6 gateway status, I did find a little more detailed information on that, and is shown in Picture #5.

So, now the question is, what can I do next to fix this? I'm guessing a reboot of the modem and or pfsense box will resolve the issue. But, I kind of want to hold off on that for a bit, to try to troubleshoot this a bit more, to see if I can figure out what may have caused this.

I'm open to suggestions or ideas.

Also, if anyone would need more information (logs, additional screen shots, other settings from inside of pfsense, etc), just let me know and I'll be happy to post it.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered.

--Brian

You do know what beta test software is, don't you?

From the crash log, my guess would be that your pfsense box was not able to establish a new IPv6 connection when the WAN IPv6 address changed.

FWIW, my Comcast supplied Netgear WNR1000v2-VC router also loses IPv6 connectivity somewhat randomly (~one week intervals) because the WAN IPv6 address changes, and the router's firmware can't seem to handle that. A reboot always wakes it up, but yes, it is a PITA, and that is why that router has been demoted to being a guest router.

disregard....

Yes I do! The joys of running beta software.

I did go back and look at the crash log, and saw the same thing you did.

So, I'll submit it to the developers, and then look at maybe upgrading to a newer version of the Beta in the near future. Looks like they make an updated build at least once a day.

I'll also reboot the PFSense box later tonight. I have a feeling that will fix the issue until it happens again.

--Brian

Posting to keep track of the thread, ping me if you want me to check anything on the CMTS side..

A little bit ago, I rebooted my PFSense box.

Here is where I'm now at.

First, the status of my WAN_DHCP6 gateway is now showing online. the gateway listed is the same as it was before: fe80::201:5cff:fe3d:4e41

However, things still don't work. When I look at my interfaces screen, a few things are missing.

On the WAN interface (rl0) I used to have the following show up, and it does not any more

IPv6 address: 2001:558:6033:ad:176:75ee:c24b:3d49
Subnet mask IPv6: 128

On the LAN interface (xl0) I used to have the following show up, and it does not any more

IPv6 address: 2601:d:4c00:17:250:4ff:fe21:713d
Subnet mask IPv6: 64

The rest of the information that was present matches what I had back on 01/06/2013.

So, not sure if I need to reboot my cable modem as well, or if there is something else going on.

NetDog , I've PM'ed you my cable modem info so you can check things on the CMTS side, in case something may have changed there.

--Brian

Not sure why, but a few minutes ago my cable modem rebooted itself. Because of that, I had to reboot my PFSense box again.

Still no sign of IPv6 information from the interface tab, as shown above (Picture #1)

For reference, the 2nd picture (Picture #2) is what it looked like before the issues yesterday.

It appears I am no longer getting an IPv6 IP from Comcast.

I have not yet tried to plug a desktop directly into my cable modem and test that. If I get the chance later today, I'll do that to rule out any problems with PFSense.

--Brian

Given that's nearly a month's worth of snapshot builds behind, the pfSense devs may suggest you try the latest snapshot. Unfortunately I have yet to find a changelog for the snapshots so the system may just autobuild whatever it has even if nothing has changed.

Also, what chipset is your WAN interface? You may want to see if there's any IPv6 bugs with the driver for that chipset or even the chip iteslf. More than likely the pfSense team hasn't made any modifications to the driver, so you'll be looking for bugs with FreeBSD 8.3-p5. If it's a Realtek, you may just want to consider upgrading to Intel NICs; Realtek NICs haven't been known to be that solid, especially the older ones.

I will probably re-install with a newer beta build here soon. Knowing its still in beta, a lot of changes could have been made.

As far as the actual NIC of my WAN interface, its a D-Link card. I don't know more then that without opening it up and taking it out to look at it (unless there is a way to see that from either the web interface, or some command line tool). My LAN interface is using a 3Com card. Again, without opening up my unit and taking the card out, I cannot give more info. What I got was printed on the cards themselves that I can read where I plug the network cables in.

However, knowing that it was working, and after a reboot of both my modem and the pfsense box, and not being able to pull an IPv6 IP, makes me think that something may be going on with Comcast's side of things. Again, I have not re-tested a desktop directly into my modem to verify this. If I get the chance today, I'll do that to verify things on the Comcast side are still working.

--Brian

Wanted to update this with some testing that I did today.

First, I wanted to verify that IPv6 is still working when I connect my desktop directly to the modem. So, to do that, I did the following.

Powered off pfsense box
powered off desktop
powered off modem (unpluged and pulled battery)

I then waited 1 minute, just to make sure the modem would be off long enough for a full restart.

With everything still off, I plugged my desktop into the back of the modem. I then put the battery back in to the modem, and plugged the modem back in.

Once the modem was fully up (verified by the lights), I then powered up my desktop.

Desktop got both a IPv4 and IPv6 directly from Comcast. I did not make a note of what they were, but I did verify that I had them.
Both IPv6 test sites that I noted in the my first post returned a status of 10/10. Comcast's speed test site using IPv6 also loaded without issue, and displayed my IPv6 IP.

So, I felt confident that IPv6 is still working in my area. I figured it would be, but I wanted to verify it. No point in trying to figure out why PFSense is not getting an IPv6 IP if I cannot get one directly from the modem!

I then powered everything off again the same as I did before, including pulling the battery from the modem, and waiting another minute.

During that time, I plugged my desktop back into my PFSense box, and the PFSense box back into my modem. Once everything was connected (but still off), I put the battery back into my modem, and powered it back up.

Again, once the modem was fully up (verified by the indicator lights), I powered up my PFSense box. Once that was up (verified by the little song it plays), I powered up my desktop.

It looks like for whatever reason, PFSense is not able to get an IPv6 IP from Comcast anymore, as the interface status page does not even list IPv6 at all. IPv6 test sites return 0/10, and the Comcast IPv6 speedtest site also does not load again.

Yes, I understand that the version of PFSense that I'm running is beta, and prone to odd things happening. So, I think what I will do is download a new build of the beta, re-load it, and go from there.

Thanks to everyone who has made suggestions and posted things to try in this thread. If anyone has any thing else to add, feel free to do so.

--Brian

You should have made note of the IPv6 address your computer obtained. It's possible it was one obtained by 6to4 rather an a native address.

If you suspect that native IPv6 really is available and the problem is with pfsense, then maybe you can try a copy of m0n0wall instead and see if that works - it does for me.

Yeah, looking back I probably should have done that.

I can easily pull the PFSense box out of the mix, so I may do that again later today, and report what the actual IPv6 IP is that my desktop gets.

I know the one that PFSense was getting from Comcast back on 01/06/2013 was

2001:558:6033:ad:176:75ee:c24b:3d49

--Brian

2001:558:6033: is a Comcast native IPv6 address.

I believe the 6to4 addresses began with 2002:

Just wanted to give a quick update that I installed a newer Beta Build on my PFSense box (used 2.1 Beta built on built on Tue Feb 12 08:58:22 EST 2013).

That fixed my IPv6 issues.

On a related note (at least I think it is), I was making some posts in the Speed increase thread showing that my upload was going nuts (speedtest.net was reporting upload values anywhere between 15 MB/s all the way up to 40 MB/s). Once I installed the newer version of PFSense, those issues seem to have been resolved as well.

I did not actually try a speedtest directly connected to my modem to fully verify this, but since last night, my speed tests have been showing exactly what they should be (25/4 as I have powerboost).

--Brian