AiMesh node does not receive IPv6 from AiMesh router DHCP

[Slawek P]

Hi, my AiMesh node does not receive its IPv6 address from AiMesh router DHCP. How can I investigate? Other network devices get both IPv4 and IPv6.

 

[Striker317]

Hi, my AiMesh node does not receive its IPv6 address from AiMesh router DHCP. How can I investigate? Other network devices get both IPv4 and IPv6.

does it happen with the stock firmware? Merlin doesn't change anything with regards to AiMesh, and any fixes would have to come from ASUS.

 

[bbunge]

Just checked a two node mesh (AC66U_B1 master & 2 AC68U nodes) with Asus beta firmware. No, the nodes do not get IPV6 addresses. From my remote location I can not verify if the clients get IPV6 addresses. Most of the clients in this system use the guest WIFI and I really do not care if they get IPV6. Logically, the nodes do not need IPV6 as they can communicate with the master well enough over IPV4.

 

[LostNetSpace]

My impression (I did not take time to really dig into it to confirm) is that the client devices do get IPv6 addresses but that the AiMesh node does not carry the IPv6 traffic.

Result is that for devices that prefer IPv6 (like our iPhones) the IPv6 attempt has time out before they connect with IPv4. From the end user’s point of view, when in the part of the property covered by the AiMesh nodes it takes 30 or so seconds to a web page to come up. Spouse approval factor on that is very low so I converted my AiMesh nodes back to being simple access points.

A pity as I’d like to extend my guest WiFi coverage to match that of my main WiFi provided by the router and APs. But until this is fixed using AiMesh is not possible for me.

edit: There is no IPv6 enable button that I can see when in AiMesh node operation. I was wondering if I could enable IPv6 while in router mode then switch the unit to AiMesh node operation. But I need to do this when nobody else is in the house using the WiFi network and with the pandemic that opportunity may not be for a while.

 

[archiel]

My impression (I did not take time to really dig into it to confirm) is that the client devices do get IPv6 addresses but that the AiMesh node does not carry the IPv6 traffic.

Result is that for devices that prefer IPv6 (like our iPhones) the IPv6 attempt has time out before they connect with IPv4. From the end user’s point of view, when in the part of the property covered by the AiMesh nodes it takes 30 or so seconds to a web page to come up. Spouse approval factor on that is very low so I converted my AiMesh nodes back to being simple access points.

A pity as I’d like to extend my guest WiFi coverage to match that of my main WiFi provided by the router and APs. But until this is fixed using AiMesh is not possible for me.

edit: There is no IPv6 enable button that I can see when in AiMesh node operation. I was wondering if I could enable IPv6 while in router mode then switch the unit to AiMesh node operation. But I need to do this when nobody else is in the house using the WiFi network and with the pandemic that opportunity may not be for a while.

Testing with both ping -6 and iperf3 on ipv6 I can see responses and data transfer from devices attached to an AiMesh node. Also loading ipv6-test.com shows full IPv6 connectivity. Is there a particular reason you think that ipv6 is not working for devices on the node?

 

[Make WiFi Great Again]

interested to see how this unfolds.

 

[LostNetSpace]

Testing with both ping -6 and iperf3 on ipv6 I can see responses and data transfer from devices attached to an AiMesh node. Also loading ipv6-test.com shows full IPv6 connectivity. Is there a particular reason you think that ipv6 is not working for devices on the node?

It is/was my working hypothesis based on the top level symptoms I recalled after the fact. When the issue occurred I tried to get the WiFi back to a usable state as quickly as possible to reduce the spouse annoyance factor.

If/when I get time alone in the house I will go back to the AiMesh setup and look at what is happening in more detail.

At a top level it seemed that many/most/all connections took 15 to 45 seconds to set up. Once setup the date rates seemed reasonable. The devices we noticed this on are dual stack and seem to prefer IPv6. So one possible thing would be a timeout on IPv6 followed by a successful IPv4 connection. There could be other possible reasons so I will need to setup the configuration, duplicate the problem, and start checking log files and network traffic to determine what is wrong.

 

[Slawek P]

Testing with both ping -6 and iperf3 on ipv6 I can see responses and data transfer from devices attached to an AiMesh node. Also loading ipv6-test.com shows full IPv6 connectivity. Is there a particular reason you think that ipv6 is not working for devices on the node?

Perhaps you misunderstood. Devices connected to AiMesh (node/router) do get their IPv6 (apart from one - Alexa, do not know why), but the AiMesh node itself does not. Thanks