Asus RT-N56u not working with comcast IPV6, caused by OOMA?

[paulsiu]

I upgraded my mom's Asus router from her old Cisco after the Cisco router showed up on a list of routers with security issues and also to get IPV6. She is using Comcast, and I believe IPV6 has been rolled out in all or at least most locations.

To my surprise, I couldn't get IPV6 to work. After playing around with the settings over the net, I realized that an OOMA VOIP box is sitting between the modem and the router. I checked and it appears that OOMA may not be IPV6 compatible.

Normally, I would just remove the OOMA from the setup to check this, but my mom lives at the other end of the country and not tech savvy, so she can't figure out how to unplug a network cable. Do you think this is most likely the cause?

Paul

 

[Trip]

First off, I believe the Ooma devices are configured to act as gateways (routers) by default, so by placing the Ooma in between the modem and router, you're subjecting to any/all devices behind the Ooma to its inbound/outbound routing controls and limitations, including possible lack of IPv6 support and what is most likely double-NAT for any devices behind the 56U.

The better setup would be modem---router---network devices, including the Ooma, which should be plugged into one of the router's LAN ports, with any other wired endpoints plugged into the remaining free router LAN ports, or if there aren't enough ports on the router, then wired into a switch, which is then plugged into a free router LAN port. That should allow the N56U unfettered access to the 'net for routing IPv6 (assuming the firmware you have running on it supports IPv6).

In terms of helping mom out, unfortunately you may have to get someone she knows who is semi-networking literate on the other end of the line in order get the setup done correctly.

 

[Moebius]

I can confirm what Trip suggested above, specifically I've got an Asus AC66R and an Ooma and Comcast and working ipv6.
Your network should go from Cable Modem<-->Asus<-->Ooma .
There is no need to use the ooma as a gateway between the cable modem and router. I know Ooma wants you to configure your network that way, but it really is not necessary.

 

[Trip]

I know Ooma wants you to configure your network that way, but it really is not necessary.

Bingo, because for them it's way easier to support end-users when their gateway is the only gateway on the LAN. Similar to why most ISPs say they won't support you if you bridge one of their integrated piece-of-junk modem+router units -- they don't want additional complexity involved, even when that added complexity provides vastly superior and more stable routing and firewalling. Go figure.

 

[paulsiu]

Thanks everyone. I will have sister reconfigure the OOMA to run off the router. I will probably need to figure out how to setup QOS on the router and OOMA. Generally, I think I like the router -> OOMA configuration any way, but I couldn't get QOS to work with the previous router. In the past, I get my sister to configure the router part of the way and then I use teamviewer to log into my mom's machine to reconfigure the router and her computer remotely. I even remotely fix problems on her android phone, but it doesn't work over wifi for some reason only on cellular network.

I also needed to get my sister to turn off the radio on the old router. Originally, I asked my mom to bring the old router the next time she visits. I figured I can experiment by installing Tomato firmware on it, instead she plugged it back in because the cat like to sit on it because it's warm. This unfortunately probably resulted in radio interference.

Paul

 

[Trip]

Paul, unfortunately just "turning on" most types of QoS often leads to more problems than it stands to fix. That said, it appears Ooma does enough in the software their service stack to take most SOHO use-cases of contention and lag into account, so I'd say you'd be OK without formal QoS of any kind, as long as your mom's internet doesn't get routinely hammered by other competing things, like a lot of streaming, several others browsing/download, etc. (ie. she lives alone, or doesn't have much else going on network-wise).

Oh, and keeping the kitties off the router always helps.

 

[sfx2000]

perhaps not specific to ASUS - but if there is an option for SIP-ALG, disable it (or toggle to on) and see what happens...

 

[paulsiu]

My mom only has a 3 Mbps connection with good latency. Based on OOMA spec, this is good enough for VOIP except that I needed to adjust the bandwidth setting on the OOMA to reserve some bandwidth for voice or it sounds like it's underwater if she's using the internet at the same time. 3 Mbp may seem low, but she's actually using it mostly for email and surfing the web. This is an improvement over her previous connection, which had only 765Kp. I had previously setup QOS on that setup for her to use Skype so she can talk to her siblings overseas (voice only of course).

I will need to figure out someway to set it up. My plan is to get an OOMA for myself (which I was planning to do any way). and experiment with the QOS setting.

As for the cat, my mom and I have different priorities. I want the cat to stop sitting on the router and cause it to overheat. My mom complaint that the router stands vertically and so do not have a space for the cat to sit on.

Paul