Weird problem with some Android apps on wifi

[BuhBuhRay]

Hello all, using an Asus RT-AX58 router with Merlin 386.7, and the latest versions of the Skynet and Diversion with pixel-TLS plugins.

For the last few weeks, I'm having problems with a couple of Android apps on my wifi nertwork; especially with the SiriusXM Canada app on my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy A52) and the Amazon Fire sticks I have.

On my cell phone when connected on the wifi network, the app doesn't want to work. All tabs ("Discover", "Recent" and ""Favorites") stays empty, and won't populate. However, when I switch to cell phone data, the app starts working perfectly. If I start an audio stream when on cell phone data and switch back to wifi, stream stays connected and continue playing; however all tabs won't refresh and ends up not displaying anymore. Same with the Amazon Fire stick version of the app on the same wifi network.

I've tried everything from uninstalling/reinstalling, emptying cache and data, using static IP, switching to device MAC address instead of a random one, resetting network preferences on my phone, etc. I've also tried following the Diversion logfile and have whitelisted all addresses used by the app in both Diversion and Skynet, still the same.

What is interesting is that the app works nicely if i use a VPN on my cell phone or my Amazon Fire stick when on my wifi network. Tried a canadian VPN server with IPVanish on both devices, and the app works as it should. Stops working when I disconnect from the VPN.

I'm on Bell Fibe. I've tried setting the WAN DNS of the PPPOE connection with Bell Fibe to the Google ones (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) but still no go, and this defeated the add blocking capability of Diversion with pixel-TLS; so I've reverted that and these fields are blank as they were before. The DNS filter is on, with "Router" selected there. Trend-Micro on also on.

I suppose I have some settings that are wrong on my router, or the I missed whitelisting something else in Diversion and/or Skynet.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

PS: Please bear with me if there are typos or syntax /grammatical errors, since my native language is french, and I'm not practising my English as often as I would like to.

 

[Tech9]

I would start by disabling Skynet and Diversion one by one and testing again the devices with issues.

 

[BuhBuhRay]

I would start by disabling Skynet and Diversion one by one and testing again the devices with issues.

Thanks Tech9; I've just temporarily disabled both plugins, have rebooted both the router and my cell phone, and tried using the app, and unfortunately no changes, still the same and won't work.

 

[Morris]

While on the cell link, do a trace route to SiriusXM Canada and note if it gets through and if it dose not where it stops.
Then do the same on your WiFi. You should get the same result. If you don't and I suspect you will not, have a conversation with your ISP.

Good luck

 

[fryedchikin]

On your A52, ensure "Private DNS" is set to "Off"

 

[Tech9]

The router may not be involved here at all. I see multiple similar complaints on Internet over many years period (App works on LTE, but not in Wi-Fi) and in some cases it turns out to be a SiriusXM server outage.

 

[BuhBuhRay]

On your A52, ensure "Private DNS" is set to "Off"

Thanks fryedchikin; Yes, private DNS is off on the A52.

While on the cell link, do a trace route to SiriusXM Canada and note if it gets through and if it dose not where it stops.
Then do the same on your WiFi. You should get the same result. If you don't and I suspect you will not, have a conversation with your ISP.

Good luck

Thanks for the suggestion Morris. I tried that and noticed that when using cell phone data (LTE), a few of the hops were on private IP addresses in the 10.179.x.x range. When on wifi, these IP addresses in the 10.179.x.x range ended up timing out. For the record, every device on my LAN and wifi are on 192.168.50.x range. The router is at 192.168.50.1.

However, I also tried traceroute when on wifi with the VPN, and I noticed that the same 10.179.x.x IP addresses were timing out also, but the SiriusXM Canada app works OK with the VPN, even with these hops timing out. I have screen captures of these 3 tests if needed. I used the "Ping Tool - DNS, port scanner" free Android app from ManageEngine for this, which has also a "traceroute" function built in.

The router may not be involved here at all. I see multiple similar complaints on Internet over many years period (App works on LTE, but not in Wi-Fi) and in some cases it turns out to be a SiriusXM server outage.

Yes Tech9, I've seen a few complaints about this in the past, but I've checked the SiriusXM reddit channel, the SiriusXM US and Canada twitter and Facebook feeds, the reviews in the Google Play store in both english and french; and did not find any recent comment about this. I've sent them a comment in their "message center" in the app, and they answered something that felt like an automated reply, saying that there working on it.

I mostly want to make sure I didn't miss anything with the settings in the router, Merlin firmware, and/or both Diversion and Skynet. This is the only problem I have right now with my wifi setup at home (mesh with 2X RP-AX56 hard wire connected to the AX58); and it even seems possible (even a probability...) that the root of it isn't even caused locally at home with my equipment. Full of good people in here with great knowledge, so I'm in for any other comment or input. Merci !

 

[Tech9]

Do you have any other custom scripts installed?

 

[BuhBuhRay]

Do you have any other custom scripts installed?

No, not at all.

Since I am experiencing this problen on my Samsung cell phone (Android) and my Amazon Fire stick (Android fork), tried something else and installed the SiriusXM app on my son's Ipod touch (IOS 15.5), to see if it could be an "Android" related bug. Same thing, didn't work either.

At least for now I have a workaround for now by using the VPN

 

[northumberland]

Try changing DNS server used on the router? Could be an issue with isp DNS.

 

[BuhBuhRay]

Try changing DNS server used on the router? Could be an issue with isp DNS.

Thanks for the suggestion northumberland, but I already tried that, as I wrote in my initial post :

I'm on Bell Fibe. I've tried setting the WAN DNS of the PPPOE connection with Bell Fibe to the Google ones (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) but still no go, and this defeated the add blocking capability of Diversion with pixel-TLS; so I've reverted that and these fields are blank as they were before. The DNS filter is on, with "Router" selected there. Trend-Micro on also on.

However, I'm not ruling out the possibility that it could be an issue with Bell. Also, for the record, I probably should have written at first that IPV6 is not enabled on the router, since Bell do not support it.

 

[northumberland]

Sorry, must haves missed that you'd tried. Looks like you've went through pretty much everything, only time I've seen similar is when blocking using skynet, which I note isn't enabled. Be interesting to see what the fix turns out to be. Does a DNS lookup show the same addresses when using cell/WiFi/lan using dig? Can you ping the resolved IPs?

 

[Tech9]

Trend-Micro on also on.

AiProtection sometimes blocks legitimate web addresses. Did you try turning it off temporarily?

 

[BuhBuhRay]

AiProtection sometimes blocks legitimate web addresses. Did you try turning it off temporarily?

Yes I did, and no change, still won't work.

I just went thru a few logs (sys.log and dnsmasq.log), and the more I look, the more I'm convinced it's not my router but the problem is originating from either my ISP, or simply from the SiriusXM streaming app / servers. There doesn't seem to be any query in dnsmasq.log when I try the app that is blocked or redirected to the pixel-TLS ad Ip address from Diversion

Jul 20 06:59:54 dnsmasq[7956]: query[A] streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com from 192.168.[removed]
Jul 20 06:59:54 dnsmasq[7956]: cached streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com is <CNAME>
Jul 20 06:59:54 dnsmasq[7956]: forwarded streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com to 67.69.239.49
Jul 20 06:59:54 dnsmasq[7956]: reply streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com is <CNAME>
Jul 20 06:59:54 dnsmasq[7956]: reply ltkwjna.x.incapdns.net is 45.60.99.37
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: query[A] api.apptentive.com from 192.168.[removed]
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: forwarded api.apptentive.com to 67.69.239.49
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 44.196.151.43
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 18.213.53.113
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 54.160.94.96
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 34.194.114.1
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 54.196.86.65
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 3.228.137.243
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 34.193.224.113
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply api.apptentive.com is 34.199.228.165
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: query[A] primary.hls-streaming-everest.production.streaming.siriusxm.com from 192.168.[removed]
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: forwarded primary.hls-streaming-everest.production.streaming.siriusxm.com to 67.69.239.49
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply primary.hls-streaming-everest.production.streaming.siriusxm.com is <CNAME>
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply primary.hls-streaming-everest.production.streaming.siriusxm.com.akamaized.net is <CNAME>
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply a229.z.akamai.net is 184.150.49.49
Jul 20 06:59:59 dnsmasq[7956]: reply a229.z.akamai.net is 184.150.49.27
Jul 20 07:00:24 dnsmasq[7956]: query[A] streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com from 192.168.[removed]
Jul 20 07:00:24 dnsmasq[7956]: cached streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com is <CNAME>
Jul 20 07:00:24 dnsmasq[7956]: forwarded streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com to 67.69.239.49
Jul 20 07:00:24 dnsmasq[7956]: reply streamingapi2.mountain.siriusxm.com is <CNAME>
Jul 20 07:00:24 dnsmasq[7956]: reply ltkwjna.x.incapdns.net is 45.60.99.37

In sys.log, I saw a few ports scanner IP adresses that were blocked, but nothing that seemed related to this issue.

Sorry, must haves missed that you'd tried. Looks like you've went through pretty much everything, only time I've seen similar is when blocking using skynet, which I note isn't enabled. Be interesting to see what the fix turns out to be. Does a DNS lookup show the same addresses when using cell/WiFi/lan using dig? Can you ping the resolved IPs?

No worry ! Skynet is indeed enabled, but I've tested disabling it and after a reboot it was the same, did not work.