Losing ability to connect to IPV6 addresses

[fgrossberg]

Xfinity is my internet service provider.  I seem to be periodically losing my ability to connect to IPv6-addressed servers, such as certain members of Xfinity’s IMAP email server farm.  I can restore that ability by restarting my Xfinity modem, but am looking for advice on how to make that connectivity more persistent.

Details…

In tracking down an intermittent issue with my email client accessing Xfinity’s IMAP server farm (imap.comcast.net), I stumbled into the realization a few days ago that my home workstation was timing out when connecting to IPV6-type addresses.  It has had no issues with IPV4-type addresses.  So when Xfinity’s DNS (or whatever) provided an IPV4 address to my workstation, the email client worked okay.  But when it provided an IPV6 address, the client timed out.  I reviewed Xfinity article, https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/about-ipv6 .  That led me to running test procedure, test-ipv6.comcast.net .  

The test confirmed that my workstation failed to connect to IPV6 addresses.

As a shot in the dark, I restarted my Xfinity modem.  After the modem came back up, I reran the test procedure and happily found that my workstation could access IPV6 addresses again.

This all ran fine for several days, but this morning I discovered that my workstation was once again failing the test for IPV6.  I restarted the modem and the addressing service was restored.

My question to the Forum is whether someone has had a similar experience and what—if anything—they did to stabilize the situation.  I would prefer to not have to restart the modem every few days.

Note that I examined the modem’s connection status panels before and after the reset—and did not spot any obvious differences.

The following two images show my IPV6 test results for a failure and for a success.

My configuration:

• My internet service is Xfinity’s “Blast! Pro Internet”, bundled in with my cable TV package.
• My cable modem is a Xfinity-branded version of Arris TG862G/CT.
• My workstation OS is Windows 10 Home, Version 20H2, Build 19042.746.

[ComcastAlyssa]

Hi @fgrossberg thank you for reaching out on our forums, our team would be more than happy to investigate your connection concerns. Can you please send me a Private Message including your first and last name as it appears on the account? To send me a Private Message, please click my name 'ComcastAlyssa' and click 'Send a message.'

[EG]

@fgrossberg 

Can't see your pics. Since you are a new poster, they need to be approved by a Forum Admin. That could take some time. In the interim, you could try hosting them at one of those free third-party pic hosting sites like Imgur or Photobucket and post the link to them here.

[fgrossberg]

You can see the two images at IPV6 Test Results 

[fgrossberg]

An Xfinity analyst (@ComcastJosephW) thinks that the intermittent behavior may be due to the fact that Xfinity shows two modems at my house:  the active Xfinity-branded one and a purchased one that we removed from service years ago.  He thinks the second record may be "conflicting with a bootfile" in our account.  Anyway, he removed the record from our account and I restarted the modem.   If this problem does not return in a week, I will declare victory.

[fgrossberg]

Removing the back-office record for the unused modem did not resolve the problem:  The issue returned a couple days later.  An Xfinity analyst then suggested we upgrade our Xfinity-branded gateway--which we had been using for several years--to a more current model.  I went to the local Xfinity store six days ago and did that. So far so good.  If we go two weeks without incident then I will declare victory.

[fgrossberg · Accepted solution]

I have been able to access IPV6-addressed servers uninterrupted for the past two weeks--ever since I replaced my old Xfinity gateway with the latest version.  So I declare victory!

[EG]

Good to hear ! Now closing your thread.