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IPv6 support on Virgin media

dgcarter
Dialled in

Does anyone know whether (and if so when) Virgin plan to implement IPv6 on its network?

1,493 REPLIES 1,493

Not quite understanding why you would need to give it an IPv6 DNS server when you have you wouldn't have any IPv6 on your LAN anyway? It should just use IPv4 like most things do if no IPv6 is present. You shouldn't need to specify anything IPv6 at all, just set it to DHCP and leave it.

I wouldn't normally advocate this, but if it's an issue, the LG TV should have the option to just disable IPv6, mine does, but there are loads of models about, but if it's running LG's webOS, it should be the same.

Modem mode should work fine, providing your ASUS RT-AC66U can pick up the DHCP lease on the WAN. Can sometimes require you to reboot both the Super Hub and router for the WAN to be passed down properly.

What model number is this TV, and do you know what OS it has on it?

I would find it unlikely that it's IPv6 only.  And your correct in not using tunnels or anything of that nature.  Many of the streaming providers block the IPv6 services that you can get (Like HE.net) saying that they are VPN. 

----
I do not work for VM, but I would. It is just a Job.
Most things I say I make up and sometimes it's useful, don't be mean if it's wrong.
I would also make websites for them, because the job never seems to require the website to work.

Hi Guys

Many thanks for the replies and suggestions, but (after going out shopping 😐) I came back and thought about this again - and then finally found and fixed the problem (no thanks to the c*appy apology for a manual)!

Turned out that all the menu references to IPv6 were in fact a total "red-herring" and not a help - I went back into the network address Edit fields and then noticed (which I hadn't before) that there is a "Set automatically" box (not "use DHCP" which is what that actually seems to mean - and which is probably why I failed to "spot" it earlier) which was'nt "ticked" by default. When I did that and accepted it, then the TV did connect to the router and the internet, and so "all was now well".

Funny thing as a result though: the Gateway address came up as 192.168.1.1, which is to be expected, but the DNS Server address also came up as exactly the same, and not an external address as I thought it would have🙄.

It is also clear that I still need to learn a lot more about the WebOS used on LG TVs!

Anyway, it seems that I have bothered you too much already with an "IPv6-issue" that was actually a purely local one, and thus taken up your time needlessly, and for that I can only profusely apologise - but, OTOH, I did learn a tiny bit about what is going on "behind the scenes" with VM & IPv6, and that has proven quite interesting.

Kind Regards & Thanks again for trying to help.

 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Glad you got it working.

It's normal for routers to provide their own IP address for the DNS server and then relay requests to whatever DNS server they are configured to use. Makes life simpler if you want to change it as there's only one place to update.

Here's me thinking LG had gone bold and released an IPv6 only TV or suddenly decided webOS is IPv6 only! Ha! Glad you got it working though. Sometimes the manuals provided are rubbish and terminology varies too, which is always fun. Set automatically is always the way to go for most, surprised its not default config when doing the network setup.

Don't worry, join the IPv6 rant club, were always about watching Virgin Media, not deploying IPv6, most days of the week!

Cheers Guys!

BTW: I won't be ranting about VM TV content unless & until I get one of their boxes - but, ATM, I'm pretty happy with Sky HD (plus a spare HD box found in a Lidl carpark litter bin and that only needed a "clearout and reset" to work fine again!), several non-Sky sat receivers and " a number of sat dishes" and a ROKU 2 streamer😄

aleksmariusz
Dialled in

If you want IPv6 support on Virgin Media sooner (rather than who-knows-when later), you may need to take matters into your own hands. 

I haven't had a chance to read all 100+ pages of this topic so this info may not be new, but that's what i did this weekend.  I have Virgin Media Fibre 100M Broadband (started with 50M a few years ago, that is a story in and of itself). 

 

The results:

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 4.06.38 PM.png

(NTL listed above is the old name before Virgin Media rebranded)Screen-Shot-2020-05-05-at-4.07.26-PM.pngScreen Shot 2020-05-05 at 4.07.44 PM.png

Ok of course this is not an admission that Virgin Media lack of IPv6 is excusable by any means.  Just that if you want something enough, sometimes you have to do it yourself.

My setup is basically the original Hub3 Virgin Media router/modem, however i also set up a linux host on my home network running pi-hole, that provides ad-blocked DNS services for my entire home LAN.  So on that system, I simply utilized the free Hurricane Electric tunnelbroker offering, which sets up for you (on their side) a tunnel to the IPv6 based internet over your IPv4 network.  They also provide instructions for the setup on your side and it was more straightforward than i imagined.

And voila, IPv6 on Virgin Media..  If folks are interested in the gory technical steps, I can set up a separate post.

You can also of course go the simpler route and set up IPv6 connectivity on an individual host basis more easily (H.E gives you up 5 tunnels per account) if you don't need your entire LAN with IPv6 connectivity.

Anonymous
Not applicable

What sort of performance are you able to get? Many of us are finding our HE tunnel speed limited (for reasons unknown).

FWIW you can't run more than one HE tunnel per real IPv4 address because of the way the 6in4 protocol works. This shouldn't be a limitation for most people.

"You can also of course go the simpler route and set up IPv6 connectivity on an individual host basis more easily (H.E gives you up 5 tunnels per account) if you don't need your entire LAN with IPv6 connectivity."

That's not the right way to do it. Different tunnels are meant for different physical locations. Each tunnel provides a /64 by default, but you can also request multiple /48 networks on each tunnel. If you're setting up tunnels on a host by host basis all your LAN traffic (using your delegated prefixes, at least, not locally scoped traffic) will be tromboning through the he.net servers, it'll be awfully slow

Excellent question, you're absolutely right to ask and I really should have included this caveat that it's only a fifth of what i get natively through IPv4.. a simple speedtest on ipv6-test.com reveals ~20Mbps (vs the 100Mbps i normally get via native IPv4):

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 4.45.02 PM.png

This speed restriction is likely at the Hurricane Electric tunnelbroker side, as I used iperf to a server i've colocated (on a gigabit line) and got:

$ sudo iperf -V -c 2001:470:1...:....::2 # connecting from server outbound toward home (download speed)
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 2001:470:1...:5a9::2, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 45.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 2a03::...:...:8:: port 58704 connected with 2001:470:1...:.....::2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  22.6 MBytes  19.0 Mbits/sec

$ sudo iperf -s -V # connecting from server inbound TOWARD home (upload speed)
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 2a03:....:.....:8:5054:ff:fee9:6bf1 port 5001 connected with 2001:470:1...:.....::2 port 59088
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0-10.2 sec  11.4 MBytes  9.34 Mbits/sec

So again definitely not a replacement for Virgin Media getting their IPv6-act together and providing native connectivity, just something to dabble with if you can't wait.