Requests timing out over IPv6 when browsing Cloudflare proxied sites via IPv6 enabled BT (& EE) routers
What steps have you taken to resolve the issue?
Disabling IPv6 on the Cloudflare zone (via the API as is not supported in the UI anymore) fixed the issue for the customers experiencing the slow/failing requests to our site.
Similarly, a customer experiencing the problem was willing to screenshare with us and we observed that if they disabled IPv6 on their home router, the issue went away. Meanwhile, other customers were able to connect perfectly fine over IPv6 – it seems that the common denominator among all the customers facing issues are that they are connecting from either BT or EE broadband connections.
The conclusion that we’ve reached is that it appears to be a specific routing issue between BT and Cloudflare over IPv6.
What feature, service or problem is this related to?
I have been experiencing the same issue …network issues between my Windows PC and thegvoffice.com using EE broadband …getting worse over recent weeks. I did see reference to this on other threads and so have changed the IPv6 seeting for ‘Allocation’ to OFF (was set as Stateless) on my BT SmartHub and things are much improved.
I guess my question is - whilst I seem t have solved my immediate problem (access to thegvoffice.com) are there any downsides to the change I’ve made by setting IPv6 to ‘OFF’ …should I consider the ‘Stateful’ or ‘both’ IPV6 Allocation options on my router?
Thanks, Neil
Since my original post, we’ve had other reports from customers on BT / EE / Shell Energy / other Openreach broadband providers (that appears to be the common denominator) experience connection issues exclusive to Cloudflare – temporarily disabling the cloudflare orange cloud instantly resolved issues for them, re-enabling brought back their issues, switching to alternative (non-openreach) networks once again resolved it. There’s definitely connectivity problems persisting over the past several months.
Hello - that is interesting …and was it all linked to IPv6?
How is this type of issue fed back into the technical support teams for the involved parties (Openreach, Cloudflare?).
Thanks, Neil
ps My access to the website that uses Cloudflare is still much better now I have turned IPv6 off.
Unsure anymore if it’s exclusively ipv6 related as we’ve been experiencing reports of connectivity issues after switching off IPv6 support in cloudflare & we don’t have direct access to the first line support to engage directly with all of the impacted users.
It’s plausible that it’s still IPv6 related as in a few instances, we’ve had success with router resets, which suggests it could be DNS cache holding onto to the ipv6 endpoints.
In terms of feeding this info back to the right technical teams, that’s a world of pain. Hoping this thread gets a bit more traction or someone in the right place sees this and can do something about it.
Thanks …my connection to the application that uses Cloudflare has certainly improved since I switched IPv6 off on the SmartHub2 and also switched it off for 10 mins and restarted (IP address changed). Not sure exactly what made the difference but before I did that the system was unusable and now it seems fine.
I’m not a network expert at all but I am certainly savvy enough to know something is amiss (especially with a system that I’ve been using without issues for years …and I know that all the other users are not seeing the problem except one who is on a laptop and EE broadband).
Just adding a +1 to this issue. Just moved a fairly active forum to it’s own server and using cloudflare for the first time. Getting reports from a small number of users on BT/EE having the same issue. It’s not really realistic to expect, probably non-techy, users to monkey about with router settings nor to pay for an enterprise plan just to switch off IPv6 support via cloudflare.
We’ve had more reports from customers experiencing extremely slow connections to our application, all connecting from BT (ASN 2856). It’s reaching a tipping point now where a cloudflare exit is on the cards as this issue is persisting even on our domains on Business tier plans, for several months with no movement from either BT, Openreach or Cloudflare. Naturally we’re receiving full blame as the software provider but are effectively powerless in a resolution outside of ditching Cloudflare
Has anyone raised a Cloudflare ticket and got a ticket number?
Anyone have any traceroutes, or preferably tcptraceroutes to port 443, over IPv4 and IPv6 from a BT ISP (BT, EE, Plusnet, etc)? I don’t know anyone who uses BT any more so can’t check myself
I should be able to get you some info. GIve me a day or two. I’ve not raised a ticket (not sure as I have the ability to as a free plan user but I’ll have a look)
Hello …just to confirm that since switching IPv6 off on my router my access to the Cloudflare serve application has been fine. I agree that getting users to mess about with router settings is not ideal and is no solving the issue but it is at least an option. Hopefully Cloudflare & BT/EE will act before too long.
Neil
Hi again …here are some docs from CLOUDFLARE - apparently it is not possible to switch IPv6 off via their dashboard …so at present the only option is to get users to switch it off via their own BT/EE Smarthub2 - not really ideal for non technical users. We need BT/EE & CLOUDFLARE to investigate.
What is IPv6?
As the Internet runs low on IPv4 address space, there’s been a rapid increase in the deployment of IPv6 technologies. This shift is critical to the long-term growth and health of the Internet. At Cloudflare, we are doing our part to make it free and easy for all websites to be available on network.ipv6.
What does enabling IPv6 compatibility do?
The IPv6 gateway setting enables IPv6 on all subdomains that are on Cloudflare (marked by an orange cloud in your DNS settings). If your host provides IPv6 support, the gateway will proxy IPv6 connections through Cloudflare. When both IPv4 and IPv6 connections are available, Cloudflare prefers IPv4. We recommend keeping IPv6 Compatibility set to “On” for greater availability for your website. Note: If you already have IPv6 records on your origin server, you must enable Cloudflare for your AAAA records on the DNS settings page.
Why can’t I turn off IPv6?
At Cloudflare we believe in being good to the Internet and good to our customers. By moving on from the legacy world of IPv4-only to the modern-day world where IPv4 and IPv6 are treated equally, we believe we are doing exactly that. In the Cloudflare dashboard, IPv6 is no longer something you can toggle on and off, it’s always just on
Turning off IPv6 (via API) did not resolve the customer complaints regarding connectivity issues from EE, BT and most recently TalkTalk. We’ve got a case open with Cloudflare on this topic (01553270), it hasn’t progressed yet. Their expectations are that we generate HAR files and run traceroutes from the broken connections, thats particularly challenging as we’ve not got access to said broken networks - at best we can ask frustrated customers to test some non-technical user journeys for us. We did manage to get lucky and find a willing participant to generate a HAR file.
Most recently we’ve done some tests to rule out it being an issue relating to our origin by setting up 2 URLs pointing to the same origin, one with the orange cloud, one without. A site visitor reported the following outcome:
“The first URL (Orange Cloud ON) did not work on EE. They then tried it on their wifi (Vodafone) and it worked. Back to EE it did not. The second url (Orange Cloud OFF) worked fine on either and they said it was so much quicker to load than the first one.”
This information has been added to our open case, just sharing publicly as an FYI too.
Just out of curiosity to see if we have overlapping issues, with the same setup where you have connectivity issues with other sites, do you also have any connectivity issues for this website: https://cf_on.nuwebgroup.com/browse
Does it work and its slow, does it feel fast/normal by your connection speed standards, or does it spin out (after navigating to the event, adding a ticket to your basket, etc.)
