Calyx Orbi and Nest Protect

[splitd]

Hello all,

First, I've tried searching this forum and the Internet and general to no avail. I've found a few suggestions to correct my issue, but none has yet to actually work.

So anyways, my issue:
I've been a happy subscriber to Calyx as a Sustainer, and have an Orbi router that I've magic'd up and such. Has worked flawlessly for me since about October when I subscribed. I was originally on Sprint (which was the SIM card they originally sent me along with my M2000). I have two Nest thermostats and Protect smoke/CO detectors in the house which I had no issue connecting or functioning before the switch to TMobile. The odd part is that my Nest thermostats both connect just fine to the network and I can still control them thru the app.

Since the day received and switched my SIM card to the TMobile one, I cannot get my Nest Protects to connect to the network. I've tried everything that I've seen recommended, such as deleting the device and trying to re-add them to my Nest account, etc. I've also tried switching to the B2B APN to no avail, as well as messing with IPv4 vs. IPv6 vs. IPv4v6 settings on the Orbi.

Currently my Orbi settings are APN: fast.t-mobile.com and using the IPv4v6 setting. I cannot get the Orbi to connect to the Internet with any other APN or IP version setting.

I'm sure with as many people who use the Orbi setup along with Nest products, someone has had to have ran into this already and have a workaround. Any suggestions?

[Didneywhorl]

It's likely that the orbi and its EG18 is not dealing out an IPV6 only interface that is 1pv4 over ipv6 (CLAT/XLAT) enabled. The latest Tmobile network structure is pushing hard to IPV6 only, and most legacy devices can only use IPV4.

I've not tested my new Tmo SIM from Calyx in the Orbi, but I'll bet that has something to do with it ... maybe.

[splitd]

Hi Didneywhorl,

Thanks for your prompt reply. This actually makes a lot of sense, as I had no problems getting my Nest Protect to work previously on Sprint when I was using the IPv4 protocol. Unfortunately I can't get the Orbi to work with IPv4 only with this new TMO SIM card, so I'm pretty much out of luck there.

Here's to hoping someone figured out a workaround!

[Didneywhorl]

You may want to try and setup a separate VPN router and see if you can run that traffic through it.

[splitd]

Hi again,

So I kind of slept on ever trying to get this to work and recently revisited. I also have Whirlpool brand washer and dryer that has WiFi capabilities that was working with the Sprint SIM but stopped working when the switchover to TMO happened, just like the Nest Protects. Did some troubleshooting with the folks at Whirlpool customer support to no avail. I did ask if they were using IPv6 on the Whirlpool devices, and he said no it was an IPv4 minimum.

Troubleshooting on my end, if I go to any of those "check your IPv6 readiness" sites, I fail for almost everything IPv6, which is kind of confusing to me. I was under the impression that all TMO network was already on IPv6. I'll readily admit that I'm no advanced networking expert, but I do have my BS in EE and am pretty familiar with electronics and networking, albeit not to the level that a true IT person probably does.

I also use a personal VPN service (Private Internet Access) and when connected on my iPhone via VPN and use these IPv6 tests, I also fail for almost everything IPv6, so would like like that network isn't set up properly to use that, as Didneywhorl suggested? I still struggle to find some workaround to get these 4 lone devices back on my network

There has to be some other way, no?!?!?! How is it that literally every other device I own connects just fine, it's just these 4? My ping stays between 80-100mSec, I regularly get over 100Mbps speeds during non-peak hours (lowest is probably around 40 during peak on weekends), and I'm about 2.3 miles form my local cell tower. I know this isn't a connection quality issue, but a firewall issue, so to speak. I know not where to turn next

[splitd]

Oh, and another note, I also troublehshot with Nest product support, who told me that the Nest Protect needs IPv6 to work, whereas the Thermostat only needs IPv4 (which makes sense as to why the thermostat works but not the Protects).

Theoretically speaking, if I were to upgrade to the Orbi NBK752 (the new 5G version with the RM802Q modem), would that effectively solve my issues? I do have the 5G TMO SIM from Calyx, so I've been kicking around the idea of upgrading, knowing that my local tower does supply TMO 5G, just hesitant to drop $1000 on a new router.

[Didneywhorl]

This is a tough one. So many variables. Likely the issue is a firewall issue not allowing the nest products to ping the home server, or vice versa, via IPV4 or IPV6 (ICMPv6). VPN services do not use IPv6, so that is likely the fail there if it has to be transmitted over IPv6.

The latest routers use IPv4 over IPv6 tunneling (CLAT/XLAT) but if your device is trying to use IPv6 directly the router itself my or may not have that enabled on the local network.

I wish I had THE answer for you.

[splitd]

This is a tough one. So many variables. Likely the issue is a firewall issue not allowing the nest products to ping the home server, or vice versa, via IPV4 or IPV6 (ICMPv6). VPN services do not use IPv6, so that is likely the fail there if it has to be transmitted over IPv6.

The latest routers use IPv4 over IPv6 tunneling (CLAT/XLAT) but if your device is trying to use IPv6 directly the router itself my or may not have that enabled on the local network.

I wish I had THE answer for you.

Well, I can tell you that I did a debug log capture this past weekend, and imported to WireShark, and found that I'm getting an error: Protocol ICMP, Code 130 - Destination unreachable (Host administratively prohibited), when trying to connect the Whirlpool washing machine to the network. That being said, it seems like it's likely your first guess above. The million dollar question is: how the hell do you get around that (if even possible)?

In other news, found somewhat of a "deal" on a 5G Orbi over the weekend, so I'm going to give that a go over the next few weeks. Been wanting to upgrade anyway, perhaps I get miraculously lucky and somehow this fixing my remaining issues, as well as boosting speed. We shall see...

Thanks again for all your help, Didneywhorl!

[Didneywhorl]

Let us know how it goes.

[splitd]

So just to follow up, in case anyone ever finds themselves in this situation.....

I received my 5G Orbi (NBR750/NBK752) and got it all hooked up to my Calyx TMobile SIM this weekend. I went and attempted hooking up my Whirlpool washer and dryer, and magically, everything works! I couldn't believe it. So then I go to hook up my Nest Protect thermostats, and now they're working again as well! Looks like problem solved (albeit an expensive fix )

The weird part is that if I go to one of those sites that check your IPv6 readiness, I still seemingly have no IPv6 functionality and I fail for pretty much everything related. Yet the Nest Protect (which allegedly uses IPv6) works just fine now. So I'm really struggling to understand what was really going wrong previously with the LBR20 and these devices? Was it really a problem with IPv6 the whole time, or something else? Again, according to Whirlpool, their devices do not use IPv6, so it really never did make sense as to why they weren't working previously.

With the new 5G Orbi, I only have one new issue that didn't exist with the LBR20. And that's with my Samsung Smart TVs. I have a total of 4 Samsung Smart TVs, the oldest being a 2014 model and the newest a 2021 model. 3 out of my 4 TVs hook up to the new Orbi just fine using SSID and password, with "obtain IP addresses automatically" setting. However this one TV that has always hooked up fine to the LBR20 no longer connects using SSID and password. When it fails, it says that it could not obtain an IP address, but shows an address of 169.254.... My home network is a 10.0.0.x network. I have no understanding of why it's getting a 169.254.... address, but makes sense as to why that would fail. However, if I manually set the IP address of the TV to say 10.0.0.90, with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and Gateway/DNS server of 10.0.0.1, it STILL fails, which really makes no sense. All my other Samsung Smart TVs that are connected show similar IP addresses with those exact subnet/gateway/DNS settings. However, if I hook the TV up to my router using WPS, it connects just fine, which is the way it's connected right now. The problem there is that if I reboot the router, it looses connection and I have to set it all up again.

I called Samsung support yesterday, but they were entirely no help. Any suggestions? Oh, and the TV that won't connect is a 2016 model, not even the ancient 2014 TV I still have; that connects just fine.

[Didneywhorl]

The 169.254... address is the default "I didn't get an address" address. Usually when it can't get dhcp reservations. Not sure why you are seeing this though.

I'm guessing you did, but did you make sure and run all the way through the network settings of the problem TV and click on "forget" for all the previously attached networks it has used?

Also I'm guessing you did, but I have to say it ... did you also factory reset the goofy TV and make sure it had no previous settings stuck in there?
I catch myself not doing this too often, and though it shouldn't matter, sometimes it "just starts working". Maddening, as I'm very much a "Yes, but WHY!!!" person.

[splitd]

Unfortunately on this particular TV, there is no "forget network settings" or "reset network settings" as on some other Samsung TVs. The only way to blow out the saved settings it to try to set it up to another Wireless network, then try again to hook it up to the original network.

I also did the factory reset, which does not wipe out the previously saved network settings. I found that to be quite odd as well. I unplugged it for about an hour, powered back on, all that fun stuff. Even tried to update the software when I got it connected via WPS, but it was already on the latest version.

In the meantime I've been searching some Samsung forums and maybe found something that's interesting. It seems that someone once figured out that a similar Samsung TV was sending too frequent TCP SYN requests, and the router was detecting it as a DDOS attack, thus not allowing the device to connect. I don't see anything in the Orbi logs denying it to connect, but then again I didn't do the "debug" logs just yet. I think I will try that when I get home today; enable the debug logs and try to connect, see what the router is doing with the connection. It's just really odd that this one TV won't connect, whereas all others do. Just not exactly sure what to do if it is detecting it as a DDOS attack. Just disable DDOS protection temporarily, connect, then reenable? If I do that, will I have an issue reconnecting the TV again later (in other words, will I also have to do this every time I reboot router)?

[Didneywhorl]

Hmmmmm. That is odd. It has to be something like that. Something the router is seeing that the TV is doing or the way it is requesting that it is simply NOT liking.