topic Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?) in Broadband & Landline

IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

ShutterbugLozza — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 14:50:16 GMT

Hello everyone,

As someone who works in IT, I thought it might be worth learning about IPv6 and as a starting point, I've been considering implementing it on my home network. I'm currently utilising a Ubiquiti USG 3 and have it connected to EE Full Fibre. It's configured with IPv4 on the WAN port, using the EE standard username and password, which works perfectly.

My question is whether or not EE has implemented IPv6 on the FTTP / Full Fibre network and what the appropriate details are? The USG 3 requires the following settings:

I've read some alternating information on this in different places, some suggest that EE has no IPv6, some say only on the Mobile Network and others where it uses the same connection settings as BT Full Fibre - which I've tested (DHCPv6 and /56 as the Prefix delegation size) to no avail. Wondering if there's any EE specialists who might have some insight on this?

Thanks in advance!

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

XRaySpeX — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 15:00:23 GMT

The EE BB network does not support IPv6, only IPv4. It makes no diff whether it's FTTP, FTTC or ADSL; that's only the short BB hop, not the Net. As far as I know it's the same for BT.

It is true that EE has implemented IPv6 on its mobile network but even that is not foolproof; it does not fallback to IPv4 well.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

ShutterbugLozza — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 15:02:29 GMT

Thanks @XRaySpeX

Unsure if you're EE internal - if so, is there any schedule to start issuing Broadband Addresses with IPv6 Delagations?

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

XRaySpeX — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 15:06:34 GMT

No, I'm just a user like you as are most of the peeps here. We wouldn't know until EE decides to announce it publicly.

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

MossDev — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:18:51 GMT

Hi @XRaySpeX , I have been looking for information on IPv6 for a new home broadband install.

For EE, every single time someone asks about IPv6 availability, you reply saying it is not available. A google search just comes up with your many replies.

I have just spoken to EE technical support and IPv6 is fully available on all of their broadband services and has been for some time.

EE is now part of BT/Openreach and all the FTTP is provided via BT. BT updated all their services to IPv6 in 2016:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/11/bt-broadband-lines-now-support-ipv6-internet-addresses.html

@ShutterbugLozza I also work in IT (DevOps) and I use IPv6 on a daily basis, I could not do my job without it.

Once I get my line installed I will be configuring this myself. If you are still having issues with activating it you should call the tech support team and ask them why the option is not working. In the mean time I think you should try a delegation of 48 as 56 is probably too large and 48 is more likely to work. 48 allows the last set of digits after the last colon (:) to change per device on the network. Most residential ISPs only allow for this last part to change.

I hope this helps

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

XRaySpeX — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:28:05 GMT

@MossDev : You are confusing BT Retail who is the ISP & OR who provide but don't sell to the consumer FTTP & FTTC, both subsidiaries of the BT Group, as is EE who is also an ISP independent of BT Retail.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

Mustrum — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:30:56 GMT

@MossDev sorry but you are wrong. EE, and Plusnet for that matter, also part of the BT Group who use the Openreach network do not offer IP6 on their FTTP network.

The ISP Review mentions BT Reatail customers, now BT Consumer division, not EE or Plusnet.

If you want IP6 you will need to go to BT Consumer directly, or you use some kind of 4 to 6 tunnel service.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

MossDev — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:37:38 GMT

@XRaySpeX I don't think I am confusing anything. I phoned EE and spoke to the technical team and explained I am about to move and require IPv6 on the new residential FTTP line. They explained that it had been available for a long time and used basic settings. If I wanted to set it up correctly for my needs it would not be an issue and I could call back if I needed assistance.

Obviously I don't have the line so I can't confirm, but I am hoping they know more about their own network than you do. If it turns out to be incorrect information I will be using it as a reason to cancel the contract and move to BT.

I find it very strange that any ISP can operate these days without IPv6 and it is very easy for the ISP to set up.

If you have EE fibre yourself I urge you to log in to your router and have a go at setting it up. And please report back with your findings. It would be great for me to know before I order the install.

Thanks

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

XRaySpeX — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 11:28:52 GMT

@MossDev : Is that that technical team that doesn't know the diff between an external public IP & an internal private IP & consequently will tell you that EE do static IPs at the drop of a hat? 😉

No, you are wrong & I do know!

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

MossDev — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:07:36 GMT

@XRaySpeX & @Mustrum

I just called EE again and this time I was transferred to BT support staff.

They say IPv6 is fully available, it can be configured in a number of ways. I asked about if I can get an IPv6 address range and have the last node (the 8th part of the address) automatically or statically assigned to each device. They told me both are possible to set up. DHCPv6 is set up as standard, so nodes 1 - 7 are the same for each device on the network, node 8 is assigned automatically.

You can configure both EE and BT routers to allow static assigned node 8 on devices, like a NAS, that you need to access remotely.

So, both of you are telling me that they are lying, and they do not know what they are talking about?

At this point, the only way I can know for sure is to find someone with EE BB installed and go play with it, or wait until mine is installed.

I will be very surprised if both support teams have just lied. They seem to know what they are talking about.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

Mustrum — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:20:13 GMT

@MossDev if you are anywhere near the south coast you are welcome to come along and have a play with my router. Either my own Asus, or the EE supplied one.

I did have another try earlier, I know they are getting the PN DNS routers ready for IP6, but nothing detected. Will have a look on the BT forums to see if they have any specific IP6 settings I may have missed.

Do let us know how you get on though.

Perhaps @bobpullen may be able to give us a little more info.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

MossDev — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:49:10 GMT

@Mustrum , thanks for the offer, I am actually just about to drive down to Brighton for a few days, but I will be spending the time with friends and family.

I would really like to get to the bottom of this, do you use Discord or any other chat/screen share apps?

I would be up for having a conversation and seeing how far we can get setting this up before I end up with a service I can't use.

Setting up the Asus router would be a lot easier than the EE router, if that is an option.

Do you have any Linux devices we can test with, like a Raspberry Pi... Linux can be easier to debug than Windows.

If you are up for experimenting let me know and we can start chatting somewhere.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

Mustrum — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 15:08:34 GMT

@MossDev as it happens I am 3hours/110 miles west of there.

I have found a few posts on 3rd part IP6 setup on the BT Network, including this one for an Asus:

https://uktechhub.com/forums/topic/asus-router-ipv6-settings-page-bt-uk/

so will have a play.

I don't have any Linux devices, the link above should have enough info to see if IP6 is available.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

bobpullen — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 16:41:50 GMT

@Mustrum wrote:
I did have another try earlier, I know they are getting the PN DNS routers ready for IP6, but nothing detected. Will have a look on the BT forums to see if they have any specific IP6 settings I may have missed.
Perhaps @bobpullen may be able to give us a little more info.

The EE issued hub (assuming it's a recent model) isn't really a factor; as far as I know, the Smart Router/Smart Hub will already be configured to support dual-stack IPv4/v6 out of the box. In order for that to be any use though, it needs enabling out on the network.

My understanding is that this is not the case for the vast majority of EE-provisioned broadband customers (like @XRaySpeX has advised). A lot of the broadband network architecture is common between BT, EE and Plusnet, but there do exist differences that mean IPv6 is not natively supported across all of the brands.

I have a suspicion it won't be too long before you start seeing some newer EE broadband customers coming online with IPv6 delegations, but for now, I think it's fair to say it isn't offered.

@MossDev be interested to hear if you find this isn't the case.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

MossDev — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 18:24:01 GMT

Hi All,

Sorry it has been such a long time. I finally moved in to the new house and have been testing my new EE full fibre.

TLDR: I have full IPv6 support

The long version:
I have been testing various services, http, https, different servers, forwarding domains etc.

EE have a bit of a strange naming convention for the IPv6 port forwarding, they call this Pv6 Pinholes, I have never heard it referred to like this. However, once you know what ports you want and the devices global IPv6 address, it is very easy to set up.

Another weird thing is every Ubuntu device seems to get multiple global addresses, one of my devices has 8 (most are 64 prefix length, and a couple are 128). And unless you come in on the right address, the router blocks the request. To get the correct IPv6 Address I just run `curl icanhazip.com` and then check the returned IPv6 address is on the list of available addresses. Using that address has worked every time.

I think all of this will be much simpler using a better router, I will be trying some more coomercial gear of the next few weeks and I think I should be able to access each device using any of the addresses they are given, which means I can start using the short address (128 prefix). I have only got this to work on a single device so far, but that short address is also the one shown in the router config.

Let me know if any of you have any questions. Also I would like to hear if any of you can get IPv6 added to an older line.

Thanks.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

Mustrum — Sun, 04 Feb 2024 19:02:39 GMT

@MossDev glad to hear you are up and running, and it seems lots have changed in a few short months for those on the new network.

Still no change for me on the old network though..

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

ralphrmartin — Tue, 07 May 2024 18:21:08 GMT

Just switched to EE FTTP from BT FTTP. I did not have to change any settings, and IPv6 is working just fine. I'm using an Edgerouter 4 in place of the BT or EE supplied hubs.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

XRaySpeX — Tue, 07 May 2024 18:35:36 GMT

Yes, @MossDev , since you posted in Aug. a lot has happened. EE New Full Fibre BB was introduced in about Oct. which does support IPv6 & you have been put onto that.

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

HSF69 — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 10:46:48 GMT

Could I ask what settings you are using please? I have just moved from BT GFast to EE FTTP (900) and while the PPPoE username/password combo from BT still works, my IPv6 settings throttled my speed so I disabled IPv6 for now.
I was using Connection type PPPoE - Share the same PPPoE session with IPv4 - Prefix delegation size 56

Re: IPv6 - EE Full Fibre (Same as BT?)

MossDev — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:31:58 GMT

Hi @HSF69

My prefix length is 64

I noticed a lot of people on the old network say the prefix is /56 but that does not work for me on this new system. The EE router came with /64 as default in the settings.

Another thing I had to change on a 3rd party router was Allocation mode, I had to set this to stateless.