Yesterday I got a comment by Christian B on my older Linksys WET54G and IPv6 article:
Could you please elaborate a little bit more on “doesn’t seem to handle IPv6 either” ?
Does that mean, although the WET200 is only in layer 2 bridge mode operation, it drops IPv6 and neighbor discovery packets?
Well, today I just did some tests with a WET54G, a WRT54GS (with DD-WRT), a Laptop and IPv6. Here are the results:
- WRT54GS and Laptop wired: IPv6 works without problems
- WRT54GS and Laptop wireless: IPv6 works without problems
- WRT54GS and Laptop hooked up via WET54G: IPv6 get’s advertised to the Laptop, but IPv6 does not work (no ping possible)
It’s interesting that the interface get’s the prefix via the WET54G from the radvd, but is not able to reach the peer via IPv6 pings.
20:57:47.439162 00:0e:0c:a8:65:5b > 33:33:ff:33:61:33, ethertype IPv6 (0x86dd), length 86: fe80::20e:cff:fea8:655b > ff02::1:ff33:6133:ICMP6, neighbor solicitation, who has 2001:6f8:xxx:1000:20b:6bff:fe33:6133, length 32
20:57:47.440804 00:0e:0c:a8:65:5b > 33:33:ff:33:61:33, ethertype IPv6 (0x86dd), length 86: fe80::20e:cff:fea8:655b > ff02::1:ff33:6133:ICMP6, neighbor solicitation, who has 2001:6f8:xxx:1000:20b:6bff:fe33:6133, length 32
20:57:47.442687 00:0e:0c:a8:65:5b > 33:33:ff:33:61:33, ethertype IPv6 (0x86dd), length 86: fe80::20e:cff:fea8:655b > ff02::1:ff33:6133:ICMP6, neighbor solicitation, who has 2001:6f8:xxx:1000:20b:6bff:fe33:6133, length 32
# ping6 2001:6f8:xxx:1000::1
PING 2001:6f8:90e:1000::1(2001:6f8:90e:1000::1) 56 data bytes
From 2001:6f8:xxx:1000:2c0:9fff:fe23:f9a6 icmp_seq=1 Destination unreachable: Address unreachable
From 2001:6f8:xxx:1000:2c0:9fff:fe23:f9a6 icmp_seq=2 Destination unreachable: Address unreachable
From 2001:6f8:xxx:1000:2c0:9fff:fe23:f9a6 icmp_seq=3 Destination unreachable: Address unreachable
Conclusion:
IPv6 via wireless connection does actually work. No surprise. 😉 It works with DD-WRT and WRT-54GS wireless routers. But whenever a WET54G is involved IPv6 doesn’t work properly. Something get’s lost in transition, although the Laptop get’s the prefix advertised by the radvd. Somehow the WET54G manages to filter out OSI layer 3 packets although it’s a layer 2 device (bridge). I don’t know how Linksys managed to mess up with IPv6, but apparently they were successful with doing so.