Surface Pro X + IPv6 = broken Web sites

T

Tim McGhee

I have a Surface Pro X on a Sprint connection.


It works well on most Web sites, including with mobile hotspot enabled.


I find that there are no official limits, as far as I've seen, but there are practical limits to how many connections the Surface Pro X network adapter can handle. Sometimes I need to disconnect devices for other connected devices to be able to work.


There are a handful of Web sites that won't load at all. Yahoo.com would be the most prominent. Opera is another. I've also had a couple work-related Web sites that won't load at all. Sometimes if I wait long enough I might get a splash screen logo.


If I connect the same devices to my iPad's mobile hotspot instead, I don't have any problems loading Web sites, including the ones that had trouble over the Surface Pro X's connection.


One difference I noticed last week between the two is if I ping or trace those Web sites when using the Surface Pro X connection, the IP address of those Web sites is an IPv6 address. If I do the same from the same device (Surface Go 1) with the iPad's connection, the Web sites come up as an IPv4 address.


It seems unfortunate that the newer technology has more problems than the older, but something's not playing nice with something, and this IP version difference is the closest I've been able to get to figure out why. When I first got the Surface Pro X in mid-July, it seemed like the pattern was Web sites in the western half of the US that had a problem connecting from my east coast location. In hindsight, the distance may just mean increased chance of coming across part of the network not compatible with IPv6.


I'm also wondering if it could be a problem with how the problem Web sites are configured for the newer IP version. If their network adapters or Web server software is not configured right to handle IPv6, that could be inhibiting access from an IPv6 device like my Surface Pro X.


I checked out several of the problem Web sites on an IPv6 configuration checker. Yahoo checks out. Opera does not, nor do the others. That's a superficial test, though, which just checks for the DNS AAAA record and for an IPv6 IP address. If my Surface Pro X can ping an IPv6 address for these problem Web sites, but not open the Web site in any major browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox), that gives strong indication it's a Web server configuration problem.


With Sprint, the Surface Pro X can only connect via IPv6. I turned off IPv6 leaving IPv4 on, and the Surface Pro X wouldn't connect to Sprint at all.


Anyone else having similar issues? Any idea as to the cause? Workarounds?


Many thanks,

Tim

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