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Admin Network Technologies TCP/IP

Verizon Airspeed Hotspot uses ipv6 and interferes with VPN client Global Protect

Intro

The headline says it all. I got my shiny brand new Verizon hotspot from Walmart. I managed to activate it and add it to my Verizon account (not super easy, but after a few stumbles it did work.) I tried it out my home PC – works fine. I tried it out on my work PC. No good. My Global Protect connection was unstable. It connects for about a minute, then disconnects, then connects, etc. Basically unusable.

The details

I have heard of possible problem with the GP client (version 5.2.11) and IPv6. So I looked to see if this hotspot could be handing out IPv6 info. Yes. It is. But is that really making a difference? I concocted a simple test. I disabled IPv6 on my Wi-Fi adapter, then re-tested the GP client. The connection was smooth as glass! No disconnects!

Disable ipv6 on your Wi-Fi adapter

Bring up a powershell as administrator. Then:

get-netadapterbinding -componentid ms_tcpip6

will show you the current state of ipv6 on your adapters.

disable-netadapterbinding -Name “Wi-Fi” -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

will disable ipv6 on your Wi-Fi. And

enable-netadapterbinding -Name “Wi-Fi” -ComponentID ms_tcpip6

will re-enable it.

ipconfig /all output

For the record, here are some interesting bits from running ipconfig /all:

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 0C-BD-94-98-11-5B
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2600:1001:b004:2b78:8ab:145c:d014:2edd(Deprecated)
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2600:1001:b004:2b78:2cc0:71b0:7f1e:a973(Deprecated)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::2cc0:71b0:7f1e:a973%30(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.103(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, April 21, 2022 4:54:04 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, April 22, 2022 4:54:04 AM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 302832932
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-28-89-F6-8E-B0-5C-DA-E6-09-0A
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::50ae:caff:fea8:1dbc%30
192.168.1.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

But, having done all that, I can only occasionally connect to GP. It seems to work slightly better at night. ipv6 does not seem to be the sole hiccup. No idea what the recipe for reliable success is. If I ever learn it I will publish it. Meanwhile, my phone’s hotspot, also VErizon, also handing out ipv6 info, usually permits me to connect to GP. It’s hard to see the difference.

Conclusion

The Verizon Airspeed Hotspot sends out a mix of IPv6 and IPv4 info to dhcp clients. Palo Alto Networks’ Global Protect client does not play well with that setup and wil not have a stable connection.

I do not think there is a way to disable IPv6 on the hotspot. However, for those with admin access it can be disabled on a Windows PC. And then GP will work just fine. Or not.

Oh, and by the way, otherwise the Airspeed works well and is an adequate solution where you need a good reliable hotspot. Well, in fact, don’t expect reliability like you have from a wired connection. After a couple hours, all users just got dropped for no apparent reason whatsoever.

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