IPv6 help

[wazza7]

Last night, around midnight, my connection appeared to be down. However, all lights remained solid green on the Sky Q (Model ER115) router. I am using a LAN cable, not WiFi. I logged into the router management page and everything appeared to be normal, reporting an up time of over 200 hours alongside my usual sync speeds, but I could not access anything web related. Service eventually returned after an hour or so. At this time, I checked online for service status and if there was any planned maintenance, to which there was, but seemingly only in the West Midlands, (I'm in the South East) although the time and date of the maintenance matched the time of my outage. Also, the service status page did report a known issue in my area, but I'm not sure whether this was just a location/IP detection error or if the maintenance did affect a much wider area...

Anyway, I logged back into the router page and, having only looked at the page earlier, I noticed that now it appeared to have less info displayed than before, specifically anything relating to IPv6. My mind could have been playing tricks, but I was sure something seemed different/missing. Now I'm no expert when it comes to IP addresses and the like, but I did a few searches which led me to take a look at the Windows 10 network settings. These settings do display IPv6 related addresses, however in adapter options > Ethernet status, it shows "internet" for IPv4 connectivity, but "no network access" for IPv6. Checking for the presence of IPv6 on test sites reports that it's not supported or fails. What does this actually mean for my connection - I guess I am limited in some capacity? I'm almost sure this IPv6 situation wasn't an issue before, and I have not made any changes. Could the outage that occurred be the culprit?

On the Sky router status page, the only entries that include IPv6 related addresses are the ones named IPv6 Link Local Address under both the Broadband and LAN ports, plus IPv6 ULA under LAN. Everything else under Broadband port - Gateway IPv6 Address, IPv6 Domain Name Server, IPv6 Global Address, and IPv6 Delegated Prefix are empty. The same goes for another IPv6 Global Address under LAN, and IPv6 Loopback Address under the Modem section. I have rebooted the router but these entries remain empty. I gather this isn't normal behaviour because IPv6 is supposed to be supported on Sky? I've opted not to perform any IP config related actions (release, renew etc) from the multiple guides I've read, as I'm not entirely sure there is a problem, or if it would even make a difference. But the missing IPv6 addresses on the router page, IPv6 in the adapter options mentioning no network access, and IPv6 itself not being found on test sites leads me to believe something may be amiss. Can anyone assist?

[Chrisee]

@wazza7 what probably happened to your connection was Sky ran some maintenace on the connection from the exchange which will give the symptoms you report as the hub remains connected to the cabinet. You cannot avoid the occasional loss of connectivity over night as both Openreach and Sky have to maintain and improve their networks this work is normally scheduled at the quietest time. The status page only lists major projects affecting multiple exchanges so is only a guide.

When your connection was restored it is possible it was on a temporary connection which is not supporting IP6 as normally Sky fully support IP6. Normally powering down the hub for 10 to 20 minutes  will force a new connection with a new public IP4 address which should reset the IP6 assuming the toute supports that.

[wazza7]

@Chrisee Thanks for your reply. I totally understand the need for maintenance, I have no problem with that. I was mainly looking for some confirmation on this IPv6 behaviour. I've looked into this a bit more, and I'm honestly clueless as to how all this address routing works and the way they are assigned. Do I even need IPv6 tests to be passed given that everything seems to be working normally? My wired PC and wireless devices still show their IPv6 addresses in the attached devices section of the router, but yet I'm told it's not supported via test websites? I checked with a friend who is also using Sky BB and they have the exact same missing addresses on the router page as me, in addition to the "No network access" message for IPv6 in the Windows 10 adapter settings, and "No IPv6" from the same two test sites I used. Can you tell me what this ultimately means? Why are these addresses still missing after powering down for about 15 mins? If I switch off my router overnight and reboot in the morning, is it likely that these IPv6 addresses will appear on the router page?

Screenshots for clarification: