Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
cdb91911
Enthusiast - Level 2

Hi everyone, my wife and I have recently experienced substantially slower connection on our Peloton Bike and are nearly positive it is being caused by an interfacing issue between our G3100 Verizon Fios router and Peloton's software--with Verizon seeming to cause the issue. Our bike only recently started behaving this way, and operated with no issues before this began occurring approximately 30-45 days ago. We purchased this router in July 2021 and have used it since with no major issues.

Problem description: The bike monitor takes up to 15 minutes to simply load a new page and or to start streaming a workout. This makes the bike effectively not functional. We consistently receive normal-looking upload and download speeds when we run the bike software's native speed test (>100 mbps), suggesting that we shouldn't be having any issues with loading or streaming. Despite the good looking numbers, it takes forever to load anything. All other devices connected to our router work without issues.

Troubleshooting Process:

-Yes, we turned the bike monitor and the router off and back on.

-We originally assumed this was caused strictly by a buggy Peloton software update.

-After calling Peloton, they suggested updating our software, which did not fix the issue (and took an exceptionally long time).

-Peloton then sent us a new monitor to install on the bike. This did not fix the problem either.

-Peloton sent a tech to our house, who immediately recognized this problem as one that he has seen at many houses across the Maryland, DC, and Virginia areas. He noted that he has only seen it occur to users with Verizon internet, and told us there wasn't anything he'd be able to do to fix it.

-The Peloton tech suggested seeing if the problem would resolve itself by using an ethernet cable to directly connect the Peloton to our router. He had been told that some Peloton users had success with this, but that it was not guaranteed. Connecting our router to the Peloton via ethernet did not improve our speed,

-He also urged us to try using our phone hotspots. The bike works properly and at near-normal speeds when connected to a hotspot, suggesting that something is wrong with our Fios router's ability to interface with Peloton and that this is not an issue with the bike software.

-We then called Verizon to see if they had observed similar complaints elsewhere. The technical support representative was unaware of any other instances of this issue. We requested multiple times that this issue be routed to Verizon corporate for further exploration.

-After 45 minutes of troubleshooting (yes, we tried switching off self-organizing network and connecting to only one bandwidth) and repeatedly telling the tech that the problem was neither the bike nor the speed of our 200 mbps plan, the technical support representative suggested directly connecting our Peloton to the Optical Network Terminal via the ethernet cable that extends from it. This yielded perfect performance with no lag whatsoever, isolating the problem to our Fios router and confirming that the problem is being caused by some interfacing issue caused by Verizon.

-The tech then told us that our only options were to purchase a new router for $400 or to rent a new router despite us having already paid in full for our previous router.

Is this really how Verizon is going to handle this issue? It is going to make its loyal customers (we have Verizon cell service too) pay for something that is clearly a technical issue on its end? I purchased our router because I trusted Verizon to build it to work properly and because I expected it to last a reasonably long time.

Is anyone in Verizon headquarters aware of and working on this problem? If not, can someone please investigate this issue with Peloton?

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Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

As some users noted that Peloton Bike monitor is using Android, this updates the recommendation for a potential fix.

Android device does not support RFC 8415 Section 6.3, which VZ is compliant in its IPv6 rollout. This now places the burden of fix to Google.

As I stated many times already, the fix is to disable the NIC's TCP/UDP Checksum Offload for IPv6 through firmware controls. This should be an easy firmware update for Peloton unless the hardware lacks a control communication interface between NIC and CPU.

I have contacted Peloton myself. Waiting their leadership and engineering to respond.

Progress Notes:

1) Confirm Peloton monitor is using one of the affected NICs (fails to confirm).

        >>> Peloton engineering [9/12/22 3:28pm]: Bike monitor is using a mixture of Broadcom and Qualcomm WiFi chips. Ethernet is using ASIX chip. Presumably a 10/100 ASIX USB 2.0 to Ethernet NIC.

2) Peloton identified fix.

        >>> Peloton engineering [9/21/22] Engineers have identified fix. Waiting the identification of the exact fix to determine whether the fix will work.

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Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

Did you receive IPv6 recently?

Also, please find our what network interface card is used by your device having problem with page loading.

Intel NICs are known to have problems with the recent VZ IPv6 rollout. Other brands' NICs are not affected by the rollout. The solution seems to be replacing all Intel NICs or the motherboards that use the Intel NICs.

Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
cdb91911
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thanks for the help! To my understanding we’ve not received IPv6 (we do not have an IPv6 address assigned to our device). Any other thoughts? 

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Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

Do you mean you don't have an IPv6 address assigned to the Peloton Bike, or you don't have any devices assigned an IPv6 at home? It seems like you are from a IPv6-enabled region. It could be Peloton Bike monitor does not support IPv6 and hence you don't see an IPv6 address. This is a problem as VZ and the majority of Internet resources will completely move on to IPv6 from IPv4 soon. (Any Internet connected device should support IPv6 by now as it has became a RFC standard for more than 20 years. Designing otherwise is not future proof).

The best way to check this is logging into the VZ router and check the home page status to see if you have an IPv6 WAN address assigned.

Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
cdb91911
Enthusiast - Level 2

It seems like you might have identified the issue here. When I log into my router, under the "System Status" Broadband IPv6 column, I see Status: "Connected" and an assigned IPv6 Address, Link-Local Address, and IPv6 Default Gateway, but IPv6 DNS Address 1 and Address 2 are both empty. Does that tell you anything?

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Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
Cang_Household
Community Leader
Community Leader

IPv6 DNS fields should be empty as VZ has not configured DNSv6 servers. You could use Google's Public DNS servers. This alone is not sufficient to cause the problem you are seeing. It is more likely than not that the Peloton's network interface does not support IPv6 and this may be the root cause of the issue you are seeing.

Right now, VZ is providing both IPv6 and IPv4 in a dual-stack implementation fashion. When IPv6 and IPv4 are both present, network devices virtually always opt for IPv6 first as it is a newer and better Internet protocol. If IPv6 fails, then the devices would fall back to IPv4. There's a delay when performing the fall back.

There is also the Intel NIC problem with Nokia ONT appending data in an IPv6 packet (unverified). Intel NICs are known to drop packets when Nokia ONTs append data in IPv6. The Nokia ONT behavior is not verified by any ISPs, and other brand's NIC does not have this problem with Nokia ONT. This could simply be Intel trying to deflect blame to the ISPs and ONT vendors.

So the OP, please go back to Peloton support and ask whether their product supports IPv6, if so, what Ethernet NIC or PHY is used in the product. If the NIC/PHY is made of Intel, whether the TCP/UDP Checksum offload for IPv6 could be disabled. If they are unable to provide information regarding any of the questions above, or the answer is a no to any of the questions above, then there are only two solutions 1) not use the Peloton bike monitor OR 2) not use the IPv6. Not using IPv6 would be a problem in the future as even US government networks will be converted to IPv6-only (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/M-21-07.pdf ). You may unable to access websites, including government websites in the future for not using IPv6.

Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
cdb91911
Enthusiast - Level 2

Your help has been excellent, thank you! I’ll post back here with any updates. 

Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
NJrunningDad
Enthusiast - Level 1

Hello - I am having the same exact issue.

 I'm a Fios customer in NJ. Peloton Tread is connected to wifi with Excellent signal strength. Ran a speed test from the tread. 170 up and 250 down. Called Verizon and they're sending me a new router and Peloton is sending a new screen. But it sounds like neither will resolve the issue. Interestingly, all iOS and wired devices are running fine. But Samsung phone is having a similar lag issue (takes a few minutes to download pictures and video thumbnails in apps like Twitter and Weather).

Please let me know if you solve this.

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Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
NJrunningDad
Enthusiast - Level 1

Disable IPv6 on your router. I did that and everything worked. Clearly Peloton is not aware of this since they gave you a new display and offered to send me one.

Re: Fios Connection and Interface Issues Specifically with Peloton Bike
rbcole123
Newbie

We are having the same problem here in NJ, started in late August. Fios router, fast internet. Peloton takes forever to connect if at all. On my Samsung Galaxy S20 phone, some apps won't open properly, others are fine. Hoping Verizon can fix this if it's a Fios problem. 

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