Intel optimizes IPv6 networking into nothingness, say users

Customers report connectivity strangeness in the Intel Connectivity Performance Suite

If you're encountering some odd IPv6 networking issues, the culprit might be the Intel Connectivity Performance Suite (ICPS), although the chipmaker has kept quiet about the problem.

A Samsung Galaxy Book owner contacted The Register about some decidedly odd networking behavior that they eventually traced to unwanted ICPS optimizations. And by "optimization", we mean "borked networking."

For our reader, the problem showed up in OneDrive and OneNote. Notebooks were showing as empty, even though they were reported as "Up to date" according to the software. Microsoft couldn't get to the bottom of it.

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A bit of sleuthing by our reader revealed that something was borking the IPv6 packet. Removing Samsung's ICPS build (40.25.926.0) and installing the generic release (50.26.623.243) fixed the problem.

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Our reader told us, "From the user's side it looks like random 'connection reset' errors on all kinds of sites, plus OneNote saying 'We can't get to your notebooks right now.'

"IPv4 is unaffected, which is why the web version and my phone kept working and nobody could figure out what was going on."

It isn't only Samsung and our reader affected. Intel's own Community forums shows other users encountering the same glitch. An ASUS user put together an exhaustive report on the issue (IPv6 connection woes while IPv4 worked well). In this instance, ICPS version 40.25.725.165 was in use, and the problem went away following uninstallation. The user asked whether there was an official way to opt out of ICPS permanently, and the Intel Customer Support Technician responded:

"Good news!… We can confirm that the Wireless driver and ICPS are available as separate standalone driver packages."

So in that particular instance, ditching ICPS would make no difference. Which, of course, raises another question – in this example (where the Intel BE201 Wi-Fi adaptor is present), why is it even there?

The answer: "It is often bundled with OEM systems as an added value software to enhance the overall wireless experience."

You might see "enhance," but for users affected by IPv6 problems, it's more like "break."

The issue is insidious, and broken ICPS builds are still floating around, ready to catch users off guard. According to our reader, Microsoft's own Update Catalog will hand out the broken drivers, which effectively break Microsoft 365 services on certain hardware.

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For the ASUS user, the issue affected Chrome, Edge, and Windows curl.exe. "Approximately 40–60 percent of IPv6 HTTPS connections to an AWS CloudFront distribution were reset. IPv4 was completely stable."

According to our reader, "Intel created the bug, then fixed it quietly." Updating to the later, generic version appears to fix things. However, according to the Intel technician, as of the July post, "we do not have a confirmed public advisory for this specific behavior."

We asked Intel and Microsoft for comment, but neither responded. However, judging by forum comments, the issue has caught out plenty of users.

As such, if you find yourself with some weird networking issues with IPv6 and are using ICPS (as many will be), it might be worthwhile checking out the generic rather than OEM version of the software or removing it altogether to see if the problem goes away. ®