This is correct, Matter devices use IPv6 link-local addresses, they don't need a DHCP server for IPv6, they don't need IPv6 connection to the Internet. But you'd be surprised that even some manufacturers have it wrong in their FAQs.
Hey Eric, love your channel! One thing I've noticed is that Matter devices will create their own local IPv6 network using ULA addresses. As long as you aren't actively blocking IPv6 on your network, Matter will work without any special changes. If global IPv6 addressing is not available, I think the Matter controller uses IPv4 to connect to the internet. It's hard to find a clear technical reference on this though.
IPv6 has been a draft IETF standard since 1998 and became fully ratified in 2017, a lot of software vendors have been quite slow to fully integrate it into their systems
Well, there are some headaches which come up with IPv6 in larger networks. They're mostly all solvable, but the transition from all IPv4 to a mix of IPv4 and IPv6 machines takes a bunch of extra work, so many places have put off doing that work for as long as they can get away with it.
You saved me from going insane!!! I had no idea that IPV6 was needed for Matter! Nobody mentions that and I didn't see it in the Home Assistant docs! 55 seconds into your video and you solved my problem that I've had for over a year. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm considering turning on IPV6 on my UDMPro but I have some concerns. I'm not sure what devices will receive IPV6 addresses and I'm not sure how it will effect fire wall rules and DHCP reservations.
Great video Eric. I’ll definitely co-sign this topic. My ecosystem had no Matter devices installed until a couple of months ago - when I decided to add some SwitchBot Hub 2s so I could control their Blind Tilt devices. Upon installation and Matter/HomeKit set-up…I was getting VERY frequent ‘No Response’ status from the SwitchBot stuff. IPv6 was the fix. I’m not a huge fan of Matter overall…and, in my experience, it’s not as ‘easy’ as expected. Hopefully this gets better as new products hit the shelves. Thanks for the content. 😊
@@EricWelander Yep. All these step forward developments seem to require that users become networking gurus in their own homes to make them work as designed. That's the rub. HA is based on the idea of making our lives easier. But, like so much tech, it actually is complex and makes life more demanding for users. i.e. I may not have to manually open fifteen window blinds now every morning and, close them at night. But I have to understand networking and radio communications and work on those things in my house to meet the requirements of the HA blind operators I've purchased and installed. I've simply traded my time from doing one task to doing others. And, both are irritating in their own ways. Net zero savings or improvements. It defeats the purpose of HA. It shouldn't be this way.
Hi Eric! GREAT Video! I just spent the last 30 minutes tying to add 6 Aqara Door Sensors (P2 with Matter) and was about to dump them right in the trash. I found your video (I'm a regular watcher) and tried the IPv6 fix...and BOOM! They immediately joined Homekit! Thank you SO much for this!! You rock!
I wish I had seen this video prior to setting up my new modem and router yesterday. I would have simply reset all my devices. So logical! Instead, I returned some new light Lifx bulbs because I assumed they were not compatible. Thanks for the ipv6 info too!
I had ipv6 enabled by default and I could never get an Eve Thread Motion Sensor to connect. I tried around 20 times in the course of two days. I tried everything. I had to return it. I’ve also had many devices in HomeKit go offline occasionally. I disabled ipv6 and none of my devices go offline. I have not tried to connect any thread devices since.
You can run IPv4 and IPv6 together. If your employer doesn't support IPv6 you can configure your computer to prefer IPv4 so it will go out with it's IPv4 address but still be able to talk to IPv6 devices. If it's a work computer maybe they just disable IPv6 on the work computer. I have IUPv4 for work but also have IPv6 on my network and never have issues.
Oh thank god they have gone down the IPv6 route. That's been the main reason that I don't have WiFi lightbulbs and sockets. Your typical home router is configured to serve 253 addresses (with the router obviously taking one). But many home routers couldn't actually cope with 253 devices actually using it, and every allocation of a lightbulb or a speaker or whatever, is one less slot that a phone or tablet or smartwatch or (you get the point) can use. Of course people always say "no one is going to have that many devices in their house". OK let's imagine, a typical 3 bedroom UK house. Let's say every room has at least one smart bulb. Downstairs that's at least 5 IP addresses (livingroom, hall, kitchen, dining room, porch). Then we have (3 bedrooms, a landing and a bathroom) that's another 5. Let's say all 3 bedrooms have a Chromecast and so does the livingroom that's another 4. Now let's say that 3 bedrooms all have a smart speaker and so does the livingroom and kitchen. Now let's add some IP cameras. Front and back of the house, a few inside. Let's just say another 5 addresses. We are 24 devices right now. Let's say it's a mesh WiFi system, so each access point takes up an IP address. 26. Now we better add all the phones and smartwatches and tablets. There's going to be 4-5 phones. (31). Let's say 4 smartwatches. (35). 4 tablets. (39). The surround sound system in the livingroom is on the network too. And the Freeview box. (41). We haven't even started adding NAS, actual computers, games consoles, robot vacuum cleaners, WiFi camera doorbells etc. It's surprising how fast you eat up those IP addresses. Got some kindles? WiFi Christmas lights, WiFi air purifier. WiFi thermostats. Oh and of course WiFi radiator valves. We are getting close to 100 addresses at this point, we may even be over it. At least with IPv6 - you no longer have to worry about plugging in a device in only to discover - the router has no more addresses left to offer the new device.
long story short it is all about the need for IP v6 addresses, making sure the local network has IP v6 enabled, and if the needs to be updated to IP v6 other already connected devices to the network might need to be updated. This video focuses on switching local network to IP v6, but I think the router I have from my (ISP) internet service provider has the ability to have IP v4 and IP v6 at the same time. not 100% sure about this but I would take into consideration this option also. pretty sure it is possible. Internet Protocol address(IP address)
Hi, I am looking for info about how to setup multiple hue bridges with one single alexa account. Is it possible ? I have reached the limit of my hue bridge, and would like to know how to continue adding lights without loosing the ability to use alexa. Thx
I would pay you for putting up this video. I have been dealing with eve support for over a month back and forth. Reinstalled over and over changed settings etc. but all i need to do is switch to iv6 😳😳 who would know?.. thanks🥳
Thanks Eric! Have you heard of or experienced any issues with new matter devices that require 2.4GHz only? Have a nano leaf essentials light strip and wemo smart plugs that will not connect to wifi/apple home no matter what steps taken. Older items of same brand that have been connected work without issue but unable to add new items. Curious if you or your viewers have additional tips. Have put mesh network in 2.4GHz only mode, utilized legacy mode, and reset everything however continues to fail. At this point don't know if it's a router issue, apple home issue, or device issue. Thanks in advance to anyone who has advice...
I’m not sure the angle you are seeing. My Era 300 is on top of a cabinet that has a good distance between it and the ceiling so the upward facing tweeters have room to work
Question, if I’m on IVp4 is it worth switching to ipv6 if everything is currently working I’m just curious I don’t mind doing it. I just want a more faster reactive HomeKit.
Just returning nano strips. Got three to do a room. The connectors between strip and power were flimsy. A slight bump or vibration and lights out. I did get IPV6 turned on and was all set but did not want to keep them with the poor connection.
I don't think you really need a public IPv6 address, it must work well with a public IPv4 and a private IPv6 local network for your smart devices. In other words, It must work with an ordinary Internet provider, the user just needs a router or a smart switch capable to provide an IPv6 home network.
So I spent a little time looking into this for my home network. I have an EdgeRouter from Ubiquiti (but *not* one of their Unifi-class products). I thought I'd go into the web interface and there would be some checkbox for "Turn on IPv6 support", but apparently there are several settings buried deep in different web pages which you need to set correctly before everything's working. Ugh.
I was not aware this was an issue, so thanks for the video. I do not have any matter product but about to cut the cord on smart things completely for Apple Home.
Thanks David! Yeah some Matter devices might work on IPv4, but there are enough that don't or don't work well on IPv4 that it will make you life easier to just move over.
@@SmartHomeHASHTAGSWe are running out of ipv4 addresses so the transition is kind of necessary, forcing developers to adapt the new standard is a good start and as a user you should see no difference because as he said in most places it is all set by default. Honestly I don’t really get why he doesn’t like the change it is not like he has to deal with ipv6 all the problems he faced are just bugs and they should be fixed soon.
Hey Eric! Thank you very much for this awesome and informative video. I'm on the verge of getting Nanoleaf Matter bulbs and light strip, which I very much should've gotten last week on Prime Days - since I procrastinated I'll have to wait up to week to get them now, when I could've had them within the next day of ordering - I get so skittish about ordering things sometimes - I'm pretty sure the answer to this question is blazingly obvious, but if I see a listing for IPv6 in my Cox Wi-Fi app, that means that my Internet set up is indeed IPv6 compatible, right? Also, I've got at least one, maybe two or three IPv6 entries for my network interface on my motherboard on Windows 11! So, might be all set there. But just wanted to make sure. You seem to be very much an expert on these things. Again, thank you very much for the video, and looking forward to awesome stuff to come. Take care!
@@EricWelander - Where I work (a college campus) has been thinking about it for about 20 years. 🙂 There are still many servers on our campus network which are setup IPv4 only just to avoid situations where adding IPv6 makes it harder to debug problems when they inevitably come up.
Very interesting. On the one hand I can see why this new standard wanted to go with IPv6: If everyone has (say) 50 devices in their home, that's going to chew up an enormous number of IP addresses world-wide. On the other hand, it's pretty poor documentation on their part that they don't make that dependency *MUCH* more obvious to everyone buying these devices.
Thanks Garance! I agree. If I was at the meetings deciding to use IPv6, I would have been pushing to have complete IPv4 support as well. It's going to be a major roadblock to get mainstream Matter adoption. But it is what it is now and we have to deal with it. I agree they aren't making it clear enough. It's only in troubleshooting docs most of the time.
The other detail is it isn't technically required for ALL Matter products. Some work with IPv4 if they have Thread or other compatibility with things like HomeKit outside of Matter. I imagine this is the response you would get from many companies why it's not more clear. But I still think users should just move to it to make their smart home lives easier.
@@Hamish_A - Well, that part depends on your internet provider. Your comment is true for my cable-internet connection, but I have many friends whose home internet is behind one (or more) IPv6 addresses. That's especially true for people who live outside the United States. But I suspect that is not what Eric is talking about. I suspect that it's the network traffic between the matter devices *in your house* will prefer to use IPv6. I do see a *lot* more problems with "device not responding" errors on the few devices I have which are certified for Matter but not also certified for Apple's HomeKit. And what's more perplexing is that my iPad will claim it cannot contact some matter-only device, and yet at the same time it is displaying notifications which come *from* the device. When I have some spare time I'm going to test this theory.
as a infrastructure architect, and a smart home engineer, I can tell ya this, I wont be adopting matter BECAUSE of its ipv6 requirement. no thanks dude. deal breaker. ill stick to the ways I have been doing it.
Do you think most of your viewers are going to understand all this especially if you don’t properly understand it YOU need to get more informative before releasing this video.
Not true, you do not need ipv6 support from your ISP. You need to support ipv6 on your home lan for link local ipv6.
This is correct, Matter devices use IPv6 link-local addresses, they don't need a DHCP server for IPv6, they don't need IPv6 connection to the Internet. But you'd be surprised that even some manufacturers have it wrong in their FAQs.
Yes this video is incorrect regarding that. Also some Matter devices may even require IPv4 to setup eg. Philips wiz light bulbs.
Hey Eric, love your channel! One thing I've noticed is that Matter devices will create their own local IPv6 network using ULA addresses. As long as you aren't actively blocking IPv6 on your network, Matter will work without any special changes. If global IPv6 addressing is not available, I think the Matter controller uses IPv4 to connect to the internet. It's hard to find a clear technical reference on this though.
IPv6 has been a draft IETF standard since 1998 and became fully ratified in 2017, a lot of software vendors have been quite slow to fully integrate it into their systems
Yeah it's a long time coming for sure...but perennially "new" at the same time...kinda like Matter 😅
Well, there are some headaches which come up with IPv6 in larger networks. They're mostly all solvable, but the transition from all IPv4 to a mix of IPv4 and IPv6 machines takes a bunch of extra work, so many places have put off doing that work for as long as they can get away with it.
You saved me from going insane!!! I had no idea that IPV6 was needed for Matter! Nobody mentions that and I didn't see it in the Home Assistant docs! 55 seconds into your video and you solved my problem that I've had for over a year. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I'm considering turning on IPV6 on my UDMPro but I have some concerns. I'm not sure what devices will receive IPV6 addresses and I'm not sure how it will effect fire wall rules and DHCP reservations.
Great video Eric.
I’ll definitely co-sign this topic. My ecosystem had no Matter devices installed until a couple of months ago - when I decided to add some SwitchBot Hub 2s so I could control their Blind Tilt devices.
Upon installation and Matter/HomeKit set-up…I was getting VERY frequent ‘No Response’ status from the SwitchBot stuff. IPv6 was the fix.
I’m not a huge fan of Matter overall…and, in my experience, it’s not as ‘easy’ as expected. Hopefully this gets better as new products hit the shelves.
Thanks for the content. 😊
Thank you! Yes I hope Matter gets easier to use over time as well. It's too hard to get going right now for "everyone" to use it.
@@EricWelander
Yep. All these step forward developments seem to require that users become networking gurus in their own homes to make them work as designed. That's the rub.
HA is based on the idea of making our lives easier. But, like so much tech, it actually is complex and makes life more demanding for users. i.e. I may not have to manually open fifteen window blinds now every morning and, close them at night. But I have to understand networking and radio communications and work on those things in my house to meet the requirements of the HA blind operators I've purchased and installed. I've simply traded my time from doing one task to doing others. And, both are irritating in their own ways. Net zero savings or improvements.
It defeats the purpose of HA. It shouldn't be this way.
Hi Eric! GREAT Video! I just spent the last 30 minutes tying to add 6 Aqara Door Sensors (P2 with Matter) and was about to dump them right in the trash. I found your video (I'm a regular watcher) and tried the IPv6 fix...and BOOM! They immediately joined Homekit! Thank you SO much for this!! You rock!
I wish I had seen this video prior to setting up my new modem and router yesterday. I would have simply reset all my devices. So logical! Instead, I returned some new light Lifx bulbs because I assumed they were not compatible. Thanks for the ipv6 info too!
So if my university uses IPv4, and I use an Apple TV as my Apple Home Hub, can I still use matter or thread devices through Apple Home?
I had ipv6 enabled by default and I could never get an Eve Thread Motion Sensor to connect. I tried around 20 times in the course of two days. I tried everything. I had to return it. I’ve also had many devices in HomeKit go offline occasionally. I disabled ipv6 and none of my devices go offline. I have not tried to connect any thread devices since.
You can run IPv4 and IPv6 together. If your employer doesn't support IPv6 you can configure your computer to prefer IPv4 so it will go out with it's IPv4 address but still be able to talk to IPv6 devices. If it's a work computer maybe they just disable IPv6 on the work computer. I have IUPv4 for work but also have IPv6 on my network and never have issues.
Can we have a guide on how you set everything up in unifi? i'm having trouble with thread and I have a unifi setup...
Oh thank god they have gone down the IPv6 route. That's been the main reason that I don't have WiFi lightbulbs and sockets. Your typical home router is configured to serve 253 addresses (with the router obviously taking one). But many home routers couldn't actually cope with 253 devices actually using it, and every allocation of a lightbulb or a speaker or whatever, is one less slot that a phone or tablet or smartwatch or (you get the point) can use. Of course people always say "no one is going to have that many devices in their house". OK let's imagine, a typical 3 bedroom UK house. Let's say every room has at least one smart bulb. Downstairs that's at least 5 IP addresses (livingroom, hall, kitchen, dining room, porch). Then we have (3 bedrooms, a landing and a bathroom) that's another 5. Let's say all 3 bedrooms have a Chromecast and so does the livingroom that's another 4. Now let's say that 3 bedrooms all have a smart speaker and so does the livingroom and kitchen. Now let's add some IP cameras. Front and back of the house, a few inside. Let's just say another 5 addresses. We are 24 devices right now. Let's say it's a mesh WiFi system, so each access point takes up an IP address. 26. Now we better add all the phones and smartwatches and tablets. There's going to be 4-5 phones. (31). Let's say 4 smartwatches. (35). 4 tablets. (39). The surround sound system in the livingroom is on the network too. And the Freeview box. (41). We haven't even started adding NAS, actual computers, games consoles, robot vacuum cleaners, WiFi camera doorbells etc. It's surprising how fast you eat up those IP addresses. Got some kindles? WiFi Christmas lights, WiFi air purifier. WiFi thermostats. Oh and of course WiFi radiator valves. We are getting close to 100 addresses at this point, we may even be over it. At least with IPv6 - you no longer have to worry about plugging in a device in only to discover - the router has no more addresses left to offer the new device.
long story short it is all about the need for IP v6 addresses, making sure the local network has IP v6 enabled, and if the needs to be updated to IP v6 other already connected devices to the network might need to be updated.
This video focuses on switching local network to IP v6, but I think the router I have from my (ISP) internet service provider has the ability to have IP v4 and IP v6 at the same time. not 100% sure about this but I would take into consideration this option also. pretty sure it is possible.
Internet Protocol address(IP address)
Thanks for the video! When you say reset Sonos, do you mean to reset each one to factory defaults and then add them back into your account?
Hi, I am looking for info about how to setup multiple hue bridges with one single alexa account. Is it possible ? I have reached the limit of my hue bridge, and would like to know how to continue adding lights without loosing the ability to use alexa. Thx
I would pay you for putting up this video. I have been dealing with eve support for over a month back and forth. Reinstalled over and over changed settings etc. but all i need to do is switch to iv6 😳😳 who would know?.. thanks🥳
Thanks Eric! Have you heard of or experienced any issues with new matter devices that require 2.4GHz only? Have a nano leaf essentials light strip and wemo smart plugs that will not connect to wifi/apple home no matter what steps taken. Older items of same brand that have been connected work without issue but unable to add new items. Curious if you or your viewers have additional tips. Have put mesh network in 2.4GHz only mode, utilized legacy mode, and reset everything however continues to fail. At this point don't know if it's a router issue, apple home issue, or device issue. Thanks in advance to anyone who has advice...
why you keep ERA 300 on close to ceiling front block..?
I’m not sure the angle you are seeing. My Era 300 is on top of a cabinet that has a good distance between it and the ceiling so the upward facing tweeters have room to work
Question, if I’m on IVp4 is it worth switching to ipv6 if everything is currently working I’m just curious I don’t mind doing it. I just want a more faster reactive HomeKit.
does the matter standard self-reset the device? because if it doesn't, then it is worthless.
Just returning nano strips. Got three to do a room. The connectors between strip and power were flimsy. A slight bump or vibration and lights out. I did get IPV6 turned on and was all set but did not want to keep them with the poor connection.
I don't think you really need a public IPv6 address, it must work well with a public IPv4 and a private IPv6 local network for your smart devices. In other words, It must work with an ordinary Internet provider, the user just needs a router or a smart switch capable to provide an IPv6 home network.
So I spent a little time looking into this for my home network. I have an EdgeRouter from Ubiquiti (but *not* one of their Unifi-class products). I thought I'd go into the web interface and there would be some checkbox for "Turn on IPv6 support", but apparently there are several settings buried deep in different web pages which you need to set correctly before everything's working. Ugh.
Yikes afraid to turn on v6 but should? For a couple new devices by nanoleaf. Have two routers i might break everything
Yo!! I was planning to buy smart home devices I had no idea IPV6 was a thing, I have eero and it was off thanks for the tip!!
I was not aware this was an issue, so thanks for the video. I do not have any matter product but about to cut the cord on smart things completely for Apple Home.
Thank you! Did not know about the IPv4 vs IPv6 dependencies, great to bear in mind going forward 🙂
Thanks David! Yeah some Matter devices might work on IPv4, but there are enough that don't or don't work well on IPv4 that it will make you life easier to just move over.
By now one would have thought IPV6 was enabled on every modern router. They were running out of IPV4 addresses a while back.
Thnx i found this out the hard way myself
Why does ISP need to support IPV6?
Oh boy. I’m sure you just confused 95% of viewers. Most probably don’t even know what ipv4 is 😂
Backward compatibility would have been nice.
@@SmartHomeHASHTAGSWe are running out of ipv4 addresses so the transition is kind of necessary, forcing developers to adapt the new standard is a good start and as a user you should see no difference because as he said in most places it is all set by default. Honestly I don’t really get why he doesn’t like the change it is not like he has to deal with ipv6 all the problems he faced are just bugs and they should be fixed soon.
If they don’t even know what ipv4 is, they don’t need to be buying wireless devices.
Do you have a New Zealand connection? Spotted those kiwis on your wall 👍
Has anybody addressed your question already “what happened with ip v5?”. 4 and 6 are not really a versions. It is number of bytes in the address :)
I think you could do with a lot less light on your face.
It looks a bit overexposed, and seems it bothers your eyes a little bit.
Great video, Eric: had no idea about the ipv6/Matter thing. My Eero is on IPv4s; gonna give ipv6 a try.
Thanks!
Hey Eric! Thank you very much for this awesome and informative video.
I'm on the verge of getting Nanoleaf Matter bulbs and light strip, which I very much should've gotten last week on Prime Days - since I procrastinated I'll have to wait up to week to get them now, when I could've had them within the next day of ordering - I get so skittish about ordering things sometimes -
I'm pretty sure the answer to this question is blazingly obvious, but if I see a listing for IPv6 in my Cox Wi-Fi app, that means that my Internet set up is indeed IPv6 compatible, right? Also, I've got at least one, maybe two or three IPv6 entries for my network interface on my motherboard on Windows 11! So, might be all set there. But just wanted to make sure.
You seem to be very much an expert on these things. Again, thank you very much for the video, and looking forward to awesome stuff to come. Take care!
Really helpful, thx.
R.I.P matter?
Where are the updates and fixes?
None of this video is accurate. Please do your homework and actually read the matter specification.
The work from home aspect comment may save lives.
Thanks! Yeah I imagine there are lots of companies who haven't thought about support IPv6 across all systems/networks.
@@EricWelander - Where I work (a college campus) has been thinking about it for about 20 years. 🙂 There are still many servers on our campus network which are setup IPv4 only just to avoid situations where adding IPv6 makes it harder to debug problems when they inevitably come up.
Very interesting.
On the one hand I can see why this new standard wanted to go with IPv6: If everyone has (say) 50 devices in their home, that's going to chew up an enormous number of IP addresses world-wide.
On the other hand, it's pretty poor documentation on their part that they don't make that dependency *MUCH* more obvious to everyone buying these devices.
Thanks Garance! I agree. If I was at the meetings deciding to use IPv6, I would have been pushing to have complete IPv4 support as well. It's going to be a major roadblock to get mainstream Matter adoption. But it is what it is now and we have to deal with it. I agree they aren't making it clear enough. It's only in troubleshooting docs most of the time.
The other detail is it isn't technically required for ALL Matter products. Some work with IPv4 if they have Thread or other compatibility with things like HomeKit outside of Matter. I imagine this is the response you would get from many companies why it's not more clear. But I still think users should just move to it to make their smart home lives easier.
Nope. ALL the devices in your home network are behind a single ipv4 address as far as the rest of the world is concerned.
@@Hamish_A - Well, that part depends on your internet provider. Your comment is true for my cable-internet connection, but I have many friends whose home internet is behind one (or more) IPv6 addresses. That's especially true for people who live outside the United States.
But I suspect that is not what Eric is talking about. I suspect that it's the network traffic between the matter devices *in your house* will prefer to use IPv6. I do see a *lot* more problems with "device not responding" errors on the few devices I have which are certified for Matter but not also certified for Apple's HomeKit. And what's more perplexing is that my iPad will claim it cannot contact some matter-only device, and yet at the same time it is displaying notifications which come *from* the device. When I have some spare time I'm going to test this theory.
🤔🤔
😶
as a infrastructure architect, and a smart home engineer, I can tell ya this, I wont be adopting matter BECAUSE of its ipv6 requirement. no thanks dude. deal breaker. ill stick to the ways I have been doing it.
Do you think most of your viewers are going to understand all this especially if you don’t properly understand it YOU need to get more informative before releasing this video.