Facetime Locks out LAN

Fisheye · April 1, 2023

This is an incredibly frustrating problem.

My house is configured with an enterprise level multi-access point wifi and wired LAN. It was installed by a local private and commercial networking company. They can't figure it out.

When any one phone uses FaceTime, and ONLY facetime(no other high bandwidth media or video chat apps) the LAN locks out. Even though the network is rated for much higher bandwidth, and the internet package allows so much more, no other device on the network can access the internet. All the devices are basically denied service and get stuck with timeouts.

Worst of all, it intermittent.

We have replaced the router, isolated nodes on the network, and monitored traffic logs, nothing seems to be a problem.

We tried port forwarding the ports which facetime uses. No dice.

I don't believe it is isolated to bandwidth, as maxing out the download or upload bandwidth of the network through multiple simultaneous downloads or a video upload doesn't lock the network out.

We are stumped. It's almost like the heavy hand of Steve Jobs himself is reaching out and blocking everything but the Facetime traffic.

Hardware as wired:

-ISP-installed PoE LTE modem

-Router: TPlink archer ax1500(WLAN disabled)

-Lan1-3: Ubiquiti access points broadcasting same SSID

-Lan4: Switch: D-link DGS-10160 gigabit 16 port switch

Easily 30 devices on the network.

Any help would be appreciated.

DrMacintosh · April 1, 2023

28 minutes ago, Fisheye said:

When any one phone uses FaceTime,

Can a Mac or iPad make a call and not cause any issues? What OS version are each of the phones running? I'd also reset the network settings for each of the phones.

Fisheye · April 1, 2023

40 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Can a Mac or iPad make a call and not cause any issues? What OS version are each of the phones running? I'd also reset the network settings for each of the phones.

An iPad locks it out the same way. Network settings on the Apple devices were reset with no improvement. All devices are updated to latest. No issues with the call or using the device making the call, but everything else is essentially disconnected until the call is over.

Fisheye · April 1, 2023

11 minutes ago, TechlessBro said:

Are you on the latest firmware?

ubuquiti had issues with apple on one of the firmware updates.

AppleTV remote app wouldn’t work on the last release.

some of the broadcast or UDP wasn’t making it across network.

i suspect it’s actually dropped at the AP before you can monitor it from the physical side. Wifi packet capture would see it if you looked enough

I'll have to investigate the ubiquiti firmware, not sure what they are at. The IT guys didn't leave me much info to access them.

That apple remote app issue seems to impact the use of that device, not the rest of the network. I do appreciate the note on compatibility issues though.

I'm considering running Wireshark or a similar program and monitoring the network packets while the call initializes to see what is happening.