Sign in / up

back to article IPv6 web starts to look like the internet we know

Hurricane Electric's daily report on IPv6 adoption isn't the kind of thing you'd report on too often, but Vulture South sometimes takes a look in case the internet suddenly woke up and decided to ramp up its deployment of the addressing scheme. Germany is the largest national IPv6 top-level domain (TLD) with 13,155,766 domains …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *
  1. Doctor_Wibble

    All lies, I tell you!

    This article is completely made up because there can be no "Internet we know" because it collapsed decades ago when all the IP4 addresses ran out and ended civilisation as we know it.

    However, the limited number of IP6 tunnel brokers give a handily short list for the NSA/GCHQ to find out who you have been connecting to because you are guilty by association, even if you only said 'lolwut'.

    P.S. Obviously this post can't possibly exist. But my tinfoil hat is REAL.

    2 4 Reply
    1. Trigonoceps occipitalis
      Reply Icon

      Re: All lies, I tell you!

      "But my tinfoil hat is REAL."

      Oh no it isn't!

      1 0 Reply
      1. Doctor_Wibble
        Reply Icon

        Re: All lies, I tell you!

        > Oh no it isn't!

        Look behind you!

        (that time of year imminent...)

        0 0 Reply
  2. Lee D Silver badge

    But no Register yet?

    Told you guys - you can do an article on IPv6 when you start publishing a single AAAA record.

    26 2 Reply
    1. gnarlymarley
      Reply Icon

      They are trying to win the site with the last IPv4 only award.

      3 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surely a better guide to the adoption of IPv6 would be the prevalence of dual stacked sites, where queries for $site have both V4 and V6 addresses returned? That's certainly how World IPv6 Day's participants saw it, and to avoid unfortunate timeouts caused by incomplete V6 paths, they are incentivized to fix the latter.

    4 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    20 .au IPv6 domains

    That is … embarrassing.

    4 0 Reply
    1. John Tserkezis
      Reply Icon

      Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

      "20 .au IPv6 domains. That is … embarrassing."

      Pretty much explains why we'll never get IPv6 outside world capability for domestic users - we're at the whim of our ISPs.

      This is way beyond naming and shaming, and approaches "can't happen, don't try".

      1 0 Reply
      1. Oninoshiko
        Reply Icon

        Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

        What needs to happen is every IPv4 IP that is being used for non-server work loads get revoked.

        ISPs should be advised to provide access to the IPv4 network via 6to4 gateways.

        IPv6 address should then be practically given away.

        This plan would leave no downsides for hosters to migrate over, no downsides for ISPs to migrate, and an economic incentive. A stick and carrot, if you will.

        0 2 Reply
        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

          The NSA and MPAA would love this plan. Every device would have an external address. Every IP would be a person. And privacy would be well and truly dead forever.

          Can't see a single issue.

          2 1 Reply
          1. choleric
            Reply Icon

            Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

            Servers with DNS records might be expected to keep permanent IPv6 addresses, although with a low DNS TTL the addresses could be changed regularly.

            For end user devices though addresses can be randomly generated as often as you want and the expectation is that devices can/will have multiple IPv6 addresses. So if you want to use a different address for, and only for, a bit of torrenting or irc or just a plain old incognito web browsing session it's all within the realms of possibility.

            With increasing numbers of internet connected devices coming out (without buying into the whole IoT thing) the idea that every IP address is a person is gone.

            0 0 Reply
            1. Anonymous Coward
              Reply Icon
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

              .Reg article. "Slow IPv6 adoption is a GOOD THING as IETF plans privacy boost"

              http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/07/rfc_offers_better_privacy_for_ipv6_hosts/

              how to increase security and keep NSA and GCHA out of your daily life when using a mobile.

              Anon for obvious reasons

              0 0 Reply
          2. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

            The NSA and MPAA would love this plan. Every device would have an external address. Every IP would be a person. And privacy would be well and truly dead forever.

            Can't see a single issue.

            They've thought of that already in RFC 3041. In short, they generate a randomised one… and the only "identifying" bit is the prefix which in theory could be dynamically assigned on a per-session basis.

            2 0 Reply
      2. ZeroSum
        Reply Icon

        Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

        The lumpen mass of ISPs will start herding as they see more clueful ISPs doing it. The ones doing it now are shaking out the bugs in BNGs, access nodes and CPE. It will be much easier for ISPs to enable it over the next few years.

        2 0 Reply
    2. justincormack
      Reply Icon

      Re: 20 .au IPv6 domains

      Well no, 20 .au domains - 1 with ipv6. There are no registrations at top level in au, so it is a bit misleading, they need to dig down to next level.

      2 0 Reply
  5. alain williams Silver badge

    Name and shame

    We need to start to name & shame ISPs who do not offer IPv6 support.

    I will start with Direct Save Telecom. I used them when I set up IP connectivity for the local community group office. I was told that they would provide IPv6 soon. Querying this 6 months later I was told "Oh, that was just the salesman - we have no plans for IPv6".

    4 0 Reply
  6. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Economic incentives

    While the early adopters will probably have to deal with all the teething troubles, they'll also be the ones most likely to benefit from the change. Germany had an IPv6 plan and has more or less stuck to it.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Lee D Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Economic incentives

      What teething problems? We've had several IPv6 days. Every server OS and service you can think of support IPv6 out of the box.

      And if there's a problem moving a service to IPv6 - that's what IPv4 is still around for. Nothing stops that working, but IPv6 just gives you another new avenue to try out.

      Honestly, the teething troubles are long gone. People just need to start turning it on. Your mobile phone already uses IPv6 if it's anywhere near modern. Unfortunately, some places - like this very website - can't be bothered to add IPv6 to the list of modules and reboot their servers.

      3 1 Reply
  7. Crazy Operations Guy

    The problem is ISPs

    I've been trying to support IPv6 on my network for a few years, but the ISPs I connect to refuse to even bother with supporting IPv6. While Comcast does technically support IPv6, its only for dynamically assigned addresses on residential connections, if you have static IPs, you're stuck with v4. The only other game in town is Qwest DSL and it has a maximum upstream speed of 768k 9Not even sure if they support IPv6 anyway). I've tried IPv6 tunnels, but the latency on them is complete crap (not their fault, just intermediate ISPs).

    They only way to get IPv6 on the internet natively around here is to use one of the big NSPs (Level-3, Hurricane Electric, Global Crossing, etc) and those ill set you back back a nice big bundle of cash.

    2 0 Reply
    1. choleric
      Reply Icon

      Re: The problem is ISPs

      I've noticed a real uptick in bandwidth this year on IPv6 tunnels compared to even a couple of years ago. It may be down to which tunnel server you choose - remembering that the geographically closest one to you may not be the "best" choice depending on your ISP's peering arrangements.

      I see no discernable difference between IPv4 and IPv6 performance when browsing and watching video streams. All of Google comes in over IPv6, as does Netflix and the other half's Farcebook traffic too.

      And I've not had to do any special configuring on any user devices (obviously excluding the router). Visitors use the WiFi network blissfully unaware they're using IPv6 to access some content and IPv4 to access the rest.

      2 0 Reply
    2. ZeroSum
      Reply Icon

      Re: The problem is ISPs

      Keep asking them for it. They've said they'll do it and having customers demanding something makes getting it worked on a lot easier.

      2 0 Reply
  8. ZeroSum

    IPv6 content as measured by volume of traffic is much higher

    Those ISPs that have deployed IPv6 see a large percentage of their traffic move from IPv4 to IPv6 because some of the biggest video sites have adopted it. e.g. Youtube and Netflix.

    3 0 Reply
  9. Number6

    I'm disappointed that the BBC is still only IPv4. I guess they can't reliably determine where an IPv6 address is located, so they can't filter reliably based on it. (Someone has already covered the deficiency with El Reg.)

    I've had IPv6 for some time, internal network uses it without me realising it, and when in the UK I used A&A as an ISP - they offer true IPv6 connectivity. At the moment I'm stuck with a Hurricane Electric tunnel, given that I still can't get Comcast to work with it. I think it's a failing of the cable modem, plus I'd be stuck with their less-than-satisfactory IPv6 scheme.

    0 0 Reply
  10. Mr Flibble
    Flame

    Availability of dual-stack consumer equipment

    I recently had the ‘pleasure’ of using a Netgear router/modem as a short-term replacement for some failed hardware. It's fine as a dumb switch and wireless AP, and used as such it'll happily handle anything IP – but try to get it, as a router, to do proper dual-stack and, well, you'll quickly find that you need something else.

    Yes, it'll do IPv6. But only if you use 6to4 or you forgo direct IPv4 to the outside world: the former is laughable, given an ISP which provides IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and the latter is… well, let's just say that it has one or two problems.

    Thankfully, I'm now back to using my preferred setup – a modem in bridge mode and a small Linux box doing the PPP termination and proper dual-stack.

    There's good consumer kit out there, I'm sure, for those who want something which does dual-stack properly and which works with minimal configuration. It's just a shame that other kit appears to be much more readily, visibly available.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Number6
      Reply Icon

      Re: Availability of dual-stack consumer equipment

      I managed to flash a DG834 to provide dual stack, it worked quite well, considering. Can't remember how I did it now though, it wasn't trivial.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Availability of dual-stack consumer equipment

        In there, lies a problem. For the average consumer, it basically has to JustWork™. Out of the box, no questions asked.

        Now, it isn't difficult to set up a Linux box to do IPv6 routing. By extension, it shouldn't be difficult to do the same in router firmware.

        A lot of the problem is that the people who write the modem firmware/UIs often don't have a clue about IPv4 let alone IPv6. (e.g. try setting the LAN IP to 192.168.255.254: it'll probably winge about the 255)

        0 0 Reply

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like