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If there is no rtadv server then the computers will fall back to a zero-config addressing mode. Basically this is a special address range, starting with fe80:: and suffixed by the MAC address of the given network interface. See this: https://www.sixxs.net/wiki/Subnet

Was IPv6 our only hope or do we have something else ready to go for when we hit that last address? And speaking of that, what WILL happen when we hit that last address? Will the internet suddenly die? Or will some people just not be able to connect because the IP is in use?

I see the addressing problem like the Y2K issue, in that few will actually do the work until the last address is about to run out. Its all down to money and also the fact that network hardware providers are dragging their feet. The latter is an important point, since how do you migrate to IPv6 easily if the person supplying you your router, bridge, etc does not provider support for IPv6? In general it is a sheep mentality, in that few are going to make the leap until a greater mass has already paved the way in large numbers.

I have been playing with IPv6 simply as a way to understand the issues involved. From doing so I discovered a few things:
  - Asia and Europe are doing more work than North America when it comes to IPv6. There are already ISPs in Europe, such s free.fr, that offer IPv6 connectivity.
  - The argument about numerical addresses is bogus, since with the advent of technologies such as zero-config you just use a name
  - The lack of DHCPv6 support is minor, since router advertisements does the job in most cases, though is non-negligible in other cases.
  - Cisco is yet to certify its whole line of hardware solutions IPv6 ready.
  - If you want IPv6 support on your home router you are either having to use the newer Apple Airport or install an open-source firmware, when possible
  - There are still important APIs that aren't IPv6 ready. Examples include libwww (Perl) and the network API for LibSDL.

If you want to give IPv6 a go, then there are a number of solutions such as Freenet6 and Teredo, though I use Aiccu from Sixxs:

https://www.sixxs.net/wiki/Aiccu

what about http://www.sixxs.net/ ? they support AYIYA tunnels which should work through nat, and they have European POPs, so it sounds like they might work much better for you.

there is a way though it takes some preparation. On the other hand it may earn you some extra geek points.

1. get yourself a IPv6 tunnel and get it configured
2. after you saw the logo jump at ipv6.google.com, check IPv6 Newsservers
3. ...
4. free usenet!!! (incl. alt.*)

where the ... probably involves testing which of the servers actually work, not all of them did when I tried it, and adding one or more of them in pan. Not an ultra fast download but still an excellent reason to start with ipv6.

there is a way though it takes some preparation. On the other hand it may earn you some extra geek points.

1. get yourself a IPv6 tunnel and get it configured
2. after you saw the logo jump at ipv6.google.com, check IPv6 Newsservers
3. ...
4. free usenet!!! (incl. alt.*)

where the ... probably involves testing which of the servers actually work, not all of them did when I tried it, and adding one or more of them in pan. Not an ultra fast download but still an excellent reason to start with ipv6.

IPv6 over dynamic IPv4 is pretty easy with AICCU, actually. http://www.sixxs.net/tools/aiccu/

Hey IANNA, why not free up some of the "LEGACY" Class-A allocations (see below) That would free some 650 MILLION addresses!!! Some 15% of the address space.

While a good idea, it is probably easier to simply migrate to IPv6. I say this reckoning that the amount of bureaucratic paper work amounts for most of the effort. If you are going to be doing the paper work, then it might as well be done for a solution moving forward, than trying to temporarily fix a bad allocation. At least this way the paper work is done once. Also, if there is hardware to be upgraded then you might as well put the effort into putting IPv6 ready hardware in place.

The pieces for IPv6 are slowly falling into place and there is less excuse to ignore it. The major operating systems support it and even Windows 2000 could use IPv6 if you had the technology preview (not sure where you can get hold it today) and a number of routers support it.

I live in Canada and none of the ISPs that provide internet connection to the home provide native IPv6 support. Holidaying in France the other day I found that free.fr and possibly Wanadoo/Orange provide IPv6 support. An incomplete list of Internet Service Providers providing native IPv6 is available, though it could probably be updated and as more ISPs start providing native support to their customers. DSL Reports, also has a forum dedicated to IPv6.

Myself, I have started experimenting with IPv6 simply so I can understand all the issues and be able to help out other adopters. I started using Teredo on my Mac (since it supports being behind a NAT), by means of Miredo (a nice front-end for the Mac is available here), and then moved onto Aiccu. The advantage with going using Aiccu, is that I can have an IPv6 subnet for my computers at home. Also, since I wanted to make my web server available on the IPv6 addressable net, I registered its IP address with FreeDNS, since they allow for registration of AAAA records on their servers. There are certainly other 6to4 tunnels providers, such as Freenet6, but I haven't really investigate them since I already have a solution that fits my needs.

I live in Canada and none of the ISPs that provide internet connection to the home provide native IPv6 support. Holidaying in France the other day I found that free.fr and possibly Wanadoo/Orange provide IPv6 support. An incomplete list of Internet Service Providers providing native IPv6 is available, though it could probably be updated and as more ISPs start providing native support to their customers. DSL Reports, also has a forum dedicated to IPv6.

Myself, I have started experimenting with IPv6 simply so I can understand all the issues and be able to help out other adopters. I started using Teredo on my Mac (since it supports being behind a NAT), by means of Miredo (a nice front-end for the Mac is available here), and then moved onto Aiccu. The advantage with going using Aiccu, is that I can have an IPv6 subnet for my computers at home. Also, since I wanted to make my web server available on the IPv6 addressable net, I registered its IP address with FreeDNS, since they allow for registration of AAAA records on their servers. There are certainly other 6to4 tunnels providers, such as Freenet6, but I haven't really investigate them since I already have a solution that fits my needs.

I live in Canada and none of the ISPs that provide internet connection to the home provide native IPv6 support. Holidaying in France the other day I found that free.fr and possibly Wanadoo/Orange provide IPv6 support. An incomplete list of Internet Service Providers providing native IPv6 is available, though it could probably be updated and as more ISPs start providing native support to their customers. DSL Reports, also has a forum dedicated to IPv6.

Myself, I have started experimenting with IPv6 simply so I can understand all the issues and be able to help out other adopters. I started using Teredo on my Mac (since it supports being behind a NAT), by means of Miredo (a nice front-end for the Mac is available here), and then moved onto Aiccu. The advantage with going using Aiccu, is that I can have an IPv6 subnet for my computers at home. Also, since I wanted to make my web server available on the IPv6 addressable net, I registered its IP address with FreeDNS, since they allow for registration of AAAA records on their servers. There are certainly other 6to4 tunnels providers, such as Freenet6, but I haven't really investigate them since I already have a solution that fits my needs.

Sixxs.net lists some IPv6 web sites in its Wiki:

http://www.sixxs.net/wiki/Category:IPv6-specific_content

and there is also some other 'Cool IPv6 stuff' listed on the Sixxs web site:

http://www.sixxs.net/misc/coolstuff/

Sixxs.net lists some IPv6 web sites in its Wiki:

http://www.sixxs.net/wiki/Category:IPv6-specific_content

and there is also some other 'Cool IPv6 stuff' listed on the Sixxs web site:

http://www.sixxs.net/misc/coolstuff/

Sixxs provides a list of ISPs providing native IPv6.

I've asked before if /. is truly geek enough to be the first major tech site to start testing IPv6 connectivity. It's time to ask again, so slashdot people, consider it asked, again.

Slashdot has good admins and programmers behind it. Certainly CmdrTaco seems to be constantly improving the slashcode base, and for those of us with low IDs we can see the improvements being rolled out on a regular basis (and it's all appreciated, despite occasional grumbling, thanks all).

What needs to happen is for one of their more competent OSTG network admins to obtain a tunnel from either Hurricane Electric or Sixxs. If they were to send an email to one of the people at either HE or Sixxs, there would probably be all kinds of technical assistance offered. Both tunnel providers have ubergeeks behind them, and a high profile site like /. would be a major win for them.

Putting the tunnel on one of their Cisco 3745 routers is about 9 lines in IOS for the routing and interface addressing, and a handful of ACLs to protect the router on the new addresses. Finish it off by providing a /64 subnet to the VLAN where one of their test or development webserver machines resides.

After that, the fun begins. They can put a static IPv6 address onto one of the test or development machines, make Apache bind to it, and they will be off and running. More like off and limping, because there will be work to do before they are ready to make any kind of announcements or even put the AAAA record into DNS. They'll have to make sure the local firewall also deals with IPv6 addresses, and a ton of other little sysadmin things to make sure badness doesn't sneak in on the new connectivity.

First off, CmdrTaco will probably find bugs or deficiencies in the slashcode and database structures when dealing with a new address family. There WILL be bugs found in perl network modules and in mySQL. Logging scripts may need to be updated. Statistical packages run against logs may choke or ignore longer addresses. Some functions may mangle colon delimited addresses. RSS feeds may not deal with square brackets around v6 addresses. Although there will be some things needing fixing, a surprising amount will just work with IPv6 with no modification.

When most of it seems to be functional, they can stick a separate AAAA record in their DNS for something like ipv6.slashdot.org and ask those of us with connectivity to test for a while. No need yet to add it to the main A record of slashdot.org. Just get it out for those of us with IPv6 to test.

Even if the network admins were to have the tunnel up by next week, I wouldn't expect to see even basic functionality before mid-summer, and if limited testing all went well to just put a AAAA record in parallel by the end of 2008. It takes a while, but it can be done.

When /. does have a working IPv6 code base, they can put pressure on their upstream provider to get native v6 connectivity, because a tunnel isn't going to hold up for too long.

All website upgrades are going to follow a path like what I've just described. The networking takes almost no effort, but the coding of website functionality will require some work, work that can be rolled into ongoing website maintenance.

I've been thinking about this post for the last few IPv6 stories on /., this seemed like a good time to point out the easy and hard parts for a dual-stack rollout. After this, we can only wait and hope...

the AC

There is a lot of feet dragging going on, partly because too many business plans rely on short term spending. The irony is that some of the companies which you expect to be leading the way in IPv6 migration don't even have web sites that are IPv6 enabled. This includes IBM, Apple, Microsoft, RedHat and Cisco. I make the point because they should be picking up the torch now that research sites have already done their part, and showing that it is an achievable goal, and not some sort of pipe-dream. /. readers at the same time, should probably get to know and understand the technology, since it is not a question of whether it will happen, but when. When it happens if the IT crowd doesn't understand IPv6, then we really have issues.

If you want to get an IPv6 web site running there are number of solutions, including using Apache 2 with IPv6 support activated and making sure you have an OS that supports an IPv6 stack - most modern OSs do.

Migration technologies for people stuck behind IPv4 NATs include Aiccu and Teredo (Vista includes this, and for other OSs there is Miredo). If you are at home, then one of the 'consumer' routers to support IPv6 out of the box is the Airport Extreme. If others support it out of the box I am not aware of this.

When you are ready see the dancing turtle - if you don't see it you are accessing it via IPv4.

Other stuff you can do in the meantime is checking to see if some your favourite network based applications handle IPv6 and if they don't make some noise. Its best to make the noise now, when it doesn't matter so much, than waiting until it does. On the bonus side they can advertise the fact they are IPv6 ready.

How much is it going to cost per month or year to have a public ipv6 address. You can't say nothing because they will have to be allocated by someone in some way that not only tells routers where to direct stuff but to ensure that your traffic in LA isn't being routed to the same IP in Bermuda or Russia.

The first rule of ipv6porn is do not talk about ipv6porn.

All kidding aside:

This page is describing the IPv6 experiment itself, and is primarily intended for networking researchers and software professionals to learn about and discuss the experiment. If you're here for the free content, it's not here! We're not ready for the world to know about this experiment yet, so don't go submitting this to Slashdot or Digg until the actual site is up.

Of course, I already have my IPv6 connectivity through http://www.sixxs.net/ for research purposes. That is my story and I am sticking to it, so to speak.

Today.

It may never be adopted at all. It's been going for 20 years now.. and total ipv6 usage? Well let's look at the router stats of a large ipv6 tunnel broker: http://www.sixxs.net/misc/traffic/

Their most popular pop (bebru01) averaged 4mbps each way. That means their most busy ipv6 interlink could be hosted by someone with a cable modem.

My own humble network has more throughput than that - for *one house* let alone an entire country.

Apart from full colour ASCII star wars, there's a free binary news server with 40+ TB data!

List of stuff.

sort of - there's a lot more IPv6 there than here, but there are still a whole bunch of thoroughly under-implemented pieces of IPv6 (like, has anyone written an actual implementation of IPv6Sec yet?), and actual traffic rates using native v6 native v6 all the way through are exceptionally low.

If you go to one of the good latency calculators, you'll see that the delta between IPv6 performance and IPv4 performance is substantial, with IPv6 performance showing as a heck of a lot worse (about twice as poor). Once this isn't the case, then an argument for widespread adoption of v6 will be more effective.

> IPv6 is fully integrated.

Oh really.

Maybe so, they just kinda, sorta forgot proper IPv6 tunneling options. You know, the stuff you need to get it going on the current net infrastructure. Also the stuff that Windows XP does without a hitch. See

http://www.sixxs.net/news/2006/#windowsvistasuppor tnonexistantduetomissingprotosupport-0728.

If you want to use tunnel brokers, you'll have to install third-party VPN drivers (OpenVPN). This is a feature that SHOULD have been there from the start if Microsoft cared about full, usable IPv6 integration.

> There may still be people who like Windows 98, but there aren't people who use Windows XP, and say "Gee, I wish I was using 98 instead."

I know a few people like that. Windows 98 still runs better in low-memory situations, does everything "they" need, and quickly at that. 2k/XP are better operating systems overall IMO, but gee, they are not the hammer to every nail :)

> So shall it be with Vista when it matures.

So operating systems are kind of like wine ? What if Vista is a bad year ?

Get Connected and head to http://ipv6links.net to find some sites that are available via IPv6.

Homeland Stupidity is a great ipv6-connected blog that many Slashdotters would probably like.

A guide to easy obtaining an IPv6 tunnel is available at sixxs.net, pretty simple and straightforward.

Check out http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net/

One of the examples: http://www.slashdot.org.sixxs.org/ :) //fatal

Everyone has the ability to get an IPv6 tunnel. When deployed, it's not much different than a native IPv6 connection. SixXS has 4 PoPs in the USA but only 220 users there so far. Go sign up! You just have to want to. Saying it's not used is plain wrong and helps noone.

Everyone has the ability to get an IPv6 tunnel. When deployed, it's not much different than a native IPv6 connection. SixXS has 4 PoPs in the USA but only 220 users there so far. Go sign up! You just have to want to. Saying it's not used is plain wrong and helps noone.

I run a dual stacked network at home using tunneled connectivity from SixXS (I live near Boston, MA, the tunnel endpoint is in NJ. This gives excellent latency performance.). With this tunneled connection came a subnet with enough IPs to last me many lifetimes. Additionally, I maintain a server with native IPv6 access including public access Jabber, NTP, and IRC. See here for more info.

IPv6 won't neccessarily get you anything you don't already have at this point, but the technology is ripe for experimenting and things work remarkably well.

For those in Japan, I suggest checking out IPv6 Promotion Council, WIDE, Internet Initiative Japan and the BSD folks over at KAME.

In general, you probably also want to check the IPv6 Information Page, which lists many IPv6 websites, FTP sites and even IRC sites not already listed. (Almost all the above sites are also IPv6-reachable.) This totally trashes the idea that there is NOBODY on IPv6, which is good because it is a delusion which prevents people from using IPv6.

I've used numerous IPv6 tunnels and will shortly be getting native IPv6 from my provider at home, so I cry "bullshit" to those who say it can't be done. Setting up an IPv6 tunnel through a broker requires knowing your public IP address and your MAC address, then running a simple script to set up the IPv6-over-IPv4 connection. It's all of a couple of minutes work, maximum. I dare those who say IPv6 isn't being used to actually set up such a tunnel, use IPv6, THEN come back and tell the rest of us why what they just did was so impossible.

So, with IPv6, I can just hook up my sole XP SP1 machine directly to the Internet and rest assured I won't get hit by the next automated exploit scan/attack?

With the stateful filter in place that you just as well need with NAT? Of course.

With IPv6, my ISP will automagically give me as many public IPs as I want, free of charge?

Theoretically there are 2^48 networks of 2^80 size, i.e. more networks of vast address space than there are single addresses now. Address assignment won't be the problem. Actually I got two address spaces of that size, one native over PPPoE where I just pay traffic and one as a tunnel where I pay the underlying IPv4 connection which is flat. Check http://www.sixxs.net/ some time.

With IPv6, I will suddenly have a use for more than 254 IPs (which I already have behind my router)? Oh, and I'll need more than one "directly reachable" IP?

Please not the "who has use for it" argument. Most useful applications only come up after the possiblity is there.

IPv6 is a good thing, but you'll get my NAT/PAT router once you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Your loss.

Well, there are already several 6-to-4 and 4-to-6 gateway sites. This one is one example. If there was a site that was only accessable through IPv6 you could use a service like that to access it over any IPv4 host.

Also, if you have an IPv6-capable host you can use a tunnel broker (such as Hurricane Electric's free service) to achieve connectivity to IPv6 sites over IPv4.

So you really don't need an IPv6-capable ISP to access IPv6 hosts, although it's cleaner that way of course.

From there:"

Why does this service exist?

There appears to be a chicken and egg problem in deploying IPv6; ISP's serving endusers don't want to do it yet because there isn't any need for it from their clients, Hosting companies don't do it yet because there isn't any demand yet either from clients... Thus, we made this gateway, which allows users who do have IPv6 to get to all the content in the IPv4 world. If you don't have IPv6 connectivity (yet) you can of course try the SixXS Tunnel Broker.

This is essentially the same observation and the same solution except that it focuses on getting ISPs (clients) to support IPv6 rather than servers.

This page/site already does it.

Ya I want this too..
As a side note, you can get to Slashdot (and google, and CNN etc) via sixxs.net with IPv6 by going here:
http://www.slashdot.org.sixxs.org

SixXS is an excellent IPv6 tunnel broker for people in the RIPE region.

And remember, if you can't find a nearby tunnel broker you can always try the 6to4 anycast address for /48 tunnels 192.88.99.1 .

FAQ contains all the info for:
6Wind (SixOS)
Cisco (IOS)
FreeBSD
Juniper (JunOS)
Linux - Debian
Linux - New - using iproute2
Linux - Old
NetBSD
OpenBSD
Solaris
Windows 98 / NT4 / 2000 / XP / .Net

As for linux, you should have taken a look in the everlasting Peter Bieringer doc at The Linux Doc Project.

No, you put YOUR money where your mouth is. Use ipv4 over ipv6 for your own browsing.

http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net/
Direct ipv6 link to /. http://www.slashdot.org.sixxs.org

he just said that typing "ipv6 install" in a command prompt is difficult :)
Dunno about you, but compiling a kernel is somewhat harder than that ;)
And on .Net, just select it during install and have fun.

As for 2k it's a bit harder, then again it was not supported then either; but it sure is possible. Check the following FAQ

At the moment, I use SixXS ipv6gate. I bet if I told about this site to censorware folks, they'd go "this isn't a very good loophole site, is it? Slow like heck and the addresses won't even resolve most of the time!" =) as if anyone would have heard of ipv6 by now... (glory and honor to most well-working Linux 6to4 implementation!)

If that isn't the thing to do, there's SSL (stuff goes encr0pt3d), and if the site doesn't do SSL, I can SSH to another host + lynx, or SSH port forward some local port to some other host and go to http://localhost:whatever/...

And no, I don't have a censorware proxy anywhere near. Just that the ISP sometimes gets this weird idea like "hey! Let's build a transparent web proxy!" that they have yet to learn how to do propely. =)

Everything under sixxs.org goes over the IPv6gate and thus actually is the domain in front of the sixxs.org part.
The sixxs.net domain is used for the rest of the system. The page containing the information about the IPv6Gate is on http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net .
And so is the main SixXS site containing the broker information and other tools like Ghost Route Hunter.

Everything under sixxs.org goes over the IPv6gate and thus actually is the domain in front of the sixxs.org part.
The sixxs.net domain is used for the rest of the system. The page containing the information about the IPv6Gate is on http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net .
And so is the main SixXS site containing the broker information and other tools like Ghost Route Hunter.

Everything under sixxs.org goes over the IPv6gate and thus actually is the domain in front of the sixxs.org part.
The sixxs.net domain is used for the rest of the system. The page containing the information about the IPv6Gate is on http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net .
And so is the main SixXS site containing the broker information and other tools like Ghost Route Hunter.

Everything under sixxs.org goes over the IPv6gate and thus actually is the domain in front of the sixxs.org part.
The sixxs.net domain is used for the rest of the system. The page containing the information about the IPv6Gate is on http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net .
And so is the main SixXS site containing the broker information and other tools like Ghost Route Hunter.

For an IPv6 network to work, all hosts need to be aware of IPv6. That would be "native IPv6" (not sure about the term, but you get the picture!). That is, you need your ISP/OS/Routers/whatever is in the middle to know IPv6.

You could also tunnel IPv6 over IPv4, so two ends could communicate using IPv6 in a v4 network.

Or, you could use a gateway, like sixxs.org. There is some info in the link supplied in the article, but if you want the big stuff, please RTFRFC 2460!

HTH!

Hmmm:
8<-------------
jeroen@purgatory:~$ host -t aaaa slashdot.org
slashdot.org AAAA record currently not present
-------------->8

But:
8<-------------
jeroen@purgatory:~$ host -t aaaa slashdot.org.sixxs.org
slashdot.org.sixxs.org CNAME ipv6gate.sixxs.org
ipv6gate.sixxs.org AAAA 3FFE:4007:1:1:210:DCFF:FE20:7C7C
------------->8

http://slashdot.org.sixxs.org

Et tada.... Slashdot and every other IPv4 only site over IPv6 ;)
Read more about it on http://ipv6gate.sixxs.net

The following list will keep you occupied about IPv6 for some time... oh just for the record ams-ix is doing NATIVE IPv6 since 1998 now... alongside NSPIXP6 and PAIX and some others to be found at v6nap.net.

First two nice repositories where you can find almost anything IPv6 related:
IPv6 News and Links (hs247)
Open Directory Project Computers/Internet/Protocols/IP/IPng/

And some others important ones which can also be found there:
6bone
Belnet
Bieringer's Linux IPv6 FAQ
Euronet Belgium
IPng
KAME
Kitame's Debian IPv6 Packages
Microsoft IPv6
PuTTY IPv6
SiXXS
Sun Solaris IPv6
Surfnet IPv6
Trumpet IPv6

IPv6 for the future (or something advocating like that :)