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What About IPv6? How Long Until Widespread Deployment?

Posted by Cliff on from the don't-hold-your-breath dept.

Christopher Blood asks: "Over at the register, they talk about the EU adopting IPv6. So what about the USA? When do we get it? IPv6 would solve some and DOS problems and we will need the extra address space. What's the holdup?" While IPv6 may be the cure for all of our IPv4 ills, upgrading the whole internet to the new technology isn't going to happen over night. What has been done to prepare for the jump, and what still needs to happen before it can become a reality?

5 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. What about the major backbone routers? by kronin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would like to know how close the backbone through the US is to being IPv6 ready. Anyone that knows care to respond?

  2. Moving a super-tanker by iPaul · · Score: 4, Interesting

    IPV6 is better. Autoconfiguration, neighbor discovery, big address space, compatability with IPV4, etc. However, the more hacks we put in to make IPV4 work the harder it is to change. For the most part we're educating people to do "Stupid IPV4 Tricks" rather than moving to IPV6. The more of that we do the harder it is to change. Also, the more ominous the prospect of change, the more people will dread it.

    Frankly, I'm thinking we might see another round, like IPV7 (or IPV8 if they make a habit of skipping odd numbers), or it might come very late. Maybe we'll see it on phones and wireless devices before we see wide-spread adoption of IPV6 or general purpose networking.

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  3. In two words: unsold inventory by mangu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With purchases of new hardware shrinking along with the economy, wouldn't these equipment makers be in a perfect position to benefit from adaptation of IPv6?

    The problem is that shrinking sales has caused a huge amount of hardware to be stockpiled at Cisco warehouses. IIRC, last year they had over 5 Giga$ worth of accumulated unsold hardware. They need technology to stand still for a while, so they can sell part of that obsolete inventory.

  4. An interesting question by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    OK, I am about to say something that will make many of you who are knowledgable about IPV6 cringe, so take a deep breath and get over it now.

    When IPV6 is deployed, how do I prevent the machines on the inside of my firewall from being routable?

    Right now, my personal computer is on the inside of a NAT firewall. There is no way you can route a packet to it - go ahead, try to telnet to 10.200.120.4, I dare you.

    Now, I know there are those who say NAT CONSIDERED HARMFUL, and I agree in the general case it does break the essential peer to peer nature of TCP/IP.

    But what if I want to break it?

    How well tested are the Linux kernel modules for firewalling IPv6? Can I still protect my internal machines from the slings and arrows of outragous 5|<197 |<!66!3Z?

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  5. How to transition? by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Suppose I take my home network (2 computers + 1 firewall), all running some form of highly modded Slackware, and switch the internal local net to IPv6 while leaving the connection from the firewall out as IPv4. Thus the 2 computers would be completely IPv6 while the firewall would have one IPv6 nic and one IPv4 nic. I have to change all dotted quad network addresses (such as in /etc/hosts); what else is there to do? Will existing software go along with the change without recompiling? Or even with a simple recompile?

    I bet there's some FAQ somewhere that someone will find using Googole. AIA

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