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IPv6 Tunnel Brokers?

Posted by Cliff on from the exploring-the-new-technologies dept.

thedillybar asks: "I have noticed the appearance of many IPv6 Tunnel Brokers which allow anyone to sign-up and tunnel IPv6 over their current IPv4 connection. Hurricane Electric and BT Exact both offer tunnels here and here, respectively. For those of you using a tunnel like this, what do you think of their reliability and use as a development tool?"

18 comments

  1. Isnt that the "idea" of the internet? by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 1

    The internet was a government/University experiemnt to even see if it was possible.

    Course in those days, the network map was on a peice of paper taped to the side of the server. Now, the damned thing stagnates until "Commercial Support" catches on. And that's a catch22.

    It's still DAMNED neat to have a service like this early on in IPv4Bone. I'd be willing to pay for a tunnel like this.

    --
  2. freenet6 by rplacd · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've been using freenet6 for a bout a year now. I've never had any problems with it, and I get a /48 for free, so I've been able to experiment with IPv6 on various machines on my network (FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, AIX, and XP).

    I haven't written any IPv6 apps yet -- still need to read/buy a good programming guide.

    1. Re:freenet6 by rplacd · · Score: 1

      Heh. I was wondering why the textbox wasn't wrapping "about" for me. Now I know...

    2. Re:freenet6 by colmmacc · · Score: 4, Informative

      Having used 6to4 anycast tunnels for years and SixXS tunnels for months, I have to agree that they are an excellent form of IPv6 connectivity.

      As far as IPv6 programming goes, there's really nothing to it, most of the trick is getaddrinfo. The excellent KAME summary should get you started.

    3. Re:freenet6 by piranha(jpl) · · Score: 1

      Freenet6 is nice in that it's very easy to get started with. (Debian users: apt-get install freenet6, and your tunnel Just Works.) They also offer fast tunnel updates, for people with dynamic IPv4 addresses that change often. However, it has been extremely unreliable for me. About once every week or two, service will go down for anywhere from an hour to a couple days, intermittently.

      For those that are looking for their first (or a new) tunnel broker, I'd advise looking elsewhere.

  3. In the nick of time by slug359 · · Score: 1

    Phewf! Glad I requested my network block yesterday (BT one requires manual authorisation for these) :p

  4. BT Exact does not like Konqueror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just thought I'd mention you get a "sorry you cannot access this page because you don't run a microsoft or netscape browser" page. I know it is easy to work around this, but why should I have to...

    I cannot stand stupid companies that are to lazy to make a standards compliant website.

    1. Re:BT Exact does not like Konqueror by Xtifr · · Score: 1

      I cannot stand stupid companies that are to lazy to make a standards compliant website.

      Actually, you don't know whether or not it's standards-compliant until you try spoofing the user agent, and see whether or not it works after that. But yeah, I agree, people who try to tell me what browser to use don't usually get my business.

    2. Re:BT Exact does not like Konqueror by fm6 · · Score: 1
      What about users who are two lazy to configure their browsers? Konqueror allows you to configure the user agent string on a per-website basis.

      Anyway, it's not just a matter of making your site standards compliant. No browser supports everything in HTML 4.0 or CSS1 (never mind CSS2 or CSS3). So even if you code to a standard, you still have to test your code on the browsers you think users are likely to use. Small wonder that most web developers just skip the second step and code to the browser, not the standard.

      I do agree that sites that say "go away and don't come back until you have a browser we support" are lame.

    3. Re:BT Exact does not like Konqueror by hey · · Score: 1

      It worked for me with Mozilla 1.4

  5. SixXS by colmmacc · · Score: 2, Informative

    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 .

  6. HE.net by DarkWarriorSS · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've been using HE.net for my my IPv6 Tunnel. I got a /64 too. I've only had one problem when they did a little routing clean-up, was down for like a day or something, But had never really had a problem.

  7. 6to4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you have a static IPv4 address (or don't mind your IPv6 address changing), you can use 6to4 to get a v6 address without using a tunnel broker. Try a ping or traceroute to 192.88.99.1 (the 6to4 anycast address) to check how much latency you'll have. Your v6 prefix will be 2002:aabb:ccdd::/48 (where aabb:ccdd is your IPv4 address a.b.c.d, in hex).

  8. Never mind that... by fm6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...what I want to know is, what IPv6 applications are people developing? What are the new capabilities? All that most of us know about IPv6 is that it increases the address space.

  9. Mixed bag by jafuser · · Score: 1

    I see this as a mixed bag.

    If this becomes widespread, we may take even longer to make the transition to IPv6.

    But, on the other hand, we have to do something to get the ball rolling.

    --
    Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
  10. ipv6 tunnel brokers by konduct · · Score: 1

    We have been providing IPv6 tunnels for our secure managed hosting customers for a while at no extra charge. For more info check my blog post: Tunnel Brokers and The Current Status of IPv6 Support for Networking Applications. If anyone wants to see how we did it, just shoot us an email. =)

  11. not much for the average user by sir_cello · · Score: 1

    I own an OpenBSD box connected via ADSL to a UK provider. I set up an ipv6 tunnel and so far: - experimented with local windows/openbsd configurations to use ipv6; - experimented with pf rules / openbsd tools to use ipv6; - looked around at ipv6 native providers, tools and so on; There seem to be few killer apps, but more of a noddy "just experimenting to see that it's there". I too would like to find some reason to use IPv6, but the reality is that it's transparent to the user (as a network layer protocol), and so the enhancements (over ipv4) are more apparent at lower levels of the protocol stack and for network providers. Don't expect to see much to change unless you regularity play with routing, dns, netstat, host configs, etc. localhost# ping6 www.kame.net PING6(56=40+8+8 bytes) 2001:618:400::XXX:XXX --> 2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085 16 bytes from 2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085, icmp_seq=0 hlim=57 time=311.902 ms 16 bytes from 2001:200:0:8002:203:47ff:fea5:3085, icmp_seq=1 hlim=57 time=307.713 ms

  12. UK ISP by Cato · · Score: 1

    For those in the UK, try Andrews and Arnold - not a free service, but you get IPv6 as a tick box option when you get normal IPv4 service. Provided through a tunnel endpoint within A&A's network, so the latency should be pretty good. They are very Linux friendly, and tracking ADSL installation through their web pages was very easy. See http://aa.nu/ for more information.