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IPv6 Success Stories?

DonGar asks: "We've been hearing how IPv6 will save the world, and we've been hearing about how it will never happen. But can anyone give us real world results about what heppens after they convert? In particular, I'm wondering about small networks (home and/or small business). What ISP support commonly exists, and how much does it really matter? How many people are using ONLY IPv6, instead of both IPv4 and IPv6. What devices/applications/OS's cause the most problems with this? What things work, what breaks, and how much work is it to do the conversion? How hard is it to run things like web and email servers that need to reachable from anywhere? From a real world perspective, what do we need to know that isn't mentioned here?"

9 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I use IPv6 by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative

    My website has a few walkthroughs on IPv6 setup for a fair few OSes. If you need any more help, post back with contact details. I used to help run a UK based IPv6 tun broker.

  2. Re:I use IPv6 by blate · · Score: 2, Informative

    FreeBSD enables IPV6 by default. I personally find this annoying since I don't use it or need it, and so when I recompile my kernel, I remove the options INET6 (or whatever it's called). Otherwise, utilities like netstat spit out a bunch of useless (to me) garbage that I don't care about.

    Before you flame me, I think IPV6 is a great thing and I look forward to the day when it will be widely-deployed in the US. I just don't have much need for it in my present work.

  3. Re:Which begs the question... by gyratedotorg · · Score: 4, Informative

    we have a hub, which doesn't really know about IP as far as I can tell

    right, because ip works on layer 3 of the osi model, whereas your hubs work on layers 1 and 2. the layers dont care about eachother.

    --
    Gyrate Dot Org - "Where high-tech meets low-life"
  4. Re:I use IPv6 by jaredmauch · · Score: 4, Informative
    I'm surprised that Distro's don't enable v6 by default. (If you have a non-RFC1918 address, use 6to4, if you only have a RFC1918 addresses, use teredo).

    Most do actually. They generally configure themselves via autoconf. Here's an example from one of my systems:
    ifconfig -a
    vx0: flags=8843 mtu 1500
    inet 204.42.254.5 netmask 0xffffffc0 broadcast 204.42.254.63
    inet6 fe80::2a0:24ff:fe83:53d8%vx0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
    inet6 2001:418:3f4:0:2a0:24ff:fe83:53d8 prefixlen 64 autoconf
    It even has a v6 web server (apache) running on it. (go ahead, try to /. it ;-)

    This requires a router that sends autoconf messages (eg: a cisco or juniper router will do) as well as the various autoconf features (router discovery, using a /64 mask, etc..) unless you wish to statically configure your IPv6.

    It removes DHCP from the equation. Of course if you're like me and swap out ethernet cards periodically (assuming you're not using the privacy extensions available for starters) you do see your address shift as it's based on the hardware address.

    With posts yesterday about IPv6 being enabled by default in longhorn, and me seeing more people starting to ask for IPv6 connectivity (eg: DoD) as well as service offerings picking up, I expect it to become a bit more commonplace.

    There are a few issues. Some providers for load balancers have had troubles with dns queries. I've seen my own bank as well as some major router vendors (that have IPv6 offerings) break their servers (ftp, web) periodically for those people who are running dual-stack IPv6 and v4. They just don't understand what this IN AAAA query is, and respond with the wrong error code, or just time out.

    This tells me that we're quite some distance away from being able to see IPv6 as truly viable. I also don't see 6to4 tunneling as being viable in the long term either. We're going to see a dual-stack internet and those providers that have been reluctant to enable new technologies are going to continue on their paths until there is a compelling reason to provide the service (eg: lost sales/business, or a marketing reason "don't use XXX's internet service, you won't get access to the FULL [v4 & v6] internet".

    Mostly today it's for the (never seen here) geek factor, but in my job at a major ISP, we're seeing increased customer demand for our IPv6 service offering not only here in the US but in Europe and Asia as well.

  5. Re:Which begs the question... by burns210 · · Score: 2, Informative

    not only does the hub work at layer 1, that it does this means it works below mac addressing and ip addressing. Which means it makes no decisions on who gets what. It recieves a frame and FLOODS EVERY PORT, since SOMEONE must have the intended destination MAC address, right? the hub only works because it forwards everything it touches to everything connected to it. A 10mb hub is so horrendously evil, it isn't worth it. Get a switch, less traffic, cleaner, smarter system. And maybe move to 100mb.

  6. Re:One success story... by Gudlyf · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually it's: ipv6 install

    --
    Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
  7. Re:I use IPv6 by Isomer · · Score: 4, Informative
    The WLUG Website is a wiki where we have posted our experiences with IPv6 (and other stuff): The site is a wiki, feel free to add questions, correct mistakes, add your experiences, or other sites you found interesting/helpful.
  8. Re:Which begs the question... by John+Miles · · Score: 2, Informative

    Very true. No need to mess around at 100 Mb/s, though. 8-port Gigabit switches are only about US $200 these days, amazingly enough (if you can stand the fan noise).

    --
    Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
  9. Re:ipv6 network stacks for other o/s-es ? by MrChuck · · Score: 2, Informative
    "HI I'm going to insist on running old software and want support for it retroactively."

    You can get support for older computers. You may have issues with older software. Just like getting TCP/IPv4 support was a PITA before 1990.

    Dude, try to get IPv4 onto Mac's System 4. Oh that's right, it was kind of a big PITA. TCP/IP(4) in Windows 3.0? You *could* go buy it, I guess.

    - 68030 MacCI running OpenBSD (with IPv6)
    - 486/133 running FreeBSD (With IPv6)
    - SPARC 2 running NetBSD or OpenBSD (with IPv6)
    - Sun 3... Well its off.
    - Kaypro "luggable"? No networking in CP/M. Sorry. but it runs.
    - Apple //s? See above.
    - Athlon running Linux (with IPv6)
    - 586 Soekris box running FreeBSD 5.2 (with IPv6, wireless, IPSec and IP6-4 gateway)
    - Festival of Apple and Sun and SGI and DEC hardware - all running IPv6

    IPv4 only: An annex terminal server and an HP LaserJet.

    Oh, they all work SEAMLESSLY. If a box needs to print to the printer (called "HP") is looks for an AAAA record, fails to find it, looks for an A record, and sends the code.

    Friends visiting generally never notice the IPv6

    Cost? $0
    Effort? Pretty close to nil
    Skills gained by using it for years and not even pausing in knowing about how to set it up and what it's capable of now? Priceless