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Comcast Plans IPv6 Trials In 2010

Posted by timothy on from the wait-for-the-cross-examination dept.

Mortimer.CA writes "In a weblog posting, Jason Livingood, Executive Director of Comcast's Internet Systems has stated that they're beginning public trials of IPv6; Comcast hopes 'that these trials will encourage other stakeholders to make plans to continue, or to begin, work on IPv6 in 2010 so that all stakeholders do their part in ensuring the future of the Internet is as bright and innovative as it has been in the past.' Interested guinea pigs can volunteer at Comcast6.net (FAQ). Those who have IPv6 connectivity via other means can check out their IPv6-only web presence."

10 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. ipv6.comcast.net isn't ipv6 only by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have no ipv6 at this location and it loads just fine here, not exactly 'ipv6 only' like the Dancing Kame ...

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  2. IPv6? by Delwin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pinging ipv6.comcast.net [68.87.64.59]

    woops.

    1. Re:IPv6? by mmontour · · Score: 4, Informative

      Pinging ipv6.comcast.net [68.87.64.59]

      It works for me.

      $ ping6 ipv6.comcast.net
      PING6(56=40+8+8 bytes) 2002:1159:44ef::226:48ff:fe12:a9a7 --> 2001:558:1002:5:68:87:64:59
      16 bytes from 2001:558:1002:5:68:87:64:59, icmp_seq=0 hlim=52 time=235.216 ms
      16 bytes from 2001:558:1002:5:68:87:64:59, icmp_seq=1 hlim=52 time=245.426 ms

      This is through an Apple airport base station via whatever tunnel provider it uses for its IPv6 support. No manual setup, just click the buttons to turn IPv6 on and to block incoming connections.

  3. Re:Oh, well... by jbb999 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can see it on my ipv6 connection, it's on 2001:558:1002:5:68:87:64:59 and seems to work :) For those on the UK wanting an ADSL ISP with ipv6 support I recommend Andrews & Arnold (http://www.aaisp.net.uk/) who have been doing this for years now and provide native or tunneled ipv6 and full ipv6 static addresses to their customers on request. Just a happy customer of theirs :)

  4. IPv6 only test... by nweaver · · Score: 4, Informative

    ipv6.google.com is IPv6 only, and if you can reach it, you are IPv6 enabled.

    We actually used this for the IPv6 test in Netalyzr as the basis of the IPv6 connectivity test. Our servers don't have IPv6, but we have a small amount of javascript on the analysis page that tries to fetch the logo from IPv6.google.com and reports success or failure back to the server.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
  5. Grudgingly, impressed. by Orbijx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If Comcast actually does what they're saying on the tin, maybe the other ISPs will follow suit.

    This just might be a good thing.

    --
    One of these days, I am going to flip out. When I flip out, I'll be back in five minutes.
    1. Re:Grudgingly, impressed. by N7DR · · Score: 5, Informative

      I was part of the team that wrote the IPv6 portion of the DOCSIS 3.0 specs. Although DOCSIS 3.0 added a huge number of features, the two that the cable companies were most desperate for were channel bonding (so they could compete with fiber) and IPv6 support.

      IPv6 has been internal testing with major cable operators for several years now. Comcast was always likely to be the first to deploy it (for reasons that I can't go into) but I expect the other major operators to follow suit within a year or two.

  6. You got trapped by OpenDNS by nweaver · · Score: 4, Informative

    You got trapped by OpenDNS. OpenDNS is VERY agressive at wildcarding network failures:

    132.219.67.208.in-addr.arpa. 18794 IN PTR hit-nxdomain.opendns.com.

    So even though there is a valid name for ipv6.google.com (the Google DNS servers return a valid reply with a 0-size answer for an A query, and the whole data for an AAA query), OpenDNS instead goes "hey, lets wildcard it and return our server!"

    This behavior is why I'm NOT a fan of OpenDNS.

    --
    Test your net with Netalyzr
    1. Re:You got trapped by OpenDNS by belphegore · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Ok.... but without IPv6 connectivity (I turned it off), I type ipv6.google.com in my browser address bar, my DNS lies to me, and my browser magically gets (over IPv4) the google homepage. Using ipv6.google.com in a browser as a test for whether your ipv6 connectivity is working is not a good test. I guess if you're testing specifically for the ability to fetch the bouncy logo from that address, that's one thing -- assuming that bouncy logo isn't available at the ipv4 site that opendns is magically making it look like I'm going to, or redirecting me to, or whatever it's doing (no time right now to sniff traffic and see). But the statement:

      ipv6.google.com [google.com] is IPv6 only, and if you can reach it, you are IPv6 enabled.

      makes assumptions about your network and its services (like DNS) which are not guaranteed to be true.

  7. Love comcast is working with it's customers by cullenfluffyjennings · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm impressed that Comcast is talking about it trials publicly and engaging customers. Many service providers run stuff in private, don't tell their guinea pigs, I mean customers that they experiment on, and then just select whatever seemed convent for the service provider. Engaging people in a trials like this, seems win/win for the customers and service providers.