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Vint Cerf Calls For IPv6 Incentives In UK

sweetpea23 writes "Vint Cerf, the 'godfather' of the web and Internet evangelist for Google, has highlighted the need for cash incentives to encourage ISPs and businesses in the UK to move to version six of the IP addressing scheme (IPv6). In response to the UK government's stance that its role in the transition will primarily be advisory, Cerf suggested a system of tax credits for upgrading equipment to v6 capability — similar to the 'cash for clunkers' scheme in the US. 'You'd have to do the math to see what impact it would have, but creating some business incentive might be helpful,' he said. His words echo those of Axel Pawlik, managing director of the RIPE NCC, who warned last month that that the IT industry is adding unnecessary risk and complexity to Internet architectures by ignoring the availability of IPv6 addresses. the Internet authority IANA is expected to assign its last batch of IPv4 addresses in June 2011."

164 comments

  1. carrot and stick by moozaad · · Score: 1

    Less carrot more stick from the government. Companies get too many benefits as it is.

    1. Re:carrot and stick by metamatic · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Lots of government procurement already depends on your product being IPv6 capable. The problem is really the ISPs. I'm ready to switch on IPv6 tomorrow, but my ISP doesn't support it, so I'm stuck tunneling.

      --
      GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
    2. Re:carrot and stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      There are no ISPs in the UK that support IPv6, apart from some very specialist and expensive ones.

      And even then, they all use the BT backhaul - which doesn't officially support v6. :/

    3. Re:carrot and stick by Bert64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They should simply mandate that anyone providing internet connectivity (ie any isp or telco) MUST provide ipv6, either alongside or instead of ipv4.
      If every end user and every site they try to visit is dual stack, a lot of traffic will occur over ipv6 without users even realising it and ipv4 will gradually die out.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    4. Re:carrot and stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't all use BT backhaul. BE, O2, TF... They all have their own infrastructure. VirginMedia obviously have their own. All have IPv6 ready in their core, just not customer facing because that's a much bigger job.

    5. Re:carrot and stick by Migala77 · · Score: 1

      I know I am not using IPv6 at the moment. How can I test whether it is my setup that fails, or my ISP that fails (or any other part)? Also, what advantages do I get _now_ (while everybody(?) is still also on IPv4) when I have full IPv6 support?

    6. Re:carrot and stick by houstonbofh · · Score: 1

      No ISP offering last mile at my office or at my home (In another state) offer IPV6.

    7. Re:carrot and stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Less carrot more stick from the government. Companies get too many benefits as it is.

      There's going to be plenty of stick (and other pain) once IANA runs out of IPv4 addresses, and gives the last blocks to the RIRs. If your organization (especially those of medium and large sizes) doesn't have at least a basic test bed for IPv6 connectivity you're going to be in a world of hurt. At the very least a few of your NetOps folks should be playing with IPv6 in their "spare time" to understand how it works.

      Just this week I purchased an Apple AirPort Extreme which has IPv6 functionality built-in, and getting 6to4 working was dead simple (basically one check box). With a decent firmware (e.g., DD-WRT), a tunnel broker (HE, Sixxs), and a little manual tweaking it's possible to get IPv6 going on decent amount of hardware out there.

      At a minimum you should be getting basic IPv6 connectivity (native or tunnelled) up and running to at least your edge routers in the next six months. Next get your DNS working with IPv6 (AAAA and reverse resolve), and then having a a DNS server with a AAAA record. Then perhaps set up a basic web presence on IPv6 (ipv6.example.com to start).

      Once you get the above working, ideally by the end of 2011, you'll be in decent shape to start dual-stacking your servers by mid-2012, and your desktops by the end of 2012.

    8. Re:carrot and stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where to you get the information that they are IPv6 ready at their core? That hasn't been my experience.

    9. Re:carrot and stick by gentry · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not true. I get IPv6 straight out of a PPPoE connection (would be PPPoA if my ADSL modem/router supported IPv6). This is via Andrews & Arnold and costs £18 pcm.

    10. Re:carrot and stick by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Not all ISPS use the BT backhaul, there are plenty of LLU providers too. As for the BT backhaul supporting v6 - it doesn't need to, all it does is tunnel a PPP session from the DSLAM to the reseller's (isp) server... What you run over that PPP session is irrelevant, you could even run non IP protocols over it. The only lack of v6 support is that BT will only peer with the isp over v4 but that just means the tunnel endpoint needs a v4 address.

      As for v6 support, off the top of my head:

      goscomb.net
      nitrex.net (which i'm using right now)
      andrews&arnold (aaisp.net.uk)
      public internet
      entanet (they support v6 but don't advertise the fact, you have to explicitly ask)

      There may well be others too. V6 is not really in demand right now so few isps bother to advertise support for it..
      Also, you might have a hard job finding a router that supports it, none of the consumer level stuff does so you're stuck with either something linux based (where you may have to build your own kernel) or cisco.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    11. Re:carrot and stick by lga · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How is 1GB per month enough for anything except a few emails? Here in the real world we use streaming audio and video, download software updates, and buy games on Steam at 10GB a time. Get back to us when that costs less than £100 per month with Andrews & Arnold.

    12. Re:carrot and stick by h00manist · · Score: 1

      The parallel/black market for IPV4 addresses is already growing. In practice the price of these will start going up. Existing companies/services start running out of IPV4 addresses to hand out to clients of services with strong growth. New projects/companies start having trouble getting blocks of addresses large enough to attend all clients. Some resort to black market, some to NAT.

      --
      Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    13. Re:carrot and stick by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I think the A&A caps are pretty low, but you're misrepresenting what they're offering. Their cheapest package only has 1GB per month of 'peak' bandwidth, which is 9am-6pm, Monday to Fridage. On top of this is 50GB/month to use at other times. If you have a day job and are at work 9-5, then you won't be at home for most of the time when the on-peak number applies.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    14. Re:carrot and stick by lga · · Score: 1

      I work from home a lot of the time. The rest of the time I work evenings and weekends so as not to disrupt my customers business while working on their computers. I frequently need access to the internet between 9am and 6pm. A&A is useless for me, and I can't be the only one.

    15. Re:carrot and stick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you could just, you know, order a different package....

    16. Re:carrot and stick by smale8 · · Score: 1

      I know I am not using IPv6 at the moment. How can I test whether it is my setup that fails, or my ISP that fails (or any other part)?

      If you're using Windows 7 or a recent Linux, your PC supports it. Mac OS X Leopard will also (it's broken in Snow Leopard unfortunately).

      If you're using a router, it probably doesn't support it although you may get lucky. There are a handful of IPv6 WiFi routers on the market, luckily they are all mainstream and pretty widely available.

      A few ISPs offer it--you may check with them, but if you're plugged in directly (not through a router) and are using one of the above operating systems and still aren't seeing it then you can be fairly sure that they don't. If not, you can still get IPv6 through a static tunnel (eg from from HE) if you're located close to a tunnel server. If you do sign up with HE you'll want to point your PC or router to their DNS servers in order to connect to Google and Youtube over IPv6. (Google only offers that service to ISPs, such as HE, that have specifically requested it.)

    17. Re:carrot and stick by gentry · · Score: 1

      Did you even both to try and understand how their usage works?

      It's 2GB a month, 0900-1800 Mon-Fri, or 100GB off peak (all other hours) or a combination there of. It's measured in units of which up to 2 carry to the next month (or if you have a higher tariff more are carried) . In the 6 months I've currently been a member I've not gone over my use and yes, I use Steam, stream movies from LoveFilm and iPlayer, download demos and so on. So far this month I've downloaded 35GB data.

    18. Re:carrot and stick by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Mac OS X Leopard will also (it's broken in Snow Leopard unfortunately).

      This is misleading. OS X has supported IPv6 since 10.2, but there are some bugs that were introduced with 10.6, to do with DNS resolution (it was ignoring AAAA records if A records were returned for the address more than 125ms faster). With 10.6.5, it now prefers IPv4 to 6to4, which should fix connection problems but effectively disables IPv6 in a lot of cases.

      Windows XP also has some IPv6 bugs, related to DHCP6. You can, however, use all of these operating systems with IPv6 in most situations.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    19. Re:carrot and stick by smale8 · · Score: 1

      (it was ignoring AAAA records if A records were returned for the address more than 125ms faster)

      It's actually much much worse than that--GUI apps (though not command line apps) will almost always ignore AAAA records if the host has a CNAME record, try shutting off IPv4 in network preferences and see for yourself. (You'll have to set an IPv6 DNS server manually, naturally)

      All the main Google and Youtube servers become inaccessible in Safari and Firefox (my DNS provider has Google's AAAA records so that's not the issue), along with roughly 2/3s of the IPv6 web servers and 1/2 of the download mirrors.

      Ars Technica's IPv6 columnist has been banging the drum about this for months now, so far there's scarcely been any acknowledgment on Apple's part that the problem even exists. (Admittedly I haven't tested it since the last update, though.)

    20. Re:carrot and stick by froggymana · · Score: 1

      You don't even need a recent linux install to support IPv6. IPv6 has been supported in linux for many years now...

      --
      "To prevent this day from getting any worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD THING" 1GJU8xLuDKDxEs4KLf8fAGyptoDsqvEsBT
    21. Re:carrot and stick by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      No, it has nothing to do with the CNAME record, and this is a fact that anyone with the ability and the time to read the Darwin source code can readily verify. I don't know who TheRaven64 is, but he/she is correct. Use the source, Luke. It's not like there are any deep secrets in there.

      --
      jhw
    22. Re:carrot and stick by Sq · · Score: 1

      It's actually much much worse than that--GUI apps (though not command line apps) will almost always ignore AAAA records if the host has a CNAME record,

      Huh, what are you talking about here? If I recall RFC1034, if CNAME record is present, no other data should be present (check section 3.6.2).

      All the main Google and Youtube servers become inaccessible in Safari and Firefox (my DNS provider has Google's AAAA records so that's not the issue), along with roughly 2/3s of the IPv6 web servers and 1/2 of the download mirrors.

      I just don't see it. Here, CNAME and AAAA are never mixed for google nor for youtube:

      # host www.youtube.com
      www.youtube.com is an alias for youtube-ui.l.google.com.
      youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.93
      youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.91
      youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.136
      youtube-ui.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.190
      youtube-ui.l.google.com has IPv6 address 2a00:1450:8007::be
      # host www.google.com
      www.google.com is an alias for www.l.google.com.
      www.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.104
      www.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.99
      www.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.147
      www.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.106
      www.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.105
      www.l.google.com has address 209.85.135.103
      www.l.google.com has IPv6 address 2a00:1450:8007::6a

      so only A and AAAA are mixed.

      I wouldn't know about MacOS X specific problems, though, but it doesn't seem to be related to what you are talking above.

    23. Re:carrot and stick by smale8 · · Score: 1

      The bug in question is the one reported here; and the problem clearly can't be in Darwin, since command-line programs aren't affected, only Aqua apps. (And apparently the last update did nothing to fix it.)

    24. Re:carrot and stick by gentry · · Score: 1

      How is 1GB per month enough for anything except a few emails? Here in the real world we use streaming audio and video, download software updates, and buy games on Steam at 10GB a time. Get back to us when that costs less than £100 per month with Andrews & Arnold.

      A&A are the sort of company I would have through /. would want to encourage, yet an ignorant and misinformed post that would potentially deter someone for investigating them further gets a +4. Great moderating :/

      To reiterate, Iga's post is completely inaccurate. For £18 pcm you get 2GB 0900-1800 Mon-Fri, 100GB to use at all other times. Unused units are carried over. For a home user is at work and therefore not using their connection, this affectively means a 100GB cap. You want 200GB? It's a few extra £ a month.

    25. Re:carrot and stick by smale8 · · Score: 1

      If I recall RFC1034, if CNAME record is present, no other data should be present (check section 3.6.2).

      There's no problem querying the server, something goes wrong somewhere in-between the query and whatever API the Aqua applications are using to retrieve the result.

    26. Re:carrot and stick by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      The distinction between command line and Aqua is irrelevant. The important distinction is whether the application is using its own embedded DNS resolver or using the system libinfo framework.

      If you can reproduce the problem with Mac OS X 10.6.5, then please file a new report here.

      --
      jhw
    27. Re:carrot and stick by lga · · Score: 1

      I went to their website, tried very hard to see any prices at all (not a good sign) and eventually found the prices and allowances that I quoted.

      I looked in to A&A a few months ago when I changed ISP, and I had the same problem then too. I would love to use an ISP with sensible policies and some actual intelligence about technical users, but hiding prices and giving a 1GB or even 2GB daytime allowance is just completely inadequate.

    28. Re:carrot and stick by lga · · Score: 1

      Except that what is shown when you visit the A&A prices page (when you eventually find it) is the 20CN allowances that is available to everyone, not the 21CN ones that only half the country can get. So it's 1GB and 50GB.

    29. Re:carrot and stick by gentry · · Score: 1

      They have a pretty straight forward price/usage calculator. I'm fortunate enough to be on the 21CN. To my mind, if Internet access is a core requirement of a business isn't is worth paying for the best level of service?

    30. Re:carrot and stick by Roosta · · Score: 1

      If your web server has IPv6 support then you get a huge advantage: Google ranks sites that are accessible over IPv4 & IPv6 higher than those that only use IPv4.

      --
      -- Simon Key
    31. Re:carrot and stick by lga · · Score: 1

      That does rather assume the luxury of being able to pay for the best service. I run a year old business and we're not even paying ourselves yet.

    32. Re:carrot and stick by speculatrix · · Score: 1

      let me fix that for you. there are effectively no low-cost consumer broadband providers that offer ipv6 to their customers by default, if they can offer it at all!

    33. Re:carrot and stick by smale8 · · Score: 1

      Iljitsch van Beijnum (the Ars Technica columnist) reported the bug to Apple some time ago. After more then a year, there's been no apparent movement on the issue.

    34. Re:carrot and stick by smale8 · · Score: 1

      Oops, should have linked to the bug report itself.

      Bug 7612070

    35. Re:carrot and stick by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      Iljitsch still hasn't reviewed the source code either, it seems. The issue has nothing to do with CNAME records, and that's a claim that could be tested by anyone willing to review the source code.

      --
      jhw
  2. Cash Incentives? by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 1

    How about they switch over to IPv6 and then lease their existing v4 blocks to the highest bidder?

  3. new act by leaen · · Score: 1

    Dear citizens of UK
    to speed up IPv6 adoption we created backwarder tax.
    You pay 50 pounds per year for every IPv4 address you use that year.
    Payment is by wire order to account 2349564322/3432

    1. Re:new act by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 1

      This method would actually have worked if the people who made IPv6 hadn't decided to make the standard backwards incompatible.

      As it is, IPv6 must be run in dual-stack mode, which means that even if you've got an IPv6 address, you must also have an IPv4 address. The reason for this is that the people who designed IPv6 are effectively incompetent. They designed a standard yes, but gave no thought to a transition plan.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    2. Re:new act by grahammm · · Score: 1

      As it is, IPv6 must be run in dual-stack mode, which means that even if you've got an IPv6 address, you must also have an IPv4 address.

      That is not necessarily true. Any IPv4 address can be expressed in IPv6 and there are gateways which given an IPv4in6 destination address will make the connection to the IPv4 only server. While this is of no use to customers who host systems, many if not most domestic ISP contracts prohibit the running of servers so customers only make outgoing connections. The ISP would need IPv4 addresses (for the gateways and business customers) but could provide only IPv6 addresses to its domestic customers. This would cut down on the number of IPv4 blocks that the ISPs would need and therefore alleviate the shortage.

    3. Re:new act by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason for this is that the people who designed IPv6 are effectively incompetent

      That's bold. I suppose you have a better solution?

      They designed a standard yes, but gave no thought to a transition plan

      Sure they did. That dual-stack mode you harp about is the transition plan. When the standard was conceived (in 1994), there was plenty of time to complete the transition and deprecate IPv4 before we ran out of address space. But of course, industry being industry, they did not begin to move until 2008. That's almost 15 years too late. Are you still sure that the designers are the ones who failed? How many home routers support IPv6 (even with support meaning only PD and RA, the bare minimum)?

    4. Re:new act by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 1

      As it is, IPv6 must be run in dual-stack mode

      That was true a few years ago, but now we have DS-Lite so you can free up those IPv4 addresses.

    5. Re:new act by paul248 · · Score: 1

      This method would actually have worked if the people who made IPv6 hadn't decided to make the standard backwards incompatible.

      How would you propose to make IPv6 backwards compatible? How can a device that only understands 32-bit addresses send a packet to a 128-bit address, and what problem would it solve that NAT64 doesn't?

      As it is, IPv6 must be run in dual-stack mode, which means that even if you've got an IPv6 address, you must also have an IPv4 address.

      T-Mobile disagrees. They're deploying an IPv6-only NAT64 network as we speak:
      http://groups.google.com/group/tmoipv6beta/web/t-mobiles-technical-architecture

  4. Reverse flock mentality by Senes · · Score: 0, Troll

    A flock of sheep will begin moving as soon as they see the 'leader' move; the leader is often just whichever one decides to move first because it runs out of food underneath itself then sees some someplace else.

    What we have with IPv6 is a bunch of fat lazy sheep who decide they will get off their butts once they see the rest of the flock someplace else.

    1. Re:Reverse flock mentality by houstonbofh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or, a bunch of overworked networked admins that don't want to start a big project for a problem they are not feeling yet... Switching over my office would take a lot of time I do not have for absolutely no payoff. And my 10-12 hour days are full already.

    2. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just it; it shouldn't be your job. It's the same as anyone else who is overworked - the company is employing less staff than the task demands. The job will have to be done sooner or later, if the people on top saw the need then we would have less shit hitting the fan every couple of years. Pretty much any global catastrophe can be traced back to people in high places of power saying "don't worry, someone else will solve it before it really becomes a problem."

    3. Re:Reverse flock mentality by gmack · · Score: 1

      The leader in this case being Microsoft. Windows XP only partially supports IPv6 with some test drivers installed. Vista was the first actual IPv6 ready OS from Microsoft so before that there was a big question of: what is the point of going through the trouble of being IPv6 ready when 99% of your customers couldn't use it?

      I've seen a lot more action now that Win7's numbers are moving up.

    4. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

      If IPv6 had not been horribly misconceived in the first place there would be no dual stack and there would be a much less painful transition path. By extending IPv4, not by trying to leave it behind.

      It is in fact not too late to go back to IPv4 and extend it. Maybe the time is about right to do that.

      --
      Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
    5. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is in fact not too late to go back to IPv4 and extend it. Maybe the time is about right to do that

      I don't believe in hand-waving. Present a comprehensive solution, and maybe people will consider it.

      We've already been extending IPv4 since 1996 (via CIDR and NAT), what makes you think there's any more to squeeze out of it?

    6. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Switching over my office would take a lot of time

      Really? Took me about 20 minutes to configure a tunnel to HE.net. Every host on the LAN that supports IPv6 automatically started using it, to the point that Windows machines update their hostnames on the domain controller to resolve via both IPv4 and IPv6. Everything Just Worked without any manual intervention. What sort of monumental problems are you anticipating?

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    7. Re:Reverse flock mentality by bertok · · Score: 1

      If IPv6 had not been horribly misconceived in the first place there would be no dual stack and there would be a much less painful transition path. By extending IPv4, not by trying to leave it behind.

      It is in fact not too late to go back to IPv4 and extend it. Maybe the time is about right to do that.

      IPv6 is exactly that: IPv4 with an extended address field.

      You do realise that if you change the size of the address field of IPv4, then by definition, it's a whole new protocol, right?

      There's no way to add more addresses to IPv4 without breaking compatibility.

    8. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, a bunch of overworked networked admins that don't want to start a big project for a problem they are not feeling yet...

      "Yet" is the key word in that sentence. Better to do it at a leisurely pace, then having to suddenly jump into the deep-end.

      Certainly having IPv6 on every desktop isn't currently a necessity, but you should at least be getting connectivity to your edge routers in the next six months or so.

      Once you've done that you're halfway there, as you can roll out AAAA records for ipv6.myexample.com to test that. Then things like mail servers (and with that checking your firewalls). That can be done over another six months, bringing us to January 2012. Then have dual stacking addresses of your desktops by June 2012 or so, right when the RIRs will be running out of allocations.

      IPv6 isn't /that/ complicated, but it will take some time to familiarize yourself with things.

    9. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 1

      Oh, yes, I summarily removed the firewall to expose our hosts to the Internet. (rolls eyes)

      Also, dynamic DNS is a standard (maybe even default) setup for Active Directory. I'm not the Windows guy at my office so I can't tell you for certain. I do know, though, that nothing broke when we went live with IPv6. Services that could use it started using it, and everything else kept chugging along with IPv4.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    10. Re:Reverse flock mentality by Daniel+Phillips · · Score: 1

      IPv6 is exactly that: IPv4 with an extended address field.

      Incorrect. An IPv4 packet is not recognized as a valid IPv6 packet, therefore IPv6 is not just extended IPv4. It is a different, incompatible protocol. That was a huge mistake and the resulting epic fail inevitably followed.

      Throwing out backward compatibility. Rule number one: just don't do it.

      --
      Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
  5. God-father of the web by RPoet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wonder if Berners-Lee cringes when he sees Cerf described as "the Godfather of the web" :-)

    --
    "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    1. Re:God-father of the web by Gruturo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, probably he cringes at the confusion between "Web" and "Internet" when people report that.

      --

      Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
    2. Re:God-father of the web by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Probably not as much as Cerf cringes when he reads TBL described as 'the father of the Internet'.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  6. Call me retro by reiisi · · Score: 2, Funny

    I still think they should have solved this in the early '90s by switching to a byte-extensible addressing scheme.

    Something like defining x.x.x.1-127 as four byte and x.x.x.128-250.y, y 128 as five byte, and so forth.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
    1. Re:Call me retro by burisch_research · · Score: 3, Informative

      Er no, IPv4 headers have space for exactly 4 bytes of destination address information. You might be able to kludge the protocol to allow for a larger address space, but as a kludge it would be inefficient, and encountering extended packets would break the majority of existing IPv4 stacks. The solution was arrived at by some very smart people, and that's IPv6. We won't run out of addresses on IPv6 for a very long time indeed.

      --
      char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
    2. Re:Call me retro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We won't run out of addresses on IPv6 for a very long time indeed.

      Where I live we have something called polititians. I am sure they can find a way.

    3. Re:Call me retro by hedwards · · Score: 1

      It's unlikely that we ever will run out of IPv6 addresses as there's enough addresses to give each person living on Earth roughly 5×10^28 addresses. Which is quite likely going to be enough for anybody that could possibly follow in the future. So, it's technically possible, but for reasons related to the speed of light, physical size of the Earth and solar system it would be very difficult to ever get to the point where you need an IPv7.

      At that point it would be more of a problem actually getting the data sent as the latency of most habitable planets would be measured in years. Even Mars which presumably could be made habitable would have a latency on average of a bit more than 14 minutes each way.

    4. Re:Call me retro by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, it would be much better if the military run things, like in Burma.

      SLORC apologist bastard.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    5. Re:Call me retro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Once we can manufacture computronium, the number of individuals per cubic metre will be staggering. Conservatively let's say 1e6/m^3. Given the earth's volume of approx. 1e12m^3, this gives us a figure of 1e18 individuals. Our current population is about 5e9, let's call it 1e10, so that means the future computronium population would be about 8 orders of magnitude greater than present, meaning we would have about 1e20 IPv6 addresses per person.

      Considering everything, IPv6 appears to be sufficiently capacious for any future I can imagine.

      (of course, someone famous once said that 640k ought to be enough for anyone. So my comments should be taken with sufficient quantities of sodium chloride.)

    6. Re:Call me retro by h00manist · · Score: 1

      We won't run out of addresses on IPv6 for a very long time indeed.

      Nobody will ever need more than 640k.

      --
      Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    7. Re:Call me retro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still think they should have solved this in the early '90s by switching to a byte-extensible addressing scheme

      The router folks would never have gone for it. For their systems to work fast, they have to use things like content-addressable memories, which have fixed (in hardware) word sizes. Seriously, their opinion is important; part of the reason we're out of addresses now is that they wanted (way back when) to split the address space based on subnet size, creating huge unusable areas from 224.0.0.0 on up. Multicast was able to reuse 224/4, but 240.0.0.0 to 255.255.254.255 (4095 class C subnets!) still isn't usable.

      Then there's the boneheaded idea of making 127.0.0.1 the "localhost" network, instead of something otherwise unusable like 255.255.255.254, or at least the high end of the smallest class C net (223.0.0.1). Also, who needs 256 private class C subnets (192.168/16), in addition to 16 class B (172.16/12) and a class A (10/8)? That could have been pared back some. And why does AutoIP need to use 169.254/16 instead of the, say, 240.0/16 region?

      The router folks dictating terms is one reason why there are 128 bits in IPv6 addresses instead of just 64. They like their sparse addressing.

    8. Re:Call me retro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about subspace comm?

    9. Re:Call me retro by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 1

      What about those who need 640k + 1? Maybe it's time to look to IPv7.

      In all seriousness, I don't know how they're going to deal with people with legacy devices, which may not be upgradable to IPv6 compatible.

    10. Re:Call me retro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's unlikely that we ever will run out of IPv6 addresses as there's enough addresses to give each person living on Earth roughly 5×10^28 addresses. Which is quite likely going to be enough for anybody that could possibly follow in the future. So, it's technically possible, but for reasons related to the speed of light, physical size of the Earth and solar system it would be very difficult to ever get to the point where you need an IPv7.

      Effective exhaustion of IPv6 pool depends on the IANA allocation strategy. IANA is assigning single /32 blocks to each ISP. This effectivly limits the number of ISPs with their own allocation in the universe connected to our IPv6 network to ~4 billion.

    11. Re:Call me retro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i think the incentive should be... "Use IPv6 or get your traffic dropped by DNS servers"

    12. Re:Call me retro by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      You've obviously never tried to build a router in hardware.

      --
      jhw
    13. Re:Call me retro by smale8 · · Score: 1

      If by that you mean FTL, then we can just travel back in time to 1980 and tell Vint Cerf to make the address field wider.

    14. Re:Call me retro by smale8 · · Score: 1

      Even Mars which presumably could be made habitable would have a latency on average of a bit more than 14 minutes each way.

      For that reason I think for the Solar System we'll need to forget about IP altogether and go back to UUCP.

    15. Re:Call me retro by yupa · · Score: 1

      No they should have construct IP adress like phone number : an extend it by adding prefix/suffix.

      It should have simplified router job, because they could have done the routing only on some part of the number

    16. Re:Call me retro by GvG · · Score: 1

      My ISP gave me a /48 address block for my ADSL connection. Which means I, as a single person, have 2^80 (10^24 if I converted correctly) addresses at my disposal. Now, obviously this is still far less than your 5x10^28 number, but it is a hell of a lot closer than you would think on first sight. My point being, it's nice to have this humongous 128 bit address space, but if we're going to waste 99.9999999999999999999999% of it we'll run out sooner than you'd expect.

    17. Re:Call me retro by Sq · · Score: 1

      It's unlikely that we ever will run out of IPv6 addresses as there's enough addresses to give each person living on Earth roughly 5×10^28 addresses. Which is quite likely going to be enough for anybody that could possibly follow in the future. So, it's technically possible, but for reasons related to the speed of light, physical size of the Earth and solar system it would be very difficult to ever get to the point where you need an IPv7.

      You seem to grossly underestimate the power of human stupidity.

      Here is a just a hint of one of the possible millions things that might go wrong:

      (time:current) in IPv4, many web sites want to have redundancy and be multihomed. For that, they get AS number, their provider independent IPv4 block and then they BGP peer with (at least) two ISPs. However, a catch: due to routing table sizes, many routers won't accept BGP prefixes less than /24, which makes a web site which would be content with /30 request /24 (or it's multihoming redundancy won't work most of the time). So we're wasting 6 bits here, or over 18% of IPv4 address space.

      (time: near future) in IPv6, many web sites still have redundancy and so be multihomed. While there are some other ideas, none of them are currently really working or deployed, except the PI & BGP, same as in IPv4. And while it is intended for most companies to get /48 in IPv6, BGP routers still have same problem, or even worse - multiplied by size of routes. So they'd probably do in IPv6 what they've did in IPv4 - only accept BGP routes of at least /32. Which makes every SME wanting at least /32... Net result?
      While some small company might need much less than /64, they're now grabbing /32. 32bits wasted in a blink of and eye. And it wouldn't stop there probably...

      Problem is, BGP doesn't scale. It haven't with IPv4, and it will get worse with IPv6 when in catches on.
      But it is familiar and it works, so people will go with that by inertia.

      There were attempts at fixing it. For example, SCTP allows many-to-many bindings, so if HTTP would be modified to use SCTP instead of TCP, web server could have one IP from one ISP, other IP from other ISP, and SCTP would take care of redundancy. And there would be no specific routes to be kept for web site on routers, so it would be O(1) no matter how many multihomed web sites you had.

      But you would first have to convert whole of the Internet (or at least stuff like WWW, IMAP, SMTP, ...) to use SCTP instead of TCP all over the world. FAIL.

      There is an easier way. Let's say we modify the web browser behavior if the site it accesses has multiple A/AAAA record. It would try to connect to one of the IPs, but if the 3-way TCP handshake did not complete in some predefined time (say 2 seconds?) it would initiate connection to all the other IP(s) and pick one that was fastest (RSTing all others), and remember that decision for some time (say 15 minutes? Or an hour?)

      That way, if everything worked, the behavior would be same as the current one.
      For sites with only one A record, the behavior would always be same to the current one.

      However, if site had multiple A/AAAA records, and if one IP failed (timeouted), there would be a one-time small burst of several (depending on the number of DNS records) connection attempts, the user would experience one-time-only 2 seconds delay, and then the working address would be cached in browser and it would work automagically. same as SCTP, but much easier to implement, and it is much easier to implement gradually (which is the only way, really)

    18. Re:Call me retro by Sq · · Score: 1

      In all seriousness, I don't know how they're going to deal with people with legacy devices, which may not be upgradable to IPv6 compatible.

      Yes, that is exactly why there was a (completely ignored, of course) warning about 7 years ago that is last moment to start implementing IPv6 in devices, so that when 2010 came, all legacy IPv4-only devices would be dead.

      But did they listen? Noooo... But that is not the end of the world. People will just buy more new IPv6 enabled equipment than they would normally and throw away their old stuff (we all love this consumerist society, yes?), and we'll be running IPv4+IPv6 for some time before IPv4-only sites start to become unreachable without hacks anyway.

      But due to ignoring the problem for the last decade, there *will* be some pain and expenses which could've easily been avoided. For example, if companies started demanding 8 years ago that all new routers/etc they buy must be IPv6 enabled, all their old stuff would be replaced by now with no additional expense. As they didn't, they'll have to shell out some extra monies and upgrade their hardware much sooner than their useful life is over.

      Maybe that will teach companies to listen to techies in the future (yeah, right)

    19. Re:Call me retro by Sq · · Score: 1

      Then there's the boneheaded idea of making 127.0.0.1 the "localhost" network, instead of something otherwise unusable like 255.255.255.254, or at least the high end of the smallest class C net (223.0.0.1). Also, who needs 256 private class C subnets (192.168/16), in addition to 16 class B (172.16/12) and a class A (10/8)? That could have been pared back some. And why does AutoIP need to use 169.254/16 instead of the, say, 240.0/16 region?

      While those are tehnically correct, they are irrelevant really. Watch http://www.ipv4depletion.com/?page_id=326, current rate of burning IPv4 address space is about 1.5 /8 (called "A-class" in good ol' pre-CIDR days) per month. So even if they didn't reserve even *single IP* for 127.0.0.1, nor for private class A,B,C nor /16 for AutoIP; you'd still only extend the IPv4 deadline for what, less than two months?

      Even if none of the E-classes (240-255 /8) were reserved, you would get less than additional year (you can play nice what-if IPv4 endgame results with the tool at http://www.ipv4depletion.com/?page_id=77 )

      And given that the industry quite cheerfully ignored IPv6 for more than a decade, I think that one can say with surety that just one threatening anonymous call to, say, cisco CEO would've helped waaaay more :-)

    20. Re:Call me retro by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      Some very smart people produced the OSI networking stack doesn't mean it was the product that won out

    21. Re:Call me retro by skegg · · Score: 1

      My personal belief is that IPv6 would last many, many decades without causing us to even think about it being exhausted.
      Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder if people who repeat the quote:

      Nobody will ever need more than 640k.

      may be onto something.

      Sure, we make comparisons between the IPv6 address space and the number of atoms in the universe, but what if IP addresses weren't just attached to devices (computers, mobiles, refrigerators, cars, etc). What if each application running on each device had its own IP address? Though I can't think of a good reason for that, it would nevertheless accelerate the take-up of addresses.

    22. Re:Call me retro by paul248 · · Score: 1

      The actual number of addresses is a red herring, since every user will be assigned between 2^64 and 2^80 addresses.

      For all practical purposes, IPv6 supports about 64K times as many users, but each user can have an unlimited number of devices.

    23. Re:Call me retro by compro01 · · Score: 1

      68k times assuming everything gets a /48 (2^80 addresses), which is only for now AFAICT so that routing tables don't become ginormous and cause systems to break down and cry.

      Also, it will be possible to reclaim space and shove stuff onto smaller subnets as needed, as we won't have legacy blocks, class E, etc. taking up large sections of the address space.

      --
      upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  7. y < 128 by reiisi · · Score: 1

    Bit by the markup.

    --
    Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
  8. Self-enforcing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The government should just legislate that "internet" means both IPv4 and IPv6. Any "internet" device which fails to work with both is automatically considered defective, any "internet service" which doesn't work with both is "not being provided" and cannot be billed for.

    Legislation which tries to mandate or prohibit via statutory penalties is only as effective as the enforcement regime. It would provide a much stronger incentive if the ISPs' customers could just turn around and demand the refund of previous payments (up to the 6-year limit for most civil suits).

    1. Re:Self-enforcing by hedwards · · Score: 1

      Your solution involves the government telling businesses how to run. Consequently you'll get the free market nuts complaining about the unwarranted government intrusion and sabotaging the committees that are actually trying to write the legislation. Running on an anti-government platform has got to be the greatest scam of all time. Even if people do eventually see through it, you just go work for a lobbying firm and make huge sums of money screwing up the government even more.

    2. Re:Self-enforcing by houstonbofh · · Score: 1

      OK. I don't sell Internet service, I sell Internet ACCESS via my limited, filtered and propitiatory method; IPv4 and NAT. You can't force people to move to something they do not think they need, that easily.

    3. Re:Self-enforcing by smale8 · · Score: 1

      The legal system is designed to keep such loopholes from rendering statutes toothless. There wouldn't be much point in passing them in the first place if it didn't.

    4. Re:Self-enforcing by grcumb · · Score: 1

      OK. I don't sell Internet service, I sell Internet ACCESS via my limited, filtered and propitiatory[*] method; IPv4 and NAT. You can't force people to move to something they do not think they need, that easily.

      [*] Specifically, blood sacrifices to propitiate the network daemons.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
    5. Re:Self-enforcing by houstonbofh · · Score: 1

      Damn... I had to look up my own word. Spell check makes of interesting times. :)

  9. Re:Misspelled name by hedwards · · Score: 1

    It's Einstein not einstein, Einstein.

  10. Re:Misspelled name by Opie812 · · Score: 1

    Where's the 'Like' button when you need it.

    --
    I'm not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
  11. Oversimplifiying... by Junta · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For one, the protocol defined address specifically as 32-bit. Functions processing IPv4 generally use unsigned integers for the address. Functions to do a variable length address would take longer to process/route. The routing tables would likely be atrocious even if it theoretically could work.

    In short, it only does better at backwards compatibility at the extremely superficial aspect of entering addresses textually looking more usual and making a more specific effort for an existing IP to map trivially to a new scheme. Existing IPv4 stacks would have had no easier time trying to talk to 192.168.2.250.2 than fd7e:691a:da42::1. Besides, having the high values magically become reserved on the host portion of existing networks would conflict with existing host addresses in use.

    IPv6 can work but has been subject to three major pitfals:
    -It looks scarily different. People treating addresses like phone-numbers and not doing DNS in a ubiquitous has exacerbated the problem.
    -They completely omitted a strategy for v4-only to v6-only communication until this year. For a long time they didn't want to endorse anything with the letters 'NAT' in them and delayed a sane interop strategy hoping the problem would magically disappear so the 'evil' NAT wouldn't become a pillar of v6. I'm optimistic that the results of this year paves the way for meaningful progress.
    -v6 and associated protocol largely chose to throw the baby out with the bathwater on many fronts. v6 for a long time declared DHCP dead, then when DHCP was revived for v4, they threw out the existing behavior and started from scratch, eliminating many option codes and changing client identifier behavior to be hard for existing DHCP admins to deal with. This has in some cases rendered workflows in IPv4 simply impossible and in many more exacerbates the first problem in that a *lot* of relearning and reworking is required to acheive the same results with IPv6 as in IPv4.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Oversimplifiying... by Junta · · Score: 2, Informative

      when DHCP was revived for v4

      Err, I meant v6.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    2. Re:Oversimplifiying... by burisch_research · · Score: 1

      My kingdom for a mod point -- parent is the most insightful post I'll see today.

      --
      char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
    3. Re:Oversimplifiying... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He is essentially endorsing the actual stop-gap between IPv4 and IPv42. Best to wait for an actual solution, as the Internet can only evolve. It can not change completely in one step as IPv6 mandates.

  12. WTF is a VINT CERF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the hell is that?

    1. Re:WTF is a VINT CERF? by burisch_research · · Score: 1

      Moron. Google is your friend.

      --
      char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
  13. Re:Misspelled name by Gruturo · · Score: 1

    It's "Vince" not Vint, einstein.

    It's Vinton Gray "Vint" (also, Cerf, not Einstein :-) )

    --

    Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
  14. I got a sixxs tunnel account today by h00manist · · Score: 1

    So I navigate around IPV6 sites. What is there different to see or do? Not much. Some IPV6 brownie points, carrots, or something is needed. Sixxs installed rather easily on Ubuntu, just had to issue a command line. The magical-gui installer almost did it though.

    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    1. Re:I got a sixxs tunnel account today by klapaucjusz · · Score: 2, Informative

      What is there different to see or do? Not much.

      Of course not; the goal is not to build a new network, but to make sure that the Internet can continue to grow. So what you get over IPv6 is just the current Internet, but with a good chance that it'll be still around in ten years.

    2. Re:I got a sixxs tunnel account today by gentry · · Score: 2, Funny

      A dancing turtle is not enough?!?

    3. Re:I got a sixxs tunnel account today by h00manist · · Score: 1

      A dancing turtle is not enough?!?

      I dunno, but I think free beer, porn, games and music downloads would make IPV6 a bit more, well, sexy.

      --
      Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    4. Re:I got a sixxs tunnel account today by gentry · · Score: 1

      Well, the turtle does it for me.

      There was an attempt to offer free porn via the theipv6experiment.com but that didn't take off.

    5. Re:I got a sixxs tunnel account today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Why not try the usenet server newszilla.ipv6.xs4all.nl on IPv6 address 2001:888:0:18::119 ?

      xs4all.nl is offering native ipv6 to all it's subscribers and the above mentioned news server is free to the world.

      But then The Netherlands are not the UK ;)

      --
      Teun

    6. Re:I got a sixxs tunnel account today by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Why not try the usenet server newszilla.ipv6.xs4all.nl on IPv6 address 2001:888:0:18::119 ?

      Pointless, I don't care about reading spam or want to pirate.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  15. Carrots for the users by h00manist · · Score: 1

    I think all you need is to distribute some goodies on IPV6-only sites.

    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    1. Re:Carrots for the users by Sq · · Score: 1

      well, we DO have the dancing turtle on http://www.kame.net/ !

  16. ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by h00manist · · Score: 1

    Anyone know if all the millions of home cable and DSL modems are going to be compatible with native IPV6?

    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    1. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by gentry · · Score: 1

      Not without firmware upgrades which are so far not forthcoming. I currently terminate the ADSL link via PPPoE to Linux server because I was unable to find a reasonably priced ADSL modem/router combo for home use that support IPv6.

    2. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by KiloByte · · Score: 2, Informative

      Then they'll just use IPv4. We're not talking about single-stack IPv6 for now, and not for many years from now as well.

      There were several criminally broken models of home routers that blackholed AAAA DNS requests causing long timeouts, but they are basically the only technical obstacle to giving customers native dual stack, at least where the last mile is concerned. And those can get their firmware upgraded.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    3. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by gentry · · Score: 1

      I don't get this - the obstacle to native dual stack on end users network that the routers do not support IPv6 at all. They have no ability to get IPv6 addresses or route IPv6 packets. While the end user can use 6to4 and other methods that's not native. Firmware upgrades may be an option, or may not if the routers are already short of free RAM/ROM.

    4. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      put simply, there aren't any.

      Well, thats not strictly true. I know the D-link DIR-625 supports it (and is advertised as such), but that's the only one I ever found that does. No Netgear device does or Belkin that I found, and they don't even recognise the search term on their web site, just to show how clued up they are on the subject.

      Oh, I should say that no online computer shop seems to have one of these for sale. Ho hum.

    5. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      Uhm, no. You can't force a client to use IPv6, just like you can't force them to upgrade from Win98.

      This is about a few bastards with broken routers blocking the upgrade for the rest of us. ISPs don't want to add IPv6 support because those few people with broken routers would cause an outcry that "this ISP sucks, their Internet is broken".

      To move forward, there is no need to force IPv6 onto everyone -- those routers don't need to be upgraded to support IPv6, merely to not break down in the presence of IPv6.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    6. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by gentry · · Score: 1

      I see your point now and don't agree that issues with AAAA records is one of the reasons things move slowly. If that were the case they'd be seeing problems now - Google, for instance, deal out AAAA records and broken AAAA lookup would hamper requests to them where the client OS thought it should try the IPv6 route.

      On the whole migration to IPv6 should be transparent to the end user. The firmware on the (admittedly ISP controlled) router is upgrade to support IPv6, the router than starts to emit and respond to NDP requests. Most end user machines will pick these up, sort itself out with a native IPv6 address get on with it.

      In the cases where the ISP doesn't control the router it's more difficult but there are methods of dealing with those cases in ways that are not too onerous for the end user.

      I think the reason ISPs haven't migrated yet, on the whole, is they lack the motivation and, perhaps more likely as motivation should follow, expertise - both from a technical and managerial perspective.

    7. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by smale8 · · Score: 1

      Also the DIR-825.

      And the DIR-615.

      And the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule (no PPPoE with these though).

      I don't live in the U.K., but I had no trouble finding any of these for sale in my area.

      (There's even a Wikipedia page.)

    8. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by LingNoi · · Score: 1

      Linksys' newer routers do IPv6. There isn't a UI for it but if you plug it in it'll work.

    9. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by smale8 · · Score: 1

      Did you check out the D-Link DIR-825?

    10. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by TheLink · · Score: 2, Informative

      AFAIK, Google doesn't provide AAAA records for most of their services to just anyone: http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/

      --
    11. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      I was at the CableLabs Summer Conference last year, where the representative from Cisco said their plan was to have native dual-stack IPv6 support across the entire Linksys product line by summer next year. I heard the same thing from a different Cisco person at NANOG 49 in San Francisco earlier this year. We'll see if they achieve that schedule, but that's was what they were saying off the record. [Disclosure: I work for another equipment maker in the same category.]

      --
      jhw
    12. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by Sq · · Score: 1

      Google doesn't: they want only those with non broken IPv6 networks to use it (probably in order not to get involved with a lots of bogus IPv6 problems from newbies who heard IPv6 is all the rage nowdays and now it is "no work"). So you have to opt-in, have network in good condition and have your users aware of the fact and allowing them to opt-out.

      Then again, one might just use Hurricane Electric public DNS recursor 2001:470:20::2 which does provide google AAAA to anyone who asks for it (not just tunnelbroker.net tunnel users)

    13. Re:ISP-supplied modems/routers IPV6 compatible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are many router manufacturers, that plan to roll out devices, which are IPv6-capable, in Q1/Q2 2011. In Germany, Telekom (german only, sorry) plans to give IPv6-Adresses to end users in 2011. The rough tranlation is, that they plan to give people a /56-prefix to build own subnets.

  17. Just do nothing by diegocg · · Score: 1

    I'm sick of all the noise about IPv6. ISPs already have monetary incentives to switch to IPv6: If they don't adopt it, eventually they will fall behind their competitors and maybe run out of bussiness. Governments do not need to create a "bussines incentive" giving away even more money for free just to encourage bussiness do what they should be doing with their own money anyway. It's not like these companies are like the financial sector, which can bring down the economy when it fails. The IPv6 bussiness incentive will create itself eventually. The "IPv4 apocalypse" will not exist.

    1. Re:Just do nothing by mpe · · Score: 1

      Governments do not need to create a "bussines incentive" giving away even more money for free just to encourage bussiness do what they should be doing with their own money anyway.

      All too often what happens is that businesses either adapt or come into the industry to simply take the money and not deliver the goods. Governments tend to be better at handing out money than they are attaching enforceable conditions to its use.

  18. Obligatory DJB link by klapaucjusz · · Score: 1
    1. Re:Obligatory DJB link by h00manist · · Score: 1

      The IPv6 Mess.

      Seems like a solid critique, but I haven't found any proposed solutions of how it could have been managed more smoothly. Were there any?

      --
      Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    2. Re:Obligatory DJB link by burisch_research · · Score: 1

      Worth reading

      --
      char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
    3. Re:Obligatory DJB link by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      It's really not obligatory. Really. Besides, the article is more than a little out of date. Maybe I should write an update, because I mean, yes, IPv6 is a mess. It is. But DJB's article is talking about the state of the mess a long damned time ago. It's a whole new mess now.

      --
      jhw
  19. IPV6-only torrents by h00manist · · Score: 1

    I heard there are some IPV6-only torrent trackers setting up. Makes sense to reduce the numbers to leechers. Found only one so far though. http://ipv6.torrent.ubuntu.com/

    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    1. Re:IPV6-only torrents by Sq · · Score: 1

      There is another public IPv6-only tracker here: http://www.ipv6tracker.org/

  20. What the... by Haedrian · · Score: 1

    Why all the fuss about getting the government involved and giving them handouts?

    If you don't switch to ipv6 soon, then your clients will either be disconnected from the internet, or unable to connect to ipv6 compliant websites. Do we NEED any more reason? You're going to piss off customers = loss of profits. Make the damn switch already.

  21. Re:Misspelled name - not broken, don't fix it by h00manist · · Score: 2, Informative
    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
  22. Corn by ckdake · · Score: 1

    Great, just what we need. More corn subsidies.

  23. Incentives? by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 1

    Why do they need incentives?

    How about the incentive not to lose their connection to the internet?

    Why does everyone 'deserve' something for conforming to a technology standard? Shit or get off the pot.

    --
    If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
  24. Security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a question because I am not a network guru. Doesn't adoption of IPv6 remove one of the more effective layers of security we have today, the obfuscation layer, being hidden behind the router? I know you need all the aspects of security, but isn't this an important one today in the real world of billions of end user machines? If you have a uniquely identifiable address..well..see the problem? Or what am I missing?

    1. Re:Security? by h00manist · · Score: 1

      Yes, i believe you are correct. Obfuscation security is removed. It has to be re-implemented with new IPV6 firewalls if it is desired. The main objective of IPV6 is exatly that however, give everything on the network a public, globally-routable IP address, which is, yes, reachable. That makes it reachable by friend and foe, but there is a possible, rational way for p2p programs, SIP, games, etc to connect, no more wacky port-forwarding and NAT-traversing weird and proprietary code and intermediating servers and lack of connectivity when desired. However the computer is connected directly to the internet, just as any user at home with their router plugged into their computer, and IPV6 implementers have to enable security on each host.

      --
      Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    2. Re:Security? by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Doesn't adoption of IPv6 remove one of the more effective layers of security we have today, the obfuscation layer, being hidden behind the router?"

      Please read Local Network Protection for IPv6 [RFC 4864].

      --
      jhw
    3. Re:Security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the obfuscation layer, being hidden behind the router?

      There is no obfuscation layer behind a router, a router is completely transparent. Are you referring to a NAT gateway? That's available for IPv6 as well, but its use is discouraged. Or are you referring to an application-layer gateway (ALG), such as an HTTP proxy? Of course they work on IPv6 as well. Or maybe you are referring to a state-tracking firewall (on either session or transport layer)? Those devices are also completely transparent, although asymmetric.

      If you have a uniquely identifiable address..well..see the problem? Or what am I missing?

      You're missing the IPv6 privacy extensions, RFC 3041

  25. the blunt truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Geeks then power users are always the first groups to march with new tech, and that hasn't happened in the case of IPv6 because its adoption seems to have become associated with a bunch of obnoxious antisocial egomaniacs who know neither how to negotiate nor to communicate.

    In particular, sixxs.net, half run by a Googler, is well known for treating its users like idiots and denying problems with its systems. Google itself, meanwhile, has refused to cooperate on its IPv6 nameserving experiment with ISPs such as A&A which have made a genuine and successful effort to bring native IPv6 to UK consumers. To put it bluntly, Google gets pissy when they don't get enough control of some new tech.

    You want IPv6 to see wider adoption? Ignore the big corporate cheerleaders with ulterior motives and their kowtowing lickspittle technocrats. Start supporting those who are actually trying to bring it to the masses.

    1. Re:the blunt truth by h00manist · · Score: 1

      Profit motives always ruin things.

      --
      Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
    2. Re:the blunt truth by smale8 · · Score: 1

      I've had no trouble with Hurricane Electric. They're a commercial outfit, but their tunnel broker service is free. They even have a support forum.

  26. money for rich by fermion · · Score: 1
    So what he is saying is that a country that is taking extreme austerity measures should find monies to pay businesses to do what they will have to do anyway. I suspect that google is going to get some of this feee money, n'est pas?

    I suspect that the UK has enough of free market so that if the established companies can't provide the service, others will step in. I also suspect that if established companies can't provide the services, it may very well be cheaper to nationalize them, pay for upgrades, and then recoup costs from the profits.

    It annoys me that private firms always holds the perceived public goods hostage in order to extort public funds. In the US the nuclear and fossil fuel industry are refusing to move forward without huge sums from the taxpayers, yer cry foul when wind and solar do the same thing. According to what I have read over the years, the Chevy Volt has been in some state of readiness since late 2007, but we are only seeing it now, after GM has swollowed a few billion of taxpayer money.

    The way to innovate is to simply allow firms to fail that do not. There are too many people, at least in the US, who just expect to have a job yet never expect to have to do anything new at that job. Things change. Customers expect new things. A firm should not be expcted to survive if they do not produce new things.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  27. Industry problem, not society's by DaveGod · · Score: 1

    Cash for clunkers scheme in the UK was part of a near-global initiative to save the auto industry at a time when it's collapse would have been it's most damaging to the economy and society - during a global economic crisis. The scheme did cost quite a lot of money, but did save industry and jobs that were viable in the long term*. It also helped move people towards greener and more fuel-efficient cars. Furthermore the money was basically going straight to consumers/tax payers.

    In TFA no such arguments are given; in fact he even states that he hasn't even "done the math" as to how it'd help fast-forward IPv6 adoption. At best he seems to believe that tax payer's money needs to be given to encourage corporations to do exactly what they're in the business of doing. If you want my tax payer money you have to detail what benefit us tax payers are getting from paying them to do now what they're going to have to do anyway?

    * American readers may have Chrysler and the like in mind, who have fundamental problems of their own making and throwing cash at them may be more questionable. The situation is not the same in Europe.

    1. Re:Industry problem, not society's by mickwd · · Score: 1

      Sadly, the cash for clunkers scheme also meant that there are many thousands of perfectly good cars parked in fields that must legally be scrapped (i.e. they can't be resold). Technology does improve, but fuel-efficiency hasn't improved that much since 1999/2000.

      The money wasn't just going straight to taxpayers - the whole point of the scheme was to help the car industry through a severe drop in demand. It basically kept the flow of cash going to (almost wholly foreign-owned) car companies. That said, it probably did keep car plants (and their associated suppliers) open, which might otherwise have closed.

  28. Godfather of the web? by Culture20 · · Score: 1

    Does he have a daughter getting married soon? I have a wish I'd like granted.

  29. Cost of switching??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We'd like to start putting IPv6/dual stack in on our campus network. But on my reading of docs from ,

    "To use this feature, the stack master must be running the advanced IP services image, which is orderable from ".

    Upgrading our distribution switches with advanced IP services would cost us about $180K according to the last quote that I snorted at.

    How can we expect people to migrate to IPv6 because it's a Good Thing if the vendors are still treating it as advanced-pay-through-the-nose functionality?

  30. Cash for Clunkers? by ikkonoishi · · Score: 1

    So are we going to be drilling holes in the old routers to make sure they are never used again?

  31. Farmville and IPV6 by h00manist · · Score: 4, Funny

    not customer facing because that's a much bigger job.

    Farmville is giving players free virtual cash for anyone connecting over IPV6. That will get users banging on the ears of the ISP companies.

    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
  32. T-mobile has ipv6 today for users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    T-Mobile USA already has an IPv6 beta with Nokia phones

  33. Here's what's going to happen by CAIMLAS · · Score: 1

    first, the government will offer limited money on a limited-time basis for this. the corporations will have the paperwork in months before it occurs. those companies - corporations and telcos, mostly - will use up said funds.

    then, the corporations and telcos will 'offer' consumers the opportunity to upgrade 'ahead of the curve' once their own infrastructure is on ipv6. they will, of course, 'pass the cost on to customers'.

    the smaller shops - the ones which don't qualify for the government assistance, don't hear about it, or simply don't have the resources (no telling the handout will cover the full cost of a migration) to implement ipv6 will be saddled with the bulk of the cost. there will be shysters who will prey on the uninformed with high prices for something which is, essentially, free.

    --
    ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
  34. Incentives -- subsidies by dumky · · Score: 1

    The article really means subsidies, which imply that the real incentives to switching don't actually quite make sense compared to the costs of switching. But Cerf thinks he knows best than other people involved, ignore or override the economics of the reality, and looks for ways to get his way without having to solve the costs problem or having to convince people. Convincing politicians to spend money that is not theirs (or Cerf's) is special interest lobbying,which only invites further special interest lobbying.

  35. The thing about IPv6 by jonfr · · Score: 1

    The problem is just not with ISP. It is the web at large that is not IPv6 ready and not connecting to the IPv6 network.

    Here is a good example.

    ping6 -c 4 slashdot.org
    unknown host

    In this case as so many. The motivator for IPv6 switch over is only going to happen after everything goes to hell IPv4 wise.

    1. Re:The thing about IPv6 by j+h+woodyatt · · Score: 1

      A better example would be sourceforge.com.

      --
      jhw
    2. Re:The thing about IPv6 by pipedwho · · Score: 1

      An even better example:

      ping6 -c 4 slashdot.org
      Bad command or filename.

  36. Stick: no IPv4 addresses to the IPv6 incapable. by darkonc · · Score: 1
    If somebody wants to get new IPv4 addresses and can't route IPv6 over at least 75% (95%?) of their network, they should be denied unless they can document a really really good reason why implementing IPv6 isn't appropriate.

    That, at least, should get ISPs looking really hard at what isn't IP6 capable at this late a point in time.

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
    1. Re:Stick: no IPv4 addresses to the IPv6 incapable. by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      If somebody wants to get new IPv4 addresses and can't route IPv6 over at least 75% (95%?) of their network, they should be denied unless they can document a really really good reason why implementing IPv6 isn't appropriate.

      Here is my reason: Too much abuse from free IPv6 tunnel brokers, letting people circumvent blocks. By using IPv4, those that are legitimately using IPv6 from an ISP have a IPv6-to-IPv4 gateway, while the free tunnel brokers don't provide that.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  37. Windows XP and DHCP6 by GvG · · Score: 1

    My understanding is that Windows XP simply doesn't support DHCP6 at all (even if you enable the "Microsoft TCP/IP version 6" protocol). I worked around this by installing the Dibbler DHCPv6 Client. IPv6 including DHCP6 work fine on Vista and higher.

    1. Re:Windows XP and DHCP6 by Matt_R · · Score: 1

      True, but most XP clients won't need DHCP6.

      Address assignment can be handled by RA. Sure, you lack the ability to assign v6 DNS servers, but XP doesn't do v6 DNS anyway.

      The one place I do use DHCPv6 is obtaining my /60 prefix from my ISP. You'd need Dibbler for that if you were crazy enough to run XP on your router :)

  38. Running IPv6 in practice by Mathieu+Lu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I always had a hard time understanding IPv6 until I read the Running IPv6 in practice howto on Debian-administration and tried it at home. The next move is configuring the office where I work to use such a tunnel, then a friend's colo server, then our hosting environment. It's really not hard. Get over the adressing scheme. IPv6 is much easier to manage than NAT.

    Tunnelbroker by Hurricane-Electric also does a great job of making IPv6 easy to use and fun to learn (the "certification" games). They also throw in free DNS hosting, and announcing IPv6 addresses using BGP is possible.

    Now stop whining and bite the bullet :-)

  39. I like this idea better ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm plenty flippin' tired of "Incentives" to industry. How about a special tax for NOT converting to IPv6?

    The tax would apply to executive salaries and dividends only.

    Executives would be required to pay 25% of all compensation to the tax man.

    The company's dividend would be reduced by 50% with the difference going to the tax man.

    Revenue would be frozen until IPv6 was implemented throughout the company's service area. ... I'm sure others can think of something else.

  40. gak by rs79 · · Score: 1

    "Godfather of the web" ? (facepalm)

    As for V6... I dunno. There's a non-zero chance something else will pop up and get used, we're in our second decade o this turkey and the only poeple that believe in it are the ones with a vested interest in its success.

    If noting else we can use the multicast space. There's a gazillion V4 addresses "reserved by IANA" that are never going to be used for multicast and can be recycled.

    --
    Need Mercedes parts ?
  41. Tax IP4 addresses at the ISP level by ResidentSourcerer · · Score: 1

    Why not tax addresses at the owner level?

    If it cost you $10/month to have IP4 address, you would see a mad scramble to get to IP6.

    In order to create some order out of chaos:

    1. The tax would start at $1/month, and increase by $1 per month. This way someone with a large block is only paying 16 million a month initially.

    2. Releasing currently unused addresses gives you a 1 year credit on your used addresses.

    --
    Third Career: Tree Farmer Second Career: Computer Geek First Career: Teacher, Outdoor Instructor, Photographer.