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The IPv6 Transition

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215 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | 20 Oct 24 05:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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hairyplanter ◴[20 Oct 24 07:13 UTC] No.41893537[source]▶
I have fully implemented IPv6 in my home network.

I have even implemented an IPv6-Only network. It fully works, including accessing IPv4 only websites like github.com via DNS64 and NAT64 at my router.

The only practically useful thing about my IPv6 enabled network is that I can run globally routable services on my lan, without NAT port mapping. Of course, only if the client is also IPv6.

Other than this one use case, IPv6 does nothing for me.

It doesn't work from most hotels, nor from my work lan, nor many other places because most "managed" networks are IPv4 only. It works better at Cafes because they are "unmanaged" and IPv6 is enabled by the most common ISPs, like ATT and Comcast and their provided routers.

Based on this experience, I think IPv6 is less valuable than us HN audience thinks it is. Private networks, NAT, Carrier Grade NAT are good enough, and internet really doesn't care about being completely peer-to-peer.

I think the adoption rate reflects this--it's a linear growth curve over the last 25 years. It should have been exponential.

I think cost of IPv4 reflects this--it is now below the peak, and has leveled off.

As surprising as it seems, IPv4 exhaustion has not been a serious problem. Internet marches on. IPv6 is still a solution looking for a problem, and IPv4 exhaustion wasn't one of them.

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1. pmarreck ◴[21 Oct 24 12:02 UTC] No.41903211[source]▶
Don't forget that Hetzner and other hosts are also charging extra for IPv4 addresses now, while IPv6 is free.

Also, you're speaking from the privileged perspective of a first-world country- many other countries missed the boat on IPv4 addresses and are limited to IPv6, which also probably explains why global uptake continues upwards despite the US stagnating.

I have never gotten github access from my IPv6-only Hetzner-hosted machine. I don't have control over their router(s) and I am not an experienced network admin who would know how to set up something that would let me simply fucking "git clone" from that machine. I would end up having to set up something janky. The fact that Github is IPv4-only in 2024 is atrociously bad and hopefully handing over business hand-over-fist to their closed-source and open-source competitors.

I love having access to all my internal machines over IPv6 from anywhere without having to use janky hacks. I'd be able to self-host boutique and portfolio websites for example (at least from IPv6-enabled clients), without having to use (and pay for) an external host just for the sake of access.

The fact that hotels and work LANs don't permit access is a "hotel and work LAN" problem, as well as a chicken-and-egg one. If enough people request it (perhaps work people want some cheap Hetzner hosts for dev environments and traveling devs want access to the same machines), the Sysops That Be will make it happen- They are certainly educated enough in the space to enable it.

You are neglecting the cost savings and the non-Western perspective, as well as the "simple developer, not devops expert" perspective.