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The IPv6 Transition

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226 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.224s | source
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hairyplanter ◴[] 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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BrandoElFollito ◴[] No.41893647[source]
I had to reluctantly deploy ipv6 on my home network because of ISP requirements + will to use pihole.

Ipv6 is hard. I had to learn quite a bit to make it work and not only I see no value, but it is significantly more difficult to use dire to the address length.

I think IPv6 is a missed opportunity, it was probably designed by experts that did not take into account the population that will use it (not the one users who do not care, but the layer above them)

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umanwizard ◴[] No.41924036[source]
I’m curious what your home network involves that’s more complicated than simply plugging everything in to one cheap router.
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1. BrandoElFollito ◴[] No.41925812[source]
My network is not particularly complicated. It is the ISP router that manages the biber connection (FTTH). So I have to have that specific ISP provided box, which offers me some more or less crappy features (DNS, DHCP, ...).

If I want to use Pihole for DHCP (because it handles internal registration well) and DNS (because if offers filtering) I need to disable DHCP on the ISP router. But since the TV is handled through IPv6 I need to understand it to make sure that that stack is correctly implemented.

Then I have two mesh networks (tailscale and Wireguard as a backup because I manage family networks that are not available from internet) and a docker stack which has its own surprises.

I would love to put a linux box as the egress router and handle everything there (the fiber, DNS, DHCP, etc.) but it is not possible with the provider because the SFP is proprietary (sort of)).

I am really happy to have a relatively stable 1 Gbps fiber connection so I am not complaining - but doing things exactly as I would wish is not always possible.