[Gloucs] Routers and IPv6

[David Corking]

A few urban legends developing here, I think.  If not at least they
are opinions that I disagree with.

> > I see no need for IPv6 internally on the LAN.
>
> I don't see that there ever will be, for home users anyway. IPv4 is a lot
> easier to work with:
>
> 89.16.172.235
> vs.
> 200141c80001587b::2
>
> I suspect IPv6 will eventually make it into home LANs simply because router
> manufacturers will make it the default - most users just plug-and-play and
> won't notice whether their router's DHCP server provides an IPv4 or IPv6
> address.

Each customer gets a subnet thousands of public IPv6 addresses on
their home LAN.  This makes configuring point-to-point applications
like VoIP, video-conferencing, gaming and chat much easier.  Right
now, such applications are riddled with kludges that often fail.
This opens up possibilities for people to dream up new uses, and
abuses, for the Internet.

If you run public servers at your office( or at your hosting company),
you often have to pay for extra IPv4 addresses.  With IPv6 you can ask
for 2**16 subnets (a so-called /48 block) and afaik that block be
allocated to anyone who needs more than one subnet.

> > I guess I must start looking for a new ADSL Router.
>
> I wouldn't bother - most ISPs don't provide (or plan to provide) IPv6
> connectivity yet and the only IPv6-enabled Internet host I know of is
> ipv6.org...

BT offers IPv6, and I heard that it is provided free by all the
upstream backbone providers.  However each ISP needs to learn and
configure it.

I too have an ADSL router, only 4 years old, that doesn't support
IPv6.  If I wanted to wait until ADSLv2 or faster was out before
upgrading hardware (I do), I could set up each PC (or a gateway PC) to
tunnel through the router to a tunnel end-point at a friendly ISP
(tunnel broker.)    BT switched off their free-of-charge tunnel broker
a couple of months ago, presumably because they expect serious IPv6
users to purchase a suitable router, and use a suitable ISP for native
IPv6.

David