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Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

community.roku.com

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Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#21

Post by yamtaddle »

Syonyk wrote: post #6
vkdelta wrote: post #2

For a company who thrives on making cheap devices and charging for licenses/platform, this is almost a crime especially when supporting ipv6 on Linux based devices is much easier now. Wonder why don’t support it.

> Wonder why don’t support it. It's probably harder to tie devices in a single household together with IPv6 than with IPv4, or so they think. They don't make (much) money on their devices, they make money on selling data collected and aggregated by their devices. Their "privacy" policy [0] is a hoot to read. "Whatever we can do, we will. If the laws of the country we collected the data in would interfere with that, w…

> __and information about other devices connected to the same network__

They may also be doing more nefarious things, but this might just mean it watches for UPNP and other announcement-broadcast messages on your network (like, say, mdns).

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#22

Post by some-guy »

ehPReth wrote: post #9

I really hate Roku as a product, ads on the home screen and the remote(??) of something I paid for? No thanks. Though, I will concede it is cool to load mostly "unapproved" apps if the developer shares the app ID. (Certain x-rated sites liked to advertise they have a Roku app, something that would never make its way to most other TV boxes)

I promise you, LG's WebOS is worse in almost every conceivable way.

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#24

Post by favaq »

jonny_eh wrote: post #7
favaq wrote: post #3

What makes no sense in 2023 is to have an IPv6-only network. That is liable not to work. Someone will eventually bring some old device that won't be able to connect.

Did you mean "IPv6-only network"?

Definitely, thanks!

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#25

Post by luhn »

ehPReth wrote: post #9

I really hate Roku as a product, ads on the home screen and the remote(??) of something I paid for? No thanks. Though, I will concede it is cool to load mostly "unapproved" apps if the developer shares the app ID. (Certain x-rated sites liked to advertise they have a Roku app, something that would never make its way to most other TV boxes)

That's par for the course nowadays, unfortunately. I couldn't name a smart TV system that doesn't have ads.

Roku is far from being the worst offender, my LG C2 that I paid out the nose for has the majority of the home screen taken up with ads.

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#26

Post by [deleted] »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #15

Who the hell is giving their Roku a public IP? How is this remotely a problem? This is 100% not the fault of Roku, and 100% the fault of the ISP. The ISP should have an IPv6 to IPv4 gateway built into their modem/router. You have a WAN port that is IPv6 and an LAN port that IPv4. IPv6 for local networks, makes no sense is completely unnecessary, and is a hill I will die on. IPv4 is here to stay.

[deleted]

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#27

Post by throw0101c »

colordrops wrote: post #5
vkdelta wrote: post #2

For a company who thrives on making cheap devices and charging for licenses/platform, this is almost a crime especially when supporting ipv6 on Linux based devices is much easier now. Wonder why don’t support it.

Are Rokus Linux based? I'd love to install an alternate distribution on one.

> Are Rokus Linux based?

Even if it wasn't, don't most embedded OSes come with IPv6 support? How small do you have to be to not have it? QNX is pretty compact, and even it has it:

* https://www.qnx.com/developers/docs/7.0.0/#com.qnx.doc.neutr...

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#28

Post by megous »

jmclnx wrote: post #16
Syonyk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wonder why don’t support it. It's probably harder to tie devices in a single household together with IPv6 than with IPv4, or so they think. They don't make (much) money on their devices, they make money on selling data collected and aggregated by their devices. Their "privacy" policy [0] is a hoot to read. "Whatever we can do, we will. If the laws of the country we collected the data in would interfere with that, w…

> It's probably harder to tie devices in a single household together with IPv6 than with IPv4, or so they think So I wonder if this means it is harder to ID the consumer with IPv6 ?

It's easier. You'd be using SLAAC and your devices would have globally unique IP address based on the MAC address of their network interface.

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#29

Post by birdman3131 »

yamtaddle wrote: post #21
Syonyk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wonder why don’t support it. It's probably harder to tie devices in a single household together with IPv6 than with IPv4, or so they think. They don't make (much) money on their devices, they make money on selling data collected and aggregated by their devices. Their "privacy" policy [0] is a hoot to read. "Whatever we can do, we will. If the laws of the country we collected the data in would interfere with that, w…

> __and information about other devices connected to the same network__ They may also be doing more nefarious things, but this might just mean it watches for UPNP and other announcement-broadcast messages on your network (like, say, mdns).

They use this for the remote feature in the app. You can control roku's on your network without being signed into the roku account tied to the device iirc.

(At least. Not saying they are not doing anything else bad, Just that there is a valid use.)

Re: Roku devices don't support IPv6 in 2023 and it's costing ISPs

#30

Post by ArchOversight »

hitpointdrew wrote: post #15

Who the hell is giving their Roku a public IP? How is this remotely a problem? This is 100% not the fault of Roku, and 100% the fault of the ISP. The ISP should have an IPv6 to IPv4 gateway built into their modem/router. You have a WAN port that is IPv6 and an LAN port that IPv4. IPv6 for local networks, makes no sense is completely unnecessary, and is a hill I will die on. IPv4 is here to stay.

The ISP said they got only a limited set of IPv4 addresses, those are assigned to their CGNAT gateways. Which are expensive, especially for an Indian Reservation, not the deep pockets of some MSP.

The users are behind CG-NAT.

But instead of using IPv6 which is cheaper (no need to maintain CG-NAT, translation devices, or deal with traffic that is being routed way more expensively) the Roku devices are only streaming over IPv4.

Each new user that adds an IPv4 only device adds additional load the CG-NAT and additional capacity will need to be provisioned. That is an additional expense and burden.

Most of my traffic at my house (on Comcast) is over IPv6, because most if not all streaming services now support IPv6 for content delivery, so the small amount of data that may need to go over IPv4 when the majority can go over IPv6 reduces the load on IPv4.

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