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Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

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Re: Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

#231

Post by throw0101d »

Y_Y wrote: post #227
sylware wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPv6 will rid us from the abomination of domestic NAT. IPv6 will, finally, enabled the real internet: all p2p protocols will start to work seamlessly. I am thinking a super simple no-dns IP (audio|video) phone protocol listening only on tcp 1 port, new bittorrent like protocol for live streaming, etc. Since IPv6 has been almost everywhere in my country for years: enjoying ssh session everywhere (ipv6 mobile internet)…

Is it possible for me, or worse, a normal person, to claim or request an ipv6 address that they can keep and use like a phone number? I'm used to dynamic allocation for residential ipv4 addresses and never bothered to beg ARIN for some or rent since from an ISP. Having an address you could keep and bring with you would be great and avoid a lot of the difficulties of DNS.

> Is it possible for me, or worse, a normal person, to claim or request an ipv6 address that they can keep and use like a phone number?

Yes. You also have to get an ASN though, and an ISP which which will advertise both over BGP.

Re: Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

#234

Post by throw0101d »

p-e-w wrote: post #31
ceroxylon wrote: post #12

As someone who grew up on IPv4, i will miss it, but the leap to 340 undecillion unique addresses is exciting in many ways so i think i can learn to live with this transition. If we ever need more than that, i can't even imagine what that future would look like.

The last time I looked into this (which was a few years ago), ISPs were allocating blocks containing billions of IPv6 addresses to anyone who paid a nominal sum. So that vast address space might not last as long as it would seem...

> So that vast address space might not last as long as it would seem...

Have you done the math?

* math property: x^y = x^(a+b) = (x^a )x(x^b )

* IPv4 addresses are 32 bits (2^32 )

* 2^32 ~ 4.3 billion

* So the IPv4 Internet has ~4.3B devices on it

* IPv6 subnets are 64 bits, /64 (2^64 )

So, a IPv6 2^64 subnet is the same as (2^32 )x(2^32 ), which means (4.3B)x(IPv4 Internet). I.e., a single IPv6 subnet can hold the equivalent of four billion (IPv4) Internets.

A second way of thinking about it:

* Stars in the Milky Way: 400 Billion

* Galaxies in the universe: 2 Trillion

So (4x10^11 )x(2x10^12 )=8x10^23 stars in the universe.

* Size of IPv6 address space: 3.4x10^38

Find the ratio between addresses and stars:

* 3.4x10^38 / 8x10^23

IPv6 offers about 430 trillion times more addresses than estimated stars in the universe.

A third way: On the surface of the Earth (land+water), there are 8.4 IPv4 addresses per km2. Not counting the oceans, that would be 28 IPv4 addresses per km2 of land.

IPv6 gives 10^17 addresses per mm2 (yes, square millimeter).

In terms of volume, 10^8 IPv6 addresses per mm3 throughout the Earth.

Re: Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

#235

Post by neilalexander »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #229
neilalexander wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The aliasing scheme is called DNS.

Clearly that is not sufficient enough for a variety of reasons else we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place

If "IPv6 addresses are harder to type or remember" is the worst thing that happens during the transition to IPv6 then I'd call the whole thing an unquestionable success, given that there were numerous far more important things that could have gone wrong or ended up worse but didn't.

DNS exists to solve the problem of people not having to remember or type IP addresses. This is true regardless of whether you are talking about IPv4 or IPv6.

Re: Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

#236

Post by throw0101d »

mort96 wrote: post #177
pilif wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the features of IPv6 is address autoconfiguration, obviating the need for a central authority like DHCP on v4. However, that only works with a /64 prefix and given that larger sites might want to have multiple subnets, that’s why most assignments are /56 or /48. But still. If all assignments were /48s, that would still leave room for 281 trillion networks which even I believe is enough for the foreseeable futu…

I don't understand why getting rid of DHCP is desirable. DHCP provides a nice central place where you can map MAC addresses to IP addresses instead of configuring it ad-hoc on every device which needs a static IP address (if you're lucky and the device even supports static IP!). Checking "Does my interface have an IP address?" is also a really really useful and quick analogue for "is the gear related to the LAN prett…

> I don't understand why getting rid of DHCP is desirable.

It's less infrastructure to run, especially with embedded networks.

> DHCP provides a nice central place where you can map MAC addresses to IP addresses instead of configuring it ad-hoc on every device which needs a static IP address (if you're lucky and the device even supports static IP!).

You are limiting your thinking to macro-scale 'user-managed' devices, as opposed to things like embedded things:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_(standard)

Re: Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

#237

Post by throw0101d »

mort96 wrote: post #194
dijit wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW; SLAAC works by setting the local part to the mac address. So, if you have knowledge of your mac address (which is what you say you are using for DHCP) then you will know the fe80:: IPv6 IP too, which, while not globally routable is probably what you want based on this comment.

Wait SLAACs aren't globally routable? I thought the whole idea behind IPv6 was to not use NAT?

> Wait SLAACs aren't globally routable?

It is not the host-component of IPv6 that determines routability, it is the prefix.

If you have a link-local prefix (fe80::/10) then it is not global, if it is a private prefix (fc00::/7) then it also may not be global; if it is part of IANA's unicast allocation (2000::/3) it is global (firewall permitting).

Re: Tell HN: Hacker News now supports IPv6

#238

Post by gary_0 »

globular-toast wrote: post #176
ceroxylon wrote: post #12

As someone who grew up on IPv4, i will miss it, but the leap to 340 undecillion unique addresses is exciting in many ways so i think i can learn to live with this transition. If we ever need more than that, i can't even imagine what that future would look like.

I grew up with IPv4 too but after learning and configuring my network for IPv6 I won't miss v4 at all. It's just so nice having each device with its real IP address rather than some private NAT thing. Then it's just firewall config if you want to run servers etc rather than messing with NAT configs.

Doesn't that mean if you move, or if your ISP changes your IP, all your local devices will end up with different addresses?

I have an internal DNS server and it would be annoying if it could randomly break and require me to update all the IPs.

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