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Why IPv6 is so complicated

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Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#11

Post by muppetman »

This annoys me, especially the last “It takes at least 25 years” rhetoric.

It didn’t take 25 years for SSL. SSH. Gzip encoding on HTTP pages. QUIC. Web to replace NNTP. GPRS/HSDPA/3G/4G/5G They all rolled out just fine and were pretty backwards and forwards compatible with each other.

The whole SLAAC/DHCPv6/RA thing is a total clusterfuck. I’m sure there’s many reasons that’s the case but my god. What does your ISP support? Good luck.

We need IPv6 we really do. But it seems to this day the designers of it took everything good/easy/simple and workable about v4 and threw it out. And then are wondering why v6 uptake is so slow.

If they’d designed something that was easy to understand, not too hard to implement quickly and easily, and solved a tangible problem it’d have taken off like a rocket ship. Instead they expected humans to parse hex, which no one does, and massive long numbers that aren’t easily memorable. Sure they threw that one clever :: hack in there but it hardly opened it up to easy accessibility.

Of course hindsight is easy to moan but the “It’s great what’s the problem?” tone of this article annoys me.

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#13

Post by Hikikomori »

Etheryte wrote: post #6
peyton wrote: post #3

What I don’t understand is why coexistence was so important. TFA notes a lot of protocols were in use back then. Also what’s with all the problems? I’ve had RA packets leak across VLANs via firewall misconfigurations, some my fault and some not. I get that people designing internet protocols had a lot to think about, but why am I fighting stuff like this?

The whole world can't migrate all of their hardware on a whim. There was a period of time when it was a very common quip to say that Amazon would have to buy every new IPv6 compatible router in the world for a year if they wanted to upgrade their infra. I don't know if the urban legend is true or not, but the fact that it sounded plausible is a good enough of an example.

And packet forwarding was done in hardware pipelines, can't software update them to handle new protocols.

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#14

Post by SkiFire13 »

muppetman wrote: post #11

This annoys me, especially the last “It takes at least 25 years” rhetoric. It didn’t take 25 years for SSL. SSH. Gzip encoding on HTTP pages. QUIC. Web to replace NNTP. GPRS/HSDPA/3G/4G/5G They all rolled out just fine and were pretty backwards and forwards compatible with each other. The whole SLAAC/DHCPv6/RA thing is a total clusterfuck. I’m sure there’s many reasons that’s the case but my god. What does your ISP s…

> Instead they expected humans to parse hex, which no one does

Of all aspects of IPv6 you took the only one that doesn't complicate implementations and can easily be swapped if you wanted.

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#15

Post by 9dev »

kristopolous wrote: post #12

if it was easier to use and less of a PITA, it wouldn't be taking decades.

If anything, IPv6 is extremely easy to use, especially with SLAAC: On any kind of standard network, you turn on IPv6 on your machine, and, given physical connectivity, bam! You're on the internet.

It only gets complex if you try to micro-manage it.

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#16

Post by rawoke083600 »

Honestly... Its more machine vocab than human level vocab.

Ipv4 is jsut about able still to hold in your head, have a convo or more importantly you can: "Shout an ipv4 across the open office floor from your desk to your tech colleague"

If you shout an ipv6 address in public, you jsut seem broken

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#17

Post by lamonade »

muppetman wrote: post #11

This annoys me, especially the last “It takes at least 25 years” rhetoric. It didn’t take 25 years for SSL. SSH. Gzip encoding on HTTP pages. QUIC. Web to replace NNTP. GPRS/HSDPA/3G/4G/5G They all rolled out just fine and were pretty backwards and forwards compatible with each other. The whole SLAAC/DHCPv6/RA thing is a total clusterfuck. I’m sure there’s many reasons that’s the case but my god. What does your ISP s…

how do you encode 128 bits without making a long number? and not using hex?

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#18

Post by nslsm »

ggm wrote: post #7

India on around 80% in the apnic labs active measurement of end users. https://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/in They report nearly a billion users, predominantly in mobile. So, "only" 750 to 800 million users. Think about that: 3x the population of the USA using it most of the time, in one economy. Here's the rankings: https://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/XA?o=cINw30x1r1 This is a different measure to Google's. They measure…

Now compare average income to see how much this matters.

Re: Why IPv6 is so complicated

#20

Post by 9dev »

muppetman wrote: post #11

This annoys me, especially the last “It takes at least 25 years” rhetoric. It didn’t take 25 years for SSL. SSH. Gzip encoding on HTTP pages. QUIC. Web to replace NNTP. GPRS/HSDPA/3G/4G/5G They all rolled out just fine and were pretty backwards and forwards compatible with each other. The whole SLAAC/DHCPv6/RA thing is a total clusterfuck. I’m sure there’s many reasons that’s the case but my god. What does your ISP s…

> The whole SLAAC/DHCPv6/RA thing is a total clusterfuck.

SLAAC is easily the thing I love most about IPv6. It just works. Routers publish advertisements, clients configure themselves. No DHCP server, no address collisions, no worry. What's bugging you about it?

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