IPv6

[fanf]

traceroute6 to ftp.heanet.ie (2001:770:18:2::1:100)
from 2001:630:200:8120:20e:cff:fe09:a58a, 30 hops max, 12 byte packets
 1  route-ipv6.cam.ac.uk  0.432 ms  0.284 ms  0.321 ms
 2  gi9-0.cambridge-bar.ja.net  0.300 ms *  0.456 ms
 3  pos10-0.lond-scr.ja.net  4.024 ms  3.793 ms  3.833 ms
 4  po6-0.lond-scr3.ja.net  4.023 ms  3.801 ms  3.820 ms
 5  po0-0.geant-gw1.ja.net  4.161 ms  4.052 ms  4.070 ms
 6  janet.uk1.uk.geant.net  4.285 ms  4.176 ms  4.187 ms
 7  uk.ie1.ie.geant.net  17.654 ms  17.544 ms  17.561 ms
 8  heanet-gw.ie1.ie.geant.net  17.651 ms  17.530 ms  17.686 ms
 9  hyperion-gige5-2.bh.core.hea.net  18.152 ms  18.043 ms  17.936 ms
10  ftp.ipv6.heanet.ie  17.777 ms  17.792 ms  17.812 ms

Comments

[acronym.livejournal.com]

Nifty, but what does it mean for us users? I'm almost entirely ignorant of how IPv6 affects me. (Sorry to be so vaguee :) )

[fanf]

We currently support IPv6 on a few networks, including the CS staff network but notably not the main service network on which Hermes and ppsw live. I had to get Sesame moved from the 8 subnet to the 12 subnet to get IPv6 connectivity. The point of this is to see how well email (and Exim in particular) works in practice on a dual-stack host.

Apart from the bigger address space it has some nice features, including autoconfiguration. My IPv4 setup on this machine is:

ifconfig_em0="131.111.12.4 netmask 255.255.255.0"
defaultrouter="131.111.12.62"

but for IPv6 it's just

ipv6_enable="YES"

There's also more IPsec integration, better IP option handling, more sane fragmentation handling, and supposedly better renumbering and mobility support. I'd generally expect it to be below the radar of anyone who isn't a sysadmin or network engineer.

[techiebloke.livejournal.com]

My main box has been dual stack (via stf) for ages. I haven't spotted any problems with exim.

Mind you, I get bugger all mail from IPv6 hosts; and even less TLS encrypted mail. Go on, send me some email, and I'll bump the count up ;-)