

We're running out of IPv4 addresses. Time for IPv6. Really. - nickb
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080817-were-running-out-of-ipv4-addresses-time-for-ipv6-really.html

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iigs
I believe that we'll see ISP NAT for customers before we see widespread
adoption of IPv6 in the USA. The dynamics are all backwards for encouraging
people to switch. Web site operators (and other content providers) will, in
general, pay extra to have an externally reachable IPv4 address, in order to
stay accessible to the ~3b nodes already on IPv4. Most home users don't know
or care about IP addresses, so they're not likely to go through the trouble to
fix their systems to talk to the set of systems that are reachable via IPv6,
especially so when considering that the most popular sites are available on
IPv4 anyway.

For these common users, being able to send unsolicited traffic to their nodes
is actually a misfeature (SQL slammer from a few years ago comes to mind).
I've always thought that an ISP could sell a NATted connection at a premium as
a security feature, and the cost to deploy a solution like that would be a
small fraction of the cost of engineering IPv6 into a network infrastructure
if it wasn't designed with it in mind initially.

Perhaps my opinion is dissenting, but I'm not sure we'll ever see IPv6 (except
in that alternate universe of Japan, where everything is way more awesome
anyway). I have a feeling we'll keep piling on the hacks until a paradigm
shift of some type.

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nuclear_eclipse
> I've always thought that an ISP could sell a NATted connection at a premium
> as a security feature

The problem is all the new aged people who use P2P file sharing, multiplayer
console games, or any other internet application that relies on at least one
or two inbound ports being open to listen on. An ISP couldn't possibly NAT-
forward ports to individual users, but an end-user can easily decide to NAT-
forward ports to their game console / desktop / laptop...

~~~
cstejerean
So make a gaming/advanced user plan (and while you're at it make it static
IPs) and a NATted connection for everyone else.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Yet another opportunity for ISP's to drop rates/features and then charge even
more for users to keep what they had for years and years....

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aristus
Changing the routers is probably the least of the problem.

Changing the millions of little perl scripts and legacy databases and regexps
that assume \d+\\.\d+\\.\d+\\.\d+ is the real problem.

~~~
tptacek
Along with tens of millions of lines of C code with 4-bytes-per-IP hardcoded
into them, many on devices that can't be upgraded without walking up to them
in person.

~~~
eru
Reminds me of the Y2k bug.

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BrandonM
Uh oh. It looks like sometime in the next 3 years, I'll have to change my
kernel configuration to include IPv6, and add ipv6 to my USE flags. The
horror!

I know I'm trivializing, because I'm sure there are a lot of computers out
there that don't support it, including some important routing devices. I just
couldn't help pointing out an instance where Linux users definitely have it
easier.

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tdavis
This is scary... but only because just yesterday the security logs on one of
our boxes indicated an attempt to brute-force SSH and the IP resolved to...

Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

~~~
trevelyan
sorry about that. Thought that was my server.

