1. Forum
  2. FidoNet
  3. IPV6

  • IPv6 in 2016

    From Michiel Van Der Vlist@1:2320/100 to All on Sun Jan 1 11:18:42 2017

    IPv6 in 2016
    By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555


    Another year has passed. When we compare the statistics as published
    by the end of 2015 with those of today, we see that IPv6 in Fidonet
    has grown again. From 39 to 51 nodes.


    50 -| .
    |
    -|
    |
    40 _| N .
    |
    _|
    |
    30 _|
    |
    _| .
    |
    20 _|
    |
    _|
    |
    10 _| .
    |
    _| .
    | .
    0 _|________.__________________________________
    | | | | | | | |
    2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017


    The exponential growth in the previous five years however did not
    continue. Until the end of 2015, the number almost doubled every
    year. In 2016 we had a mere net increase of 12 nodes. I say "net"
    because in 2016, not only did we see new IPv6 nodes, we also saw
    nodes disappear from the list. Three stopped supporting IPv6, two
    left Fidonet altogether.

    Another trend we see continue is the move towards native IPv6. In last
    year's list we saw 18 nodes with native IPv6 and 21 nodes that used a
    tunnel. In today's list we see 33 nodes with native IPv6 and 18 using
    a tunnel. Raising the precentge from 46% to 64%.

    I myself was one of the lucky ones that upgraded to native IPv6. My ISP
    said that they would roll out IPv6 by the end of the year. They have
    been saying that for at least five years and nothing happened, but now
    they finally seem to get moving. To get it though, I had to find the
    one and only model of CPE that they presently support in combination
    with IPv6. Their Native IPv6 support is still not official, so it
    could be gone again tomorrow. I have not cancelled my tunnel accounts
    with SixXs and he.net yet.

    As for SixXs, they show signs of fatigue. In April 2016 they stopped
    honouring requests for new accounts and for existing accounts they
    stopped honouring requests for new tunnels and subnetss. It does not
    look like this is a temporary thing. Their explanation is that it is
    time that ISPs start providing native IPv6 for their customers instead
    of letting tunnel providers do it for them. I can't argue with that,
    but it does leave those depending on their tunnels in the cold. I would
    not be surprised if they close down altogether in the not too distant
    future. They say there are no plans for complete shutdown yet, but
    another writing on the wall is that they refuse to move existing
    tunnels tot another POP, when a POP closes down. Thereby effectively
    closing that tunnel. The main driving force, Jeroen Massar, shows signs
    of getting tired of the project. He is a bit of a personality that has antagonised many people. But let's not be too hard on him. He provided
    a valuable - and free - service for almost 15 years.

    The other major tunnel provider - he.net - does not show ant signs of
    preparing to close shop yet. But since nothing lasts forever, their
    free services won't last forever either. Not only do they provide
    free tunnels, they also provide an interesting education programme.
    If you succesfully complete all the stages of their course you are
    awarded the rank of "sage" and get a free T-shirt to show off. I got
    mine on the 2nd of July. On my birthday. If I am not mistaken, there
    are three other sysops on the Fidonet IPv6 list that have the T-shirt.

    http://www.vlist.eu/fotos/sage-f.jpg
    http://www.vlist.eu/fotos/sage-b.jpg


    What we did not see in 2016 is the coming of nodes that no longer have
    a public IPv4 address. Many providers, mostly in Europe and Australasia
    are switching to DS-lite. Even in my onw country, The Netherlands, my
    own ISP, Ziggo, is now putting new customers on DS-Lite in the area
    serviced by the company they recently merged with and that was formerly
    known as UPC. DS-Lite means that customers get a public routable IPv6
    prefix, but for IPv4 they will have to make do with an address or
    adresses in the RFC-1918 or RFC-6598 range. Customers not running
    servers will not be affected very much, but the unability to run
    servers from behind a CGNAT will definitely affect Fidonet. There is
    little doubt we will see that happen in the future. Maybe not in 2017,
    but surely in the years to come.


    Happy IPv6 in 2017.


    --- Fmail, Binkd, Golded
    # Origin: he.net certified sage (2:280/5555)
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS - Synchronet - LiveWireBBS.com (1:2320/100)