6 ms·

Hear, hear. The fact that IPv6 addresses are so unruly is a blessing in disguise. Use DNS, /etc/hosts, bonjour, .ssh/config, whatever. Use names, stop using ad

by xaduha 11y ago

Hear, hear. The fact that IPv6 addresses are so unruly is a blessing in disguise. Use DNS, /etc/hosts, bonjour, .ssh/config, whatever. Use names, stop using addresses directly, even with IPv4.

colejohnson66 11y ago
Sadly, it's a lot easier to have my router always always assign my NAS 192.168.0.2 than it is to configure DNS
- merlincorey 11y ago
  Make a homelab and setup local DNS. It's not that complicated if you don't want to get fancy. You can also team it up with DHCP using tools like dnsmasq which is lightweight and works on everything from raspberry pis and routers with flashed firmware to a whole computer or VM on a larger host. You can do it. You should do it. Why haven't you done it yet?
  - pmarreck 11y ago
    Because it is work, and then it will require administration. Which is more work. Computers are smart enough to handle this, why can't everything on a subnet just have (for example) zeroconf?
  - colejohnson66 11y ago
    Not saying what I'm doing is right, but giving my NAS a static IP works on any device connected to the network. My router doesn't support manual DNS entries and I don't want to go through the trouble of flashing OpenWRT just to do something. You can name off tools that make it easier all you want, but how is the average user supposed to know that? When I set up my NAS, I wanted it to be accessible from the same address no matter what. I knew (at the time) about static IPs and manual DNS entries. So I went to my router's configuration and it didn't support manual DNS entries. So I opted for a static IP, and it worked. Sure, it's a kludge and not future proof, but I don't care. That's the problem. The "solutions" only work if you both know about them and care enough to do it the right (instead of the easy) way
- kalleboo 11y ago
  We have a Macs so I just use zeroconf/Bonjour names. Never had to configure anything.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  From personal experience, most home routers today take the computer name and add that to a .local DNS entry only valid for the local network (meaning that .local is a reserved TLD).
krylon 11y ago
With IPv4, if DNS isn't working, it is very useful to be able to enter an IP address directly to check if the problem is with DNS or with the network. (But then again, that is no reason not to adopt IPv6! Some things are going to get harder, but so many, many things are going to get easier that it is easily worth the tradeoff.)
- mgbmtl 11y ago
  And for those few times, you can still enter an IP directly. :) For those who like to memorise IP addresses, my favorite ping in ipv4 is 8.8.8.8, but in IPv6 I like using 2600::1. Shorter, and more fun! (2600 as in the Hacker Quarterly/Hope.net or the old 2600 mHz hack, although the netblock is owned by Sprint, but I guess that is à propos..).
  - krylon 11y ago
    Yes, you can. But it is hard to deny that if there is a specific server/host you are trying to access, its address is likely to be a lot harder to memorize than that. (And like I said, that should not be considered a reason to avoid adopting IPv6. The only thing I currently dislike about IPv6 is that my ISP does not give me a static network address.)
    - mgbmtl 11y ago
      That's odd. What ISP is it? This goes against RFC recommendations (ex: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6177 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6177 - assign between /64 to /48) My ISP (DSL with teksavvy.com in Canada) offers a dynamic-ish /64 with SLAAC, then a static /56 subnet over DHCPv6. I know some people who had issues with their /56 subnet resetting, but that was usually solved by contacting tech support.
      - mgbmtl 11y ago
        Hmm, realized this after posting: my comment on /64 to /48 is rather off-topic, and the reason why the ISP allocates dynamically might be that they are using 6rd [1]. From what little I understand of it, 6rd calculates an IPv6 subnet by using the IPv4 address. So unless your v4 adress is static, your v6 subnet will be dynamic. Some cable providers are using this in Canada (Videotron). I hope they get rid of it soon, because it's really clunky! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_rapid_deployment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_rapid_deployment
vacri 11y ago
/etc/hosts and .ssh/config scale very, very poorly, whereas the raison d'etre of ip6 is that it is there to scale very, very well.
- xaduha 11y ago
  Those are for "home use", for other stuff you use DNS. DNS is what they call "internet scale".
  - seanp2k2 11y ago
    Interestingly, perhaps ironically in this context, is that the original HOSTS.TXT was the "internet scale" solute of the time in that it powered names for the entire network: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)

by xaduha 11y ago

Hear, hear. The fact that IPv6 addresses are so unruly is a blessing in disguise. Use DNS, /etc/hosts, bonjour, .ssh/config, whatever. Use names, stop using addresses directly, even with IPv4.

colejohnson66 11y ago

Sadly, it's a lot easier to have my router always always assign my NAS 192.168.0.2 than it is to configure DNS

merlincorey 11y ago
Make a homelab and setup local DNS. It's not that complicated if you don't want to get fancy. You can also team it up with DHCP using tools like dnsmasq which is lightweight and works on everything from raspberry pis and routers with flashed firmware to a whole computer or VM on a larger host. You can do it. You should do it. Why haven't you done it yet?
- pmarreck 11y ago
  Because it is work, and then it will require administration. Which is more work. Computers are smart enough to handle this, why can't everything on a subnet just have (for example) zeroconf?
- colejohnson66 11y ago
  Not saying what I'm doing is right, but giving my NAS a static IP works on any device connected to the network. My router doesn't support manual DNS entries and I don't want to go through the trouble of flashing OpenWRT just to do something. You can name off tools that make it easier all you want, but how is the average user supposed to know that? When I set up my NAS, I wanted it to be accessible from the same address no matter what. I knew (at the time) about static IPs and manual DNS entries. So I went to my router's configuration and it didn't support manual DNS entries. So I opted for a static IP, and it worked. Sure, it's a kludge and not future proof, but I don't care. That's the problem. The "solutions" only work if you both know about them and care enough to do it the right (instead of the easy) way
kalleboo 11y ago
We have a Macs so I just use zeroconf/Bonjour names. Never had to configure anything.
digi_owl 11y ago
From personal experience, most home routers today take the computer name and add that to a .local DNS entry only valid for the local network (meaning that .local is a reserved TLD).

krylon 11y ago

With IPv4, if DNS isn't working, it is very useful to be able to enter an IP address directly to check if the problem is with DNS or with the network. (But then again, that is no reason not to adopt IPv6! Some things are going to get harder, but so many, many things are going to get easier that it is easily worth the tradeoff.)

mgbmtl 11y ago
And for those few times, you can still enter an IP directly. :) For those who like to memorise IP addresses, my favorite ping in ipv4 is 8.8.8.8, but in IPv6 I like using 2600::1. Shorter, and more fun! (2600 as in the Hacker Quarterly/Hope.net or the old 2600 mHz hack, although the netblock is owned by Sprint, but I guess that is à propos..).
- krylon 11y ago
  Yes, you can. But it is hard to deny that if there is a specific server/host you are trying to access, its address is likely to be a lot harder to memorize than that. (And like I said, that should not be considered a reason to avoid adopting IPv6. The only thing I currently dislike about IPv6 is that my ISP does not give me a static network address.)
  - mgbmtl 11y ago
    That's odd. What ISP is it? This goes against RFC recommendations (ex: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6177 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6177 - assign between /64 to /48) My ISP (DSL with teksavvy.com in Canada) offers a dynamic-ish /64 with SLAAC, then a static /56 subnet over DHCPv6. I know some people who had issues with their /56 subnet resetting, but that was usually solved by contacting tech support.
    - mgbmtl 11y ago
      Hmm, realized this after posting: my comment on /64 to /48 is rather off-topic, and the reason why the ISP allocates dynamically might be that they are using 6rd [1]. From what little I understand of it, 6rd calculates an IPv6 subnet by using the IPv4 address. So unless your v4 adress is static, your v6 subnet will be dynamic. Some cable providers are using this in Canada (Videotron). I hope they get rid of it soon, because it's really clunky! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_rapid_deployment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_rapid_deployment

vacri 11y ago

/etc/hosts and .ssh/config scale very, very poorly, whereas the raison d'etre of ip6 is that it is there to scale very, very well.

xaduha 11y ago
Those are for "home use", for other stuff you use DNS. DNS is what they call "internet scale".
- seanp2k2 11y ago
  Interestingly, perhaps ironically in this context, is that the original HOSTS.TXT was the "internet scale" solute of the time in that it powered names for the entire network: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)