4 ms·

The Internet of Stupid Things (2015)

28 points by tacon 11y ago

valine 11y ago
I always get excited when I start reading about IPv6. I was excited last year too. And the year before that. I guess I'll just keep waiting.
- kyledrake 11y ago
  You may already have IPv6 support and not realize it. In the US even, Comcast and CenturyLink already support it, and probably many others. Most of the time, all it takes is a few clicks on your wireless router to set up IPv6 support. After that, your computer and your web browser will automatically use IPv6 when available, or fall back to IPv4 instantly. I use a browser plugin to tell me if the site I'm on is 6 or 4. It's so seamless you wouldn't know which without it. I used this to upgrade neocities.org to IPv6 support and it was a great experience. It's surprisingly simple to get working. HN used to be 6, but for some reason it's 4 right now for me (they should check their DNS records).
  - flyinghamster 11y ago
    Unfortunately, Comcast can be exceptionally stupid. I decided to try running pfSense in a VM to do my firewalling for a while in place of a D-Link DIR-825 running DD-WRT. I decided to give IPv6 a try while I was at it - only to discover that Comcast gave me not a /64, /80, or even a /120, but ONE LOUSY IPv6 ADDRESS. Needless to say, that ended my IPv6 experiment. As a side note, I went back to the DIR-825, due to performance issues (one of my NICs was an onboard Realtek, and wasn't up to snuff).
    - gonzo 11y ago
      Please try pfSense again win real NICs. We can probably walk you through getting v6 working on Comcast, too.
    - ianlevesque 11y ago
      Not doubting your experience, but it's normal to receive both a single IP for the router and a /64 prefix from Comcast.
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  I'll always remember watching some talk about IPv6 details and how it was literally exactly the same as IPv4 except with a longer address. That still cracks me up. If that were true IPv6 would be everywhere by now, but it is oh so very not true.
  - kyledrake 11y ago
    It's not everywhere because users don't realize they have it yet (the "goes in a cupboard" problem this article discusses). Login to your wireless router right now and set it up. It was, literally, one button on a DLink wireless router I used. Chances are your ISP supports it and it's ready to go for you right now. You don't have to (everything works by default with IPv4 right now), but why not? It's fun and you'll learn how it works, and it doesn't break compatibility with IPv4 access. If wireless routers enabled IPv6 by default, you would be using IPv6 and not even realize it. It's amazing how seamless it is. I actually had trouble figuring out if it was even working.
- daveguy 11y ago
  I generally turn off IPv4 support because things still run smoother without it. I think the main problem is synchronous queries for DNS -- IPv6 first then IPv4. When something didn't have an IPv6 address it went to IPv4 meaning added delay. If you get an address, but can't get an IPv6 connection to the server -- added delay. IPv6 gets shut down on everything I admin and will continue to do so. I will keep trying IPv6 on 6/6 until everything runs as smoothly and as quickly as IPv4. The first time I have a good experience on IPv6 day with low latency and confirmed functionality across the board I will consider adding more routers and machines. Until then, no IPv6 for me.
  - vetrom 11y ago
    In the glibc world, you can specify a rather fine degree of preferences here for which resolution you prefer for which network space, via /etc/gai.conf. It's not a very nice tool, but I've been able to use it to set good preferences for a dual-stack environment.
apnicdg 11y ago
Re IPv6: It was over-promoted far too early, but the fact is that its time has finally come. You can't argue with 10% of Google users: http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html Or with APNIC's measure of 30% for the USA: http://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/US http://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/US

28 points by tacon 11y ago

I always get excited when I start reading about IPv6. I was excited last year too. And the year before that. I guess I'll just keep waiting.

kyledrake 11y ago
You may already have IPv6 support and not realize it. In the US even, Comcast and CenturyLink already support it, and probably many others. Most of the time, all it takes is a few clicks on your wireless router to set up IPv6 support. After that, your computer and your web browser will automatically use IPv6 when available, or fall back to IPv4 instantly. I use a browser plugin to tell me if the site I'm on is 6 or 4. It's so seamless you wouldn't know which without it. I used this to upgrade neocities.org to IPv6 support and it was a great experience. It's surprisingly simple to get working. HN used to be 6, but for some reason it's 4 right now for me (they should check their DNS records).
- flyinghamster 11y ago
  Unfortunately, Comcast can be exceptionally stupid. I decided to try running pfSense in a VM to do my firewalling for a while in place of a D-Link DIR-825 running DD-WRT. I decided to give IPv6 a try while I was at it - only to discover that Comcast gave me not a /64, /80, or even a /120, but ONE LOUSY IPv6 ADDRESS. Needless to say, that ended my IPv6 experiment. As a side note, I went back to the DIR-825, due to performance issues (one of my NICs was an onboard Realtek, and wasn't up to snuff).
  - gonzo 11y ago
    Please try pfSense again win real NICs. We can probably walk you through getting v6 working on Comcast, too.
  - ianlevesque 11y ago
    Not doubting your experience, but it's normal to receive both a single IP for the router and a /64 prefix from Comcast.
InclinedPlane 11y ago
I'll always remember watching some talk about IPv6 details and how it was literally exactly the same as IPv4 except with a longer address. That still cracks me up. If that were true IPv6 would be everywhere by now, but it is oh so very not true.
- kyledrake 11y ago
  It's not everywhere because users don't realize they have it yet (the "goes in a cupboard" problem this article discusses). Login to your wireless router right now and set it up. It was, literally, one button on a DLink wireless router I used. Chances are your ISP supports it and it's ready to go for you right now. You don't have to (everything works by default with IPv4 right now), but why not? It's fun and you'll learn how it works, and it doesn't break compatibility with IPv4 access. If wireless routers enabled IPv6 by default, you would be using IPv6 and not even realize it. It's amazing how seamless it is. I actually had trouble figuring out if it was even working.
daveguy 11y ago
I generally turn off IPv4 support because things still run smoother without it. I think the main problem is synchronous queries for DNS -- IPv6 first then IPv4. When something didn't have an IPv6 address it went to IPv4 meaning added delay. If you get an address, but can't get an IPv6 connection to the server -- added delay. IPv6 gets shut down on everything I admin and will continue to do so. I will keep trying IPv6 on 6/6 until everything runs as smoothly and as quickly as IPv4. The first time I have a good experience on IPv6 day with low latency and confirmed functionality across the board I will consider adding more routers and machines. Until then, no IPv6 for me.
- vetrom 11y ago
  In the glibc world, you can specify a rather fine degree of preferences here for which resolution you prefer for which network space, via /etc/gai.conf. It's not a very nice tool, but I've been able to use it to set good preferences for a dual-stack environment.

apnicdg 11y ago

Re IPv6: It was over-promoted far too early, but the fact is that its time has finally come. You can't argue with 10% of Google users: http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html Or with APNIC's measure of 30% for the USA: http://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/US http://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/US