5 ms·

Also don't use for anything real, because you should not be teaching users that https://1234-5678-9adc-def0-1234-5678-9abc-def0.has-a.name https://1234-5678-9ad

Also don't use for anything real, because you should not be teaching users that https://1234-5678-9adc-def0-1234-5678-9abc-def0.has-a.name https://1234-5678-9adc-def0-1234-5678-9abc-def0.has-a.name is the proper, trusted domain for your service. Because it was supposed to be https://1234-5678-9abc-def0-1234-5678-9abc-def0.has-a.name https://1234-5678-9abc-def0-1234-5678-9abc-def0.has-a.name and I just tricked you.

numlock86 7y ago
I actually had to look three times before I spotted it. Good one!
- Natfan 7y ago
  In case anyone wants to know the difference it's that the third "section" on the first URL is "9adc" and the third "section" on the second URL is "9abc".
- TallGuyShort 7y ago
  I had to diff it! Even if there was no difference, the time it would've taken to be sure really illustrates the problem.
treysis 7y ago
Same/similar working mechanism is built-in into Windows since Vista: 1234-5678--abcd.ipv6-literal.net This doesn't even need functioning DNS and can work offline (add s<devnumber> for link-local addresses).
jandrese 7y ago
The fundamental problem with this whole scheme is that it is still just trying to memorize the entire IP address. The point of a name is to make it something that feels natural for actual people. Maybe it would make more sense to choose the 65,536 most common English words (or whatever language you want) and break the address up into 8 words to form a crazy looking phrase. This is still difficult to memorize but not as bad as just stuffing 128 bits of hex down your throat. You could even allow for the collapsing 0s by making entry 0 be "and" and adding a bit of logic that does the collapse. For fun I wrote a tiny script that does this and tried it with their example domain: 1234:5678:9abc:def0:1234:5678:9abc:def0 -> balcony gaining pawn toothill balcony gaining pawn toothill Or Google's address from that page: 2a00:1450:4009:811::200e -> chinker bauchle dorter amor and bromidic So maybe this wasn't the best idea, but at least they're a bit more amusing than the hex noise in the article. Anyway, if anybody else wants to play around with it I have a tiny demo: http://jubei.ceyah.org/cgi-bin/ipv6toenglish http://jubei.ceyah.org/cgi-bin/ipv6toenglish
- Dagger2 7y ago
  This scheme isn't designed to make the addresses memorable though. It's designed as a workaround for cases where hostnames are supported but v6 literals aren't, for example in UNC paths to Windows network shares.
- jholloway7 7y ago
  I don't think they're proposing this for anything other than a prototyping solution along the lines of this: http://xip.io/ http://xip.io/ There are cases where you simply want to use a name during development because it generalizes better for the eventual production case, but you don't care what the name is, you don't care if anyone can memorize it, you just need it to be a name and not an IP address.
  - rs23296008n1 7y ago
    I'm guessing you are referring to the "config needs a hostname" problem. Been there myself.
- woolcap 7y ago
  Kinda like https://what3words.com/ https://what3words.com/. Question is, how long would the string of words have to be to enable such a scheme for the entire IPv6 address space?
  - jandrese 7y ago
    8 words. 128 bit address space and 65k English words gives you 16 bits per word, so you need 8 words to cover the entire space. My dictionary excludes all proper nouns and all words longer than 8 characters. Only about 60% of the 8 character words were used, chosen completely at random. Even so, given a full IPv6 address the resulting "phrase" is a mouthful. Shortened addresses are a little easier to deal with.
  - bowmessage 7y ago
    Dictionary size of what3words: (57*10^12)^(1/3) ~= 38485 [0] Number of IPv6 addresses: ~340 undecillion [1] Length of string of words: ~8.4 [2] Probably closer to 8 as what3words likely doesn't cover the full 3-word-address-space of the English language. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#cite_note-16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#cite_note-16 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6#cite_ref-rfc2460_2-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6#cite_ref-rfc2460_2-2 [2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+38485+of+340%2C282%2C366%2C920%2C938%2C463%2C463%2C374%2C607%2C431%2C768%2C211%2C456 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+38485+of+340%...
chrisstanchak 7y ago
Neither of those loaded. Not tricked. /s
dv_dt 7y ago
It would be interesting if there was even an informal URL extension that was able to specify alternative name resolution protocols. Maybe overload scheme in the url otherns-https://name https://name

numlock86 7y ago

I actually had to look three times before I spotted it. Good one!

Natfan 7y ago
In case anyone wants to know the difference it's that the third "section" on the first URL is "9adc" and the third "section" on the second URL is "9abc".
TallGuyShort 7y ago
I had to diff it! Even if there was no difference, the time it would've taken to be sure really illustrates the problem.

treysis 7y ago

Same/similar working mechanism is built-in into Windows since Vista: 1234-5678--abcd.ipv6-literal.net This doesn't even need functioning DNS and can work offline (add s<devnumber> for link-local addresses).

jandrese 7y ago

The fundamental problem with this whole scheme is that it is still just trying to memorize the entire IP address. The point of a name is to make it something that feels natural for actual people. Maybe it would make more sense to choose the 65,536 most common English words (or whatever language you want) and break the address up into 8 words to form a crazy looking phrase. This is still difficult to memorize but not as bad as just stuffing 128 bits of hex down your throat. You could even allow for the collapsing 0s by making entry 0 be "and" and adding a bit of logic that does the collapse. For fun I wrote a tiny script that does this and tried it with their example domain: 1234:5678:9abc:def0:1234:5678:9abc:def0 -> balcony gaining pawn toothill balcony gaining pawn toothill Or Google's address from that page: 2a00:1450:4009:811::200e -> chinker bauchle dorter amor and bromidic So maybe this wasn't the best idea, but at least they're a bit more amusing than the hex noise in the article. Anyway, if anybody else wants to play around with it I have a tiny demo: http://jubei.ceyah.org/cgi-bin/ipv6toenglish http://jubei.ceyah.org/cgi-bin/ipv6toenglish

Dagger2 7y ago
This scheme isn't designed to make the addresses memorable though. It's designed as a workaround for cases where hostnames are supported but v6 literals aren't, for example in UNC paths to Windows network shares.
jholloway7 7y ago
I don't think they're proposing this for anything other than a prototyping solution along the lines of this: http://xip.io/ http://xip.io/ There are cases where you simply want to use a name during development because it generalizes better for the eventual production case, but you don't care what the name is, you don't care if anyone can memorize it, you just need it to be a name and not an IP address.
- rs23296008n1 7y ago
  I'm guessing you are referring to the "config needs a hostname" problem. Been there myself.
woolcap 7y ago
Kinda like https://what3words.com/ https://what3words.com/. Question is, how long would the string of words have to be to enable such a scheme for the entire IPv6 address space?
- jandrese 7y ago
  8 words. 128 bit address space and 65k English words gives you 16 bits per word, so you need 8 words to cover the entire space. My dictionary excludes all proper nouns and all words longer than 8 characters. Only about 60% of the 8 character words were used, chosen completely at random. Even so, given a full IPv6 address the resulting "phrase" is a mouthful. Shortened addresses are a little easier to deal with.
- bowmessage 7y ago
  Dictionary size of what3words: (57*10^12)^(1/3) ~= 38485 [0] Number of IPv6 addresses: ~340 undecillion [1] Length of string of words: ~8.4 [2] Probably closer to 8 as what3words likely doesn't cover the full 3-word-address-space of the English language. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#cite_note-16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What3words#cite_note-16 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6#cite_ref-rfc2460_2-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6#cite_ref-rfc2460_2-2 [2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+38485+of+340%2C282%2C366%2C920%2C938%2C463%2C463%2C374%2C607%2C431%2C768%2C211%2C456 https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+38485+of+340%...

chrisstanchak 7y ago

Neither of those loaded. Not tricked. /s

dv_dt 7y ago

It would be interesting if there was even an informal URL extension that was able to specify alternative name resolution protocols. Maybe overload scheme in the url otherns-https://name https://name