4 ms·

There are various ways to make this less painful. To start with, use anycast DNS so you don't have to type the address of your DNS server(s) into anything, and

by zrm 6y ago

There are various ways to make this less painful. To start with, use anycast DNS so you don't have to type the address of your DNS server(s) into anything, and have a local DNS server with your local names in it so they all still work even if upstream is down. Then give important machines simple addresses. Assigning your DHCP server [network prefix]::3 and your file server [network prefix]::4 instead of [network prefix]:[64-bit random number] simplifies things a lot. You can also do this with link-local addresses, so then your local file server can be accessed as fe80::4, or something not too far away from that with ULAs if it's not on the same network segment, e.g. fc00:abcd::4.

api 6y ago
That sounds complex. That's fine for large operations or operations with deep technical talent, but what about the vast majority of people who have less expertise and less time/resources to deploy complex configurations? Also what about the vast, vast number of cases where you want to address private backplane networks and do things like "ping 10.0.0.2"? People still largely use V4 there even if they have V6 because V6 is too inconvenient. DNS fixes this problem on connected, configured systems when everything is working property. It does not fix the problem when there are issues or when things are being set up, developed with, debugged, etc.
- zrm 6y ago
  Private backplane networks would presumably be using static ULAs. What's so hard about "ping fc00:abcd::2"? > what about the vast majority of people who have less expertise and less time/resources to deploy complex configurations? "Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible." There exist IPv6 ISPs that give you a modem/router that you plug your stuff into and there is nothing else to configure. They could all do that. That covers the large majority of people who just want to internet as quickly as possible. If you want to have complex internal subnets and backplane networks and things like that, this is a thing that requires technical knowledge to begin with. I suspect the reason people continue to use IPv4 for such things is simply that they're more familiar with it and it still works. And so what's wrong with that? The primary advantage of IPv6 is that it gives every device a globally routed address. It still does that if people carry on using dual stack with IPv4 until the end of time. Or however many decades until IPv6 has enough penetration that people have gotten used to it and start to turn IPv4 off. You can use IPv6 long before IPv4 ceases to exist.

by zrm 6y ago

api 6y ago

That sounds complex. That's fine for large operations or operations with deep technical talent, but what about the vast majority of people who have less expertise and less time/resources to deploy complex configurations? Also what about the vast, vast number of cases where you want to address private backplane networks and do things like "ping 10.0.0.2"? People still largely use V4 there even if they have V6 because V6 is too inconvenient. DNS fixes this problem on connected, configured systems when everything is working property. It does not fix the problem when there are issues or when things are being set up, developed with, debugged, etc.

zrm 6y ago
Private backplane networks would presumably be using static ULAs. What's so hard about "ping fc00:abcd::2"? > what about the vast majority of people who have less expertise and less time/resources to deploy complex configurations? "Simple things should be simple and complex things should be possible." There exist IPv6 ISPs that give you a modem/router that you plug your stuff into and there is nothing else to configure. They could all do that. That covers the large majority of people who just want to internet as quickly as possible. If you want to have complex internal subnets and backplane networks and things like that, this is a thing that requires technical knowledge to begin with. I suspect the reason people continue to use IPv4 for such things is simply that they're more familiar with it and it still works. And so what's wrong with that? The primary advantage of IPv6 is that it gives every device a globally routed address. It still does that if people carry on using dual stack with IPv4 until the end of time. Or however many decades until IPv6 has enough penetration that people have gotten used to it and start to turn IPv4 off. You can use IPv6 long before IPv4 ceases to exist.