4 ms·

How do you buy an IPv6 address?

Qwertious 3y ago
AFAICT, the answer is that you don't buy an IPv6 address. You're not even supposed to buy an IPv4 address, but a market for IPv4 addresses sprung up due to their scarcity. Now, I'm not trying to be pedantic here. To obtain an IPv6 address, you need to be allocated one. And that's the job of your ISP, apparently. Which kind of makes sense since 1) that's how your home computer gets an IPv4 address (a dynamic one, these days), and 2) unless your ISP supports IPv6 you'll need to set up some sort of IPv6-over-IPv4 tunnel anyway. Now, you may say "oh dear god are there any options that don't involve my ISP", and, well, good luck: https://www.apnic.net/get-ip/get-ip-addresses-asn/ https://www.apnic.net/get-ip/get-ip-addresses-asn/ By default when you're allocated an IPv6 address you get at least a /96 block and thus you'll never run out of sub-addresses, so you really only need one.
- AndroidKitKat 3y ago
  I investigated and even begun the process of getting an IPv6 allocation from ARIN, but after setting up an LLC in my state ($300 + annual fees) and then jumping through the hoops ARIN (usually involved paying a fee or two), I eventually gave up just due to how much money it seemingly was going to take. The final straw for me was proving that I was going to acquire some % of address utilization or be a multi-homed site (would have required getting a second ISP to my residence, I believe?). I just didn't have the willpower (or wallet) to see it through. I was merely doing it for fun and burning a bunch of money for addresses that I would barely use didn't sound fun after thinking about it. Still, it was fun chatting with my friends on IRC about it and it is a very interesting icebreaker!
  - sgjohnson 3y ago
    It’s a lot easier with RIPE, as with RIPE you can find a LIR that’ll get you both an ASN and a /40 for a symbolic one-time fee. cloudie.sh does them for $35. Lifetime. Alternatively you can become a RIPE member and request all of the resources yourself, but that’ll cost you €2550 on the 1st year and then €1550 yearly. You don’t need to be physically located in RIPE region to go the RIPE path. All you need is _connectivity_ in the region. A $5 BGP VPS counts as _connectivity_. > or be a multi-homed site (would have required getting a second ISP to my residence, I believe?) No. You needed to get 2 BGP servers. Another ISP to your home would be useless unless they both offered BGP sessions.
    - AndroidKitKat 3y ago
      Very interesting -- thank you for the information. Just goes to show how naive I was and still am. I'll probably give this a go next time I have fun money in the budget.
      - sgjohnson 3y ago
        You can get it done for $35. I can vouch for this guy, I got both of my AS numbers from him. (AS200676 and AS50755). Of course the $35 doesn't include the VPS you'd need for actually announcing, but this is a _very_ cheap way to get into BGP. https://my.cloudie.sh/index.php/store/lir-services https://my.cloudie.sh/index.php/store/lir-services
- sgjohnson 3y ago
  /96? The smallest block that can be announced is a /48. The smallest subnet block is a /64. Where did you get the /96 from? A /96 is basically useless.
sgjohnson 3y ago
You don’t. You request them from a RIR. Some charge yearly/allocation fee per-resource, but RIPE doesn’t. With RIPE you just pay the LIR fee, but IPv6 and ASN itself comes with no fees whatsoever.

AFAICT, the answer is that you don't buy an IPv6 address. You're not even supposed to buy an IPv4 address, but a market for IPv4 addresses sprung up due to their scarcity. Now, I'm not trying to be pedantic here. To obtain an IPv6 address, you need to be allocated one. And that's the job of your ISP, apparently. Which kind of makes sense since 1) that's how your home computer gets an IPv4 address (a dynamic one, these days), and 2) unless your ISP supports IPv6 you'll need to set up some sort of IPv6-over-IPv4 tunnel anyway. Now, you may say "oh dear god are there any options that don't involve my ISP", and, well, good luck: https://www.apnic.net/get-ip/get-ip-addresses-asn/ https://www.apnic.net/get-ip/get-ip-addresses-asn/ By default when you're allocated an IPv6 address you get at least a /96 block and thus you'll never run out of sub-addresses, so you really only need one.

AndroidKitKat 3y ago
I investigated and even begun the process of getting an IPv6 allocation from ARIN, but after setting up an LLC in my state ($300 + annual fees) and then jumping through the hoops ARIN (usually involved paying a fee or two), I eventually gave up just due to how much money it seemingly was going to take. The final straw for me was proving that I was going to acquire some % of address utilization or be a multi-homed site (would have required getting a second ISP to my residence, I believe?). I just didn't have the willpower (or wallet) to see it through. I was merely doing it for fun and burning a bunch of money for addresses that I would barely use didn't sound fun after thinking about it. Still, it was fun chatting with my friends on IRC about it and it is a very interesting icebreaker!
- sgjohnson 3y ago
  It’s a lot easier with RIPE, as with RIPE you can find a LIR that’ll get you both an ASN and a /40 for a symbolic one-time fee. cloudie.sh does them for $35. Lifetime. Alternatively you can become a RIPE member and request all of the resources yourself, but that’ll cost you €2550 on the 1st year and then €1550 yearly. You don’t need to be physically located in RIPE region to go the RIPE path. All you need is _connectivity_ in the region. A $5 BGP VPS counts as _connectivity_. > or be a multi-homed site (would have required getting a second ISP to my residence, I believe?) No. You needed to get 2 BGP servers. Another ISP to your home would be useless unless they both offered BGP sessions.
  - AndroidKitKat 3y ago
    Very interesting -- thank you for the information. Just goes to show how naive I was and still am. I'll probably give this a go next time I have fun money in the budget.
    - sgjohnson 3y ago
      You can get it done for $35. I can vouch for this guy, I got both of my AS numbers from him. (AS200676 and AS50755). Of course the $35 doesn't include the VPS you'd need for actually announcing, but this is a _very_ cheap way to get into BGP. https://my.cloudie.sh/index.php/store/lir-services https://my.cloudie.sh/index.php/store/lir-services
sgjohnson 3y ago
/96? The smallest block that can be announced is a /48. The smallest subnet block is a /64. Where did you get the /96 from? A /96 is basically useless.

sgjohnson 3y ago

You don’t. You request them from a RIR. Some charge yearly/allocation fee per-resource, but RIPE doesn’t. With RIPE you just pay the LIR fee, but IPv6 and ASN itself comes with no fees whatsoever.