IPv6

Interesting to see some new movement on IPv6 adoption, with Vodafone starting to roll out and Plusnet starting a new trial.

The largest cloud service provider AWS started charging for IPv4 addresses this month, the three largest now do so. IPv6 addresses are of course free. Companies will undoubtedly be trimming back their IPv4 portfolio in a big way and their people need to be able to connect.

It wouldn't be viable for me to join an IPv4-only ISP anymore.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It wouldn't be viable for me to join an IPv4-only ISP anymore.

To be honest, I'm really not sure that this applies to 99% of people.. Remaining 1% will be those who do it on principle and those who actually use v6 to develop something.

Not saying it's wrong to in principle require it, just that it's not the case for most people.

Edited by seb (Fri 16-Feb-24 13:07:55)

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

It wouldn't be viable for me to join an IPv4-only ISP anymore.

Many large corporates and Govt depts are not IPv6 enabled yet, and a significant provider or high speed broadband to the UK is not yet IPv6 enabled, but can give you a gigabit service. Maybe moving from AWS is a better option perhaps? or they've just run out?? The smaller providers (e.g. OVH) can undercut the big hyperscalers depending on your workload.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 16-Feb-24 13:40:49)

Can you help me understand the OP means?

I thought Sky use IPV6 for the WAN part of their routers, they use DHCPv6-PD to authenticate or am I wildly not understanding this post?

Most routers support IPV6 these days dont they so whats the issue with AWS using IPV6?

Im asking for my own education, I am interested.

Surely if you have an IPV4 external IP and wider subnet this does not prevent you from connecting to an internet host at an IPV6 address?

Edited by naylor2006 (Fri 16-Feb-24 15:05:45)

Many company and some ISP networks are not configured for IPv6. So, on some ISPs you cannot use IPv6.

For most people this makes no difference but there are a small (but likely growing) number of new Internet sites or services that only support IPv6. If the thing you want to get at is only IPv6 then you will not be able to get to it if your network connection doesn't support it.

Due to the shortage of addresses on IPv4 some new services will go only IPv6 or have additional costs in buying IPv4 public addresses.

ahh thanks Ian I get it now, I was aware that IPV4 was running out but didnt realise it would be a hard cut like that.

Makes me more curious about Sky now, when I was looking at Sky FTTP and using my own router I was looking into how to get it to work and that DHCPv6-PD was a requirement but an IPV4 address sits behind this on the router. I also read that your router needs DHCPv4 Option 61 in some other cases for Sky.

I didnt go with Sky in the end so am simply using PPPOE with BT but the whole sky thing did get me curious that if they were indeed using IPV6 and what the wider consequences of that were.

I’m with Virgin Media, this means I cannot connect to a website that is only available on IPv6, such as Loops of Zen. This is the only site I can think of that is only available on IPv6.
https://www.revk.uk/2011/02/loops-of-zen.html

This is nothing to do with my router (I use an Asus) which is quite capable of v6, but because my provider doesn’t support.

I could switch to a VDSL/FTTC based ISP such as A&A but then I would get only 30 Mbps download, and 4 Mbps upload, and I prefer the higher speeds (250down, 25 up) I have via cable.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 16-Feb-24 17:42:35)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Maybe moving from AWS is a better option perhaps?

Moving cloud providers is a huge task for large organisations, so in the vast majority of cases they will just swallow the new IPv4 charges. But the bean counters will not be happy.

Going forward I believe they will cut back on their IPv4 usage and increasingly require their people to connect via IPv6. I don't think the announcements from Vodafone and Plusnet are coincidental; sure they will have been playing around with IPv6 before but AWS and the like are hitting organisations in the pocket for IPv4 usage and this will have some knock-on effect.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

This is the only site I can think of that is only available on IPv6.
https://www.revk.uk/2011/02/loops-of-zen.html

I have a server for personal usage on Azure, for instance, that is IPv6 only. Admittedly the IPv4 charge would only be about 7p per day, but I'm happier not to be paying it.

Just a tiny example, but estimates show the new IPv4 charges will gain AWS over $2bn per year (which will be offset against the considerable expense of IPv4 acquisition).

Many AWS using clients of mine have no public v4. They link VPCs to internal on premise networks using the AWS offerings.

Minimising v4 usage with clever networking may be worthwhile for public services.