WAS... Re: pTLA request for RMNET - review closes 23 April 2002

[Feico Dillema]

On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 05:00:14PM +1000, Merlin wrote:
> So in conclusion - I suspect that very few people actually understand about esoteric details like latency on pure IPv6
> machines. But I could point at a user group who I'm sure would love to get their teeth into setting up any number of
> hosts, even virtual hosts, behind their one assigned IPv4 address. If someone could come up  with something that was

Here 's the package (a perl script) that does it all for you on
NetBSD:

ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc/net/6to4/README.html

Step 0: man 6to4 and read the instructions or alternatively:

Step 1: edit 6to4.conf (basically, uncomment the relay you want to use)
Step 2: run: `6to4 start`
Step 3: ping6 www.kame.net

Probably the same works on the other *BSDs. I don't think it get's
more simple than that. Not much anyway.
 
> If IPv6 is to be rolled out and not forgotten, people need to be able to implement it on their existing networks.
Well, people can and people do. We've run IPv6 only in our lab and at
home for more than 2 years now, and things simply work and I've almost
forgotten how to split a 3bit IPv4 net in 2 subnets just to add
wireless connectivity to my home e.g. ;-}

My IPv6 (only!) home router says:

1 dillema@spam.dillema.net:~> uptime
10:43PM  up 359 days,  7:34, 0 users, load averages: 0.32, 0.14, 0.10

and I've almost forgotten were it is. I'll find it (and take it down.
snif) when I move house soon. 

We have many such homerouters around, used to give faculty members
and students wavelan connectivity from university to the home. Many of
them hardly new what a netmask was, but all managed to set up
their own NetBSD IPv6 router by following the instructions in e.g.
http://www2.no.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/ipv6/

I bet on some other OSes there's is or will be some button to press to 
simply enable or disable IPv6 and/or 6to4, or maybe it will `just be
there'. Most people won't care. Those that do and are in the business
of setting up routers, may be required to read and follow some
instructions. Soon, I expect some router configuration protocol will
also make that unecessary for regular clients of ISPs.

In short, I do not think IPv6 has a problem here. Quite the contrary.
When handing out 2bit IPv4 nets to people at home, we typically ended
up configuring things for them. With IPv6 saying: ``follow the
instructions of the FAQ'' typically works out just fine.

Feico Dillema.
 - Almost but not quite entirely a problem.