Hacker News now supports IPv6 - More of a general discussion about IPv6

[George Lucas]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39099065

When IPv6 first came out it was a breath of fresh air, but I also knew that without backwards compatibility it was doomed. Glad to see it getting traction again.

 

[Vecr]

That's fine but why is it being posted here? Tell me when Github supports it, all the NAT going on to support NPM and Go package downloads from there must be a massive overhead.

 

[George Lucas]

That's fine but why is it being posted here? Tell me when Github supports it, all the NAT going on to support NPM and Go package downloads from there must be a massive overhead.

I think IPv6 qualifies as a lolcow technology.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

I keep forgetting that IPv6 is a thing. Now that I'm reminded, I would've expected that this would've been adopted ages ago.

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

I think IPv6 qualifies as a lolcow technology.

Damn straight.

Instead of the obvious, simple, human-readable method of adding more quartets, they went with this hyperautistic solution that spits out addresses that look like a cat sat on my keyboard.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

I considered mentioning this in the Hacker News thread, but there wasn't anything particularly funny in it. It's just the same old shitflinging about how IPv6 is totally the future, and how anyone still using IPv4 should be punished in some way.

Everything that matters on the Internet, with perhaps the exception of this forum, is available over IPv4, and the same isn't true of IPv6. An acquaintance of mine who knows far more about networking has informed my thoughts on this topic, and claims it's not worthwhile. It's safe to say IPv4 will outlive us, or at least outlive IPv6.

 

[Kendall Motor Oil]

Docker hub only supports it if you have an account. Annoying

 

[AmpleApricots]

ipv6 has been around the corner since what is it now? 10 years? 15 years? My current ISP actually gives me an ipv6 address and a gimped ipv4 via DS-lite. I'd rather have a proper ipv4 tbh. Also means I cannot access my home network without going through hoops since most places I go to do not support ipv6.

 

[Catler]

It's safe to say IPv4 will outlive us, or at least outlive IPv6.

The year is 2284 and in some dark corner office on Mars Colony No.2 a low level IT worker is pushing a configuration change to their PGNAT (planet grade nat).

The year is 16003 and in some dark corner office on the Alpha Centauri Space Dome a low level IT worker is pushing a configuration change to their SSGNAT (solar system grade nat).

 

[Gargamel]

You'd think a techie site like Hacker News would be an early adopter of such a technical thing as IPv6.

Starlink supported it up until recently. Going backwards in Muskland, weeeeeeeeeee.

 

[I'm Really Feeling It]

Good. We all start somewhere.

 

[George Lucas]

You'd think a techie site like Hacker News would be an early adopter of such a technical thing as IPv6.

Starlink supported it up until recently. Going backwards in Muskland, weeeeeeeeeee.

Why did they drop support for it?

 

[Gargamel]

Why did they drop support for it?

Wish I knew.

 

[Drael]

I keep forgetting that IPv6 is a thing. Now that I'm reminded, I would've expected that this would've been adopted ages ago.

Likewise. Disabled it on our router 2+ years ago because it was apparently causing some conflict with some older game's netplay and haven't thought about it since.

Instead of the obvious, simple, human-readable method of adding more quartets, they went with this hyperautistic solution that spits out addresses that look like a cat sat on my keyboard.

If you had asked a much younger me what would be the logical extension to running out of numbers for something in an xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx format, I would have said the same. Just add one or two fields following it for a new protocol going forward.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Damn straight.

Instead of the obvious, simple, human-readable method of adding more quartets, they went with this hyperautistic solution that spits out addresses that look like a cat sat on my keyboard.

The main argument for using a bunch of hexidecimal is that a 128 bit address would be very long in dot-decimal. 16 octets instead of 4. There really aren't any good solutions to representing a 128 bit integer in a memorable way.

 

[George Lucas]

The main argument for using a bunch of hexidecimal is that a 128 bit address would be very long in dot-decimal. 16 octets instead of 4. There really aren't any good solutions to representing a 128 bit integer in a memorable way.

Just like there’s no good way to memorize GUUIDs, so we don’t memorize them. IPv6 really did a bad job of selling itself. If you’re manually entering an address with IPv6, you’re doing something wrong.

They should have called it something else, like NGIP or something to express that it’s very different from IPv4, not just an update.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

Really, the idea of using fixed-length addresses for the network to end all networks is stupid. An address should be a variable-length string of digits, and it would be easy enough to look at only the first few digits for routing, after which point they could be discarded. Universally unique addresses are stupid.

Regardless, an awful lot of organizations, probably almost all of them, would be just fine with a single IPv4 address and a private network. A mere sixteen million addresses in just one private network allotment is enough for almost every organization, except for the wasteful technology companies.

 

[Gargamel]

Really, the idea of using fixed-length addresses for the network to end all networks is stupid. An address should be a variable-length string of digits, and it would be easy enough to look at only the first few digits for routing, after which point they could be discarded. Universally unique addresses are stupid.

Regardless, an awful lot of organizations, probably almost all of them, would be just fine with a single IPv4 address and a private network. A mere sixteen million addresses in just one private network allotment is enough for almost every organization, except for the wasteful technology companies.

You can write IPv6 addresses in shorthand, to some degree. Still usually not something as easy to remember or type as say, 10.54.27.254 though.

The problem with IPv4 is that it predates NAT, so in the early days every computer, server, networked printer, RAS box, etc on an Internet-connected IP network needed it's own public IP. Big companies and educational institutions were generously assigned huge IP ranges and many of these entities likely still have their allocations.

NAT came about in the mid 90s and with it the reservation of 192.168.x.x and 10.x.x.x for nonpublic networks. NAT was good because it provided inherent isolation and combined with a firewall made it much harder to breach a network remotely. It also meant that you didn't need 1000 public IPs for 1000 computers, and it allowed you to more easily segment and lock down your network.

 

[HackerX]

Damn straight.

Instead of the obvious, simple, human-readable method of adding more quartets, they went with this hyperautistic solution that spits out addresses that look like a cat sat on my keyboard.

Frfr.

Seems like they over-engineered and future-proofed IPv6 to the point of being incomprehensible if you're not dedicated to networking.

 

[Cpt. Stud Beefpile]

Frfr.

Seems like they over-engineered and future-proofed IPv6 to the point of being incomprehensible if you're not dedicated to networking.

I have multiple fricking professional degrees and IPv6 STILL ties my eyes in knots.