[26114] in resnet
Re: IPv6
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Richardson)
Fri Mar 25 10:28:35 2011
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Message-ID: <20110325140153.GC7859@jadzia.mcc.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:01:53 +0000
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From: Mike Richardson <doctor@MCC.AC.UK>
To: RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu
In-Reply-To: <532BD1A910E6AD47A472B02C33F5D26005CB7D@Marlin.stonehill.edu>
On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 01:38:05PM +0000, Tufts, Mark wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
> I searched the achieves but did not see this post. Given all the
> resent interest in IPv6 since the last blocks of IPv4 addresses were
> handed out I thought it would be interesting to find out the
> following.
>
>
> - Have you Migrated to IPv6?
No.
> - Do you have plans to migrate in the next year or two?
No.
> - Have you thought about it but hoping not to migrate for a
> long time?
Sort of.
> - To the questions above can you please say why or why not?
We're aware of the IPv4 problem and believe that we need to prepare out
campus for IPv6 as much as we can. We can still be more efficient about our
v4 usage and expect that we can last a few more years. Hopefully.
There is a big difference though between 'being able to talk IPv6' and
having support for IPv6 which is close to the existing IPv4 support. There
are precious few internet services which are IPv6 ready so dual stacks are
the only way forward for the forseeable future. Which doesn't help much with
the IPv4 problem.
Client support for IPv6 isn't great. Our testing isn't particularly formal
or comprehensive but we've seen issues with DHCP and DNS for v6 with OSes
like XP and OS X. Not really sure where mobile IPv6 support is up to but I
bet it isn't great.
Network hardware support for v6 is getting there but it's likely to be a
couple more years at least before all the IPv4 equivalent features have been
implemented in switching and routing. The last thing we want is to offer an
IPv6 service which is insecure and not robust given the expectations of
modern users.
Our plan is to implement IPv6 'behind the scenes' adding features and
learning as we go. We'll constantly assess the situation with regards to
IPv6, security, facilities, support demands and at some point the balance
will start to favour v6 over v4.
I wouldn't like to bet my pension on a v6 only University before I retire
(20 years away :-() though.
Mike
--
Mike Richardson
Networks (network@manchester.ac.uk)
IT Services, University of Manchester
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