2019-12-13 17:07:20 +00:00
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title: We are giving every IPv6 address a name
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2019-12-12 22:58:42 +00:00
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pub_date: 2019-12-12
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---
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author: ungleich network team
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twitter_handle: ungleich
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---
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_hidden: no
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---
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_discoverable: yes
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---
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abstract:
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Not just because we can, but also because it helps
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---
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body:
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## TL;DR
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You can use **IPv6address.has-a.name** as a domain name
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for any of your containers or VMs. The required format is
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**1234-5678-9abc-def0-1234-5678-9abc-def0.has-a.name**. This is
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already a
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valid name and points to the IPv6 address
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*1234:5678:9abc:def0:1234:5678:9abc:def0*.
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## Introduction
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Imagine the following: you have a container or virtual machine running
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with IPv6 and you want to give somebody access to it.
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IPv6 being IPv6, it is very easy to give someone access. However, you
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might also want to use HTTPS. First, because HTTP does not look good
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in browsers anymore. Secondly, because it is more secure. And thirdly,
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because contributing to more encrypted traffic is a good thing for the
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Internet.
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But you cannot get a certicate that you need for HTTPS without a name.
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## Developing a tool to map IPv6 addresses to names
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At the last [Hack4Glarus](https://hack4glarus.ch) we were
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brainstorming and testing solutions on how to solve this problem. How
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can we give **any** IPv6 address a name? At the Hackathon our
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participants invited a cool [stateful
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solution](https://redmine.ungleich.ch/issues/7379)
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that is now even reachable at [weneedaname](https://weneeda.name/).
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After the hackathon our team was continuing to brainstorm on how to
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solve this problem, but in a stateless way.
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## Knot to the rescue
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Eventually we rediscovered a software that we have been running for a
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while already: [KnotDNS](https://www.knot-dns.cz/). We use it to
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synthesize reverse DNS records for all IPv6 addresses in our
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networks. That's why you can do a reverse lookup of ANY IPv6 address
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in the 2a0a:e5c0::/29 network and you will get a reply that results
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for instance in the name
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*2a0a-e5c3-cafe-cace-0000-0000-0000-0000.loves.ipv6.at.ungleich.ch*.
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Also the opposite works, so looking up above name, results in finding
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the IPv6 address *2a0a:e5c3:cafe:cace::*.
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With has-a.name, we took it one step further: Instead of limiting the
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lookups to our own network, you can use this name for **any** IPv6
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address.
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Let's for instance take google's IPv6 address
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2a00:1450:4009:811::200e. If google did not yet point google.com to
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it, google *could* use
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2a00-1450-4009-0811-0000-0000-0000-200e.has-a.name as an alternative
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domain name. Obviously not that practical for google,
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but not everybody is google.
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## has-a.name is a service for anyone building IPv6 applications
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The reason why we introduce the **has-a.name** service is to allow
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anyone quick prototyping with IPv6. Anyone can have an IPv6 network.
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Either via a VPN
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(our claim is it works anywhere with [IPv6VPN.ch](https://IPv6VPN.ch)
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or on your [IPv6 only VM](https://ipv6onlyhosting.com). With IPv6 you
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can quickly bootstrap your service and show it to anyone in the world.
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With has-a.name you can now also use SSL certificates on any IPv6
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address.
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If you want to discuss the has-a.name service, we invite you to join the
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[IPv6.Chat](https://IPv6.chat).
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