blog: add to viirb-or-not-to-viirb
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Nico Schottelius
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title: To VIIRB or not to VIIRB?
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pub_date: 2022-01-20
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author: ungleich network team
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twitter_handle: ungleich
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_hidden: no
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_discoverable: no
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---
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abstract:
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A diary of our Open Source Router Journey
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---
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body:
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## Introduction
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About 1.5 years ago we introduced the
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[VIIRB](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/viirb-ipv6-box/) as the world's
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smallest IPv6 router, enabling any IPv4 with IPv6. Seamless, real
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plug'n'play. Shortly after that the VIIRB was joined
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by the [VIWIB](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/viwib-wifi-ipv6-box/),
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basically a two port variant of the VIIRB and soon after by the
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[VIGIR](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/vigir).
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About a year later
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[we announced on
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twitter](https://twitter.com/ungleich/status/1463937807672655878) that
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we are looking at the last and final batch of VIIRBs to be sold. Today
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we want to shed some light on this post and introduce you to the
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future plans of IPv6 and IPv6 providing routers from ungleich.
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## The requirements and development process
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All our routers are running unpatched, original upstream
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[OpenWrt](https://openwrt.org/) as an operating system. When we
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receive the devices, they usually contain a patched vendor version
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that we replace for multiple reasons:
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- Sometimes the vendor version lacks IPv6 support
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- Sometimes the vendor version lacks wireguard support
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- We want to have the same look & feel for all devices
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- We like to stay as close to upstream Open Source projects as
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possible
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- Upstream OpenWrt releases are much more trustworthy and easier to maintain
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So when we receive a new batch of devices in the ungleich HQ in
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Switzerland, the typical process is:
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- Check if all devices are included
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- Unpack and flash original OpenWrt
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- Configure the router with IPv6/NAT64 related settings
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- Verify all features work
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- Pack it again, ready to be sent for an order
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- On order, add the labels, accessory and have it ship out
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## The pricing
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The whole process for each devices take a bit of time, especially when
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taken into all exceptions like defects, errors by the post or return
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handling from customers when someone ordered a wrong device.
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Instead of taking into account all necessary work and creating a
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pricing based on this input, we asked ourselves in the beginning:
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```
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What is the lowest price we can offer so that we can
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enable as many people as possible with IPv6?
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```
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This led to a bit awkward pricing, which some of our customers
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noticed:
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The devices themselves *including* an IPv6-VPN are actually cheaper
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than the [IPv6 VPN](https://ungleich.ch/u/products/ipv6-vpn/) itself.
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How does that make any sense? The short answer is: it doesn't if you
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want to make any win.
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We did it anyway, because **our primary goal is to bring IPv6 anywhere**.
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It's a bit like [HE.net](http://he.net/) offering free IPv6 tunnels -
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it does not make any win, but you do it nonetheless.
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## The future of VIIRB, VIWIB and co.
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At some point you have to ask yourself, does it (financially) make
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sense what we do?
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And the answer is "Jein" (a German combination of "Ja" + "Nein"):
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* Financially it doesn't
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* For supporting IPv6 deployments world wide: it does
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To continue providing VIIRB and VIWIB, we have two
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### Introducing the "Fair Price"
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Instead of abandoning the VIIRB like we planned or our low price, we
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are adding a new price for the VIIRB and VIWIB that covers all our
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costs. We call this price the "Fair Price" and with that we are not
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losing money on each device.
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We keep the original prices up and to make the pricing more clear, we
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call them now "Sponsored Price".
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Obviously we encourage everyone who can to buy the devices at the fair
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price, but if you can't, we will continue to sponsor IPv6 deployments.
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### VIIRB+VIWIB Sponsoring package
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Secondly we know offer VIIRB and VIWIB sponsoring packages: If you
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think what we do is a good thing and you would like to support it, we
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now offer VIIRB+VIWIB sponsoring packages that cover the difference
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between the selling price and the real costs for the devices, leading
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to a zerosum for ungleich.
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The sponsor packages work as follows:
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* You select a number of VIIRB/VIWIBs you would like to sponsor
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* You can opt-in to send us stickers from your organisation that we
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include with the VIIRBs/VIWIBs that you sponsored
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* You can opt-in to be publicly named on a IPv6 deployment sponsor list
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* [Sponsor 5 VIIRBs/VIWIBs](https://linksanghee) - 435 CHF
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* [Sponsor 10 VIIRBs/VIWIBs](https://linksanghee) - 870 CHF
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* [Sponsor 20 VIIRBs/VIWIBs](https://linksanghee) - 1740 CHF
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* [Sponsor 50 VIIRBs/VIWIBs](https://linksanghee) - 4350 CHF
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* [Sponsor 100 VIIRBs/VIWIBs](https://linksanghee) - 8700 CHF
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## More IPv6
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We hope with our continued efforts we can support more IPv6
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deployments out there. In the meantime, if you want to talk more about
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IPv6, feel free to join [our open IPv6.chat](https://IPv6.chat).
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