106 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
title: No IPv6 in 2021? Not acceptable.
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---
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pub_date: 2021-01-09
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---
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author: Nico Schottelius
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---
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twitter_handle: NicoSchottelius
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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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Time is over for legacy-only-IP services.
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---
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body:
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It's 2021 and it's time to stop using legacy IP (IPv4) only
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services. In 2020 we have already seen quite a rise in IPv6
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connectivity, as well as more and more services emerging IPv6 only.
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## The IPv6 community is very active
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The IPv6 community has reported many bugs to products like
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[Steam from
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Valve](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3372),
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[Dockerhub](https://github.com/docker/roadmap/issues/89) and so many
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more that it was not possible for me to list them all in this article.
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As a matter of fact, websites or services that have degraded or
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non-existing IPv6 connectivity [are reported daily on
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Twitter](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ipv6).
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## Time to move on
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As I can see it from the work at ungleich, 2020 was a very active year
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when it comes to IPv6. But at some point, services that don't work
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with IPv6 are simply not worth caring about anymore.
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While IPv6 [has been defined in
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1998](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2460), it is clear that vendors
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and providers need some time to adapt. But 23 years should have been
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more than enough to migrate.
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For this reason we want to encourage everyone in 2021 to move on, to
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cut off the old legacy IP applications, services or hardware.
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## How to move on?
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There are a variety of things everyone of us can do and we have
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collected some easy to take steps.
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### Setup networks IPv6 only
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For every new network you setup, set it up with IPv6 only. All current
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mobile phones, tablets and operating systems work in IPv6 only
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networks.
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### Setup services and applications IPv6 only
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If you are an application developer, I suggest to develop your
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application with IPv6 first. And if you setup a new service, configure
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IPv6 first and maybe only.
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It's important to understand that setting up something IPv6 only, does
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not mean it will be unreachable from the legacy IP Internet. NAT64 is
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one easy to use technology to solve this problem.
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### Abandon legacy only
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Whether it's network hardware, applications, Internet providers,
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hosting providers - stop using them if they don't work in IPv6 only
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environments. And let the everyone know that you did so.
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While I am not a fan of shaming anyone, it is still important to let
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vendors know that you have moved on because of the lack of
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IPv6. Otherwise the vendor does not know why they are losing
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customers. When you communicate that you abandon a product or service
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because of lacking proper IPv6 support, I recommend to doing so in a
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clear, but respectful way.
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### Advocate IPv6 only
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To be able to spot bugs and to make life for network operators easier,
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I strongly recommend going IPv6 only. Not dualstack, but simply IPv6
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only. If you deploy NAT64 in IPv6 only networks, you can even create
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reachability in both directions.
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Many of us network operators, developers and sysadmins are very good
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in implementing things. However, it is important to share the word.
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### Help each other
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For about 2 years there is an open, community driven [IPv6
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Chat](https://ipv6.chat). In this chat you can ask others for help,
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ask which alternative products or services to use. Or how to migrate
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to IPv6 only networks. There is also an [IPv6
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reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/ipv6/) and an [IPv6 group on
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Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/groups/2234775539). Many of the
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RIRs (RIPE, APNIC, Afrinic, LACNIC and ARIN) also offer IPv6 training
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resources.
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Migrating to IPv6 is not difficult and there is a community to help
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you with it.
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Let's do it, together.
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