IPv6 content experiment

[Brandon Butterworth]

> Where IPv6 is starting to have an edge is in p2p applications, getting
> rid of NAT and allowing in-bound connections again solves a lot of
> problems for the p2p providers.

Which break as the first thing most people do is put a firewall
in place. Why do people carry on insisting open end to end
connectivity is the holy grail and designing protocols that don't
tolerate firewalls. Why would they not have a firewall for v6 too?

Most end users have an OS that really shouldn't be left open to
access by all, P2P encourages those users to take extra
risks. It's one thing geeks doing it as they can be expected to
look after themselves, which they are prepared to do in return
for not paying for warez/oss delivery. The public are another matter, 
as legit content is now moving to P2P the risk is rising

> Personally I think it will still
> happen, we are going to run out of IPv4 addresses soon

Firewalls/NAT have reduced the demand for addresses
by devices that don't need to be connectable, the time
for v6 will still come though.


As we've found with multicast the CPE is often the limitation,
most OS can do it or gain the capability. Putting content
up and creating end user demand is a good way of stimulating
change so good luck. If it gets us closer to being safe to
add v6 to a major site (I've looked at this for BBC sites for years and
it's never been worth the risk) without black holing users we'll be
a big step towards general use.

brandon