Question about 6to4

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ipv6-ops-bounces+tedm=ipinc.net at lists.cluenet.de 
> [mailto:ipv6-ops-bounces+tedm=ipinc.net at lists.cluenet.de] On 
> Behalf Of Martin List-Petersen
> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 3:05 PM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: ipv6-ops at lists.cluenet.de
> Subject: Re: Question about 6to4
> 
> Steve Wilcox wrote:
> > Hey Ted,
> >  you sort of answered your own question - the aggregate is 
> announced 
> > as an anycast and the v6 routing table doesn't know where the 
> > individual v6 packets are destined.
> > 
> > So the v6 packets find their way to the nearest 6to4 relay, 
> that then 
> > converts to v4 and its routed out as v4. As you say HE is one major 
> > sink for that, as a result of them being so well connected.
> > 
> > Thats one of the downsides with 6to4 - the packet may go in 
> the wrong 
> > direction in v6 before passing through the relay and then 
> heading in 
> > the opposite direction to find the v4 endpoint.
> 
> 
> And just to add to that, the v4 side works exactly the same. 
> The anycast prefix there is 192.88.99.0/24.
> 
> In our case (we're in Ireland), the relays in our path were 
> in Sweden, Germany and Italy, which never is a good result, 
> so we set our own gateway up.
> 
> Now, talking about 6to4, 6to4 is never to be preferred. If 
> you can get people to use native IPv6, you should at any time 
> prefer that solution, or 6in4 tunnels for that sake.
> 

The problem is finding a cheap router costing under $40 that
can be used on the end of a DSL line, and that speaks IPv6 and
is supported from the manufacturer.  Right
now what seems to be the popular route to go is the dd-wrt.com
firmware but all the routers that are in that price range are
4MB flash and will only run the mini loads, not the mega loads
(ie: Linksys WRT54GL, ASUS WL520GU, etc.) and getting IPv6 running
in 4MB on those is a lot of configuration work that I can see
is just waiting to crash and burn and create a support issue.
Going with a better router like in the $80 range is fine for the
small business customers but the residential people won't go for
that unless they are the early adopter/experimenter types.  I
really want to stay in the role of ISP providing the pipe, not
ISP providing the pipe and fixing your $40 router :-(

Ted