Hi Martin, > While in some respect, I share your sentiments (in wanting to get > people to think about the move to IPv6) I still think you are way too > early. I have been doing network designs and consulting for a the > very biggest corporate and government bodies for the last 18 years or > so. I have been watching IPv6 as it began its gestation about 10-12 > years ago. But guess what - I see almost *no* interest from even the > largest of end-user enterprises. Only large software (read Microsoft) > and networking companies (read Cisco) have made any sort of effort to > promote. While it is built into the core of most current OSes and the > higher-end network equipment - that really is about it.
I did a quick Google in an attempt to find the benefits that IPv6 has over IPv4. There does not seem to be a killer app for IPv6. The thing that impressed me is the ability for a IPv6 node to be mobile and maybe with the prevalence of wireless ISPs IPv6 will become a reality. I also read that IPv6 is more efficient to route, so what does that mean in percentage terms? Do you think it will be a good idea to start IPv6 networks from the ground up, instead of starting with IPv4 and upgrading to IPv6? > > > It only will really become meaningful when it becomes the default > option from the major ISPs and carriers for the carriage of IP > traffic. And even then I would suspect that for the most part, > end-users will be able to choose to be shielded from the intricacies > of IPv6. End-users for the most part use domain names so this wouldn't change. > > Even in the briefest look around, you will realise how far away > real-world adoption really is. Most configuration dialogues and web > forms today still try to parse/display an "IP address" as a dotted > quad (eg 1.2.3.4). That is, they ignore the IPv6 format of IP > addresses. The other simple matter is that I would wager that if you > took 10 experienced (10+ years) network engineers and ask them about > IPv6 and what it is about and have they even played with it, 9 of > them would probably have told you about the huge new size of the > address space, but the need for it has been pretty well removed with > private IP address space (10.x.x.x etc) and NAT, and no they haven't > played with it. IMHO it really still is only of real interest to > propeller heads (myself included). From what I read, IPv6 has been rethought and re-engineered so that it just works a lot better. > > On the other hand I do believe it will come into play at some stage > (because as Vint Cerf once said - every light buld will need an IP > address in the future) but my current hunch is that it might be at > least 5 years before any credible moves need to be made (by us end > users). Maybe ubiquitous wireless mesh networks might do the trick... > > I'm happy to be contradicted. I'm not really contradicting, just wanted some peoples thoughts on the matter, because I have been ignorant. Regards Joseph -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
