Re: Comcast has IPv6, when will Debian?

• Previous message: Jacob S.: "Re: newbie network config"
• In reply to: Paul Johnson: "Comcast has IPv6, when will Debian?"
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Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 18:14:55 -0800
To: Debian User List <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

* Paul Johnson (baloo@ursine.ca) [040211 16:38]:
> Along with the whole Disney funkitude this morning[1], I discovered
> Comcast gave me an IPv6 address. Which begs the question: Now that
> large ISPs now support IPv6, when will Debian beyond the kernel?

Nice. I'm not on comcast, but that makes me want to switch. What level
of IPv6 support are they offering? What's your address? 2000::/3 ? Do
you know if you've been assigned a /64 block? Is there a router
advertising itself to your box?

I've been playing with IPv6 quite a bit at home, and I'd say Debian's
support for it is pretty good. Pretty much, you can just set up a
stanza in /etc/network/interfaces and you're off -- just like you do
with IPv4.

Though I've broken it just now (switching from freenet6 to my provider's
(sonic.net) tunnel), I had a whole network set up with one machine set
up as an IPv6 router, and my other machines made use of stateless
autoconfiguration to get their addresses and routes automatically. Then
I manually added some site-local (fec0) addresses in my interfaces and
hosts files and set up ip6tables to allow site-local access pretty much
unfettered while blocking most global traffic from entering my network.
I had also set up full forward and reverse DNS for my whole network.

I've seen some rather clueless people complaining they wouldn't like a
globally-routable address for each machine, saying their IPv4 NAT gives
them a warm fuzzy secure feeling, or something. The current state of
the Internet is kind of pitiful in that regard. It's unfortunate that
so many view NAT as a security feature (when in fact a halfway-decent
dumb packet filter can do just as well) without regard for the fact that
it totally breaks the premise that all nodes are created equal. It
makes the Internet look a lot more like TV when so many machines
have only what are effectively one-way addresses. The sad fact is that
that's what it is to most people -- case in point, look at all of the
AOL users who can't even tell where AOL ends and the Internet begins.
To me, the Internet really means being able to SSH to any of my machines
at home from anywhere else on the Internet -- and any of them should be
able to serve as my backup DNS server or MX. The 6-year old box with
its guts hanging out in my workshop at home should have every right to
participate on the same Internet with the same status as some
corporation's shiny machine in a colo somewhere.

When I started playing with IPv6 a few years ago, software support was
already pretty good. The frustrating part was that it felt like
providers would never offer the service. I say bravo to comcast; I'll
show my support with my wallet as soon as my term's up with my current
DSL contract (unless sonic.net follows suit by then as well, that is).

good times,
Vineet

-- 
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-- 
http://www.aclu.org/		It's all about Freedom.

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• Previous message: Jacob S.: "Re: newbie network config"
• In reply to: Paul Johnson: "Comcast has IPv6, when will Debian?"
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