IPv6 here I come

andrue · May 05, 2013, 08:39:52

I decided to replace my router with one that supports IPv6 and I have some questions.

Is it properly automatic now or do I have to involve Support?
Assuming it's automatic will the address range my router gets be static in the same way that my IPv4 address is?
Does anyone have experience of updating domain records (I run an FTP server and email server with a web front end)?

Glenn · May 05, 2013, 09:07:57

It should be automatic Andrue, but some have had config issues and support sorted the issues.

This thread may help http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25449.0.html

andrue · May 05, 2013, 09:38:47

Quote from: Glenn on May 05, 2013, 09:07:57This thread may help http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,25449.0.html

Excellent thread, Glenn. Dunno when the router will arrive but gotta love Amazon. Do I want to pay £10 for next day delivery? Nah. 20 minutes later. Dispatched and should be with you Tuesday. Not bad for something ordered Saturday night. Does anyone ever bother to pay extra for next day?

Simon · May 05, 2013, 12:30:00

I've never paid them a penny for delivery (other than if it's a third party seller), and stuff always arrives pretty quickly.

Steve · May 05, 2013, 12:33:02

Which router Andrue?

andrue · May 05, 2013, 15:37:00

Quote from: Steve on May 05, 2013, 12:33:02
Which router Andrue?

D-Link 645

http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-DIR-645-Wireless-Router-Technology/dp/B005OPO63S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367764606&sr=8-1&keywords=dlink+645

I don't need 5GHz support (my laptop is normally wired and I have a WAP) so just wanted the cheapest router that supported IPv6 and had the best reviews. Been a while since I went with D-Link kit but hopefully it'll be plain sailing.

Lance · May 06, 2013, 21:18:55

I've never checked whether the ipv6 address is static, but if not you could fix it from within the router as I'm sure the range each customer is constant.

I've never bothered with ipv6 DNS entries, but think you just need an AAAA entry.

Steve · May 07, 2013, 09:19:05

The Router IPv6 address allocated is dynamic although you can make it static, what worries me about IPv6 is the lack of NAT and hence a functioning IPv6 firewall. This seems for the home user to be in it's infancy, for my router the Asus RTN66U there are scripts available to provide this facility but they are written for 'tunnels' I've not got my head round it yet so I can modify the script to work on native IPv6.

andrue · May 07, 2013, 09:59:33

Quote from: Steve on May 07, 2013, 09:19:05
The Router IPv6 address allocated is dynamic although you can make it static, what worries me about IPv6 is the lack of NAT and hence a functioning IPv6 firewall.

That worried me a bit as well but there's nothing stopping you having a firewall with IPv6 - most routers come with one. Although you've lost the 'invisibility' of a private address space (though you can still do that if you want to) it probably doesn't impact security very much. Pretty much any firewall will be SPI-based these days so it's offering most of what NAT does. Okay so now someone can specifically target a 'private' machine and decide to attack it but it's still dedicated hardware that refuses to allow incoming conversations to be opened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stateful_firewall

You're right that it's a bit scary and complicated though. Part of why I want to get into it now well before it's actually necessary. I'm still trying to get my head round the size of my address pool. I've only got seven devices that need an address. I also don't now think my email server will support IPv6. The software can but one of the security configuration options implies my license only lets me use one protocol at a time. Still - my FTP server supports IPv6.

I would definitely prefer to have my router at a fixed address (if only so I can find it) but I suppose that the NetBIOS name should be reliable enough.

Steve · May 07, 2013, 10:15:54

For my IPv6 device addresses, I've set on automatic (OS X) and they are a combination of the LAN IPv6 prefix and the MAC address.

My only word of advice is that with IDNet some routers work with their IPv6 configuration and some don't.

andrue · May 07, 2013, 10:27:49

Quote from: Steve on May 07, 2013, 10:15:54
For my IPv6 device addresses, I've set on automatic (OS X) and they are a combination of the LAN IPv6 prefix and the MAC address.

My only word of advice is that with IDNet some routers work with their IPv6 configuration and some don't.

Heh, yeah. The DLink has an 'auto' option and hopefully that will make IPv6 connection simple. It says it supports four (I think) different methods, so one should work

What I might do for the server is use MAC based IP address assignment rather than specifying static on the machine itself. Seems like less work. Just tell the router to always give that MAC address the same IP address (v6 and v4).

andrue · May 09, 2013, 17:59:53

It works. Finally. After the usual shouting obscenities at the gods of IT. Considering I've been doing that at work it seems a bit daft to do the same when I get home but what're you gonna do?

Anyway I think my 645 needed a firmware update (to 1.0.3). But after that I just selected PPPoE and told it to share my existing connection.

Seems to work. Chrome needed to be restarted to enable it which confused me at first. Only problem I've seen so far is that my ad-blocker doesn't work with IPv6. It's a known issue and they are working on it

Steve · May 09, 2013, 18:26:59

Good!