On Friday December 02 2016 17:30, you wrote to me:
MV>> Mine is still working but SixXs has stopped accepting requests MV>> for new tunnels
RM> Indeed ... and they auto disabled my tunnel after a PoP went offline, RM> and refused to reactivate it ...
Seems to be part of their exit strategy. No new users, no new tunnels and when a POP provider stops, the tunnels running through that POP are terminated.
MV>> and Jeroen Massar shows signs of becoming tired of the MV>> project, so I think we should not expect much from SixXs any MV>> more.
RM> Indeed
So anyone still depending on a SixXs better start looking for an alternative. I see two in the list of IPv6 capable nodes: Fernando Toledo and Paul Hayton. Better be prepaired guys...
RM>>> But HE still works great.
MV>> It may not last forever either...
RM> I cannot influence it. Currently it works, and if it stops, I need to RM> reevaluate.
There are 15 nodes in IPV6.IP6 running an he.net tunnel. If he.net were to go as well, that would heva a serious impact on the Fidonet IPv6 vommunity. Fortunately I see no signs of he.net handing in their dinner pail yet...
RM> Strange ... in Austria they only offer IPv6 capable CPEs since some RM> time now. The only way to avoid DS-Lite is to use an older CPE, which RM> are not offered any more.
It would seem then that Austria is ahead of The Netherlands. Perhaps they have even less IPv4 left?
RM> I have a Ubee Bridge with DOCSIS 3.0 and no WiFi. If it breaks down I RM> get a new DOCSIS 3.1 CPE with WiFi and no public IPv4 any more ...
You can't say you have not been warned.. :)
Four years ago, RIPE exhausted its IPv4 address pool. For the occasion I wrote an article for Fidonews about the expected consequences for Fidonet. One of the scenarioos was that Fidonet sysop would have to let go of their globally routabel IPv4 address and that they could only accept incoming via IPv6.I will append a copy of the article at the end of this message.
Running a Fidonet node from a DS-Lite connection might be an interesting challenge. I think by now it would be doable. You can still make outgoing calls and so you can poll your host at regular intervals for netmailand by now there are enough IPv6 capable nodes in the Fidoweb to let you fully participate.
You may be the first DS-Lite node. ;-)
Cheers, Michiel
============================================================================== From : Michiel van der Vlist 2:280/5555 16 Sep 12 18:27:47 To : Björn Felten Subj : Snooze article =============================================================================== RIPE is out of IPv4 addresses. By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555
RIPE-NCC (Réseaux IP Européens - Network Coordination Centre) Is the Agency that issues IP addresses for Europe and the Middle East. It is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Last Friday, 14 September 2012, they announced they have begun to allocate IPv4 addresses from the last /8 of IPv4 address space that they hold. So contrary to what the title of this article suggests, they have not completely run out yet. The policy for assigning IPv4 address space has changed drastically though. In the past RIPE-NCC members could apply for address space when needed and as much as they needed for the coming months. From now on each member can only get a one time /22 allocation (1024 addresses) if they already have an IPv6 allocation. That's it, no more.
What it boils down is that except for the one /22, European ISP's will have to make do with whatever IPv4 addresses they still have on the shelve. Will it affect Fidonet? In the long run for sure. When an ISP runs out of IPv4 space, new clients will get a globally unique IPv6 prefix, but regarding IPv4 the following things may happen:
1) New clients won't get an IPv4 address. Period. 2) New clients will get an IPv4 adress in the private range e.g 10.x.x.x. 3) New clients can get a globally unique IPv4 address for an extra fee.
As for existing customers, they may be allowed to keep an existing IPv4 address. Or if the ISP goes for option 3, existing customers may also have to pay extra or let go of their globally unique address. Time will tell.
If you are put behind a NAT you can't run a server answering to an IPv4 address. So if you want to continue with Fidonet over IP as a sysop, it has to be over IPv6. Option 3 may not be all that attractive as the fee will probably be quite high. Not so high as to be a problem for a large or medium sized company, but prohibitively high for most indviduals.
So in the long run Fidonet will have no choice but to go IPv6. How about the short run? We will probably not be in trouble in the immidiate future. It depends on how fast the internet is growing. In Western Europe Internet penetration is high, the majority of households has a wide band connection, so there will be limited growth in that section. In Eastern Europe it may be different. Plus that mobile internet is still booming all over the world. I have two SIM cards from different networks for prepaid mobile internet. One (KPN) gives me globally unique IPv4 address, albeit a dynamic one. The other one (Vodaphone) gives me a private IP address in the 10.x.x.x range. Not much of a problem for me, as I do not plan to run mobile servers and a point system works al right behind NAT.
Fidonet may not be affected for a long time. Or maybe some of us will be effected quit soon. We just don't know. What we do know is that the times that everyone can have a globally unique IPv4 address are over.
