Fix6 – IPv6 News and info

mDNSResponder, used for all DNS queries in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, has a strange behavior when it comes to query DNS records.
It will simultaneously ask for a A and a AAAA record when performing a DNS lookup but will be only using the first response and will reject any further responses with a “port unreachable”.

For example. You are using a dual stack client and want to browse to a dual stack website. The mDNSResponder will send a A and a AAAA request. The DNS server will respond to both queries but the client only uses the responds that it receives first. If for example the A record is received first you will be using a IPv4 connection even though you are dual stacked.

Stuart Cheshire gave a presentation on IPv6 adoption at the IETF 72 Technical Plenary. In that presentation he explains the motivation behind this double query.

Initially, from a end user perspective, it is a nice idea that could have its benefits, but if you look u bit further it has many downsides to it. Some are: Harder to debug on your network. DNS servers get twice as much queries. It will not work when your client is on a IPv6-only network and, even more troubling, if you only have a AAAA record the responds to the A record request will result in a NXDOMAIN and the client thinks the domain doesn’t exist.

So be aware of this behavior when working with MacOS X 10.6 (and perhaps other Apple products) and keep an eye on the bug report.

A list of the most popular Dutch websites according to Alexa.com. We left out the websites that are not from the Netherlands.

There are 6 websites that are reachable by IPv6. But only 3 are dualstack on the main domainname. These websites are www.geenstijl.nl, www.spitsnieuws.nl and www.spele.nl.

Two of the 3 websites with dualstack IPv6 are hosted by Prolocation that offer IPv6 connectivity by their IPv6 Proxy

We will keep checking the list to see if more websites become reachable by IPv6.

The list:

Website	IPv6 on Domain	IPv6 on Subdomain	URL
hyves.nl
nu.nl
marktplaats.nl
telegraaf.nl			http://www.ipv6.telegraaf.nl
ing.nl
startpagina.nl
nos.nl
rabobank.nl
dumpert.nl
abnamro.nl
bol.com
funda.nl
tweakers.net
rtl.nl
geenstijl.nl			http://www.geenstijl.nl
fok.nl
buienradar.nl			http://www.buienradar.nl/
spele.nl			http://www.spele.nl
tvgids.nl
spitsnieuws.nl			http://www.spitsnieuws.nl
detelefoongids.nl
vi.nl
ad.nl
omroep.nl
nusport.nl
partyflock.nl
volkskrant.nl
upc.nl
web-log.nl
wehkamp.nl
ns.nl
ebay.nl
beslist.nl
kieskeurig.nl
anwb.nl
speurders.nl			http://www.ipv6.speurders.nl
9292ov.nl
uitzendinggemist.nl
voetbalzone.nl
nrc.nl
kpn.com
xs4all.nl			http://www.ipv6.xs4all.nl
knmi.nl			http://www6.knmi.nl
t-mobile.nl
dvhn.nl
belastingdienst.nl
nujij.nl
ah.nl
vodafone.nl

In this Q&A session were talking to Robin Elfrink, Robin is a Network Engineer at the Dutch ISP Introweb. And he will tell us about Introweb and their intrest in IPv6.

Please tell us a little about Introweb

Introweb was founded in 1995 as a subsidiary of electronics and security company. We provide connectivity (DSL and fiber), hosting and services as a package, specializing in high-availability and continuity. Introweb has about 35 employees. The way Introweb works has already resulted in a ISO27001 certification.

When and how did IPv6 began to be a part of Introweb?

We got our IPv6 prefix just before 2004, and have since been working to gain experience with it.

What is the current status of IPv6 at Introweb?

About three years ago we started to implement IPv6 in our backbone to
any equipment that supports it. Barring a single switch, our entire
network infrastructure is now IPv6-aware. When buying new equipment we
require IPv6 capabilities.

To promote the use of IPv6 by our clients, we offer a native IPv6 ADSL
connection for the symbolic amount of EUR (IPv) 6,- per month.

http://www.introweb.net/producten/categorien/internet_toegang/economy_adsl/ipv6_adsl.shtml

In what way do you expect to see IPv6 growth in the next couple of years for Introweb?

We see that more companies are experimenting with IPv6. We encourage
that, but it is difficult to quantify expectations. We are certainly ready.

Are there any things you would like to say about IPv6 in general?

There will be a moment in the not too distant future that parts of the
internet will be accessible only over IPv6. When that happens you’d
better be ready.

Thanks Robin for your time to anwser our questions! Keep up the good work!

A few hours ago Opera released the final of Opera 10.50. With this release Opera has fixed a big IPv6 problem.
In previous releases the Opera webbrowser unconditionally preferred IPv6 over IPv4, even if the IPv6 connection was for example a Terredo connection. With this new release Opera complies with RFC3484 and only prefers IPv6 if that connection is native.

The effect that this bug had has been made available by Tore Anderson by including 1×1 pixels over dual stack and IPv4-only on a high traffic website located in Norway. In his latest Februari report there is a IPv6 brokenis of 0.094% and if you exclude Opera it’s 0.029%. Reports are available for October, November, December, Januari and Februari.

Some websites, including Google, don’t offer a AAAA DNS record because of this small portion of customers (but many users if you are a large content provider) they would lose when introducing a AAAA record. Instead they offer something like ipv6.domain.com or in the case of Google set up a whitelist program.  Opera, like most browser, offers upgrades without intervention of the user so this new release should be adopted soon by Opera users. Let’s hope this will inspire content providers to include AAAA records without any limitations. The browsers are ready.

Thanks to Tore Anderson for making these reports available.

Joost Tholhuijsen has posted a nice article about the current IPv6 plans of the top 20 Dutch websites.
Only two sites (Google and Youtube) have there content enabled for the the new Internet protocol. The most websites that are in the top 20 are testing IPv6 or making preparation to do so. A few sites didn’t had any plans to deploy IPv6 or weren’t available for comment.

Read the full article (Dutch).

Four months ago we reported that the AMS-IX achieved 2 Gbps of IPv6 traffic. Since then there hasn’t been much growth of IPv6 traffic at AMS-IX.
The Gemand Internet Exchange (DE-CIX) however has seen a steady increase of IPv6 traffic (as well as IPv4) these last few weeks and as of today broke the 2 Gbps barrier with 2.14 Gbps of IPv6 traffic.

The total peak traffic at DE-CIX today was 1240.4 Gbps of which 2.14 Gbps was IPv6, that is 0.172%. These days the AMS-IX also has 0.172% of IPv6 traffic, this is unfortunately less the the 0.285% we reported back in October 2009.

We are running our very popular 4 day Implementing IPv6 training course in London UK in April. This course covers all elements of IPv6 in detail. It is suitable for network managers, systems administrators and technologists who require in depth coverage of IPv6. The course includes comprehensive exercises that cover all aspects of IPv6.

For further details please see the course description at Implementing IPv6. If you wish to book on the course then contact us using this Contact Form.

The Vigor 2130 broadband router from Draytek supports IPv6. The WAN-IPv6-connection can be established via Static IPv6, DHCPv6 and TSPC. The price: 119 Euro. Full manual here.

Source: http://ipv6-or-no-ipv6.blogspot.com

DrayTek IPv6 development

DrayTek Vigor series routers (Vigor2130 series) have already received certification of IPv6 Ready logo program (Phase I – IPv6 Ready Silver logo) to honor our efforts to make devices meet requirements not only for today but also for tomorrow. On the other hand, this achievement represents how dedicated DrayTek commits to our customers. Phase I achievement is only the start point for DrayTek and we will keep customers posted about our future progress.

source: http://www.draytek.com

The Canadian ISP TekSavvy has started a limited IPv6 beta service. Customers can request a /64, or if they are using a router an additional /56. TekSavvy doesn’t provide official support for this services as of yet.

First of all, the service is provided over native PPP, there is no tunneling involved or 6to4 like most other providers.
In order to enroll in this limited beta, you will need to ask in the TekSavvy Direct forum. Please make sure that you give us your current contact information so that we can find your account.

Read more about it in their announcement. To sign-up you must use the TekSavvy Direct forum.

The Europeon Commision has started an research project with TNO and GNKS  to find the causes for a slow IPv6deploymentby looking at bottlenecks and the argument that are used when talking about IPv6 deployment.

On www.ipv6monitoring.eu they will publish their project results and collect the feedback and ideas that you, and others who are concerned with IPv6, are willing to share.

Governments, enterprises, ISPs, etc., use a wide variation of arguments for not deploying IPv6 in their ICT environment. Some of these arguments are purely technological in nature, whilst others deal with business or the availability of products. Also, some of the arguments are based on reality, and others are just perceived by people but may be based on, for example, misunderstanding of IPv6 technology.

Here are a few examples of the arguments they cover which you can discuss about:

01: “I dont gain anything”

“I dont gain anything whit implementing IPv6, it only increases costs”

This argument is related to the (lack of a) IPv6 business case. It is assumed that the introduction of IPv6 will require extra investments. This will in most cases be true: at least someone has to determine the impact of the introduction of IPv6. But the costs can often be minimized by doing IPv6 investments concurrently with the introduction of new network devices and service platforms. As far as revenues are concerned: not be able to deliver IPv6 on time, may lead to missed opportunities, missing potential revenues.

04. “They say NAT will solve the problem, so why change?”

“I hear people say that Network Address Translation (NAT, RFC 2663) will do the trick. In that case I can keep my current addresses and network infrastructure.”

Is NAT cascading, or Carrier Grade NAT (CGN), an alternative for IPv6? NAT does prolong the lifetime of current IPv4 networks, but has issues with accessibility (the end-to-end principle) and scalability (the number of concurrent sessions is limited). CGN will provide a short-term solution for ISPs who are not IPv6-ready on time. However their total amount of investments will increase, since they will have to move towards IPv6 anyway later on.

For more bottlenecks and arguments check out http://www.ipv6monitoring.eu/bottlenecks