• IPv6 in 2021

    From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to All on Thursday, January 06, 2022 14:26:24
    As published in Fidonews...


    IPv6 in 2021
    By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555


    Another year has passed. When we compare the statistics as published
    by the end of 2020 with those of today, we see that IPv6 in Fidonet
    has grown again. From 93 to 103 nodes.


    110 -|
    -| .
    100 _|
    _| .
    90 _|
    _| .
    80 _| .
    _|
    70 _| .
    _|
    60 _|
    _| .
    50 _|
    _|
    40 _| .
    _|
    30 _|
    _| .
    20 _|
    _|
    10 _| .
    _| .
    0 _|__.____________________________________________________________
    | | | | | | | | | | |
    2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022


    2021 was the year that that we passed the 100 mark. In May Shelley
    Petersen of 1:134/102 was listed as #100 in the list of Fidonet IPv6
    nodes.

    Shelley's system is listed with the INO4 flag. It can only accept
    incoming calls via IPv6. It has this in common with the system of
    Brandon Moore, also of net 134. Something else that is remarkable is
    that these nodes have an IPv6 address in the same /64. They share
    that same /64 also with 1:134/100 1:134/101, 1:134/103, 1:134/301
    and 1:134/302.

    Frankly, I do not know what to think of that...

    2021 was also the year that it was ten years ago that the first IPv6
    connection in Fidonet was made. On 1 November 2011 Andre Grueneberg
    of 2:2411/525 made an IPv6 binkp connection with Benny Pedersen of
    2:230/0. It was Andre Gruenebrg that added the IPv6 code to binkd.

    A trend we do not really see continue is the move towards native
    IPv6. In 2021 34 of the 103 nodes used a tunnel. About 1/3. This
    has been more or less constant over the past five years. In 2017
    it was 22 out of 64. Over the years The ratio remains at about 2/3
    native, 1/3 tunnel. This is not what I expected and goes against the
    general trend on the InterNet that native IPv6 is slowly gaining
    foot and replacing transition mechanisms such as tunnels. Maybe what
    we are seeing is that the Fidonet Pioneer Spirit is still here and
    that sysops do not want to wait for providers to support native IPv6
    and take things in their own hands by setting up tunnels.

    Now that tunnels have been mentioned: I also could not help noticing
    that of these 34 tunnels, only one is not a he.net tunnel. Until
    2017 there was SixXs as alternative free tunnel service, but the main
    driving forces Jeroen Massar and Pim van Pelt got tired of it. And
    now he.net is more or less the only game in town. I wonder how long
    they will continue with this wonderful free service. If they stop it
    will certainly have an impact on Fidonet.

    The very fact that a third of the IPv6 sysops still uses a tunnel
    shows that we still have a long way to go. I know of one sysop that
    has native IPv6 from his provider but who uses a he.net tunnel because
    that way he has a static IPv6 pefix, but that is the exception.
    Normally when native IPv6 is available from the provider one does
    not use tunnels any more. So there is still a substantial amount of
    InterNet providers that do not offer native IPv6 to their customers.
    As I write this, Delta Fiber, a relatively small company on a world
    scale will start digging in my area. The planning is that I will have
    FTTH third quarter 2022. The snag is that they do not offer native
    IPv6. They say they will eventually, but they will not give a time
    frame, so I do not know if/when I have functional FTTH if it will
    offer me IPv6. Over ten years ago I told myself I would not buy new
    network equipment that does not support IPv6. Now I have a problem.
    There is no competition. It is Delta Fiber or no FTTH. If I go ahead
    with them now, the installation is "free". If I want it later, there
    is a EUR 650 installation fee. It makes sense, calling back the
    digging crew is expensive. I want FTTH, but I also want a provider
    that offers native IPv6. So I compromised. I took the cheapest
    subscription for a year. It is cheaper than the EUR 650 installation
    fee. If they still do not offer IPv6 at the end of the first year, I
    say goodbye to them and stay with the cable company that has been
    offering me native IPv6 for the last five years. Or... maybe I will
    reconsider, go back to he.net, show my sage badge and ask for a
    tunnel again. To be continued...

    I noticed something else. For the purpose of keeping the weekly
    published list of IPv6 nodes up to date, Kees van Eeten and I
    actively hunt for new IPv6 nodes. Kees runs a script that hunts for
    AAAA records in host names in the nodelist. Whenever he finds new
    AAAA records, he informs me and I try to make an IPv6 connect. If
    successful, I add the node to the list. If the IPv6 connect fails,
    I try to make contact and help the sysop to make the system reachable
    over IPv6. Sometimes this is successful, sometimes it is not.
    Remarkable is that ever so often the sysop has no idea how the AAAA
    record got to be there in the first place. Someting else I do not
    know what to think of.

    Other than that, 2021 was not all that eventful regarding IPv6. Not
    for Fidonet en not for the Internet in general. We saw steady growth
    but we can't say that IPv6 is the dominant protocol yet.

    Can we get rid of ipv4 yet? Obviously not, certainly when Fidonet is
    concerned. But I ran across an article from SIDN (Stichting Internet Domeinnamen Nederland) (Dutch registry for Internet Domain Names
    Netherlands).

    https://tinyurl.com/3xe4dc5a

    It is about an experiment where IPv4 is switched off completely.


    In order not to have to tell the same story over and over again, I
    sometimes refer people to Fidonews articles I wrote in the past.
    Since there seems to be no easely available searcheable archive, I
    made a list of these articles. I hope I did not miss any.

    My previous Fidonews articles about IPv6:


    FN 26:31 Jul 2009 FidoNet and IPv6
    FN 28:04 Jan 2011 FidoNet and IPv4 depletion
    FN 28:07 Feb 2011 Fido and IPv6 Day
    FN 28:16 Apr 2011 APNIC runs out
    FN 28:20 May 2011 The IPv6 echo
    FN 28:31 Aug 2011 A SECOND LIFE FOR THE LINKSYS Part 1
    FN 28:32 Aug 2011 A SECOND LIFE FOR THE LINKSYS PArt 2
    FN 28:45 Nov 2011 A "first"
    FN 29:04 Jan 2012 World IPv6 Launch Day, 6 June 2012
    FN 29:09 Feb 2012 A SECOND LIFE FOR THE LINKSYS Part 3
    FN 29:38 Sep 2012 RIPE is out of IPv4 addresses.
    FN 32:17 Apr 2015 IPv6 penetration in the nodelist
    FN 32:26 Jun 2015 ARIN is out of IPv4 addresses.
    FN 3:252 Dec 2015 IPv6 in Fidonet by the end of 2015
    FN 33:02 Jan 2016 IPv6 in two thousand SIX teen
    FN 33:06 Feb 2016 Another barrier broken.
    FN 34:01 Jan 2017 IPv6 in 2016
    FN 34:13 Mar 2017 SixXs Sunset 06-06-2017
    FN 34:30 Jul 2017 TV without IPv6
    FN 34:31 Jul 2017 DS-Lite emulation experiment v2.0
    FN 34:37 Sep 2017 DS-Lite emulation experiment 2.0, the results
    FN 34:33 Aug 2017 DS-Lite: a solution
    FN 34:38 Sep 2017 DS-Lite Emulation experiment v2.1
    FN 35:01 Jan 2018 IPv6 in 2017
    FN 35:53 Dec 2018 IPv6 in 2018
    FN 36:52 Dec 2019 IPv6 in 2019
    FN 38:01 Jan 2021 IPv6 in 2020
    FN 38:20 May 2021 100 IPv6 nodes
    FN 39:01 Jan 2022 IPv6 in 2021


    Happy IPv6 in 2022.


    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: he.net certified sage (2:280/5555)
  • From Nigel Reed@1:124/5016 to Michiel van der Vlist on Saturday, January 08, 2022 02:58:00
    On Thu, 6 Jan 2022 14:26:24 +0100
    "Michiel van der Vlist" <michiel.van.der.vlist@2:280/5555> wrote:

    As published in Fidonews...
    Very nice write up, I would just ask you maybe use * rather than . for
    the graph points, or even make it a bar chart style. It's getting
    harder to see the smaller dots :)
    --
    End Of The Line BBS - Plano, TX
    telnet endofthelinebbs.com 23
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
    * Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (1:124/5016)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Nigel Reed on Saturday, January 08, 2022 11:55:14
    Hello Nigel,

    On Saturday January 08 2022 02:58, you wrote to me:

    As published in Fidonews...

    Very nice write up,

    Thanks.

    I would just ask you maybe use * rather than . for the graph points,
    or even make it a bar chart style. It's getting harder to see the
    smaller dots :)

    I will consider that for next year's issue. Bar style seems a bit overdone and it requires non ASCII which is a bit problematic for Fionews.

    But '*' may be a good idea...

    Cheers, Michiel

    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: he.net certified sage (2:280/5555)
  • From Paul Hayton@3:770/100 to Michiel van der Vlist on Sunday, January 09, 2022 16:54:03
    On 08 Jan 2022 at 11:55a, Michiel van der Vlist pondered and said...

    Hello Nigel,

    On Saturday January 08 2022 02:58, you wrote to me:

    As published in Fidonews...

    Very nice write up,

    Thanks.

    I just want to add my comments / thanks also. Nice job at writing up what's happening Michiel and thanks :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/11/06 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (3:770/100)
  • From Michiel van der Vlist@2:280/5555 to Paul Hayton on Monday, January 10, 2022 13:37:53
    Hello Paul,

    On Sunday January 09 2022 16:54, you wrote to me:

    I just want to add my comments / thanks also. Nice job at writing up what's happening Michiel and thanks :)

    Thanks. Such feedback helps to motivate me to continue these yearly reposrt.

    Cheers, Michiel

    --- GoldED+/W32-MSVC 1.1.5-b20170303
    * Origin: he.net certified sage (2:280/5555)