Re: quietly....

[Roland Perry <lists () internetpolicyagency com>]

In article <5FDDAD27-71F3-44FE-B195-4E0F27F09EC5 () megacity org>, Derek J. 
Balling <dredd () megacity org> writes
> > If people start supplying CPE that are running IPv6 on the outside and IPv4 NAT in the inside, then that would just 
> > fine, in the sense that
> > the users (in this case including the self-administrators of these small enterprise networks) won't notice the 
> > difference.
>
> I think they'll eventually notice a difference. How will an IPv4-only internal host know what to do with an IPv6 AAAA 
> record it gets from a DNS
> lookup?

The IPv4 only hosts (and gradually they'll be converted to dual stack 
and IPv6 capable, some are there already) will only be able to see IPv4 
resources on the wider Internet.

I'd have to decide on a case by case basis (one case being a particular 
VoIP service I subscribe to) when those hosts of mine needed early 
replacement on account of the provider switching off his end. (My point 
here mainly being that it's not just a case of simply reconfiguring 
them, if they simply don't have any IPv6 capability).

For those familiar with Windows, it's not dissimilar to my recent 
decision to update one of my desktops to XP, because so much software 
(mainly device drivers) no longer supports Win2000. But then you find 
you have apps that won't run under XP <sigh> [more likely on a jump from 
XP to Vista, but you get my point].

> Sure, I think we're a long way off from any "significant sites" being v6-only, but "6-outside-4-inside" CPE will cut 
> those users off from
> 6-only sites unless the NATing CPE is also doing some really, really, wonky DNS interception and proxying at the same time, 
> and I don't
> *anyone* wants to see that....

I don't know if it's the "wonky behaviour" you describe, but I'd have 
expected any IPv6 traffic inside the network to go round the side of the 
NAT functionality (ie behave as if the IPv4 NAT wasn't there).

But we've drifted a bit away from the earlier problem of how I can make 
all the hosts on my internal network "hop" between ISPs with in effect 
no user intervention (and no pre-emptive configuration).  I'll let this 
pass for now and see how the market/technology develops.
--
Roland Perry