IPv6 Plans

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › IPv6 Plans

paul151

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#212764 11-Apr-2017 20:51

It's been a number of months since I asked this question, but I'm wondering if we're any closer to being able to obtain an IPv6 service from Spark?

I have been using SixXS which is closing soon and have moved (for now) to he.net but would prefer to access a native IPv6 service via my ISP.

If somethings afoot and I have missed it in the IPv6 space for Spark, please let me know. If there are plans to do some testing with a select group of geeks / customers I'm keen.

Thanks for any and all info.

Best, Paul

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#1761853 11-Apr-2017 20:55

Bigpipe has just been rolling out their flavour of IPv6, and I imagine Spark will be soon to follow, all things considered.

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#1761879 11-Apr-2017 21:39

i'd say personally i'm keen to see v6 on my connection.

@Talkiet would be your best bet on any public comment on v6 from any official channel.

toejam316:

Bigpipe has just been rolling out their flavour of IPv6, and I imagine Spark will be soon to follow, all things considered.

Just remember, BP is totally separate to spark, BNG and all..

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Talkiet

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#1761881 11-Apr-2017 21:43

At this stage there's no official announcement on us offering IPv6 for Spark BB connections. That's not to say we aren't working on it... We are and we have it working in an internal test model of our BB network. But we're not prepared at this stage to provide even an estimate for when we might be ready to trial it sorry. I'd hate to give an expectation and thenhave that slip due to a higher priority project come and take resources away from V6.

Cheers - Neil G

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paul151

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#1761887 11-Apr-2017 21:55

Talkiet:

At this stage there's no official announcement on us offering IPv6 for Spark BB connections. That's not to say we aren't working on it... We are and we have it working in an internal test model of our BB network. But we're not prepared at this stage to provide even an estimate for when we might be ready to trial it sorry. I'd hate to give an expectation and thenhave that slip due to a higher priority project come and take resources away from V6.

Cheers - Neil G

OK thanks Neil, appreciate the reply. If you could pass back to the powers that be that there's another keen customer that would be grand. I think with the sunset of SixXS there will be a few more like me.

I'm aware I could move to another ISP to get this service but I don't want to :)

Hopefully the service will arrive in 2017.

Best wishes, Paul.

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Naithin

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#1763564 13-Apr-2017 08:37

Hey Paul, Neil and co,

Curious - what are the current use cases for IPv6?

I understand that theoretically it can be used in place of NAT, but do the currently available implementations actually allow for that? I must admit I've done little (read: no) research into what is currently available in the IPv6 space.

Talkiet

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#1763569 13-Apr-2017 08:57

Naithin:

Hey Paul, Neil and co,

Curious - what are the current use cases for IPv6?

I understand that theoretically it can be used in place of NAT, but do the currently available implementations actually allow for that? I must admit I've done little (read: no) research into what is currently available in the IPv6 space.

I'm curious too! :-)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

nutsterrt

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#1764624 15-Apr-2017 09:04

Naithin:

Hey Paul, Neil and co,

Curious - what are the current use cases for IPv6?

I understand that theoretically it can be used in place of NAT, but do the currently available implementations actually allow for that? I must admit I've done little (read: no) research into what is currently available in the IPv6 space.

Glad someone asked; I was wondering the same thing. Seems like the hosting provider I've used back in the states (Hurricane Electric) has been touting it for some time, but I don't get it. Aside from being the answer to running out of IPs, what's the point?

Aside from making memorization of an IP address impossibly difficult.

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michaelmurfy

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#1764679 15-Apr-2017 11:52

This whole "what is the point" thing is an annoying debate normally said by people who don't understand IPv6 as a whole. There are several advantages to IPv6:

1) No NAT - each device has a public IP.
2) You shouldn't run out of IPv6 addresses unless if a swawm of nanobots invade the earth (see here).
3) Incredibly handy for Docker or virtual machines - you're able to use IPv6 to get somebody else to access it without the need of NAT or reverse proxies on the server. This is assuming that they, themselves have IPv6 connectivity (so the more providers we get adopting it, the better for everyone)
4) And yes you can remember it...

To remember a IPv6 address you've got to know your providers prefix and what you've been assigned - for example this address on BigPipe:

2403:9800:c048:a1::1/64

Now, I know that 2403:9800:c048:a1:: is what I have assigned my interface so really I only need to remember that. If I assign a server on my network with 2403:9800:c048:a1::d3ad:b33f I could remember that but we do have DNS and AAAA records to take care of that however if a device does autoconf (like my Chromebook currently has 2403:9800:c048:a1:d5ad:8ed1:c394:6f12 and anyone on the internet will be able to ping it) then no, you won't remember this but you'll have IPv6 connectivity. There isn't really a need to remember IPv6 addresses since somebody invented DNS already to do that for us.

I encourage people to do the IPv6 Certification on Hurracane Electric and get yourself a free shirt for doing so. It is worth it.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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paul151

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#1765136 16-Apr-2017 20:56

Talkiet:

Naithin:

Hey Paul, Neil and co,

Curious - what are the current use cases for IPv6?

I'm curious too! :-)

Cheers - N

The short answer is that because I'm a geek and in to retro computing stuff there's a bunch of guys I am connected to in the FTN message networking space that use IPv6 as a means of linking their systems with.

You'll find bbs.geek.nz has an AAAA record for this reason and traffic between my systems and others bounces around the globe via BinkD over IPv6 (and IPv4)

news.bbs.geek.nz also offers AAAA and has a number of systems peered with it over IPv6.

Best, Paul

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paul151

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#1765137 16-Apr-2017 20:58

michaelmurfy:

I encourage people to do the IPv6 Certification on Hurracane Electric and get yourself a free shirt for doing so. It is worth it.

I will aim to do this and know a number of guys that have done that also :)

Best, Paul.

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paul151

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#3019175 9-Jan-2023 18:52

Jumping forward in time it's early 2023 and via Twitter I ask Spark about IPv6 avails via Fibre

https://twitter.com/paulhayton/status/1611149926309982210

"Hey @SparkNZ do you offer IPv6 over fibre in 2023?"

Have a read of the thread, but the gist is 'still in testing' and no clear timelines stated to deploy for customer use.

To quote @SparkNZ "We’re in no danger of running out of IPv4 any time soon for our broadband users – so while the IPv6 testing is progressing, it’s not an urgent priority and we are unable to give any dates for future stages of the rollout."

This in my view is really poor. It's been years of testing, and customers should have access to IPv6 by now.

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DjShadow

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#3019232 9-Jan-2023 19:16

They are sitting on a fair amount of IPv4 so can understand the lack of progress on this one - https://ipinfo.io/AS4771

nzkc

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#3019295 9-Jan-2023 20:06

paul151:

To quote @SparkNZ "We’re in no danger of running out of IPv4 any time soon for our broadband users – so while the IPv6 testing is progressing, it’s not an urgent priority and we are unable to give any dates for future stages of the rollout."

This in my view is really poor. It's been years of testing, and customers should have access to IPv6 by now.

100% agree.

This to me is the answer of a Product Manager. Basically someone who isn't really getting the true technical differences, including all pros/cons, of moving to IPv6. Its really a lame "excuse" for not investing in the infrastructure and putting profit in front of everything else.

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#3019316 9-Jan-2023 21:04

Whilst I agree that that no IPv6 from Spark is disappointing, I can understand why they're not pushing for it. At the moment, they've got a large IP pool, they've been putting their Wireless BB/Mobile customers behind CGNAT and there aren't any major consumer services (think Netflix, Facebook, Youtube or Spotify) that won't work on a pure IPv4 stack for now. They also have a significant fleet of modems/routers out there which have mixed levels of support on IPv6 (there will probably be the old Dlinks and technicolours floating around)... there will be some big calls on what modems they'd want to offer it to (eg. if a modem has a half-baked implementation, it might be a better customer experience to disable IPv6) or whether they want to run a programme of refreshing old modems (eg. to 'Smart modems').

So with no urgent/pressing technology/commerical drivers pushing them to implement IPv6 for consumer, its easier to kick this can down the road. Commercially, Spark are probably trying to keep margin and market share, so most of their efforts will be focusing on improving the commercials of running a telco. Technology changes at Sparks level are very expensive, very slow and very risky - issues can often cause nationwide attention (think Yahoo!Xtra, XT etc) and absolutely slam the call centres. This is why Bigpipe was initially able to offer IPv6 as they were running on their own Broadband core (newer - had IPv6 factored in out of box) but lost that ability after Skinny/Bigpipe were moved to Sparks Broadband core.

Sooner or later, they will need to rip that bandaid off - I suspect it will probably be pushed by the likes of Xbox / Playstation /<insert major gaming platform> starting to leverage IPv6 for online gaming. For us power users, its gutting that they still haven't offered IPv6 even on an opt-in basis but I understand the hows and whys.

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#3019379 10-Jan-2023 07:38

If you really need IPv6 you can use 2degrees, though you may need to pay an extra $10 a month for a static IP. I'm not sure if static IPv6 is standard or comes with the static IPv4.

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