IPv6 Deployment for the LAN

Sun Oct 18 20:18:27 UTC 2009

TJ wrote:
> It is still the router, a piece of managed infrastructure sending out the
> information - not like we are encouraging hosts to make up their own prefix
> info here ... and hosts choosing the low-order bits shouldn't matter that
> much.

But that's the fatal flaw of autoconfiguration. "Hosts chosing the 
low-order bits" works great until either A) one of those hosts wants a 
semi-permanent name lodged in a DNS server and the IT guy wants to 
semi-permanently assign an IP address to it without having to touch the 
host configuration or B) the RIAA/MPAA/FBI/etc. comes and asks to see 
the logs which show which user on the subnet had a particular address 
and then goes to the local court and claims that you're using this 
newfangled protocol so as to avoid making information available that has 
"always" been available before.

If *both* of these problems were fixed as well as DHCP fixes them for 
IPv4, there'd be a whole lot more support for letting the hosts choose 
their low-order bits.

Matthew Kaufman